2 Chapter Two ~ Touring Korea
Hee Joon runs around like a little kid, incredibly ecstatic about the hotel room. "Wow... Look at the view.." Hee Joon practically presses his face against the window. Mona walks up to the same window. "Hey, I gotta see too! Don't hog the view!" She playfully pushes him away from the glass and he responds with a pout.
Finally, she turned her attention to the glass. Black skyscrapers with glowing lights that matched the night sky above filled her vision. "It really is breathtaking," she whispered out quietly. The small sightseeing session abruptly stops when Hee Joon lightly bumped into her. "Look who's talking? You're taking up all the space!" He jokes around but soon takes his place right next to Mona. She laughs and replies with, "We can share. After all, we're already sharing rooms, so there's nothing wrong with sharing a window!"
"..."
"Huh? Hee Joon? Something on your mind?"
"Yeah. I was just thinking about how it would be like to sleep on the bed here instead of the coach."
"Keep dreaming. Bed's all mine, sucker!"
This carefreeness lifts her mood up, but Hee Joon was the opposite. Fidgeting and stuttering, he became a mess for at least a few minutes. Mona didn't notice, thinking that he was just a bit overwhelmed by Korea. But in truth, he was wondering how it would really be like if he shared the bed with her.
With a loud sigh of relief, Mona leaves her suitcase and flops on the bed immediately. "Can't believe their elevator was broken...and our room is on, what? The sixth floor? We had to carry our crap up six floors!" Hee Joon starts unpacking all of his luggage as he listened to her five minute rant on how this was an expensive hotel and how they shouldn't have to haul all of it up here. His responses were short and simple, paying attention but not really at the same time.
The bright sun shines into the room, warm heat hitting Mona's face. She opens her eyes and sees Hee Joon's face. "AHH!!!" Mona's first reaction was to scream and then slap Hee Joon on the face. "What the hell are you doing in my bed?? Get off!" Still screaming, she kicks Hee Joon off the bed. "I just wanted to see how comfy the bed was. Not like we did anything." Hee Joon gets up from the bed and walks to the bathroom shouting out loud. "You were the one that grabbed me in the middle of the night, so I just thought you wanted some company."
"What ya doing?" Hee Joon said, coming out of the bathroom to hover over Mona's shoulders in front of the computer screen. "I'm just looking up some popular attractions to go to. There's a few places I picked out that we can go visit." Mona points to the screen to guide Hee Joon's eyes. "Oh yeah, these are good places. I haven't been back for so many years, it feels so nostalgic. Are you ready? 'Cause I am." Hee Joon runs to the door to slip his shoes on. "Hey, wait!" She laughs and gets ready to head out.
Mona's eyes opened wide when she stepped into the N Seoul Tower. "Wow... This place looks amazing!" Hee Joon saw Mona's glowing eyes. "Let me tell you a little bit about this place. The N Seoul Tower, officially the YTN Seoul Tower and commonly known as the Namsan Tower or Seoul Tower, is a communication and observation tower located on Namsan Mountain in central Seoul, South Korea. Are you surprised that I actually know this stuff?" Hee Joon smiles with teeth showing. Mona smiled back and walked over to a podium-like stand and noticed the same information written down as what Hee Joon had just said. He just looks at Mona and gives her a sarcastic smile.
The podium reads:
The N Seoul Tower (Hangul: N서울타워), officially the YTN Seoul Tower and commonly known as the Namsan Tower or Seoul Tower, is a communication and observation tower located on Namsan Mountain in central Seoul, South Korea. Seoul Tower was completed on December 3, 1971, designed by architects at Jangjongryul though at the time the facility interior was not furnished. It took until August 1975, for the third floor of the observatory deck, museum, open hall, souvenir shop, in addition to bring the other facilities to completion. However, despite finalization of tower construction, the observatory was closed to the public until October 15, 1980. Seoul Tower had its name changed to N Seoul Tower in 2005 whereas the "N" stands for 'new', 'Namsan', and 'nature.' Seoul Tower chosen to worldwide travel expert evaluation and reader preferences is registered the world's 500 attractions in research.
