It's not that easy to meet new people. (Jun In) – It's not that easy to meet new people. Except the persons I have met at school, I didn't get to have new friends. Yet, with the place I'm living in, it could be expected from me to have a lot of persons coming my way... It never been the case. The reason is that, most of the people here are only passing through. They're not here to stay so they don't get linked. And, as I'm looking Korean and that my American nationality is not obvious, most of them might be thinking I won't understand what they would tell me.

I live in Sadang, in a youth hostel. It's the kind of place where, usually, people never stay. Strangers who want to visit South Korean and to get more money for leisure times come in here. Often, they never stay more than a few days, sometome for a week. Most of the students got a room in their campus. I'm not here thanks to an college exchange so I had to do it another way. My paternal aunt who lives in the Seocho area proposed me to come and live with them a hundred times, especially because my cousin, Na Rae (who's also my best friend) goes to the same university that I do, but I don't want to get imposed. They hold their hand over their heart, and I surely will be fine there. But freedom is dear to me. That was all I was expecting, to be emancipated...

The youth hostel I have choosen is quite modest. It's completely impossible to get connected to the wifi and bathrooms are common. Bedrooms all are small. Yet, I'm feeling good in here. It has become my home for real. I can't envision myself even for a second coming back in my family there in Chicago, even if I love them. They can't understand me... I often got the feeling that I am a stranger in my own family. There's only Na Rae (along with her brother, sister, my aunt and her husband) whom I can be myself with.

Na Rae is my age. She's the only member of the Moon family that I know when I have been around the Dwights for my whole life. She would like to be a journalist but she's in the same curriculum than me, the one that' s supposed to train the next big writers of the century. I don't know why she didn't try to get into a real journalism school... She said she had been told to sharpen her wordship, first. Just like any training journalist, Na Rae likes to know everything about everyone. Every time there's a little something calling out for her, she's got to make inquiry. A lot at the SIA think she's nothing but a snoop. They're not quite wrong.

I love her but I have to admit it : she's constantly asking questions and wanting to know things about the other's lives. It can be irritating for the mass. But I am used to it...

Na Rae often came to visit me in Chicago. She talked a lot about Seoul, about how the city was lively, the lights, the crowd... Sometimes, she brought me little presents she had bought at one of the traditional markets. We were talking a lot about our future, about what we wanted to do with our lives. She's the one who told me to try to come and study here. She's also the one who advised me not to come at High School, to wait for college. She explained me how much High School was competitive, how strong the pressure was. She told me about the bullies as well. I have decided to wait and we promised each other to meet again in the same university. That's what we did.

Na Rae is pretty, with her mischievous face, her long brown hair, her sparkling eyes. She's very successful with boys. My aunt asked me to watch her... I'd like to do so but it's impossible to watch Na Rae. I can't help boys to be attracted to her. She can't stop harassing me to get a girlfriend of my own. That's the way it is, here : it's nothing normal to be single. I'm not quite hurried to get with a girl. I'd like to meet someone I will really like.

Today, we went to Bandi and Luni's at the Co-Ex mall, because the one in Pastel City next to the youth hostel is a little small, so we could get our supplies of writing notebooks. Our teacher hates us to use computers for our creations, he demands us to write it on papers. We're only allowed to use a computer or a tablet to take notes and nothing else. He's got other special orders, like never give him any copy written with a ballpen, he always needs ink and absolutely black. No one protest nor cast doubts on his demands. If he wants it to be that way, it's going to be that way. In the United States, there obviously are a few rebels to take the decision to go against the teacher's decisions, no matter if he's the best of his skills. Not here. Here, everyone immediately follows litteraly any word said by an adult, without any questions why. Even after one year, I'm not quite used to it yet.

Like often because there's no one home and she doesn't like to be alone there, Na Rae wanted to go back at the youth hostel with me. By the way, we stopped at the Seven Eleven to take a few things to eat. We really like nibling in front of the television when we're together, chatting about our various writing projects. Basically, guests aren't allowed in the rooms, but as I'm living there and that's not easy not to see anyone at all, I have asked an authorization to the manager and because it's me, I can come with my cousin, as long as she doesn't spend the night here. I don't know why she would stay here for the night. I mean, she already got a home. And my bedroom is so small compared to hers.

