The plane touched down not long after midnight.
Mina fought to keep her eyes open as she waited for her suitcase at the baggage collection belt, which resembled a ghost town—her headphones blasting the same song on repeat for the last six hours.
The flight from Japan was a little under two hours, but for Mina, it felt like twelve. She took a deep breath, realising she wasn't in a familiar place anymore; it wasn't home. Mina, a newly turned 18-year-old, was thrown into what seemed like a whole new world, just trying to finish her final year in school.
She caught herself in the reflection of the window as she walked through customs. Mina wore her favourite knee-ripped jeans, which was one of the reasons her father disliked them, but that was exactly why she loved them. She also wore a black fur winter coat, finished with a white scarf to warm her neck.
At the bottom of the window was "Welcome to South Korea" in big bold letters. Mina let out a small sigh before sticking her headphones back into her ears.
She waited another fifteen minutes before spotting her bag on the conveyor belt. A small badge of the Japanese flag was pinned to the front of her beige backpack, making it easy to spot. After passing through security, Mina wandered the international lounge until she could muster up the courage to begin her new life in South Korea, a place she had never chosen.
As she stepped out of the airport, the first thing she noticed was the air. Compared to Japan, South Korea had it worse when it comes to air pollution. Lucky, Mina remembered to bring her mask. As she placed her mask on her face, she couldn't help but overhear a conversation (more like a screaming match) between a girl who looked about the same age as Mina and whoever she was on the phone with.
"Look, I don't care what my parents say. I will NOT be finishing this year at that lame school." The girl yelled into her mobile phone. Mina began to walk towards the bus station, which so happened to be right next to the loud girl. As Mina walked closer, she observed the girl, noting her appearance.
"She's stunning," Mina whispered to herself, admiring how gorgeous the girl in front of her was. Long, straight black hair engulfed her torso in the wind. She wore a tight black pencil dress, which complements her body quite well. She had a small face with an almost perfect V-line jaw, complemented by a heart-shaped upper lip. Mina peered over her shoulder to get a better look. However, the girl noticed.
"What? Do I have something on my face?" the girl yelled, holding the phone away from her face. Her eyes pierced Mina like a freshly sharpened blade. Mina dropped her gaze and passed by until she found a seat near the bus station. As Mina sat down, she could still hear the girl yelling at the other end of the phone. Mina didn't know how this girl was surviving in the cold, wearing just that.
"Pretty and crazy", Mina chuckled to herself as she adjusted her scarf. Thirty-five minutes had passed and still no bus, during that time, Mina was joined by the same long black haired girl who was on the phone earlier. Mina decided to put some space between her and the girl, sliding across to the end of the bench. The last thing she wanted was to aggravate the girl, even more so than she already was.
Mina could hear the girl muttering to herself as she searched through what looked like a very expensive bag. Finally, the girl dropped the bag on the floor, giving Mina a slight fright.
"Ya! Do you have a compact mirror?" The girl rudely asked. Mina probably had one somewhere in her suitcase, but wasn't in the mood to share with this spoiled brat.
Mina glanced over to the girl, meeting her eyes. She sure was beautiful, Mina thought to herself. She shook her head in reply and went back to staring towards the empty road, hoping she could escape the cold sooner rather than later.
The girl scoffed and continued to glare at Mina.
"Then what use are you then?" The girl muttered, thinking Mina wouldn't hear, but she did.
Mina could feel her blood boiling as all she wanted to do was give this girl a piece of her mind. At the moment, a pair of headlights appeared, Mina forgot the girl and prayed to herself, hoping it was the bus. As the lights got closer, Mina must have left her luck back in Japan because it wasn't a bus. So she sat back down and leaned her head against the frosted window panel of the bus stop. The other girl stood up, collected her bag off the floor, and started walking towards the side of the road. Mina followed the girl with her eyes, wondering what she was doing. As the car got closer, it slowed. A luxurious black sedan stopped next to the girl. She quickly opened the door, but stopped and turned to face Mina, sending her a cold glare before entering the car. Mina scoffed to herself and shook her head as the car drove off into the darkness.
Another twenty minutes passed, and so did more people; they all got into their cars as they arrived, while Mina sat and counted the leaves racing across the road in the brisk autumn wind.
"If you're waiting for a bus, you're in the wrong station." A quiet voice appeared from the other side of the bus stop. Mina looked over to see who the voice belonged to. There stood a short girl with short, boisterous hair, a yellow hoodie that looked big on her, and grey tracksuit pants. Mina noticed a little mole on the left side of her chiselled jaw. Mina smiled behind her mask. This girl was adorable. Did all girls look like this in South Korea? Why do they all look like idols?! She thought to herself.
"You'd have better luck catching a bus from the station across the parking lot there." The cute girl said with a smile as she pointed into the dark. Mina could see another bus station in the distance and a bus was parked outside it.
