Mixed.

It means many things.

But what is the true definition?

Perhaps, a little bit of everything?

Well, that's what I am.

Mixed.

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Chapter 1

I am a first generation American. Every single person in my family is from a different country. When I think of mixed people, I think of their parents' DNA swirling together to make a child that has some attributes from their mom, and some from their dad. And that's also me. To make it more clear of my genes, my mom is half South American and half African, and my dad is half Korean and half European.

I'm 14 years old going on 15, a freshman in high school. But just because I was born in America, doesn't mean I'm still there. My father just got a job in Korea, which means we had to move there. I was nervous though, because even though my grandmother is Korean, I don't look like it much.

The problem is, I came in the middle of the year, which means school will be very awkward. Not even socially, but academically, too, because I will have to catch up with all the other students and learn the Korean language fluently. Luckily, though, my dad's new boss has a family and they're helping us.

Yesterday I stayed home to unpack and I'm starting school today. I got into one which has a Korean learning class for international students, which I'll take. I already have my uniform so I put it on, took a deep breath of courage, and left my house.

As I was walking to school, I kept telling myself, you're not gonna be the only foreigner there, you're not gonna be the only foreigner there. So I feel a bit better knowing that. As I arrive, some local students look at me like I'm an alien. I look around and try to see if I can find any international students, but I can't see any.

First period bell rings and I go to the class I'm assigned and pray that I can go to the Korean language learning class. Luckily, my prays have been heard and a teacher walks in and calls my name to go with her to the other classroom.

I follow her to the room and I see a few students, and some don't even look like they have even 1% of Korean DNA. I see one boy who looks quite mixed. His nose is long and bumpy and his eyes are almond shaped, he has very light skin, and short brown hair with loose curls. He also seems to be eating a lollipop.

The teacher speaks English to us and she has an assistant who speaks other languages to help out the students who don't speak English. Since it is my first day here, she made me introduce myself. "Uh, my name is Y/N, I'm 14 and I like drawing and listening to music."

I sat down next to lollipop boy and the teacher started teaching us some more words and phrases in Korean. I looked down at my desk and a folded piece of paper was on it. I opened it and it said:

Hi!
My name is Hueningkai, I just turned 15 last week. I am mixed. My mom is half Korean half Chinese, and my dad is half Brazilian half German. Anyways, guess where I'm sitting . . .
Hint: I'm in the KSL (Korean as a second language) class with you and I'm close.

I looked around and saw the boy looking at me and giggling. Obviously, it's him. I smiled and wrote on the note "it's you" and gave it back to him. He smiled and nodded his head.

After about 20 minutes of learning Korean, the teacher sent us all back to our classes. Before I could sit down, though, my teacher made me stand up and introduce myself to the class. I was terrified because I still don't know a lot of Korean, but I tried my best. When the students found out I'm American, a few of them made some weird faces, but some of them were happy, especially one girl in the first row.

The bell rang as I was going back to my seat, so I just left the classroom. As I was leaving someone snuck up from behind and scared me. I let out a small scream and the person kept their arm around my shoulder and walked beside me. "Hi!!" She said enthusiastically, in English. "H-hi," I nervously said.

"My name is Lalisa Manoban, but everyone calls me Lisa. I'm from Thailand. You're a KSL student, right? I was in KSL last year but I don't need it anymore because I'm fluent now. Anyways, I know you're from America, but where is your family from?"

She's quite a chatterbox. And she speaks really fast. "U-um, I'm Latina, African, Korean and European." I stuttered. "Wow! You're from everywhere!" She started giggling. "By the way, when I came here in middle school, I was scared too, but don't worry. We have a lot of international students at this school."

She asked me about my schedule, and I have math now. That's easier, I thought, learning math usually doesn't require much language skill. Coincidentally, Lisa also has math right now.

She led me to the classroom and I saw that boy, I think his name was Hueningkai, sitting in the third row. He waved to me and gestures me to sit in the empty seat next to him, while he's still sucking on his lollipop. I just realized, he hasn't said a word to me today. Maybe he's just shy to talk.

I sat in the empty seat and Lisa sat next to me. "Hi," he said, "I'm the guy from earlier, Hueningkai. You seem chill, I want to be your friend." He said happily.

"Sure! Why not?" As I said that, the teacher started teaching the class.

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