Starting of the trip
Out of my league
Starting of the trip!
Meet Lee Minki
I checked my phone over hundred times during the flight from London to Bangkok. My high school friend, Lee Minki was supposed to wait for me at the airport and I was more than nervous about this whole thing.
I was leaving my home time for 4 months straight and to a very strange place, which I was not familiar with at all. I was supposed to land in few minutes and when I looked out of the window the only thing I could see was the amazing ocean and the beautiful nature of Thailand. There was a woman sitting next to me. She was also Asian, by the skin tone I suppose she was Thai. She was an elder woman, with black long hair made up in a bun, thin square glasses on her eyes. She wore a thick red lipstick and thin eyeliner. It was strange for me to see an elder woman looking like this and being Thai.
I looked at the magazine she was reading. I was shocked. She was reading our Internight magazine.
"Are you from London?" I asked, mumbled. She looked at me from above her glasses, confused. "Are you... from London?" I pointed at the magazine. She opened in an 'o' shape.
"Oh no, no! My husband lives in London. I'm traveling back home" she said and looked down on her lap, closing the magazine. "And you?"
"I'm... well I'm a reporter, working for the Internight" I said and smiled a bit proudly.
"Really?" she said in an amazing British accent. "A reporter? Like a journalist, right?" she asked and took of her glasses, sat sideways looking at me and pointing the hook of her glasses at me.
"Exactly!" I stated cheerfully.
"My husband owns the company. I'm Baitoey Siam, Simons after my husband" she smiled widely and pressed her palms together bowing her head.
"I'm Jae Lee, Lee after my mother" I chuckled and bowed my head as well. She laughed.
"I would expect my husband to tell me that I'm going to travel with his employee. I should really talk to him more about his work" she smiled and looked down again on her bare lap.
There was a moment of silence, which was burning my skin down. She was looking at her tanned thighs, pitching on something, like a piece of hair or something. I bit my lip and thought about how to make this embarrassing silence disappear. t would be very awkward to land in this silence now that we started talking.
"Can I ask, are you on a business trip?" she asked in a second, just before I could ask her the same thing.
"Actually yes, I'm going to Pattaya" I announced. She raised her eyes up at me and put her glasses on again.
"Pattaya? The heart of the nightlife?"
"Yes, exactly. Do you know the place?"
"Dear, I'm from Bangkok, do you think I've never been to Pattaya before?" she gave me the ridiculous expression. "I grew up in Pattaya and the nightlife of it. How do you think I got together with your boss?" It just hit me flat in the face as she spoke.
"You worked in Pattaya?"
"To be more correct, I worked on the Walking street." That street is supposed to be my first stop. I didn't even realize I was looking at her strangely, like she was a ghost. "Oh gosh, don't get the wrong idea, I wasn't any of those freelance workers, not any of those jobs. I owned a club" she corrected and straightened my mind out, because I was really getting the wrong idea.
"I see, I see" I nodded slowly.
"I'll give you an advise, young man. Don't ever get attached nor fall in love in Pattaya, never ever. You never know" she said and stood up, straightening her short creamy skirt. "Excuse me" she smiled slightly and walked to the corridor, aiming to the toilettes.
"I'll keep that in mind" I whispered to myself and looked out the window. The skyscrapers of Bangkok were already in sight. I noticed the stewardesses come in the room. A small, cute looking flight attendant in a tight read uniform came to me.
"Welcome to Bangkok, sir" she said and gave me the sweetest smile I've ever seen. "We'll be landing in few minutes, please stay in your seat and gather your belongings" she said and fastened the belt around my waist. I held in my breath, not really feeling any confidence to talk to her. Her name tag, was hanging in front of my face, which meant that her s were almost in my face as well-GOD Jae! Stop thinking! It read 'Rainie Yang, flight attendant, first class'.
I finished writing the text message with a 'love you' sentence and sent it. I was already walking inside the airport with my luggage rolling behind me. Too many people on the airport, I assumed. I pushed the phone back in my pocket and zoomed in my eyes, searching for Minki in the crowd. It was almost impossible until I found my name tag on a paper board. I smiled and rushed up to a man in glasses.
"Hey pal" I greeted, making Minki smile.
"You never age, do you, Jae?" Minki joked and gave me a bear hug. "Man, long time no see, aye!" he patted my back and I felt complete again.
Minki helped me with my stuff to his car, which was a nice Mercedes. I was wondering how could he afford it and if it was a good investigation in a city of slow and full traffic jam. But it was his personal issue, nothing for me to worry about.
