Waiting For Us || Stray Kids 9th member Fic

Chapter 1

(A/N: English dialogues are bolded. Dialogues in other languages would have the language mentioned)

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2009

She hated it. She hated every part of it. But she hated it the most because she didn't have a choice. Sighing, she turned around and walked inside the house that would be her new home for the next few years.

It was only her second time moving from one country to another but even now, she was tired of it. All she wanted was stability. That's it.

She walked into what would be her room for the foreseeable future and sat down on the bed, keeping the cardboard boxes next to her and laid down.

So far, South Korea seemed pretty good. It wasn't that different from Japan, but it was hard for her. The language was the biggest problem. She could, so far, only speak very basic Korean and that irked her.

Why couldn't her father move to another city in Japan? Why did it have to be Seoul?

Her father's job as an English teacher, of a rather high reputation, and his special contract with the Ministry of External Affairs back in India, their home country, meant that he was sent off to a new country very a bunch of years as a part of cultural exchange.

A few years after she was born, her father alone spent time in Thailand, doing whatever an English teacher does. She remained in India, almost until her 9th birthday. But when her sister turned 2, her father's work perks increased and he could now afford to have his family around. She, her sister and her mother moved to Kyoto, Japan a bit before her 9th birthday.

She liked Japan. Sure, learning Japanese was a pain in the ass but hey, she found it to be a beautiful language. She had made friends and had gotten comfortable in Japan, only for her father to drop the bomb that they'd be moving to Seoul only 3 years after they came to Japan.

She exhaled, turned and went to sleep. She had a whole room to arrange.

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The first month was barely fine. She learned a little more Korean than usual, but it was still limited. She often had trouble with her schooling and had to stay back to understand it better. Some of her teachers were nice about her language issue and would repeat everything calmly. But only some teachers.

In all that stress of moving to a new country and learning everything from scratch, her only solace remained was her guitar and laptop. Music. 

Having been 'forced' to learn Indian classical music and dancing at a young age, she never thought that she'd develop a liking for it. But then after she moved countries, music helped her cope. It helped her calm down.  It gave her an anchor. 

She started the radio, hoping to catch some Korean songs.

She finally found a station and leaned back on the bed, letting the music flow. Her fingers strummed on the guitar lazily, finally getting a hold of the notes and melody. 

With the song still playing, she had no idea when sleep took over her tired form, but what she did know was she was going to cover that song once she woke up. 

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Her teeth pressed with each other, jaw tight and hands shaking, she adjusted the camera a little to get a better view. The quality, well, she had to do with it. At the age of 11, she didn't have enough money to buy proper filming equipment so this was all she could do.