A Way to You

Chapter 2- Rainy Days & Headaches

   Rain, how awful. I look outside the window in disdain, thinking that this is must be some sort of curse. I hate rain. Some people love the pitter patter of the drops on their windowsill and the concrete pavements, but I was never a fan of loving the weather that causes literal depression; not when Easton has become the epitome of my broken hearts girls era. It's been weeks since me and Easton had talked after the incident, I hated the thought of  it. What I hated most of all was that it even happened in the first place. How can everything change over one little thing, or what I thought was just a little thing. But I couldn't keep thinking about that right now, not when college applications are right around the corner. It was always mom's dream for me to be her legacy, so I don't have time for this little hissy fit that Easton is having. I drag myself out of bed, careful not to wake up Jasper, my sweet 10 year old cat that Easton had gifted me when we were just kids. I look at Jasper, sleeping peacefully on my lavender comforter; his bliss and carefree sleep makes me jealous but also happy that he doesn't have to live a life with problems. I wish life weren't that hard. It would probably be easier to be a cat, at least they don't have to think about getting ready for an interview that could make or break my application for Columbia.
   I walk over to my closet mirror to get a good look at what I was working with this morning. Hideous. My eyes are sunk in with so much baggage that even the airport wouldn't have enough baggage claims to accommodate. I don't even think make-up could fix this atrocious mess. I had stayed up all night preparing a script in my head of what I was going to say at the interview today and mom has been coaching me through a million different answers that I could say so that I "stand out" and "shine brighter" than the other candidates. Mom said that I should emphasize our Korean culture and how that has impacted my life here in the United States, but I feel like every Asian-American says those things. Also, I practically grew up in the United States anyways. I left Korea when I was just 3 years old, so I don't have much culture shock to splurge about in the interview. I honestly would say that there's nothing that special about me. I'm just normal, nothing extraordinary or unique or even pretty.
   I glance at the clock. 1 hour before the interview. I take a big sigh before I brush out my knotted chestnut brown-dyed hair. I have more split ends than there are people on this Earth. Some part of me wished that I had never dyed my hair because of how damaging it is but it was the memory that it had is what counts. Easton and I had dyed our hair together at the start of Senior year to signify our pact of "changing together", meaning that if things were to change then we would change together. Stupid, right? We changed, but we're not changing together. Change is bringing us further apart. I open my closet to find that my mom had already picked out something for me to wear. I take the clothes out of the clear plastic garment bag, straight from the dry cleaners, to find what I think looks like a Hillary Clinton navy-blue power suit. "C'mon mom! Are you serious? I would die before I wear something as tacky as a power suit!" I yell, my voice beckoning through the halls and into the kitchen. Mom walks over to my room, leans against the wall and crosses her arms with a smug look on her face. "Well, if you're going to succeed you need power. Hence the power suit! I wore one when I went for my interview. I think it'll look good on you baby, just try it on" she says as she leaves my room and shuts the door. Ugh. This day can't get any worse, but I don't have time to try and think of another, more suitable outfit for the interview. I quickly run to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth before slipping on the power suit. I dab on some make up to make myself look alive again and curl my hair. I take one last look at myself all put together in the mirror to make sure that I even look presentable. Wow, I look like I'm about to represent a defendant in a court trial. But that doesn't matter, at least I look professional. I only have 15 more minutes left to get to the meeting place, which is ironically a Starbucks. Who shows up to a Starbucks with full blown political attire? Whatever, I just hope Easton isn't working today or this day would really be the worst day of my life. I run to the entry way where all of our shoes are housed, slipped on some black Tory Burch flats, grabbed an umbrella and ran out the door.