Mina shot up out of her seat and began to run to the station, hoping to catch that bus. Mina realised she hadn't thanked the girl, so she stopped and turned around to face the bus stop where she had been standing. But the girl was gone, and Mina couldn't see where the cute girl had vanished off to. She didn't have time to look for her, so she continued to run towards the bus station, eventually arriving in the nick of time.
Mina boarded the bus and made her way to the back, according to her phone, it's going to be a long bus ride and she wanted to catch up on some sleep. She removed her mask and placed it back into her bag before surrendering the fight she was having with her mind, falling into a well-needed sleep as the bus drove slowly into the night.
Mina woke, startled. She quickly opened her eyes to an old man nudging her with his hat.
"Get up, girl, this is the last stop," he nagged. Mina quickly looked around and saw the bus had stopped. After recognising the old man as the driver, she quickly made her way off the bus, tripping over herself as she was still half asleep.
The intense midday sun beamed through the skyscrapers that surrounded her. She had arrived in Seoul. As she looked around to take in the scenery, she noticed a familiar yellow hooded jacket making its way through the ocean of blouses and suits.
"Is it her?" Mina whispered to herself. She began to make her way through the crowd of people, following the yellow hooded jacket. Finally, after several minutes of weaving through pedestrians, she finally caught up to the yellow coat, but not the way she expected. She saw the girl trip over onto the concrete pavement with a thud that was loud enough to hear over the sounds of the busy metropolis, papers flew everywhere out of the bag the girl had, Mina rushed over.
"Hey, are you okay?" Mina asked, crouching down to the girl who was still trying to figure out what had happened.
"Oh, hey, it's you" The girl recognised Mina from the bus station.
Mina smiled at the girl, who seemed not to be phased at the fact that when she fell in front of at least 60 people, Mina shivered at the thought of embarrassing herself in front of that many people, but she didn't seem to care. The girls' papers and other belongings were scattered around her. Mina rushed to pick up as many as she could; it was the least she could do.
Mina noticed that half these papers were drawings, eye-catching and creative were the first things that came into her mind.
"Oh, don't bother picking them up, they weren't that good anyway." The girl said with a small smile, standing up and brushing herself off from the fall.
Not that good? These were amazing, Mina thought to herself.
"My name is Chaeyoung, it's a pleasure to meet you again." Chaeyoung said, watching as Mina flicked through the drawings.
Mina began to look through the paper that she had rescued from the wind. Pages upon pages of drawings and what looked like song lyrics, Mina struggled to read Korean, her facial expressions said it all.
"You're Japanese, right?" Chaeyoung asked. Mina looked at her and nodded slowly.
"Uh, yeah. How did you know?" Mina asked confused how this girl had picked up on that.
"The giant Japanese flag badge you have on your bag kinda gave it away." Chaeyoung giggled as she looked at Mina's bag.
Mina pulled her bag off her back and saw the badge was still there.
"Oh right, yeah. You have good eyes." Mina chuckled. She looked around, realising she didn't know where she was. This place was foreign to her, she felt so out of place.
Chaeyoung followed her gaze, then went back to watching Myoui Mina.
"Lost huh?" She said, bringing Mina back to reality.
"Oh well, yeah. I um, just wanted to Thankyou for showing me where the bus station was last night." Mina said, handing Chaeyoung her papers back.
"Here, take these. I could only catch so many." Mina said, holding out the drawings in two hands. Chaeyoung smiled, shaking her head.
"You can have them, I was going to throw them out anyway." Chaeyoung admitted, zipping up her bag.
Mina had a confused look on her face, why would she want to throw these out?
"You heading somewhere? I could help you out I guess." Chaeyoung asked, waiting for Mina to reply.
"I'm meant to be going to sign in for my high school but I have no idea where it is." Mina admitted, neatly folding up Chaeyoungs drawings and tucking them into her pocket.
"Oh cool! Which high school?" Chaeyoung asked curiously, tucking her hands into her hoody pocket.
Mina couldn't remember off the top of her head, to be honest, it wasn't that she forgot, Mina didn't really pay attention to what her father said to her since he told her she was moving away.
"Ahh.." Mina said, trying to think back to where she was told she was going to be studying. Mina couldn't remember off the top of her head. Mina reached for her phone and pulled up a email brochure she received a few days ago.
"JYP Arts High?" Mina said trying to sound confident. Chaeyoung raised her eyebrows and leaned forward to see what was on the phone. Mina instantly took a deep breath as Chaeyoung was touching her arm, the scent of freshly cut strawberry filled mina's nostrils.
"Dude! That's my school!" Chaeyoung exclaimed, moving back from Mina as she realised she may have been a bit too close.
"Is it?!" Mina cried out a little louder than she wanted to.
Mina sighed in relief, her mother must watching over her from heaven as she finally had a stroke of luck.
Chaeyoung nodded her head and smiled. Both girls didn't seem to understand why they were excited as they had only just met.
