My Heart and Seoul (1): Begin anew...

SMACK!

The loudness of the slap echoed throughout the room as everyone turned silent. His face turned to the side and the red mark was already blossoming on his face. But I don't care, I'm cold I'm tired and at that moment I just felt this burning hot anger coursing through my veins.

"Did you think you could lie to me?"

Okay there's more to this story, let's rewind to the beginning.

Six months ago....

"Ah Aunt Ina I'll be fine don't worry!" I spoke into the phone trying to balance two iced mochas and my backpack. I was currently making my way to my university and I was about to be late to my class.

"But its your last two weeks before you leave, what are your plans for the future?" The question made me freeze. My future plans were always something I avoided talking about with Aunt Ina. Mainly because I know she wouldn't approve.

Okay Aunt Ina isn't really my aunt but the woman who took me in a few years ago when I was a lost teen with no recollection of who she is. Apparently I could get my memory back, but it's unlikely since my brain is apparently blocking out trauma associated to the memories. Anyways Aunt Ina was the police officer who found me, took me in and adopted me as her own. She even gave me a new name. Rae, you know like ray of sunshine but it looks cooler with an ae. To be honest my name doesn't fit me since I'm probably the least sunshine personality wise person you'd meet but hey it's a nice name.

"Oh shoot Aunt Ina I have to go I'm gonna be late to class I'll call back later." I said quickly hanging up, and sighing in relief afterwards. I love Aunt Ina and I'm so grateful to her but she is one of the most close minded and judgmental people I've met in my life. I'm doing a language degree, Mandarin and Korean Studies but when I first told Aunt Ina about it she almost had a heart attack. She came round but to this day we don't talk about university often.

I still remember my year abroad in Seoul like it was yesterday. I was at Yonsei University for the year, and it was amazing I met so many wonderful friends and my language skills improved. I still talk to my best friend Seohyun every week on Skype or on the phone. She's almost done with university too and I'm planning on moving in with her and our other best friend Lishi in 10 days.

Yep moving to South Korea, you can tell why I haven't told Aunt Ina about this. She'd have a coronary if I told her. I will eventually... just not now. But today is a good day, it's my last exam technically so I don't really have to do much afterwards except attend a few lectures for attendance purposes like this morning one now. Just one more exam for Korean, since it the main language I'm learning.

I made it into class and almost fell into my seat next to Lishi. Lishi is short for Alishbah, she's been my best friend since we were 14-15 years old and it's great we ended up at the same university. Lishi is doing Criminology but she does Korean on the side so she sometimes attends a lecture or two for the note since my professor is pretty nice about letting one or 2 people observe.

"It should be criminal to wake up this early." I moaned in annoyance. Lishi laughed at me and I handed her one of the iced mochas I was carrying. We both swore that no matter the weather we would enjoy iced mochas. I don't drink coffee hot strangely enough I dislike it.

"Well unfortunately there's no laws against it. You look tired as fuck you okay there?" She said poking my cheek.

"Just got off the phone with Aunt Ina, she asked me what my future plans are. I've been applying to a lot of jobs in South Korea and so far none have come back to me, so I've been a little stressed." I reply taking a long sip of my cool drink and sighing heavily. Always a stress reliever... Lishi frowned hearing my sigh.

"Okay we can look at some jobs later tonight I'll come over to your place with some pizza and we'll figure things out." She said encouragingly, and I swear I could've hugged her right then and there.

"Lishi you're a godsend. An angel. We'll make it a whole junk food filled night, also to celebrate the end of exams!" I said cheering up as I thought about it more. There's no use in moping around if I want a job I need to make sure my resume is perfect and I apply constantly to loads of jobs.

"여러분 안녕하세요!" My professor walked in and greeted us. She'd long stopped talking in English to us unless it was for really long explanations, then it was back to Korean. With a new pep in my step I opened my notebook and stared writing the notes for today's revision lecture.

By the afternoon after my exam I felt good again. A little tired from the sugar crash from the mocha and the dark chocolate I had earlier. I didn't have time for lunch as I was desperately revising my Korean for the exam and now I'm starving. So I headed straight for the nearest Subways, now why Subways you ask? Because it's cheap and I can eat it like a pig at home in just my hoodie and joggers.

I had just hung up on a call from Seohyun she was asking when I'll be arriving in Seoul, so we ironed out some of the details together. Afterwards I was humming Mixtape 3 from Stray Kids as I was walking down the road. I got into Stray Kids and KPOP after I started learning Korean, and now I'm hooked. NCT, BTS, GOT7 and Stray Kids I love those groups. Oh and Twice and Blackpink I love girl groups too. During my internal concert I was tapped on the shoulder. Turning around I saw a guy dressed in all black and when I say I jumped back like five feet I leaped. He wore a black surgical like mask as well.

