It was 2am when I landed in Seoul Airport. I looked around and saw people busy with their lives. People bidding goodbyes some sad and some wishing their loved ones best luck for what comes next.
It took me back to the time when I was leaving for Seoul, it was 28 hours ago. I was alone at the airport. There wasn't anyone being happy or sad about me leaving. I sighed, and checked my bags in. It was the first time I was traveling in a plane but I wasn't nervous. Actually I don't think I felt anything. I wasn't excited, happy, sad or scared. I was just there. I took one last look at my country. India, the people there, I had spent 25 years of my life in this country yet in all these years I didn't have even one person who came with me to the airport.
I pulled myself out of the memory lane, back to Seoul where I was right now. I was at the baggage carousel waiting for my bags. I had just picked up my clothes and some necessary things including an English to Korean dictionary. I knew a little bit of the new language but I didn't really know a lot.. whatever I had learnt was from watching Korean dramas back home. I let out another sigh, thinking about how my journey would be henceforth.
I waited for more than an hour at the carousel, but my bags didn't show up... Great. "That's a pretty good start to a new life Mira!", I thought to myself and walked to the delayed baggage counter. The man at the desk looked at me and I gave a weak smile. The old me would have yelled till the entire airport heard me... but the new me didn't have the energy to do that, so I quietly filled out the claim form with the details and gave it to him. His fingers brushed with mine when he took the form that's when I took a good look at him. He was beautiful, sleek black hair done professionally, a blue uniform with his name in Korean and English. Park Ryan. "What an odd name for a Korean!", I thought. What I didn't realize was that I was thinking out loud. He chuckled, "Yeah, my mother is from the US and my father is a Korean," he replied.
His looks seemed like that too. Although he had a look of a Korean, his eyes were blue. The kind of blue that I would have been very attracted to in the past. The ones that make you want to keep looking at them, I smiled again a little more brightly this time. He apologized and assured me that they would do everything to find my bag and asked me where I was staying.
That's when it dawned, I didn't have a place to stay here. I hit my forehead with my palm and brushed my hair behind. "You don't have a place to stay!?", he looked at me surprised. I didn't want to spend my time telling a stranger about my sad story so I told him I was staying at a nearby hotel until I found a place and also mentally decided it was a good plan.
I searched for a few hotels online while he completed the formalities for my bags and found a decent one quite close to the airport. I didn't have to worry about it being close to the other places as I was going to work from home. The thought made me laugh "HOME!", I thought to myself.
"Ms. Mira, here is the claim number, we will get in touch with you once the bags are found", he said. I looked at him somewhat confused, "How do you know my name?", I asked. "You gave me your boarding pass and filled out a form with your name on it" he stated. He looked amused at me for being so dumb. "Oh right!", I mentally hit myself and fake laughed to make it look less awkward. I took the claim number and the bunch of papers he gave and turned around to leave. "Mira shi", he called out in a very Korean manner, I turned back to see him jogging towards me. When he reached, I would say a little too close to me with his body inches away from me he handed me his card. "I can tell this is your first time coming to Korea. That's my number right there call me if you need anything" he said and left not giving me a chance to retaliate. I slipped the card in the back pocket of my shorts and left.
By the time I reached the hotel it was already 5am. Everything around seemed to be quiet however there was huge crowd of young girls around the hotel. They looked like they had been waiting for quite some time now and were tired yet had an expression of excitement on their faces. I walked past them to the lobby while the girls stared at me. I had always known that I wasn't very beautiful but my features were quite unique and noticeable. I had extremely curly hair styled in a wolf cut, I was really short around 4"11 and somewhere between a wheatish and ivory skin tone. However the most noticeable feature I had were my koala eyes. I was used to working late nights and had huge dark circles. It looked like the girls couldn't decide if I was or was not good looking.
I didn't care anymore anyway and went straight to the reception desk. A lady with her hair in a neat bun and perfectly smooth glass skin greeted me. "I actually need a long term stay here. I am looking for a place but until I don't find one I would need to stay at this hotel" I told her. She looked happy at the words long term stay. She informed me that there were a few separate rooms that were just saved for guests like me and gave me the key to room 2089. I would say it cost a fortune to get the room however it didn't matter. There was a time in my life where I had tons of people and no money at all.. but now all I had was money and so i didn't mind spending it. I took the keys and went towards the elevator. I had just entered when I realized I didn't tell them about my luggage and so I hit my forehead again, a cultural habit I guess, and ran back to the counter.
"Splashhhhhh... Ow! Bam!", being the stupid clumsy me, I had banged into a stranger head on spilling his very cold coffee all over both of us and had fallen back on the floor. In the span of 3 mins, I had hit my forehead, got drenched, drenched someone else and hit the back of my head on the floor causing a scene in the entire lobby. I got up slowly trying to clean the liquid off of my clothes and looked up to see a man standing like a statue. He hadn't moved at all which was strange considering how my world just spun a 90°. He had a black mask on, but his eyes were red and shocked. His face was wet with coffee dripping off of his brown hair and I noticed a drop fall from his extra long eyelash on his cheek bone and then making its way into his mask.
I looked back into his eyes and now he looked amused. He probably saw me drooling and misunderstood, but all I was thinking about was how can a guy have such pretty eyelashes. I shook myself to sense and apologized to him. He just kept looking at me. "Oooo creepy", I thought and left after offering to pay for his laundry. When I reached the reception the perfect skin lady asked me if I was ohk. I thanked and told her I was and informed about my bags.
I slowly walked back to the elevator. It took an eternity for it to come and I stepped in. Just when I was about to press floor 20th, the splash man came inside. He looked like he had washed himself and was now going to his room. I apologized to him again and he didn't reply. "Rude!", I thought. I looked outside the elevator while the doors closed and I went blind!
There were a ton of girls running towards the elevator and clicking photos in cameras that I couldn't even think of buying. How do these highschoolers have such expensive equipment anyway! Thankfully the elevator doors shut before they could crash into us and we stood there in silence. "Were they here for you?", I inquired after a few minutes.
Splash man looked at me and nodded. He didn't wanna talk. Okay. So I looked forward and stood in silence once again. As we reached the 20th floor, which also was his floor number that I just noticed, we could hear muming noises outside.
I sighed, there were people out there waiting for him. The doors started opening and I took a step to leave before I got stuck but I felt a hand on my wrist pulling me backwards and then a well built body in a Grey sweatshirt standing infront of me and a few seconds later a set of lips on mine. They were not moving, just placed on my lips and I saw his eyes closed his hands now on the small of my waist pulling me in.
I stood there dumbfounded not knowing what to do. The doors opened I saw people watching us, heard disappointed murmurs and leaving.
But I just stood there. Not able to move or think and the doors closed....
All images above are from Google none of these are mine.
Also my first time writing, so any feedback would be appreciated.
Comment your ideas for the story ... if it is good enough I can add it to the story with your mention.
Hope you'll like it.