"Damn, this place is expensive. But I think it's worth the visit. Even though we had to travel far to come see it, it is very nice. " Hee Joon nods his head. "C'mon, let's go eat at the restaurant in there." Hee Joon points excitedly to where the restaurant is. Mona looked it up and it was a 5 star restaurant. "This place might be too expensive for us." Mona taps on Hee Joon's shoulders. "I think we should go somewhere else. Let me look at the map." Mona pulls a map out of her backpack. "Oh wait.. Don't forget to take some pictures before we go. For memories!"
"Oh, and I want to visit the teddy bear museum before we leave. It's right there!" Mona points out over to the north side of the tower. "Look at the entrance! I want one of those Teddy Bears!! Let me take a picture first."
"That Teddy Bear is bigger than you." Hee Joon says while grinning. Mona ignores him with a dismissive shake and walks over to take a few more pictures.
Teddy bears from the past, present, and even the future are all in the museum. Mona spotted one that had shiny glass eyes. The eyes looked like they had a gleaming crystal inside. Mona walks over to the toy and reaches her hand out. "Hello? My name is Ken, what is your name?" The teddy bear says while tilting its head side ways to look at Mona. Mona froze, not knowing what to do, she stood there motionless for at least two minutes. Then all of a sudden tears began to roll down her cheeks.
Hee Joon ran over to Mona from where he was. "What happened?" Mona was still in silent. "Hello? My name is Ken. What's your name?" The teddy bear repeats the phrase and tilts its head to look at Hee Joon. Hee Joon grabs Mona's hand, and says "Let's go. We should start heading to the next place. We still have more fun to have, right?" He smiles and guides Mona out of the museum.
"So.. Where should we go next? " Hee Joon pulls the map out of Mona's backpack that have red circles circled on all the places they plan to go visit. "Hmm.. Looks like Dongdaemun will be our next destination. I'm so excited!! Gonna bring so much stuff back home! They have 26 shops in there." Hee Joon looked over to Mona to see if she had any interest and to see if she was feeling better.
"C'mon, why aren't you excited at all? Dongdaemun is Korea's largest wholesale and retail shopping district has 26 shopping malls, 30,000 specialty shops, and 50,000 manufacturers. Opening from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. except Monday & some public holidays, you can literally shop all night!!" Mona forces a smile on her face, knowing about his intentions to cheer her up.
"Let's go to Lotte World after this. I'm trying to visit at least three places a day. Maybe we should come back another day to shop more." She finishes talking then looks at Hee Joon who had a huge smirk. "Don't-" She starts but gets interrupted immediately by him. "Lotte World consists of the world's largest indoor theme park which is open all year, an outdoor amusement park called "Magic Island", an artificial island inside a lake linked by monorail, shopping malls, a luxury hotel, a Korean folk museum, sports facilities, and movie theaters all in one place.
Opened on July 12, 1989, Lotte World a major theme park complex in Seoul, South Korea, receives over 8 million visitors each year and is considered along with Tokyo Disney Resort as one of the world-class theme parks in Asia.
One of the major reasons tourists are attracted to Lotte World is the amusement rides. The Gyro Drop and Gyro Swing are the top pleasers– a steep drop with an altitude of 70 meters, or taste the thrilling sensation of being inside a tornado.
The Flume Ride is a long boat with a high-altitude wave, and the Spanish Pirate Ship swings at an electrifying 75 degrees. Besides the excitement of these rides, Lotte World also contains a variety of parades and laser shows. Are you excited yet?"
"Quit being the Wikipedia!" Mona elbowed Hee Joon. "I was just trying to help. The more you know the better understanding you have about these places we're going to." Hee Joon grinned and they both laughed while making their way to the extravagant theme park. Screaming on rides, visiting every corner, and watching a few shows was what they planned to do. And they did just that. But the two remained unaware of the problem that awaited them the next day.