   The drive to Starbucks was anxiety filled. My heart was beating out of my chest and I heard every thump in my ears. My hands were cold, pale, and shaking as I turned the wheel. What if I mess up? What if I embarrass myself? What if I don't know what to say? But most of all, what if Easton is there? I try to shake that last thought out of my head and try to focus more on the key points that mom tried to drill into my brain for weeks now. Always smile. Sit up straight. Even if you don't know the answer just keep talking to buy yourself time to think of the answer. Sound confident. Don't look nervous. I've rehearsed every scenario and every possible question that they could ask. At the last stoplight I felt my heart sink to the bottom of my chest and get eaten whole by my stomach. I can see the parking lot from the car and spotted a very familiar silver Honda Accord with a rosary hanging from the rear view mirror and anime stickers on the side windows. No. It's not his car, or at least I hope it's not his car. It's Pasadena, there are a million people driving around with Honda Accords so it can't possibly be his car. I jolt up, hearing the car behind me beep at me, not realizing that the light had turned green since I was so distracted by a stupid car. I turn into the parking lot and find a spot to park in. I take one last deep breath and rest my head on steering wheel. "What am I doing here? Do I even want to go to Columbia?" I whisper under my breath, letting my thoughts escape me. No, I can't disappoint mom. Not when she worked so hard to help me get this interview in the first place. I unbuckle my seatbelt and grab my bag and umbrella from the passenger seat. As soon as I step out the door I step into a massive puddle, soaking my flats. Great, just another layer to the cake of a bad day. I try to shake off the water that made its way into my shoe so that at least I don't sound like a wet duckling when I walk into the Starbucks.
As I trek towards the entrance, my heart beats like drums. All I can think about was making myself look dumb, not only in front of the person who's interviewing me but also Easton, who may or may not be there. As my hand reaches down towards the handles, I try to calm myself with a big deep breath in and then out. I open the door and try not to look at which staff is working today and just try to find where my interviewer is. I see a hand from one of the back tables shoot up and gesture for me to come over to his table. I smile and wave back to the man with a black suit on and a yellow neck tie with purple spots on it. He looks Japanese, and probably mid 30s but he honestly looks like he could still be in college with how angel like his face is. He looks exactly like what I picture some of the boys from the shojou anime that I watch would look like in real life. I start to get butterflies and flushed because of how perfectly handsome he is. Slowly but surely, I walk over knowing that this is most likely the man who would interview me since who else would wear a suit to Starbucks or a mafia boss trying to lure me in to kidnap me. I knew the latter half of that thought was false. As I approached the table he stood up and held out his hand and introduced himself. "Hi, you must be Ms. Yoon correct? My name is Ichiro Nakada and I came from Columbia just to interview you today" he said with a smile that reached from ear to ear. Even his smile was gorgeous. I reach hand for a hand shake and smiled, "Yes, I'm Serenity Yoon so nice to meet you.  Thank you so much for the opportunity and the time out of your day to interview me".
"It really is no problem! Please take a seat. Have you ordered yourself something to drink?" Mr. Nakada says as we sit down at the table.
"No, I haven't but I'm fine I just had breakfast at home" I say, glancing at the baristas. My face goes red and my ears feel hot. Easton was working today and I see another familiar face with him. The girl from the party. Looks like he got her a job here too. Great, they look happy working together too, carefree and laughing as if I am not just about to have a life changing interview.
"Ms. Yoon?" Mr. Nakada asks, breaking my thought.
"Yes? I'm sorry, can you please repeat the question" I reply, nervously smiling trying to cover up the fact that I wasn't just completely staring at the two lovebirds gawking at each other.
"No, it's okay. I actually haven't even asked a question yet. You just seem to be distracted" He said chuckling a bit. He sensed my tension and nervousness. "Well, no matter it's all alright. Just lighten up a bit, this'll be over quick".  He moves in a little closer with his hand positioned as if to tell a secret. "I'll go easy on you. I was once in your shoes too not to long ago" he whispers and then straightens back up in his chair to say, "Let's get started shall we?". I nod, all flustered that he was so close.
