"Let's go!!! I love it! I can live here forever! This is an adventure!"
***
That, was me a few months ago when I came to visit and fell in love with this place.
My sister went to visit her boyfriend (they're in a long distance relationship) and dragged me along. She said it's time for me to travel, now that I've turned 21. I spent my first few years of my adult life during the pandemic and since everything is opening up again without the required quarantine for travellers, it's the best time to make the most out of it. Plus it won't hurt to spend some time with my sister who up until now I haven't really get the chance to spend time with since she lost her memories due to a medical episode. But that's another story (literally, check out Unwritten).
I have to admit one of the reasons I chose to live here was because of her. I thought she might move her cause of her boyfriend but that hasn't happened yet. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy my time here and try not to get hit by cars or I don't know have my own love story here too. Who knows? But if today is what my future looks like I'm not very hopeful.
Now I trudge down the busy footpath, littered with flyers, vomit from last night's binge drinkers and the millions of pairs of shoes walking in front, behind and beside me.
"Ou..ch!" There's my daily bump for the day.
No one says sorry, they just carry on. This mad morning rush always get to me and still amazes me how this city changes at night. And that's when I go back to my old self in loving this city. Maybe it's not the city, maybe it's just my attitude in the morning.
Anyway, I swiped my card to the building that I'm doing my internship. The company I'm with is in the entertainment industry and manages the biggest band in the world. I understand if you or anyone is confused if you're thinking what does a culinary student like me, doing as an intern in an entertainment/management company.
Simple.
To understand this, you must understand the company culture in Korea where they provide food for their employees as part of the perks. Some companies subsidise it, while others take the cost full on. And the bigger the company, the better the food available. There is an unspoken rivalry between companies who provides the best, freshest, most gourmet food. And that's where we, culinary geeks come in. We get to practice what we studied for, experiment as much as we want whilst being mentored by some of the best in the game, in a company that's willing to fork out some change to boost their rank in the battle of who provides the best cafeteria food.
I'm doing the lunch shift so it's bound to be a busy day. I'm in the patisserie department though so I don't get as stressed as those in the main course. We don't mass produce our plates but still swing by to the other department when they dish out Korean cuisines which is another area that I'm looking at exploring.
"Good morning Yumi-ssi." I didn't forget to bow. My Korean isn't perfect but I quickly learned the culture and bowing is one of the biggest things if not the most important thing in the culture, arguably a close fight between formal and informal speech.
"Neh, good morning Saab-ah."
God, i hate my name in Korean. I blame my mom for wanting to complete her name with me and my sister. My sister's name is Ellie, I'm Saab and my mom's nickname is Beth — full name Elizabeth.
"Is it just us today?" Never forgetting to add -yo at the end.
"Junki-yah and Hyejin-ah are coming to help out today. They have a board meeting and will be preparing for that too plus the cafeteria food."
"Ah I see. Full team then." I forgot about the meeting. I guess we will be as busy as the main course team today. All good since Hyejin is working with me as well.
I love Hyejin. She's like my best friend, next to my sister of course. She's learning English and I'm learning Korean so we fit each other plus we're the same age so there's no awkward formality required from us. We instantly clicked when we realised we share the same interest, culinary career aside. We both have a love for manhwa and adventure parks! However, Hyejin is a very gentle soul, unlike me who can be rough and I hate to admit it, aggressive sometimes.
Being in Korea has definitely toned me down due to my lack of strong, biting vocabulary in the Korean language but that is slowly changing as I learn the language more. I'm not vulgar or rude or anything but sometimes, if I'm being honest I need to bite my tongue and think before I speak.
But hey! I'm still young and learning to be a proper human. I'll get there. I wish I can have my old sister back who always gives me sound advise and teaches me the ways of the world. But I understand she needs to find herself too after her life storm. My sister seems to know what to do in everything. She's never frazzled. She's cool, calm and collected. While I read manhwa on my downtime, my sister reads books about self improvement, life etc. That's how different we are and yet deep down, we're the same. We're independent and strong willed. We fight for what we believe in, albeit our methods erm speech may be different. The more I do this adulting stuff the more I need my sister though. I hope I get her back soon even if not her old self, just my sister, my big sister.
Or maybe if I can have a mature friend who'll help me to adult in this life.
YOU ARE READING
What Are We?
Fanfiction"Don't you drive? Are you Namjoon?" He looked at me, squinting his eyes, trying to focus to confirm his suspicion. "It's Saab. Ellie's sister, remember?" The one you hate and now who's trying to help you. Sometimes a simple encounter is all it take...