The corridors are so narrow that it's hard to stand when you're more than two persons. Na Rae gets impatient... One of my flaws is that I'm always having a hard time finding back my key and this, even if I got it out just two minutes ago to switch my shoes with sleepers. I put it back in my bag everytime and everytime, the keys got lost in the back of the bag on the way. I've got this bag with me constantly. Inside, there's nothing more than a cell phone, my keys and stuff to write on. That's why I never leave my bag : I have to have a notebook and a pencil always at my reach, just in case I would get inspirated.

The double beep of the main door resounds and soon, one of my neighbors appears in the corridor. She lives at the end of the line, behind the smallest door. I only meet her on rare occasions, along the way to the bathroom or at the kitchen... I don't know anything about her, except she's polited, smiling and very pretty, the exact kind of girl I could see myself with. Her hair isn't dyed, it's long and brown, she's got an angel face with innocent features, she's always well-dressed... Unfortunately, we don't really know each other.

Obviously, when she appears at the end of the corridor, I can't ignore her. And to say that I don't even know her name... My keys are finally into my hands and I'm waving it proudly but I barely can slide it into the lock that Na Rae takes them.

"Let me do that. You're so much of a drag..."

"Thanks a lot."

I can hear a discreet laughter in the back of the corridor. My pretty neighbor apparently enjoyed the little reply from my dear cousine, since she's giggling softly without her hand in front of , like the girls here usually do. I'm turning to her... meaning that's not very nice to make fun of me.

As if I was living a scene straight from a movie, from the moment our eyes meet, I'm feeling something has changed. She has done that thing I think is adorable about a girl, when they put a lock of hair behind their ears with a little embarrassed smile. I never thought I could arouse such a reaction one day. That's what we see everyday on TV when it's drama time but never in real life. It only lasts for a half-second as she's opening the door of her room, steps into it and close it behind her, but during that short slice of time, she never got her eyes off of me.

How should I interpret it? I only had one or two passing romances back in Chicago, but American girls and Korean girls are different in their reactions and I'm a little lost. So much that I'm staying on the front door like an idiot for a few seconds after she had disappeared.

What I have forgot is that there's a Korean girl whose for sure reactions aren't the same as the others : Na Rae. She didn't miss a thing about that little show worthy of the name of teenagers in the middle of a hormonal crisis and if one thing remains certain, it's that, thanks to her legendary discretion, she's going to put her foot in it. Three, two, one... Roger!

"She's living there too, that girl?"

"Well... Yes. She does."

If I think about it, that's true... I never realized it until then, but that's a fact, she's not someone passing through the youth hostel. We meet sometimes and I think it's been six or seven times since the first one. Maybe she even lives here before I have been and I never realized until then.

"Well, she's really cute and what... Do I stand stunned like a moron for five minutes each time I meet a cutie pie?"

Na Rae, or the ways and means to exaggerate the facts. When she will be a journalist, she will need to be careful about what she says, or else she will get more lawsuits for slander than Pulitzer Prizes! In the middle of the corridor, she's imitating me, laying it on thick at a max and I can hardly hide how ashamed I am. Nobody can see us, maybe, but the whole scene is captured on the video tape of the corridors. A little smile for posterity, maybe?

Once she's done, she's bursting into laughters and shove me in front of the door with her hips.

"What a charming drag you are, cousin... Come on."

And she's finally opening this damn door before stepping into the room in first. I'm really feelin stupid. Na Rae is peerless for making the others feel like they only are retarded. If I really behaved the way she mimiced, I must have been loadly ridiculous and my pretty neighbor will certainly think I'm not pretty smart. How pity... That's not exactly the kind of image I would like her to get from me.

I know, I don't know her but nothing changes that by living in here, we could one day get to know each other well. I wouldn't hate it at all.

In front of a new discreet interpellation from my cousin, I finally step into my room as well. Right before I'm closing the door, I'm throwing a last glance to the one at the end of the corridor... and I'm noticing it slightly opens, enough to let me see the face of the inhabitant of the room. Am I dreaming or she's discreetly trying to look in my direction?

From the moment she's noticing I'm looking at her too, she's opening her own door wide and gets out, going through the corridor than turns after passing me by, towards the bathroom. She's acting as if that's what she wanted to do in the first place but at the sight of her surprised look and her reaction when she saw me, I'm sure it wasn't the case. Passing me by, she has shyly smiled then quickened the pace.

What did just happened? I'm not really sure. All I know is that even if I surely looked stupid, I would have liked it to last a bit longer.