Diaries of a Distance

Chapter 2

Sunday, 15th August...

The time that I came into Seoul was high school summer holidays. Weeks passed by and I got myself used to Seoul's atmosphere. I would go shopping in the daytime and visit different places. I also picked up a few new words (including swearing!) in Korean too. Today, I went shopping for a brand new outfit as Sun Dae's school friends were coming over to visit me. They were gonna help me out at school tomorrow on my first day.

At 4:30pm exactly, the doorbell rang. I ran down the stairs in my short white jeans and white singlet, and my long brown hair flowing down my back. Both my brother and I naturally have brown hair for some reason, not black, so I've never found a good reason for my parents to let me dye it. I opened the door and standing there were 4 girls. All of them looked only average, one was quite plump though and one was too skinny. I later learnt that those two were best friends. The tough-looking one was standing directly in front me. They all looked me up and down in... awe? I gave a welcoming smile.

"Hey", I said, welcoming them in.

Turns out to be the tough girl's name is Soo Jin, the girl who had a shy nature (and the prettier one out of them) was Tae Hee, the plump one Mi Mi and the skinny one Da Ni. All of them were nice and quite vain.

"Did you dye your hair?" Soo Jin asked as we were sitting around the table next to the swimming pool.

"No. My elder brother has the same hair colour", I replied casually. I'd gotten used to that question.

"Come on. Stop acting. Did you get it done here? It looks good. I wanna get mine done the same way", she remarked.

"It is natural..."

"Fine. Be like that."

Soo Jin turned her back to face me. I'm getting the feeling that Soo Jin doesn't like me. I opened my mouth to retort, but decided that since she was kind of the leader of the group now that Sun Dae was gone, I'd better just shut it. I was gonna need their help at school. We continued to talk and eat until it was time for them to go.

"Bye. I'll see you tomorrow", I waved them off.

I hope my accent didn't show. It must be understood that whilst to me the words I say make sense, to true Koreans it must sound really fobby.

I really did enjoy the others' company, especially Tae Hee. I saw them off before packing up the mess and retiring to bed without even changing

I was sleeping like an angel until I heard the sound of a music beginning to play, at first softly, then

BOOM!

It was rock music blasting off my ear. I could feel myself fuming. Calm down, calm down, this is Korea, not Australia, your dad's not here to save you from gaol food. Calm dow-

I couldn't stand it any longer. I love sleeping and how'm I going to get any with music like that?! I went to the balcony and about 10 guys were dunking each others' head in the swimming pool. They ranged form about my age to 18 years.

"COULD YOU LOWER THE MUSIC VOLUME?" I shouted my lungs off so that they could hear me.

Sure enough, a few managed to hear me and stopped what they were doing and looked up to face me.

"Hey there pretty girl! Come join us! You could jump from there if you want!" one of the smaller ugly guys shouted.

The others laughed.

"NO you jerk. JUST SHUT OFF THE DAMN MUSIC!"

"Oooo. Fiery one", said another, with bleached hair.

I saw the one who had first shouted at me run into the house. Two seconds later, the volume was twice as loud. The ugly guy returned and gave a high-five to the bleached-hair dude. They all laughed.

I went into the bedroom and returned with a rock-hard basketball and threw it in the swimming pool. It hit one tall guy at the back of his head who had just resurfaced. He turned around, and although I couldn't see him well, I could tell he was furious. By this point, I got everyone in that damn pool staring- or more likely, glaring at me. The guy who I had got hit went inside the house and moments later I saw him standing on the balcony directly facing mine with the basketball. Standing behind him were 8 other guys.

"Dodge this one!" he yelled as he chucked the ball in my direction.

I ducked too late; it hit me square in the stomach. I crouched in pain, pretending to black out. I heard the guys mumbling worriedly and start withdrawing from the balcony. That distracted his attention. BAM! I hit him back with the ball, this time on the side of his head. He roared and I felt his eyes fixed on me. His aim was good but I was prepared and ducked in time, catching the ball with one hand. I smirked as he stood still, not backing away.

"Good aim. Can you handle this?" I asked, before hurling the ball in his direction again.

I wasn't too good though, and it went for the glass window. Time seemed to slow down as I saw the ball inches away from the window. Then a miracle happened and a hand stuck out, stopping the ball in time. I turned to face the catcher, who held the ball firmly. He spoke so loud that I could hear.

"WATCH IT B1TCH!" he screamed to me. Then he turned to his friend, "Jae Wook, enough man. Don't fight with ugly b1tches. If my grandparents come home to this crap, I'm gonna be in big sh1t."

The guy named Jae Wook turned his head sidewards to face me.

"I'll come over right now!" he yelled.

I gave him the middle finger and ran inside, shutting the balcony's doors behind me and jumping on the bed. I could hear them retreat, and the music went back to its old volume. It still didn't help me sleep though. I didn't get to sleep until 5 in the morning when they all went home.