Nae Chingu (My Friends) Chapter Two

Nae Chingu (My Friends)

Chapter Two

    "Aish*, jinjja*!" Mae Ri grumbled as she poked at her convenient store ramyeon, or ramen as they were most commonly called in other countries.

    "Mae Ri-ya, you knew this was coming! How could you not have thought about it," Jong Hwa poked his chopsticks into her face. "So lazy," he muttered.

    "Ya, Jong Hwa-ya, she knows what she wants to do," I pushed his own bowl of ramyeon towards him and he dutifully shoveled more noodles into his mouth. "She just doesn't know where she's going. Give her a break," I winked at Mae Ri who graciously smiled at me.

    "Thank you, Lily," Mae Ri said sweetly. "I'll just go where you go so you decide where we're going."

I nearly choked on my ramyeon which earned me a questioning look from Jong Hwa. I tried to play it off but whether I was convincing or not, I wasn't sure. I hadn't told them yet but I wasn't entirely sure I was going to be staying in Korea. The thought made me feel suddenly depressed and less hungry. My dad was talking about maybe being transferred again, God only knew where, and if my dad went then I went as well. I desperately wanted to stay in Korea and go to college here but by Korean standards I was still considered a minor even at the age of eighteen. My attempt at nonchalance made my smile feel a little forced, "Ya, you can't put that kind of pressure on me."

    "It's easy then, we'll all just go to Seoul University!" Ji Soo piped in and earned three identical stares or horror.

Jong Hwa tapped the brim of Ji Soo's fedora which had been precariously "resting" on Ji Soo's hair and made it fall to the table, narrowly missing Ji Soo's own ramyeon.

    "Mwo*! Do you know how hard it is to get into Seoul University," Mae Ri asked shrilly. It wasn't really a question because we all knew just how hard it was. The acceptance standards were extremely high and only the best of the best got in--or someone who knew someone and none of us knew someone.

    "Well, we all got into SFLHS," Ji Soo said sheepishly while fake-punching Jong Hwa who gave him a dirty look in response. I tried not to smile at the adorableness of the two.

    "I'm sure you and Jong Hwa would get in just fine since you are both certified geniuses but Mae Ri and I," I let my sentence trail off. Mae Ri and I were good students, we consistently ranked top ten in our entire grade which would sound like an accomplishment if there were more than 60 students in our grade. It still wasn't anything compared to Ji Soo and Jong Hwa competing for the top two spots and therefore had first pick of colleges after graduation. "Listen, I have to get going but I'll see you all tomorrow."

Mae Ri and Ji Soo waved their goodbyes but Jong Hwa stood up, "I'll come with you." Before I could protest, he was already picking up his backpack and walking out the door. Mae Ri's eyes narrowed at me and mouthed "Call me".

I nodded. "Annyeong*," and followed Jong Hwa out the door.

***

Jong Hwa waited for me outside, "You didn't have to take me home, I'm taking the bus anyway." I walked passed him on the way to the nearest bus stop. We weren't too far from the apartment my father rented but far enough that I didn't feel like walking in the cold February weather.

    "Wae Geurae*?" He asked quietly as he slowly caught up. His legs were long er than my so it wasn't hard.

    "Animnida*," I said in answer to his question. He thought something was wrong and I didn't want to jinx my luck by talking about the possible move in my near future. My stomach fluttered a little bit though at the thought that he cared enough about me to ask if something was wrong and then offering to walk me home.

    "Lily, something is wrong, what is it?" He nudged me slightly with his elbow.

Usually his caring persistence was totally endearing but right now I wished he wasn't so observant and let me stay in my bubble of denial. "I don't know what you mean," we reached the bus stop and waited. The buses in Korean usually ran every half hour so even if I had missed the last one, the next one would arrive soon.

    "I saw your face when we were talking about college, are you not going to apply?" He put his hands in his pocket and waited patiently for me to answer.

I sighed. "My father is thinking of moving again and I don't know if I'll be here long enough to even finish high school let alone start college," I rushed the words out and knew that my pronunciation was horrendous but Jong Hwa nodded slowly as if he'd understood what I said. I tried not to let my throat close up. Moving always made me feel sad and helpless because wherever my father went, I had no choice but to go as well. I never got a say in whether we stayed or not and this time would be no different. Moving from Germany to Seoul had been the hardest because I had spent nearly seven years in Germany. I was given less than two months to wrap up my school year, say goodbye to my friends and pack for South Korea. I still tried to keep in touch with my old friends but it was hard since we didn't have much in common any more, plus they were all in college and I was still in high school due to the many school transfers in my educational history. Now that I was nearly an adult and had a good solid friend base in Korea,the last thing I wanted to do was be forced to give up on them as well, not to mention the delay in my schooling...again.