"Come with me, I'll show you the way" Chaeyoung confidently said, tugging on Mina's back pack.
Mina followed with ernest, taking in the unfamiliar area around her, although she knew she wouldn't be here long, she hoped this place would become less intimidating.
After a brief 10 minute walk, Chaeyoung and Mina finally arrived.
"Welcome to JYP Arts" the signpost in front of the high school read. Considering this place was so close to the city center, it looked like any other high school. A big giant rolling field of grass with huge old trees planted around the edges headed the front of the school with a wide series of multi-story buildings marked with giant neon lit letters of A, B, C and D. This place was unique in its own way.
Mina stopped and took it all in, Chaeyoung stopped after entering the school gate ahead of Mina and turned around.
"Are you okay? Don't be scared now, this place is amazing, the people suck but they have good ice cream" Chaeyoung said nonchalantly, trying to lighten up the mood as she saw Mina seemed a bit tense. She nodded slowly. This was her new home, for now atleast.
"I'm not scared" Mina lied, Chaeyoung smirked at Mina's apparent attempt at covering up.
"This place looks way different to what I imagined" Mina confessed, unique was the only word that described the look of this place, insanely modern, but unique.
She took her first steps into the school, admittedly Mina was taken aback by how clean and well-presented the school looked, she thought her father would have sent her to a crappy old school to punish her.
"So you are staying in the dorms right?" Chaeyoung asked, holding the door glass door for Mina to the administrative office.
"Yeah I am, are you? It would be nice to be rooming with someone I've met before" Mina admitted, tucking her hair behind her ears. She was a giant ball of stress and nerves that felt like could pop at any moment.
Chaeyoung smiled, her dimples were staring Mina in the face. How could someone be so fortunate to have those perfect things? Mina thought to herself.
"Unfortunately I already have a roommate, she's pretty cool though! I'll introduce her sometime" chaeyouns answered, that was definitely not the answer Mina wanted to hear.
"Ah that's a shame" Mina admitted, following chaeyoung through the corridor
"Anyway you might be one of the lucky ones who don't have a roommate!" Chaeyoung laughed, as she went up to the reception desk.
Mina sighed and followed chaeyoung to reception.
After Mina signed herself in and received her information pack from the overly excited receptionist, she followed Chaeyoung out the door and into what looked like the door to the dorm building, a big neon sign above the floor that read "Dorm Students Only" kinda gave that away.
They entered a foyer that had several different staircases which didn't seem to have an end and Mina happened to be staying at the very top.
"I can't believe your staying at the top, that's only for the rich students" Chaeyoung said, like Mina, she was also out a breath. Mina could sense a slight tone of resentment in Chaeyoungs voice. However, Mina put it down to her Korean not being up to scratch yet/
"Oh right" Mina laughed it off softly, trying to mask the sound of her dying.
Once they reached the top a foyer with a series of 6 doors with number plaques on each of them faced them.
"Room 20/10" Mina said as she read out the bottom of her keycard. Chaeyoung smiled and skipped towards the door, landing at the front of the door with a slight jump
Cute... Mina thought to herself as she made her way to the door.
"Here goes nothing" Mina took a deep breath and swipped the keycard.
Chaeyoung and Mina both stood in shock as the walked through which looked like the eqivulent of master suite apartment at a hotel.
"I can't believe this..." Chaeyoung whispered to herself, gazing around the open-plan living area
Mina smiled, she didn't want to brag infront of her new friend but Mina was used to this kind of lifestyle, although she was just as surprised her father paid for this.
"This place is AWESOME!" Chaeyoung nearly screamed the roof off the apartment. Mina jumped at the sudden outburst but started to giggle to herself as she put her bag down on the couch. The furniture wasn't to Mina's taste, too much red leather. Red leather lounge suite, red fluffy rugs and even a giant bean bag with "I Love Me" written all over it. This was odd.
All of a sudden, a voice appeared out of nowhere.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE" the voice screamed, both Mina and Chaeyoung screamed at the unannounced voice, Mina grabbed Chaeyoung, Chaeyoung grabbed Mina. Both of them were now nearly stuck like conjoined twins.
There stood at the door to the apartment was someone familiar, Mina couldn't quite put a name to her.
"Nayeon?!" Chaeyoung blurted out in fear, she held Mina's arm so tight, Mina knew there would be bruises come morning time.
Nayeon's stone-cold gaze felt like metal cutting flesh. That's when Mina recognised her. The girl at the airport. The pretty yet crazy spoiled brat. Mina sighed and shut her eyes.
Where the hell did my luck go?! Mina thought to herself
"Oh, it's you!" Nayeon growled, staring straight at Mina.
Both Mina and Chaeyoung quickly met each other's stare.
"Didn't you say this place was awesome?" Mina quietly asked Chaeyoung, with a very sarcastic undertone.
"I said the ice cream is good" Chaeyoung whispers.
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