A New Start || Seventeen

Chapter 1

"We will now begin our descent. Please remain in your seats until the plane has landed"
Daena opened her eyes and looked out of the plane window. Her first thought was of how she had managed to sleep straight through the entire flight. It had been nearly a 14 hour flight. Daena remembered setting up a movie to watch on her iPad and now the plane was landing.

She sighed loudly enough that some passengers turned to look at her. Too many emotions were battling inside her mind right now.

A few months ago she had made a life changing decision to uproot her life and move half way across the world.

Growing up in LA with a Korean father and American mother Daena was bilingual. That's also how she ended up with the name Daena a version of the name Dayna, her mother thought it sounded America and with the spelling change her father was convinced it could pass as Korean.  Daena had studied language extensively through high school and college to the point she wasn't just fluent in the 2 languages she spoke at home with her parents but also Japanese and French.

All this studying was to work towards her end goal of teaching abroad. Daena wanted to see the world. So when she had been offered an opportunity to move to Korea and teach English at a school in Seoul she hadn't had to think twice and had jumped at the opportunity with the full support of her parents who were of the opinion that there couldn't be a job more perfect for her.

The idea of moving to a city let alone country where she knew no one absolutely terrified Daena. Well that wasn't strictly true she did know one person.

Daena's childhood best friend had moved to Korea a few years ago to pursue his dream and knowing she would have a friend nearby helped solidify her parents desire for her to take this chance.

Growing up in LA and going to school Daena didn't know many other people like her, she had always looked far more like her father than her mother with her dark eyes and hair, so when she found out there was a Korean boy in the school Daena had made it her mission to find him make him her friend and in this task she had been very successful. Growing up the two children were inseperable. Joshua had become one of the most important people in Daena's life and she were certain he would be in it forever. Daena's parents had been overjoyed when she had made a friend and after meeting Joshua's parents they too had become fast friends. The two families had spent a lot of time together over the years even holidaying together. And then one day Joshua left and everything changed.

Daena couldn't be mad. He left to pursue his dream and she was so proud of him for that.

Daena and Joshua stayed in touch but his new life kept him busy and as the years went by they spoke less and less until they were lucky to manage even 5 conversations a year.

Daena hadn't told Joshua about her move just in case his reaction wasn't what she wanted to hear. He had achieved his dream of becoming an idol and debuted as part of a boy group in 2015. Daena had to admit she had only loosely followed his career and was aware his group had become very successful which explained why the communication between the two friends had broken down as he was always so busy.

Daena wasn't sure how or when she was going to tell him and had planned on using the flight to figure that out but now she realised she was left with no time.

The plane came to a stop and everyone began to get off.

Daena rose from her seat slowly and grabbed her bag from the overhead compartment and hoped all the other items she had shipped over during the last few weeks had arrived at the apartment the school was providing. She didn't want to think about how much trouble it would be if they hadn't.

As Daena exited the airport and headed for the car that would take her to her brand new apartment she took out her phone, turned around and took a quick photo of the airport with the sign clearly visible. Hesitantly Daena opened the chat with Joshua, no matter how busy he was he always made sure she had his most up to date number whether he gave it to her directly or made sure his mum did.

Before she could over think she attached the picture and hit send.

Taking a deep breath Daena entered the car and started the last step of the journey to her new life.