The interview was super quick, talking with Mr. Nakada honestly just felt like having small talk with someone at a convention or event. We had talked about his life living in Okinawa as a kid and how that was sort of like me living in Korea. We also talked about hobbies, with mine being playing the piccolo and his being piano and writing sheet music for it. Mr. Nakada and I actually had a lot in common and some part of me wondered if this was even an interview at all and how this even correlated with getting accepted to Columbia. While we were talking away, I sneak quick little glances at Easton. I couldn't help myself since I was facing his direction anyways. But then, just for a moment, we make eye contact and I see some semblance of sadness in his eyes while I talked and smiled with Mr. Nakada. Before I knew it, the interview was over. Well, if you could even call it an interview it was more like power suit hang out at a Starbucks. Mr. Nakada and I both stand and shake hands again to say our good-byes.
"It was lovely meeting you Ms. Yoon. I will be sure to say all good things about this interview to the board. Now tell me, what major was it again that you were trying to go for?"
"C-Computer Science" I reply with hesitancy, knowing that it's a hard major to get into.
"Amazing, that's a great field to go into now that the tech world is booming. Well, I must get going. Best of luck to you Ms. Yoon and the early admission results should arrive just after Christmas so try not to stress out too much before then!" Mr. Nakada says as he gives me a mini salute and heads for the door, leaving me alone in the Starbucks with this embarrassing power suit on. I let out a sigh and sit back down to take whatever just happened all in. Well that wasn't too bad. At least I didn't get some uptight interviewer who would berate me with a thousand questions and question my competency. Instead, I got a handsome young man who just basically talked about his life in exchange for me talking about mine. I guess with his tactics, you can learn a lot more about a person and their demeanor if you just nonchalantly talk to them about themselves and their interests. I put my head down on the table and just close my eyes. It's only 11 am but it feels like I've just gone through a whole work day. I feel a headache coming on, probably from my inadequate water intake. All of the sudden I hear someone take the chair in front of me and for a second I had thought that Mr. Nakada came back. I pick my head up from the table to see Easton with a cup of water sitting across from me. What the heck? I thought we were fighting.
"Thirsty? I can see the signs of your dehydration from a mile away" he says, smiling softly careful not to let his sadness seep out.
I take the cup of water and take a sip. Some part of me didn't want to talk to him. Why would he come over here when his new girlfriend is sitting pretty at the barista's bar. "Thanks." I manage to sputter. "Did you and your little boyfriend decide to have a fancy date at... a Starbucks?" Easton said with sarcasm in his voice. But I always take things too literally and quickly retorted, "NO! Of course not. That was my big interview for Columbia, if you even cared to know. And I should ask you about you and your girlfriend. Must be nice to have her around at work".  I wanted to take those words back as soon as I spoke them into existence. I didn't want to fight, not more than we already are. I can see what little smile that he had left quickly fade and his hazel eyes look down, letting his hair cover his eyes so that he can hide his emotions from me.
"Serie.. I've been meaning to.. reconnect and talk to you about what happened. We can't let our relationship end over that. We've been friends for so long now" Easton says, trying not to let his voice crack.
"Why do you even care? It's not like you cared that night. What does being friends have to do with this, because clearly we haven't been friends for almost a month now" I hissed.  I can see his manager in the corner of my eye gesturing for Easton to come back and help with the line. "I think you need to get back to work".
"Serie, please. We have to talk. My mom has been asking where you've been and the holidays are coming up so we should at least make up for that. Meet me in front of the library tomorrow after school". Before he even gave me a chance to reply, he stood up and ran back to work. I look back to the table and I see little droplets of tears on the tabletop. He's been crying. I had never thought that Easton still cherished our friendship like that, and I guess it's been really eating him up inside since he let a few tears shed from our little conversation. I suppose I can at least hear him out. I get up, gather my things and head to my car. I guess I'll have more things to keep me up at night. And instead of an interview, it's confronting Easton about the incident instead. Well, let's just hope everything goes well tomorrow since I have a lot of unanswered questions.