_ 3_

                        ☆☆☆☆☆☆

       Myeong–Dong,  is one of the most

crowded places in Seoul or possibly in the whole world. It is a spectacular destination for more than one million shopaholics from all around the world. It is located in the heart of Seoul with its famous market; shops and restaurants.

      Its huge market extends from Myeong –Dong station to the metro station (Seoul metro number four to Louti shops in Jero). There you can find shops of high-quality brands including shoes, clothes, and accessories.

     Man's sight will get stumbled wandering in this beehive crowded with clothes shops and so many cosmetics shops which are found in every corner of the market. There you can also find endless numbers of salons specializing in skin care next to Jan Jang Jeel and Myeong Dong Theatre. In addition to food booths with spectacular talents in preparing and serving all the Korean dishes all along the street. There are some other restaurants specializing in Japanese, Chinese as well as western cuisines.

   This is not everything; there one can find hair salons, theatres, and banks.

     In Myeong-Dong the breeze carries the smell of food mixed with perfumes scent and some words from different languages. You can hear the tourists bargaining to reduce the cost of goods in the market. Despite this, some other markets such as H and M offer quality products at much less expensive prices. Next to the market, visitors can visit the cathedral of Meyoung–Dong, one of the most important touristic destinations. It is the first and the biggest cathedral in South Korea, built in a Gothic style. Just behind it, there is a yard where the tourists can have a rest after a long day of shopping.

    I threw myself in the middle of the heart of the market after my parents had left to work and I had gained some power to face Seoul and my nightmares. I could convince myself that I was strong enough to face all of that. I convinced my mind that the river was not going to swallow me. I needed to buy some new pencils, sharpeners, rubbers, and notebooks. I went forward chasing the scents of those who were passing me by. They were carrying bags with different designs on their backs. I was having a look at some clothes shops here and there.  A pair of socks hanging next to one of the sides of a shop stole my attention. I loved those faces printed on it: sad, smiling, crying, angry, happy, upset, shocked, and confused faces.  My fingers stretched to erase a tear falling from the eyes of a tortured face while smiling at it and this made the owner of the shop say" Take it for any price you want."

     I bought the socks and I was thankful to the shop owner for his warmth and kindness. I kept looking for other shops to buy my treasures.

As I was walking forward I saw a huge shop with some advertising posters on its walls in both Korean and English languages. I looked at those posters for a while then I got in. I opened my mouth out of surprise what I saw was nothing but Aden Park. I thought to myself:" Aden is real!!"

    I walked in slowly spreading my sight at the shelves which were full of all the different forms of pens, pencils, and colors, in addition to breathtaking notebooks.

    In smooth steps, I walked through those shelves touching with my fingers the treasures set on them. It took me half an hour to finish scanning only one shelf.  I was almost dying of happiness. I was breathing joy at that divine shop…

    I carried on walking around and as soon as I had finished checking all the drawing stuff and the notebooks, I froze as a rocky statue seeing all those series of international Japanese manga including Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, Bleach, One Piece, Dragon Ball with all its seasons and so many other mangas. When I reached the section of the Shojo manga my sight fell on the titles of some catchy mangas with gorgeous faces and sweet smiles drawn on the covers. They stole my heart and made me stand there for a while.

     There were some covers with indecent pictures on them. I ignored them spontaneously and I carried on my journey there with a desire to shed tears of joy.

     Despite that outrageous headache I had, all I wanted was to have a job there. I was ready to clean the bathrooms as long as I could see those luxurious pearls in the morning and evening.

      My sight fell on one of the covers carrying the most beautiful face I had ever seen with such incredible hair. It was the face of a manga character. I felt that it was staring at me willing to say something and waiting for me.

    A foolish idea struck in my head which made me run towards one of the ladies working there to ask for permission to take some photos of the shop and draw some of the shelves. She remained silent for a few seconds before she permitted me to do so. I had to run again to buy some instruments that I needed some pencils and a rubber. I purchased all I needed to go back to the spot where my eyes met with that catchy face. I approached it whispering:" You are about to get to the kingdoms of my heart, so you'd better stay where you are."

