The Way for Us | Vincenzo

Chapter 5 - A Beautiful Memory

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10 Years Ago
Boston, Massachussets, USA

It was snowing heavily that night.
Park Jihong had just finished his shift as a research assistant to one of his professors. He walked out of the building and locked his bike. He decided to walk back to his dorm as the streets were already covered in thick snow.

He heard his phone buzzed and reached for it in his coat's pocket. He kept walking fast because the snow was only getting heavier.

"Ya! Where are you?! I've been waiting in this stupid small dorm for almost an hour."

Jihong chuckled. He surely missed annoying his grumpy cousin.

"Sorry cuz. I'll be there in 15 minutes. You can eat my ramen," he smirked, knowing full well his high-maintenanced cousin would never touch that kind of stuff.

"You want to die huh? Just come here quick," with that the grumpy man at the end of the call hung up. Jihong shook his head, smiling and walked faster toward the Harvard Medical housing complex.

There were only a few people at the huge yard. It was almost 10 pm afterall and exams season had already ended. Most students already went home to spend Christmas with their family or traveling to enjoy their very well deserved winter break.

Park Jihong, on the other hand, decided to spend his winter break at the States. He needed to finish his research project before the school semester started. He already planned that he would just go home to Italy for two days to spend Christmas there. That's why his cousin was here, basically to drag him back home. He clearly knew his cousin/best friend just didn't want to attend their family annual Christmas ball without Jihong.

"Ah, excuse me!" A girl called him.

Jihong didn't stop but looked at the girl who called him, he pointed himself to make sure she was calling him. She furiously nodded and ran toward Jihong.

She adjusted her breath for a second before looking up at Jihong.

'She has pretty eyes'  was what Jihong thought.

"Yes, gosh. Thank you for stopping. I'm an exchange student from Korea. We just finished having a farewell party from... uh," she glanced at what looked like her itinerary. "Vanderbilt Hall. But I got separated from my group. We were supposed to meet at the front gate." She explained, out of breath, with a very awkward Korean accent. He glanced at her name tag. Hong Chayoung.

"Ah, you're Korean?" Jihong smiled, replying in Korean. Upon hearing him, the girl smiled. "Yes, yes! Ah, what a coincidence huh. Can you please show me how to get to the front gate?"

"Sure, just follow this path here and you'll be there in 5 minutes," Jihong showed her the way. Chayoung quickly bowed at him. Park Jihong chuckled, it had been a while since he met another Korean who still do this. Most of his Korean friends were either born and raised in US or Europe.

"Sure thing.. uh, Hong Chayoung-ssi" Jihong bowed back. She looked at him, flustered because he knew her name. Jihong laughed, she was cute. Her nose and cheeks were all red from the cold.

"Your nametag," Jihong pointed at the nametag that was hanging on her neck.

"Ah," she flustered again. Honestly, Jihong couldn't take his smile off. This girl was very amusing to him. "Thank you, again," she bowed again and left Jihong.