New Start

Part 1

Stepping off the plane after the gruelling 10-hour flight she sighed. This was it, this was the first day of a new life. Alexandra was a little early to be starting the new year, new life clichés, what with it being November but it was a fresh start for her never the less.

She patiently made her way through Incheon airport in Seoul as she had been through many airports many times. The queue at the immigration counter was thankfully not too busy, and in no time she found herself stood at the baggage carousel waiting for her two fully packed suitcases to make their appearance.

Tapping on foot nervously, as she usually did whenever she was anxious she let her mind drift, mostly with excitement at what was coming her way while she was here.

Finally, after dragging her two suitcases and hand luggage onto a trolley she made her way through to the exit, where she found a lovely small Korean man waiting for her, with her name on a sign.

'Hello Miss Alex, my name is Jungmin.' He greeted her with a smile.

'Nice to meet you Jungmin, thank you' she said as he whisked her trolley off her and lead her out of the airport.

'Wow there are so many people here today.' She commented to him, trying to bypass all the people standing around.

'Oh yes Miss, there are some celebrities arriving today.' He said as he managed to find a les crowded passage for them to walk through the throngs of what seemed like mostly teenage Korean girls.

'Oh, I see,' she smiled to herself. 'Who is it?' she asked watching each girl as she passed them.

'Oh um, Exo I think.' He said distractedly, trying his best to guide the over full trolley.

'Oh Exo.' She decided not to comment any further.

'Do you know of Exo Miss?' he said.

'Yeah, I know a little, my sister is a fan' she smiled sheepishly, feeling a little old to be a fan of a boy band like Exo herself, although she was.

'Oh, I bet she wishes she was here.' He smiled. Just at that moment the crowd behind them started to scream. Alex and Jungmin turned around in reaction to the noise, to witness three of the group exiting through the same door she had just stepped out of.

She smiled to herself a little bit more, feeling a nervous flip inside her stomach. She couldn't make out who out of Exo it was, but it was exciting to be around them never the less.

'We should go Miss, it will be difficult to drive anywhere quickly now.' Said Jungmin causing Alex to jump back to reality.

'Oh yeah of course let's go.' She smiled widely at him and followed him out.

The air outside was freezing, she expected Seoul to be cold, but not quite this cold. She whistled through her teeth as Jungmin chuckled to himself. They reached a large black car and Jungmin made a fuss opening the door for her. As she was about to climb in she heard a loud noise and turned just in time to see Chanyeol from Exo stood outside a car not 50 meters from hers looking straight at her. She watched him curiously for a second as he climbed into the car after someone else. It was such a bizarre moment for Alex she was sure she had imagined Chanyeol looking at her, after all he was wearing dark sunglasses, he was probably idly looking in this direction not at her. She composed herself quickly and jumped into the warm car.

Jungmin got all her luggage into the car quite quickly and then jumped into the front seat and turned on the heating in the car.

'Is this your first time in Seoul Miss?' he enquired as they began slowly driving away from the crowded airport. It was indeed busy, it seemed the celebrities caused everything to be held up.

'Yes actually, but I've always wanted to come here.' She answered him from the backseat. 'Are you from Seoul Jungmin?' she enquired.

'Yes, I was born here.' He said with a smile and a quick glance into the backseat. It crossed his mind she was pretty, for a western girl. 'So, you will stay a while here?' he asked feeling she was not at all bothered by his questioning.

She snapped her head around to glance at him feeling shy. 'Yeah I think so' she said offhandedly.

'What do you do Miss?' he continued not seeing how uncomfortable she was.

'I wrote a book, I write books.' She said still being vague and turning her head back to the window watching Seoul pass her by.

'Oh, yeah? That's cool. So, you will write your book here?'

'Something like that.' She mumbled slightly. She didn't want to go into details really, plus she had really been told not to tell anyone anything. Who knows, it might not even pan out.

The truth was she had written a book, which was published earlier in the year, and it was a kind of success. It meant she could live comfortably now anyway but it hadn't turned into a world-wide phenomenon just yet. However, there was more to the story a TV station had contacted her publishers, wanting to talk about making the book into a movie, or drama in Korea. Her publishers were not overly enthused thinking they should wait for Hollywood, rather than just Korea, but she disagreed and said she would at least meet the producers here to discuss what exactly they wanted to do with her story.

After a half hour drive they pulled into an apartment complex and drove down into the basement.

'Do I have to check in somewhere?' Alex asked Jungmin as they got into the elevator and he pressed the button for the top floor.

'No Miss, it's all taken care of for you.' He pulled out a plastic card and handed it to her. 'This has your key number on, and it will also let you into the apartment.' He explained as the elevator reached the floor and he began to pull her bags out into the hall.

'I can help' she started but he shook her off.

'No need Miss, this way.' He pulled the bags towards the end of the hall. Number 450. He typed in the number and opened the door for her to walk in first.

'Thank you.' She said as she walked in and exhaled loudly. 'Wow.'

The apartment was large and full of light. Floor to ceiling windows surrounded the entire room. As you stepped in there was a small entrance, with a small set of shelves obviously for shoes. Walking further in there was a room to the left that was a kitchen, and straight ahead was the large living room, TV and L-shaped sofa in the middle of the room, a desk and chair in the corner, and a bedroom and bathroom off to the right. It was pretty huge, and more than Alex was expecting.

'All the bills are taken care of Miss, this is a list of all the passwords.' Jungmin talked her through how everything worked inside the apartment, how the intercom system worked and told her places around the neighbourhood to go to.

'It's quite a good neighbourhood, there are a few um, high profile people living around here, so the security around here is tight.' He explained with a big smile.

She couldn't help but like Jungmin. He was friendly, and good at his job.

'Thank you Jungmin, so much.' She smiled back as he made to leave the apartment.

'Oh, and Miss Alex, this is my number, so whenever you need a driver let me know.' He left with a deep bow.

Sighing deeply, the exhaustion of the travel finally weighing on her, she dragged her suitcases into the bedroom and without even unpacking, threw herself down on the bed and fell asleep.

The next few days were spent mostly sleeping, unpacking and ordering noodles from a place she managed to find from down the street. It was far too cold, and she was far too tired from travelling and planning to move here to actually do anything right now.