I Remember

Chapter 2 Hana's First Day at School

After I had that nightmare, I couldn’t go back to sleep fearing that the horror might come back again. Besides it was already four in the morning, I had to leave for school by six. So I decided to talk to my only friend in the world, who actually understood me; my diary.

Soon, time passed by and it was already 5:30 before I knew it. By then I was sitting with my aunt at our small breakfast table. We both lived in a small, rented apartment; our real house was back in USA. Why were we in Korea? The reason being my aunt was the sweet one if compared to my uncle who had passed away years ago.

Her husband was the total opposite of her, he was always so ill-tempered and abusive. He never allowed us freedom. Sometimes I had felt sorry for my aunt. But after his death my aunt offered me if I would like to go back to Korea to know my roots, my origin, the answers I seek, the people I seek, basically to know who my mom was.

Since, my mom was Korean I never got to know her or her country’s culture properly, being stuck in USA. To be honest I had completely forgotten her; where she worked, how was her cooking, what was her favorite food, what she disliked and liked, how did she sound like and even…….. how she looked.

That was the saddest part because even in my nightmare I couldn’t see her properly, a certain light always blurring her face. The only thing of her that I had was the locket that had a certain message on it but which I could never interpret because it was in Korean. 

“Hannah dear, is there something wrong?” My aunt looked at me with concerned eyes.

It was obvious for her to get concerned because I was just blankly staring at my locket while my breakfast, still untouched, was running cold.

“No Aunt Linda,” I sighed.

“Cheer up, it’s your first day at your new high school! Besides, sweetie you can ask one of your new Korean friends what does that mean.” She gestured towards the locket around my neck.

“Don’t you think it would be difficult interacting with the language barrier?”

“It would be at first, but you do have a Korean background. You have it in your blood Hannah.” She assured.

I gave her a small weak smile and she quickly brought up a new topic,

“Do you want me to drop you at school?” She asked like an excited parent who was about to drop their little kid to school on his first day in kindergarten. To be honest it was natural for her to act that way, since she had no children of her own and I would quite independently walk to school in America.

“No thank you, it’s just at a walking distance from here.”

“Awww, but I want to.” She moped.

We had a cute mother-daughter like argument but finally she gave in as she also realized she was getting late for her work too.

I was finally here, I drew a breath and let it go. It was late September and it was fall in Korea. It was definitely beautiful. But I still felt really nervous standing in front of a huge building, which from now on was going to be my school. Surprisingly, very few of the high school students were in sight, I guess it was still too early in the morning. Probably, many of them would be still getting up right now.

I walked inside first heading to the office to receive my schedule. That was when I realized that school starts at exactly 7 am. Since it was just 6:00 I had plenty of time to look around. So I decided to explore.

By 6:30 many students had arrived and the corridor became lively as people were walking and chatting in groups some were already going to their respective classes wanting to get the best seat, I suppose. And I walked alone. Thankfully, I didn’t get strange looks or anything because I looked completely Korean having all my mom’s traits, so I blended in quite well. But I knew that once I opened my mouth to talk I’ll catch everyone’s attention with my American accented English.