Sincerely, Addison [XO, Kitty]

Chapter 10 - Revealing Halloween Dance

Halloween arrived, and the whole school was in an excited frenzy for the holiday, mainly since there was a Halloween dance that the school was putting on that landed right on the Friday before the holiday, so it was almost a week before Halloween. It didn't matter. People were still excited for it. The dorms were even doing a trick-or-treat event on Halloween the following Thursday since a lot of the kids were foreign and celebrated that tradition.

The day before the dance came, so about three weeks passed since Alex and I got into trouble and since we last spoke... and since Dae and I started dating. Sometimes we would walk by Alex holding hands, and I could see the hurt look on his face, but it didn't usually last since he had to keep a face. Me, too. And it was difficult. We hadn't talked at all since that time in front of Professor Lee's house.

"Are you still not talking to Min Ho?" I asked Dae as we were walking hand-in-hand back to the dorms after classes ended the day of the Halloween dance.

"Not too much," Dae said. "We live together, so have to talk sometimes. Whenever I try to talk to him about you, he always leaves the room."

My heart dropped. "I'm so sorry. I caused a rift between you two, and who knows if you'll be friends again?"

He squeezed my hand. "Don't worry so much about it. We'll eventually make up."

"When? It's been three weeks already."

He shrugged, and I saw the sadness in his eyes. "I honestly don't know."

I let out a large sigh in exasperation and said in Korean, "This is horrible."

"You're Korean's gotten really good."

"Thanks to my wonderful tutor who is also my boyfriend. We should talk in half Korean and half English. We're supposed to do that for the class anyway."

"Algess-oh," he said. I understand. "Hangul-mal-eu-ro hap-shi-da." Let's speak in Korean.

"Ne, hap-shi-da." Yes, let's.

We spoke in very easy Korean mainly so I could understand what he was saying. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for picking up the language quickly. Well, being in Korea helped, and having a Korean boyfriend helped, too.

But... throughout these three weeks, I couldn't help but always think about another Korean guy who wasn't a native Korean but was a Korean, nonetheless. I had to make an effort to never run into him and stay out of sight as much as possible. It was exhausting. And I missed talking to him. A lot. We used to chat all the time through text and in person while at school. I missed that so much. Only Hannah and my roommates knew that, though. I didn't want to tell Dae and make him feel bad.

We made it back to the dorms, and Dae and I said goodbye by hugging each other and giving each other a kiss. Really, I loved kissing him. I loved being with him and talking with him, but... I didn't love him. We never said it out loud, and I had a feeling it was coming, at least from him.

"Addison, there's something I want to tell you," Dae said as we were hugging, and we leaned out to look at each other's faces. Oh, no... this is it.

"Hold on, Dae," I said. "Um, how about you tell me tonight?"

"You won't look like you tonight since you're dressing up as a Korean. You're even dying your hair temporarily and wearing brown contacts."

"I know, but I'll still be me."

He eyed me for a moment, and I could see the questions in his eyes. I had a feeling he knew what I was doing and that I knew what he wanted to say. "Okay. Tonight, then. But not with a lot of people around."