A Wind Of Change [1] || EXO ✓

001: Square One

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Hazel leaned her chin into her palms, elbows resting on her thighs, eyes wandering the white lit room as she sat on the silvery waiting chair. She saw through the floor-length glass windows at the sight of aeroplanes taking off and cocked her head to see beyond the green plants where her dad and mom stood by the reception. Her mom was talking over phone, probably to the chauffeur. People kept bustling with luggage rolling over epoxy floors. Her mouth formed an 'O' as she observed the towering white vortex of glimmering glass above.

Glancing her side, she saw a little girl lazily drag her feet to plop on the waiting chair beside hers with a disappointed moue.

"Hello!" Hazel smiled at the girl.

The girl looked at her for a brief moment and lowered her head with a shy smile, "Hi..."

"My name is Hazel. What's yours?" she asked in her thick American accent and held her hand out.

"Haneul," the girl replied and shook hands with her.

Hazel chuckled, "Our names start with an H. We both match," she slightly tapped the little girl's squishy cheeks and the girl grinned back, her round cheeks lifting in joy.

The two sat there talking to each other for a while. Hazel told she liked pink and Haneul said that she liked pink, too. Hazel told her she was sixteen and she'd come to Seoul from San Francisco. Haneul told her she was six and that she was leaving Seoul to go to Newyork with a sad face. When Hazel asked the girl if she was sad cause she had to leave her friends, the girl replied a yes. But when the same question was asked to her, Hazel paused and replied, "I...I don't know."

She couldn't ever be sure if her friends missed her. Just like how she wasn't sure what she could do in order to please her mother who was never satisfied with her achievements. She didn't know what to do in order to not feel like a colossal disappointment that could not confront the world. Hazel wondered if being here would somewhat comfort her since this place wasn't exactly her home, although she had lived in Seoul as a child. It was still new. Perhaps that was why her heart drummed with a hope that at least here she would find that something that her heart had always yearned for - love and true friendships.

"I had only," Hazel opened her fingers one by one from her closed fist, "one, two," she raised her palm signalling two fingers, "Two friends."

"Really!?" the girl uttered in surprise, "you look too pretty to have less friends."

Hazel giggled at the compliment. "It's not the amount of friends that you have that matters. Even if you have one friend, it's their love and support that matters, y'know. I do like to have more friends, though!"

"Count me in. I'm your friend." The girl grinned.

Hazel's mom suddenly called out for her. She looked at the girl with a smile which the girl returned with a sad pout. "I had fun talking with you, Hanuel. And I'm glad to be your friend. Let's hope we meet again soon." With that she got up from her seat and waved the girl a fond goodbye.

Outside the Incheon Airport, the white SUV arrived and the car driver dressed in a white uniform hurriedly ran forward, bowing and apologizing.

"It's your first day." Hazel's mother, Bianca, said. Donned in an exquisite fur line coat, she quirked an eyebrow at the car driver, "And you've already proved your worth."

Hazel felt for the chauffer who was the victim of her mother's insults as he bowed in shame and quickly proceeded to load the baggages into the trunk. The tiredness got to her as soon as she got into the warm confines of her car.

It was forty minutes past seven when she groggily woke up and peered through the rolled down windows at the sky-scrapers enchantingly adorning the sky. "Looks like we've reached Hannam-dong," she said excited.

"Do you know why this place is called Hannam-dong?" Her dad asked with the excitement he always had, turning his head to look behind at his daughter sitting beside his wife at the back seat.

She shook her head, "Not a clue, Dad."

"You see, the Han River and Nam Mountain can be viewed by standing anywhere in Hannam-dong's neighborhood," he explained like the proud Korean to his half-American, half-Korean daughter.

"That's amazing!"

Passing by homes gated with compounds of luxury villas on steep hillsides, Hazel's house was no exception. It looked magnificent with green lawns paving way as her car moved into the vast compound.

From the window of second storey building opposite Hazel's house, two eyes widened at the sight of the SUV pulling into the compound. Kyungsoo moved away from the window and darted downstairs in a frenzy.

Kyungsoo's mom and dad were already out there, greeting Hazel's parents. First, her brown wedge came into view. Then he saw her porcelain wrist adorning a crystal blue bracelet. Her blue painted nails pushed open the car door by the handle. Dressed in a loose white blouse tucked into her pale blue skinny jeans, he saw Hazel - his one true love - emerge fully out of the car.

She whipped her head, her caramel brown locks bounced on her forehead and she gasped before greeting Kyungsoo with a bright smile.

And Kyungsoo feared that his heart would stop beating.

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A/N: Please do vote and comment❤

[Revised - Jan 15, 2021]