"Jesus fucking Christ has anyone ever told you not to go up to people like that." I said putting a hand on my chest evening out my breathing. This guy scared the living light out of me, dressed like he's ready to take your soul..

"I'm sorry but do you know the nearest station?" He asked, his korean accent clear as day. Giving him the directions he gratefully thanked me and ran off in that direction. Well fuck someone was in a hurry weren't they?

Ignoring my strange encounter I got my subway and proceeded to walk home. It's mid May but it's also like 5pm so it was kinda getting dark, I stayed in the Subway for a bit to talk to an old couple Mr and Mrs Greene there, who like me have regularly been going to that Subways. They're so cute they've been married for 67 years. Supposedly Mrs Greene was a nun and Mr Green was a bad boy who swept her off her feet and they eloped, to the shock and horror of people during the 1940's. Remembering their stories always makes me smile.

Entering my home I'm greeted with pure silence, and darkness. Usually Lishi has a spare key so she'll let herself in. Suddenly the lights switch on.

"Wanna play a game?" Once again I was scared shitless, but this time by my best friend wearing a Jigsaw mask. Is this give Rae a heart attack day?! I swear to god next person who does this will be given my funeral bills.

"Not again. First weird guy at Subways and now you it's like the world wants my heart to stop." I said returning to normal. I noticed the pizza and chicken wings on my coffee table along side Lishi's laptop. There's a great place down the road from where I live that sells these huge 18" pizzas, and chicken wings. All halal as well, because it's not being a good friend if you're not at least considerate of their religious beliefs.

"I'll pay you back for my half of the food, hows some apple pie?" I ask, because instead of money we usually end up baking things to share with each other. She does amazing cupcakes and I make a killer Dutch apple pie.

"You know me so well." She laughs and picks up her laptop to put on her lap. She's already dressed in one of my hoodies and joggers, we're both similar in size and I buy over sized hoodies she borrows my stuff and vice versa.

I change into my own hoodie set and get to eating pizza and job hunting. After a while the job hunting was starting to get tedious and we alternated between watching the movie White Chicks and scrolling on job sites. One of my favourite movies, I live for the roasts here. So far what I've found are a few good jobs, some are teaching in South Korea as an English teacher and some are working as translators in businesses. I mean they're all well and nice and the pay looks excellent but nothing has caught my eye but I've still applied. Scrolling through more of these jobs I found one that stood out.

Looking for a Korean speaking individual to work at Double B Entertainment. Various roles are available here. Visa sponsorship available.

"An entertainment company huh? This sounds interesting." Lishi said looking over. And there's definitely no harm in applying, so we filled in the application form and attached our CV's to send off. Checking the time it was nearing 2am so we both decided to go to bed. My couch is a sofa bed so she can sleep on that with an extra duvet and pillow that I have in my room.

Entertainment industry work... I can't say I haven't thought of it because I did Media in Sixth Form. And it's different to other jobs as well. Maybe I'll enjoy it. If I get it that is, I'm still very hopeful.

"Rae... Rae! HEY RAE WAKE THE FUCK UP!" I woke up the next day to the lovely (note my sarcasm) shouting of my friend in my ear. Groaning and cursing I put on my glasses so I could see and checked the time.

"It's 6:32 in the fucking morning why and how are you awake?" I question her still half asleep. She shoves my laptop in my face and I grab it still unsure of what she wants me to look at. That's when I noticed the look of pure excitement on her face. Looking down to see it was an email. The email reads:

Dear Miss Leven,

We would like to schedule an interview with you as soon as possible. When is it possible for us to meet?

Regards, Jisoo Kim

Head of Recruitment at Double B Entertainment

I froze. Skimming the email once more I looked to Lishi and she had a grin on her face showing me her phone with the same email, only it's addressed to her instead. I started coughing suddenly, not believing what I was reading.

"This ain't a joke is it? No bullshit?" I questioned reading the email for the third time. Lishi shook her head in response, the smile never leaving her face.

"No this is the real deal!" She said and as she did I turned back to my laptop to reply quickly, there's no chance in hell I'm missing out. It's not a job offer but it's an interview I can do this!

Hello thank you for emailing back, I'd love to have an interview. I'll be in Seoul nine days from today would that be okay?

Regards, Rae Leven

Lishi and I looked each other dead in the eye and let out excited screams. Seoul, South Korea! I might be able to put my language skills to work in real life again.

A life working hard in a place that I've always wanted to be in. I wonder how things will turn out.