     I sat on the floor, took my old notebook out of my bag, and turned its pages as fast as possible to find an empty page.  I did so to start sailing immediately. For an hour, I truly forgot about the real world and I got deep into the world of warmth. My fingertips always fall in love deeply with those faces I found full of sorrow and gorgeousness just like the face of that famous star I met a few months ago.  I had always loved this sort of sweet kind of face and I loved drawing them.

    But a noise could not help but flow to tear the stillness of my world. I automatically raised my head to identify the source of the noise. I glanced at five young men exchanging jokes. One of them was sinking into his laughter.  He fell on his knees hitting the floor with his hands. When they noticed my presence, they fell silent suddenly. One of them put his finger on his lips in a sign to make them stop the noise and they did it by going back to check what was there on the shelves and I went back to my world.

     Suddenly, I felt a shadow sitting next to me. It was a shadow with blonde hair and sharp eyes such as a wolf's eyes, but he had a small beautiful nose. He said, putting his finger on my drawing:

-"This is stunning!"

    With an odd feeling, I smiled, pointing with my hand to the white folder on the shelf.   I do not know how I did that.  I was intending to run away, but something made me stay in my place.

    That shadow stood up heading to the shelf then he came back saying in an annoying delicacy:

-"No way, your drawing is much better than this, you are adding something weird to it I don't exactly know what it is, but it's something strong, I mean."

     With the same strange feeling I finished his sentence with my head still pointed to the ground:

-" warmth"

-"Yes. This is it. "

     He took his cell phone out of his jacket,  and then added:

-"I love drawing manga too. I drew this one.."

    He started showing me his drawings.  The ones he saved on his phone. But he went back swiftly to examine mine. I handed him my notebook. He grabbed it to shout whenever he turned a page, naming the historical sites I had drawn which made his friends join him.

    They greeted me with exaggerated kindness. I greeted them one by one in my usual cold attitude though I was melting because of an abashment until my sight set on the last one among them. The one with the historical look, the one who had the warmest smile in the world.  He dyed his hair blond this time and I did not like it at all. The black suits him way better to look like a spoiled prince in the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo. It seemed that he recognized me too, but he did not say that.  He simply dropped his attention again to my drawings.  He was standing behind his friends who were leaning above my notebook while he was still standing there holding his right hand with his left one calmly.  A light smile appeared on my lips having a fictional dream visualization of him in a black Handbook made for men, carrying a sword on his waist while his long hair is tied up high.  He noticed my smile which made him give me a quick shy look to go back to my notebook

-"This is real art. where did you learn drawing like this?" One of them asked

   I answered lowering  my head to earth  and feeling so shy:

-"In potato fields…in the district of Gangwon."

  They all laughed. The one with the mobile phone said:

-"This is wonderful…what you are doing is wonderful…why am I unable to draw like this?"

    "- Your drawings are beautiful too." One of his friends said.

    -"But they are not as good as hers…there is something special in all her paintings…I don't know what it is….but it's fabulous."

    I answered after a short break of silence, "It's the constant practice…you need to look at the intended object to be drawn from a particular angle, and however this would be of no help if you didn't have that spectacular sparkle of the first contact."

"What do you mean?" He asked astonished.

  I raised my gaze gradually and stared at him for a few seconds. The voice inside my head said:" Why are you telling him this? You don't have to give him an answer." I replied to the voice:" That is right. why would  I have to explain this to him " But the eyes of that young man were besieging me and forced me to raise my hand to point to the picture of the manga character on the cover lying on the shelf saying:" That picture…many people would see it as a mere picture of a character in a manga with beautiful facial features…but I don't…I see that it's staring at me in particular… furthermore, we were sharing a long conversation while drawing him in my notebook."

    After that, I had a great deep feeling of regret for saying that. The voice in my head whispered:" You say …Staring at you? You are a fool!!"

-" Such deep words…what's your name?  the young man with sharp eyes said smiling.

     The prince of Goguryeo ( I started calling him the prince of Goguryro since then ) interfered to say:" Chui Leila."

   " Do you know her D-O?"  His friends turned to him shouting.

  He distributed his looks on his friends for seconds to say afterward, "She is a fan."

     I was frightened, not because I had never been a fan of any pop band ever before and had no idea about any of the plenty of Kpop bands around the country and to be honest, I did not have any intention to know any of them,  but because something else,   something I could never understand. And that thing scared me to death. I had never told him my name.