“Miss Park. Park Joo Rin! Are you listening?”
I suddenly looked at the figure in front of me that looked a lot like Mr. Han. I was procrastinating again. Haha. Hi! I am Park Joo Rin. :) Well, people just usually call me Rin back there in New York. I just moved in to Seoul and I am still clueless on stuff that goes around here. I don’t even leave home except school days. (which I don’t really consider as “leave home” haha) All I know is, dancing is one thing I love. :)) Wait, that was off-topic. Haha.
I have been in this school for a week now and it feels like forever. I have never talked to anyone yet. Funny, a Korean has no friends in Korea. While I was walking along our corridors, I heard some American music being played in a room. I peek in and I see four guys in the room and one of them was dancing like hell. I was enjoying my peek until someone tapped me.
“Hi Rin! *smiles* 실례하겠습니다 (Excuse me)”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You don’t understand Korean? I’m Kwon Ji Yong.”
“Oh, Hi Ji. Haha. May I call you ‘Ji’?”
“Oh sure, anything. You dance?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Sure I do.”
“Come on in. Join us.”
Before I could even answer Ji, he already pulled me into the room and introduced me.. they began to speak in wild Korean and they were laughing their heads off. I didn’t know if I should get offended so I just gave them a small smile..
“Oh, I almost forgot! Rin doesn’t speak or understand Korean.”
Thank God Ji remembered. I smiled. Bigger this time. I wanted them to see that I am as approachable as anyone else in this school. Now that I noticed, they all looked cute. Yeah some looked kinda geeky but, Ji looked hot even if he was geek-looking. I can’t help noticing it tho. If you probably removed Ji’s glasses and pimples on the forehead, he kinda looked like the guy on the poster of this Korean drink. I dunno if that’s soda or something. But anyway, Koreans do look a little the same so, I shouldn’t jump into conclusions that Ji Yong is actually an actor or model or something. I mean, what is this anyway? Hannah Montana?
“Rin, this is Lee Seung Hyun, Kang Dae Sung, Choi Seung Hyun and Dong Young Bae. Seung, Dae, Sleepyhead, Bae, say hi to our new friend. *smiles*”
Oh God. Please tell Ji to quit smiling. I can feel myself melting every time he does that and I just want to cover his lips with a plaster or something. “Sleepyhead” (or I’d like to call him “dance-guy” since he was the one I saw dancing a few moments back) played some music then Bae started to dance like mad. This time Ji started rapping beside me. It was a Korean song, so I didn’t really understand a thing. But with this, I began to mindset myself that I’ll learn Korean. I should. I could. Bae suddenly looked my way then the others followed, as if they saw a three-headed fairy behind me or something. Then suddenly..
“Maybe Rin would want to show us a few moves?”
My heart skipped a beat or two. I didn’t know what to do. I felt stupid for a second or so. Then Ji pushed me to the middle of the floor and played some mad beats. My body just moved by itself. The next thing I know, I was dancing New York streets style. I suddenly missed my friends but, Koreans are cool. Yea. In my few days in here, I can feel their hospitality. Just as the music ended, the bell rang. We parted ways. I had a different class since I do not understand Korean. I have a few people in my class. 21 to be exact. Some were blondes and the others looked Asian.
By the time our class ended, I was already itching to see the guys. I wanted to dance with them again. I wanted to hang out with them. And, as if God was too happy with my previous actions, He gave me what I have been wanting the whole class period. Dismissal time and I was on my way home when Ji appeared out of nowhere. He placed his arms around my shoulder and asked me if I wanted to hang out with them. They called themselves “Big Five”.
“Sure. I’d love to. Maybe now that I’m hanging out with you guys, you might want to consider changing that to Big Six.”
“Now that you brought that up, maybe we should.”
“Nah. I was just kidding.”
“No, you definitely should be part of us. If you don’t mind?”
“Oh, I’d be honored. *curtsies* Oh wait, you guys don’t curtsy, right?”
“Well, we do bow. *smiles*”
STOP IT! Don’t smile Ji! You’re smile is too cute. Please quit it. I opened my mouth but I thought about what I should say but then I ended up bowing to Ji. It was some kind of a way to respect someone. I was then brought to a barbecue house where there was a whole platter of beef on the table. The rest of them were already eating when we arrived and Ji said something in Korean.. again. Then they began to speak wild Korean and here I am eating the beef slowly with the chopsticks which I never learned to use so, I ended up poking the beef with the stick and eating it skewered. Maybe that’s how skewered foods originated. Some newbie arrives to a chopstick country and they don’t know how to use the chopsticks so they just skewered the beef strips. Haha. History of barbecue.
Ji looked at me. Stared at me actually. And he took my idle chopstick and grabbed the other one on my hand and taught me how to hold a chopstick. The first ten tries were stupid and I just end up catapulting beef across the table.
“You’re hopeless Rin.”
“I didn’t know I needed to actually learn how to use chopsticks when I was still at New York.”
“What brought you here anyway?”
I looked up and saw Dance-guy looking back at me. I thought deeply and answered his question.
“My mom and dad divorced. My mom wanted to move somewhere far from the US. She wanted to erase everything between them so she moved to her hometown. Both my parents are Korean tho. Only, Dad grew up in the US unlike Mom, who grew up here at Seoul then just moved in to New York after college.”
They all looked at me. Dazed. I dunno if they got what I said. I mean, I speak English too fast (which I believe is natural if you speak your native language) then I was relieved when Dae broke the silence..
“That’s too bad. But at least, you get to know us and we get to know you.”
I didn’t expect what he said. He.. I mean, they were actually excited to be my friend.
The next few weeks flew so fast. Maybe because I already knew people at school and I just know that I have some friends to make fun of. They began to teach me Korean and in return, I taught them doodling. I doodle a lot. I draw anything that comes into my mind. They saw my doodles on my notebooks and they got interested. We would dance to Korean music in between Until I got to know this Korean boy group, Big Bang. I became obsessed with the group.
One Saturday afternoon. While everyone was having a fun day at the park Ji and I were sitting on a tree..
“Rin, I need your phone.”
“What? Why?”
“C’mon! I just need it.”
“Okay. Fine. *throws phone*”
“You like G-Dragon? *shoves my wallpaper to my face*”
“Yeah. He is cute. Especially when he pouts and when he raises his brow.”
“OH REEEEALLY NOW?”
“What? There’s nothing wrong with that, right? I mean, It’s normal for girls to fan over really hot Korean singers.”
Ji turned silent and gave me back my phone. I stared at him for a full minute and I realized he really does look a lot like G-Dragon, only a little pimple-ish and geeky. But I guess most Koreans just look alike. I mean, they are all chinky-eyed and fair-skinned, so there’s no way you could tell the difference.