"Min, I'm really grateful you let me live with you in the first place" I thanked and fastened my seatbelt. He chuckled and started the engine.
"No need to thank, pal. It's a thing you would do for me, if I needed help" he said and joined the traffic on the streets, going back in the Centre of the city. "How is Sujeong?" he asked.
"Sujeong?" I opened my eyes wide confused.
"What? What is so surprising in such a question?" he noticed and snickered.
"I don't know, I would expect a question on how I was, or my family, anything but Sujeong." I said and looked out the window. "She's fine, I suppose."
"You suppose?" he repeated.
"Yeah, I don't know. We don't talk much" I confessed.
"Did you broke up or what?"
"What? No! Not at all, she wouldn't allow it. It's just that she always is on the phone with her friends, and when we are somewhere, cinema or dinner, we usually have a fight. And if we're not fighting we're ing. It's no place for conversations" I said. Minki let out a laugh and shook his head, watching the road.
"It's funny... You should try discussing while having ... Like your banging her and you'll ask her how was her day" he laughed.
"You haven't changed at all, pig" I laughed recalling our old times. He laughed and poked me with his elbow. "It's good to see you anyway."
"It's good to see you too, Jae."
We arrived to a huge skyscraper building with guards at the gates. Minki went ahead, greeting the guards with a friendly gesture of fist bumping, what was kind of unseen in Thailand, where they had respect for each other. Minki introduced me to them in Thai and told them that I'll be his guest for 4 months, so that they can simply let me inside. We walked inside after i fist bumped the guys, feeling a bit uncomfortable with that kind of introducing.
Minki leaded me to the elevator, which was quiet large in the inside. The capacity was 15 people of average weight. There was an assistant in the elevator which could fluently speak English. His name is Mario Maurer and works as a elevator assistant since he was twenty. It was a nice talk all the way to the twelfth floor. It was very high when you say it like that, but it was kind of a nice view out of there.
Minki unlocked his apartment and let me inside. It was a nice flat to be honest. Opposite the entrance door was a slightly lowered stage and there was the living room and the wall was made of clean huge windows, from these you could see the whole South side of the city. On the right of the front door, there was a closet with Minki's coats, suits, shoes, neckties, umbrellas and other accessories. On the left there was the tiny kitchen, where barely a person could be inside. The other side of the kitchen was and empty wall, with bar stools and a counter.
"Your room is on the left of mine, ok?" Minki said as he took off his shoes and walked to the living room part of the flat and turned to left. I followed him, kicking of my own shoes and skipping after him. There were two doors. The right was closer to the glass wall and the other on the left. The right door was opened and a huge mess was visible inside. "You have a bathroom in your room, so no need to use the other opposite" he said and turned around to point to the right side of the living room to a white door. "That's the big bathroom" he said and opened the door to my room. It was clean and untouched. Huge bed with white sheets lie in the middle of the room. "Make yourself at home!" I smiled and placed my stuff next to the bed.
I took a shower right after unpacking my luggage. Minki was in the kitchen doing something on his laptop and having a phone call with someone, speaking Thai. I closed my door on my room and laid on the bed, spread across it. I looked at the ceiling, seeing the nice lamp above me. I smiled. Finally a vacation I could afford, I thought ironically, 'cause I don't have a vacation, I couldn't really afford it if I haven't had Minki here and once again, it wasn't a vacation. I looked around the bright room and looked at the photograph on the bedside table. It was a framed picture of the teenage myself, Minki and Jaerim, our old good badass team we had in high school.
Minki, me and my best friend Jaerim went to the same high school and were the most badass team ever. I was the pretty boy, the heartthrob of all women, Minki was the troublemaker, the heartache of all teachers and Jaerim was the player, the heartbreaker of all women in the school and out. We made perfect memories together, spent the best ages together. Dated girl, drank at bars, destroyed the principals car few times, flirted with the pretty teachers, were arrested once for being loud on the streets, but those memories are the best I could have. Actually as we aged out personalities changed too. Jaerim has a long time relationship with his prom date, Soeun, they are engaged and planning to get married soon. Minki is volunteer worker in the problematic areas of the world, for having learnt Thai he was sent to the poorest parts of the country. And me? Well... I'm the same as always, the quiet pretty boy, making the girls long for me, but never return their feelings. I have a girlfriend yes, but she is the leader of our relationship, so I just follow. The girls I like are mostly out of my league...
A/N: Hello guys :3 I'm back again, updating all my stories as fast as possible and making a new one, which I made up... It will be a boring one, I know that, but yet I still want to have it all done :D so please support me ;) byeu~
Comments