You Got My Heart

Chapter 1

I just arrived here at the Incheon International Airport about 10 minutes ago, and I'm looking around for my cousin. Her name is Jessica, and she is permanently living here in Korea. She's going to be the one who will have custody of me, but to prove that she can take care of me she has to look after me while I'm here on a 6-month visa. You might be wondering why I'm going with my cousin instead of an aunt or uncle. Well it's because she's the only person out of my whole family that I like; well other than my grandparents. But to be honest, every time I look at them all I think about are my parents. She never mistreated me or looked down upon me like others did. Of course there's her parents I could have gone with back in the US, but Jessi is pretty much like my sister.

Luckily for her, I'm in love with the Korean culture. Anything Korean related and I'm there. The only thing Korean related I'm not too good with is keeping up with any type of Korean pop music. There's just too many group and people per groups. I can't even remember all of my classmates names, how do I expect myself to remember dozens upon dozens of other people's names?

Right, so back to finding Jessica. I've been looking everywhere for her, but by now I just look like a loner acting like she has friends. Not a good first impression for myself, is it?

Finally after literally 10 minutes of looking for her, I found her; buying coffee. Nice to know coffee is more important than family.

"Hey Jessi, nice to finally see you too"

"Oh my gosh Rose! I thought your flight wasn't going to be here until 11?" She says while giving me a bear hug.

"I can't breath Jessi.."

"Oh sorry, but seriously, why are you here so early?" She's kidding, right?

"Hmm, I didn't know that 11:23 was early for a flight that landed at 11"

"What?" And she checked the time on her phone. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry Rose! I had no intentions of being late! I came here like 40 minutes ago thinking that I was going to be getting coffee for the two of us, but it's so crowded and busy here that I barely got to order our drinks about 2 minutes ago"

"Are you serious? And dude, I don't even drink coffee anymore.."

"I know, I just used it as an excuse to buy myself extra because I'm going to need it for the drive back. I haven't gotten much sleep because I was so excited that you were finally coming here to Korea!"

"At least you're telling the truth. And same here to be honest. I wanted to sleep on the plane but my excitement of almost being in Korea kept me awake" I still can't even believe I'm here to be honest.

"Well enough of no sleep, let's go!"

"Aren't you going to wait for your coffee?"

"Right after I get my coffee!"

***

I tried to stay awake on the drive back to Jessi's apartment, but I just couldn't hold it anymore and I passed out only 5 minutes into the drive.

"Ro.. Rooose... ROSE!"

"OHMYJESUSLORDHELPME"

"Wake up damnit, we're here"

"Did you really have to yell like that to wake me up?" This son of a..

"Yeah dude, have you forgotten? You're a heavy sleeper"

"Okay, okay. I get it. I'm up, I'm awake. Just no more yelling"

"C'mon then! Let's get inside, it's cold"

"Let me get my stuff.. Hey where's my stuff? We did put it in your car before we left the airport, right?"

"Yes, I already put it inside the... apartment"

"Really? Wow thanks"

"Wow? Why is it so suprising?"

"Because you don't like doing any type of physical effort" I say while following her up the steps to her door.

"True, but that doesn't stop me from being a good friend"

"Also true. But I still don't know how you do it. You're stll skinny as heck, but you eat like if you were to weigh 400 pounds"

"It's a gift from the Gods, I'd like to think"

"Truely a gift it is... Oh my gosh and so is this.. House? You liar! This isn't an apartment, it's a house!." This house looks as if it were to be a mansion that was put in some fancy magazine, like Forbes Magazine.

"Yeah.. My parents being, well them, went kind of overboard with this. They wanted to make sure I wasn't some poor American kid that people would make fun of, but that's literally everyone else here. Most of them aren't even poor though, and I'm pretty sure I'd be able to live fine off of what I make with being an English teacher. But of course they were still worried about me and decided to secretly get me this a few days before I left the US."

"You're super lucky. If my parents were still alive and were rich, they would make sure I didn't have a dime of theirs when I arrived here. They'd make sure I knew how other's struggled and that I went through just as many struggles as anyone else would." Even now, I can just imagine my mom asking whether or not I'm going to blow all of my money I make and my dad telling me I can't move in with Jessi, even though she's like my sister.

"Yeah they sure would have done that.. They probably would have even scolded my parents just for buying me an house"

"That they would.. Anyway, did you find out if there's any job offerings around here for a 17 year old?" Jessi has been trying to look for a job for me ever since I started to get my visa ready.

"Oh right.. Um, unfortunately there isn't anything. But I mean I'm supposed to be the one taking care of you so obviously I have enough money to pay for the both of us"

"Right, and just freeload off of you? You know I can't, no matter how hard I try. It's implanted in my head to never freeload off of anyone, no matter who it is"

"It's not freeloading, I'm literally supposed to be the one buying you clothes and food and keeping a roof over your head"

"I know, I'm just messing with you. But in reality, you should know it's because I do a lot of online shopping." If you guys have never tried online shopping, you guys are not living life right. Every time I get something I've ordered online and it comes to my door, it just always feels like I'm getting a surprise gift.

"You still do that? You need help girl, you're always buying useless stuff"

"No! Well okay, but this is why I would need a job. If I'm going to be wasting money on useless things, it might as well be my own money"

"Alright, well I guess you're on your own with finding a job. Meanwhile, just focus on school. You can't be failing whatsoever, okay? Because that's part of the contract of me keeping custody of you and you staying here in Korea"

"I know, I promise you I won't let you down in that area. That's a fact. Plus you know how much I love school and academics!"

"I know, it's what makes you weird"

And then at this exact moment, it finally hit me that I'm in Korea.