“We’re going to miss our little China doll!” Adrianna hugged me tight around the waist. I was to be boarding the plane in a short while. It was extremely early in the morning and I was barely able to smile at Adrianna.

“Be safe alright? Give us an update every now and then,” Jade said. Man, she really was like a mom.

I laughed, “I will. Don’t worry.”

Jade smiled, “and you have someone to pick you up when you get there?”

“I’m taking a cab to the address on my own.”

“What?!” Jade’s eyes widened.

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.”

“Who are you staying with?” Adrianna asked.

“Choi Nari is her name, I think,” I got it right, didn’t I?

“Oh, okay. Tell us if her house is nice.”

I stared at Adrianna, “it’s an apartment. Who lives in a house in Seoul?!”

“Well sorry, I didn’t know.”

“You’ve been researching about Korea all week!” She stuck her tongue out at me childishly.

“The flight for Seoul is now boarding,” the intercom lady chimed. I grabbed my carry on and turned to Jade and Adrianna.

“I’ll email you when I get there.”

Jade nodded, “okay, sounds good. Get a Skype account sometime why don’t you?”

I laughed and hugged them both, “that’s on my list of things to do, alright? Bye guys!”

I boarded the plane and slid into my seat. Oh crap, wait…

…I got a window seat.

Now, normally, people would be happy.

Yeah, no, I don’t think so. I am not sitting there for 12 hours.

“Maybe if I covered the window,” I said to myself, pulling the covers down. They sprung back up as soon as I let go. Ah dammit, it’s broken. I turn to my left, away from the window, to see an Asian boy around my age sitting next to me. I jumped a little. When did he get there? That startled the crap out of me.

He noticed, “ah, sorry. Did I scare you?” He smiled and snickered at me. He had died brown hair, small, smiley eyes and a baby face. The first thing I noticed was his fat cheeks. What is this…? They’re like, pork buns.

“Bao zi,” I mumbled.

“Sorry?” he asked, turning towards me.

“It was nothing,” I said, turning towards the window to avoid looking at him, but what I saw was scenery that lacked a ground. , we took off. I looked at the boy. He was reading an in-flight magazine and humming a tuneless song. I tapped him on the shoulder.

“Yes?” he asked.

I twiddled my thumbs, “um, do you think we could switch seats when we’re allowed to unbuckle?”

He stared unblinkingly for what seemed an eternity, then his face broke into a smile, “yeah, sure! Awesome! Anything for a pretty noona like you.”

 Did he just…? “You’re younger than me?” He raised a brow. Maybe he didn’t think I knew what he meant when he said noona. I should’ve expected he was young. He did look like a teenager. But then again, I could never tell with Asians. They could be 15 or 50 and I’ll never know.

“I’m turning 21 this year, 22 in Korea,” he said proudly.

“Ah, you’re old. I’m 19,” I laughed. Well, I guess it’d be 20 when I get to Seoul.

His cheeks puffed out, “that’s not old! I’ve plenty of youthfulness.”

“Okay there ahjussi,” I grinned. My accent was strange and I’m definitely rusty. But I might as well start speaking the language.

“Watch it or I’m not switching with you.” I blinked.

“So what was your name?” I changed topics quickly.

“Henry Lau,” he told me.

“Chinese?”

“Yeah, my parents are from Hong Kong and Taiwan. What’s your name?”

“Ami Kwan,” I said.

“Korean?”

“No, my mom’s from Hawaii and my dad is from Taiwan.”

“Wow, really? That’s so cool.” The seat belt signal turned off. I unbuckled quickly.

“Want to switch now?” he nodded and got up. “Thanks for this.”

“No problem. If you need anything else from me, just ask. I’ll be working,” Henry pulled out a laptop from his bag.

“Okay, thanks, I’ll just be sleeping. Hopefully we land sometime soon,” I mumbled the last part. The stewardess gave me a pillow to rest on and as I laid my head down I passed out. I swear to God I missed the pillow.

“Ami,” someone shook my shoulder.

“Piss off, I’m sleeping,” I mumbled. I heard somebody mutter, “rude little thing” in the back of my mind.

“Ami, get up.”

“Never…”

“We’re landing soon. And you’re kind of constricting my arm.” I sat up groggily and rubbed my eyes.

“What happened? Huh?” I asked, dazed.

“When you fell asleep, you fell off your pillow and slept on my arm rest. I think at some point you almost rolled onto my laptop,” Henry reported.

Oh awkward…

“Oh, sorry, I—” what do you even say to that? “—I didn’t mean to. Did I wreck anything?”

“No, although you did sleep on my arm so I wasn’t able to pump blood through there for a good eternity or two.”

“You could’ve moved me if I was bothering you,” I frowned.

Henry waved his hand, “I couldn’t bring myself to do it. You looked massive tired so I let you rest.” He looked back at his laptop, “anyway, since you’re awake now, I forgot to ask; why are you going to Seoul?”

“I’m taking a course there through my university,” I said. “Do you go to school in Montreal too?” I mean, we did leave from the Montreal airport. He probably lived around there.

“No, I was visiting my family in Toronto and then I took a trip to Montreal.”

“Oh,” he lived in Toronto too? Sick! “My family lives in Toronto as well.”

“Oh really?” he beamed.

“Yes, really. Anyways, why are you going to Korea?” I looked at his laptop. He was on some audio program. At least, I think he was. It had those squiggly sound waves on it.

“I work there, in the entertainment business,” was all he said. He didn’t delve into specifics, so I decided not to pry. I eyed the audio program again. He must be a composer or something.

“Passengers, please buckle your seatbelts, we will be landing in Seoul in a short while,” the pilot’s voice spoke from the intercom.

“Ah, here we go,” Henry shut his laptop and buckled his belt. I did the same, distractedly. I was thinking of what he said. Would he know any agencies if he was in the entertainment industry?

“Henry?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m trying to find a modelling agency when I get to Korea, and since you’re in the entertainment business, I was hoping you could tell me a few places to check out,” my head was facing my lap but I looked at Henry through the corner of my eye.

He stared at me wordlessly. Sometimes he would open his mouth to say something, but he would stop. I looked back down at my lap. I suppose he wasn’t going to tell me.

“There’s going to be this open-casting call at S.M. Entertainment,” Henry blurted out of the blue after a long silence.

“My friend told me about S.M., she said there wasn’t much point in going because it was hard getting accepted.”

“I think you can definitely make it in. But be warned, it’s tough in there. You’d have to work hard,” he said. He wasn’t looking at me when he said this.

“I’ll go,” I nodded. He smiled and picked something out of his pocket. It was a sharpie marker. Why he had it, I didn’t know. He scrawled down an address, a date and a time, and then he turned my arm over and wrote down digits.

“This is the buildings address, the dates the casting is on, and the times they are holding it. Also, I want to know if you make it, so call me on my number here.”

Through the window, I could see the plane come low to the ground. The aircraft rumbled as the landing gear touched down. Thank goodness, I didn’t really mind flying, but I didn’t exactly trust planes either. I watch too much television.

“Whatever happens, you’ll be the first to know, deal?” I smiled. His eyes flashed downward very briefly but he looked up again.

“Deal.” 

AND TIS BE ANOTHER CHAPTER DONE! WOOT WOOT!

Next chapter, we'll explore Ami's world of Seoul and how she settles down in a foreign country. What. Who are these fools and why are they crossdressing? What could we possibly be refering to? Stay tuned to find out! :)

Thank you to the two who subscribed to me since my last update! :)

-Lilmisschique