I, Lee Haera, have problems with sleeping on moving vehicles. I tend to bother my seat mates. Until I met him.
It's finally here. My whole year of saving money from part time jobs to have a trip across the Southern province, is finally here. My first stop is Busan, I will be spending three days there and have to come back home to Seoul first, since there will be a wedding this weekend. Not mine, obviously.
"Haera! Ya, Lee Haera!" My flatmate as well as my bestfriend since forever, Dahye, is taking me to the bus station. I never liked taking trains so bus will always be the option to commute. Even for subways, I will only take them if I'm super late for class. Ah, both me and Dahye are philosophy major students. We overthink a lot.
"What?" I show her my bus ticket. "I have bought the ticket, got the window seat."
"Are you sure about that? Let me see." She takes the ticket on my hand, checking the number. "Hmm, I guess it is. It's a 5 hour trip, if you don't get the window seat..."
I chuckle. "I know, I know."
I have this weird sleeping habit when I'm on vehicles. Instead of resting my head to the seat or adjusting the seat angle, my head always leans to the right. Exactly the right side, never to the left. That is why I have to take the window seat and specifically the right side of the bus, so that my head will lean to the window, less bothering my seat mate. Dahye is worried since it's my first time travelling alone.
"You have asked that yours is on the right side, right?"
I freeze. Didn't think of that when I booked the ticket. "I did..." I don't know why I lie to her.
"Ah, it's your bus! It's here!" Dahye keeps hitting my back out of excitement. "You're finally going!"
"Ack, it hurts!" I pry her hand and put on my backpack, along with my handbag, ticket in my hand. I walk toward the bus with Dahye following me. "I'll text you later. Just go on a date with that Park guy."
"His name is not Park guy, you know." I can see that she sulks. But well, I know nothing about her boyfriend, and I don't want to dig more informations.
"I'm going. Bye!" She waves at me as I enter the bus.
I check my ticket. 15A. With my confidence, I only look on my left, the right side of the bus.
13C. 13D.
14C. 14D.
15C. 15D.
Wait. I have a hunch and look to my other side.
15A. 15B.
My seat is indeed the window seat....but it's on the left side!
Shit.
I just shake my head but place my luggages on the overhead area. "Just sit here first, if that side is empty, let's move." I have to raise my confidence.
5 minutes passes and the bus is already full except the seat next to mine. I can only sigh looking at the 15D seat.
"15B...ah, it's here." A guy talks to himself makes me snap. "Hi, seat mate!" I don't know what he's talking about. "You're okay?" He asks while sitting down.
I just nod. He's actually pretty good-looking. His hair is dark brown under the sunlight from the window, his eyes as well. He wears gray tshirt with black jeans, with light wash denim jacket in his arms, folded randomly.
"You're going to Busan alone?" He keeps trying to initiate conversations, but I'm not exactly in the mood. So I just nod again. I take out my iPod, putting in both the earphones. Before I play something, I can hear him saying, "Ah, she doesn't want to be disturbed." I look at him and catch him nodding to himself while fidgeting something on his phone screen.