    "Why can't you stay? Aren't you considered an adult in America?" I could see the wheels spinning in his head trying to figure a way out of this. I just wanted to hug him but public personal displays of affection between boys and girls were seriously frowned upon in Korea, especially if you were of school age.

    "I am but with no money to pay for my tuition or a place to stay, how can I stay here?" I had thought about getting a job but dashed it right away because I wouldn't have time to study and what's the point of staying if my grades suffered and I couldn't get into college anyway? I sighed and took a breather because I could feel my old depression beginning to overtake my mood. "I"m sorry, can we not talk about this right now?"

    "Sure," he said quietly.

    "Thanks and don't, you know, tell Mae Ri or Ji Soo," I looked at him but he didn't look at me. He just looked straight ahead which meant one of two things: either he was angry with me or he was thinking really hard. For some reason I was reminded of the first time I met him...

***

Three Years Earlier...

How could I possible have thought German was hard? Oh that's right, because I never thought my father would drag me off to some East Asian country where there were so many linguistic rules! Why couldn't I ask where the bathroom was without having to consider the age of the person I was speaking too?

I tried to grab the attention of a passing student, "Sheel-la-Sheel-lay-"but before I could even try to get the word out the boy nudged passed me and gave me a weird look. I sighed in frustration, how hard was it to say "excuse me?" Oh yeah, really frggin' hard! Under normal circumstances I wouldn't even ask, I would just keep looking until I found a picture that looked like a stick-figured woman except there weren't any pictures! Just signs written in Hangul, their written language, that indicated what the room was used for.

I tried again to get someone's attention, "Sheel-lay-ha-", which earned me nothing more than a weird look and a rude brush off. That was it, I'd had enough! "Sheel-hap-da!" I yelled in the middle of the hallway which garnered me a lot of notice. Within moments of my outburst, the hallway filled with laughter and pointed fingers in my direction. I could feel my face burning with embarrassment but no one offered any kind of help. I turned around, fully prepared to storm off rather than face my laughing peers but someone grabbed my elbow. I turned around, more than ready to throw down but I couldn't do anything but stare at the boy who stopped me.

    "Iz sheel-lay-ham-ni-da," the boy who stopped me said in somewhat broken English but I barely heard him as I stared in wonderment at how incredibly good looking he was. His hair was neatly tousled around an oval face framed in glasses. His smiled reached his eyes and I took notice of the cute little dimple on his left cheek. "And yu don' need to so say shilahamnida to 'dese people. Yu can say chu-gee-oh, iz ress formal."

    "Th-thank you," I stuttered once I found my voice again. "Umm..."

    "Do yu need hep' finding sometink'?" He finally let go of my elbow and smiled encouraging. By now the laughing crowd had dispersed and I took a step back from him.

    "Ah, bathroom, I can't find the bathroom," I swallowed and could feel my face burning again.

    "I will show you," I followed him down the hall and around the corner until he stopped in front of a door with a simple gray and white placard. "Yo-jaw Hwang-jang-sheel. Yo-jaw," he pointed to the symbols as he sounded them out. I committed the symbols to memory so I would never have to go through something like this again.

    "Yeoja, yeoja, yeoja*," I repeated the word again and again. "Thank you."

    "Animnida, I will wait fol yu," he said and leaned against the wall.

     "No, you don't have to," I started to protest.

    "So yu know where yu class iz?" He asked innocently.

    "Well, no but-"

    "I will wait fol yu," he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

***

Present Day...

Needless to say he'd waited and took me to class that day. He even showed up after class was over to help me get around to different places and just like that, I had made my first friend in Korea. It wasn't until later when my language skills were deemed ready that I was able to join the other students in normal classes where I met Mae Ri. Jong Hwa had always been my savior,which is probably why I had a hard time accepting that he liked Mae Ri. However, if there was one thing I learned in the last three years it was that it's good to have friends and I desperately didn't want to leave the friends I'd made in Korea.

To Be Continued....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Aish : Korean exclamation for a sigh or sometimes an "ugh" or "Damn", it's a general purpose word, more or less

*Jinjja : "Seriously" think Grey's Anatomy's "Seriously" ha-ha.

*Mwo : "What"

*Annyeong : short/informal version of "Annyeonghaseyo" which could mean "Hello" or "Goodbye"

*Wae Geurae : "What's wrong?"

*Animnida : amounts to "It's nothing"

*Yeoja : "Woman" or "Female" oppote of Namja which means "Man" or "Male"

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