Translation of Love

1

Name

"Name?"

My rattled mind comes back into focus. "Huh?"

I stare at the girl sitting in front of me, with her head down looking at a long list of names.

"Name please." She still doesn't look up.

"Summer."

Her finger glides down the list quickly. "No Summer."

"Oh. Try Sohee. Nam Sohee." Her finger glides down once again, coming to a stop before crossing out my name. Then she starts speaking Korean to me. I timidly wave my hands back and forth, "I don't speak Korean."

This makes her pause and stare up at me with an incredulous look. "Your name is Sohee."

"My Korean name is, but I don't use it. My name is actually Summer." I lightly bite my lip, willing my words to stop before I make myself sound like even more of a fool.

The girl sighs, hands me a folder full of papers, then waves her hand at me, shooing me away. "Next!"

I stumble to find a place to sit, avoiding hitting shoulders with the mass of students around me, all speaking different languages. I end up outside the building I was in for registration, moving away from the crowds and behind a lecture hall to find a bench to sit on. It's relatively vacant here, being away from the main traffic of the university.

I didn't want to come here. I wasn't expecting to move schools, let alone countries, during my second year of university. But here I am, in a strange country, holding a mass pile of international student registration and orientation papers.

***

I'm maybe a quarter way through reading the influx of information when I hear voices coming towards my quiet and peaceful bench. While I don't understand the conversation—only picking up some very basic words that I forced myself to learn prior to departure—the voices draw my attention towards them.

Two males, one with messy dark brown hair and a cute little smile and another with caramel-like light brown hair in a similar, dishevelled style. The one with light brown hair has a very small smile on, one that doesn't quite reach his eyes. The happier one plays around with him, hitting his shoulder and causing the other to stop abruptly and roll his eyes at him.

Stopping abruptly in front of me.

I try to avoid an awkward encounter by slyly moving my black backpack, which the aggravated one is almost stepping on. My sly move fails as my stupid folder with all those damn papers slides off my lap and scatters all over the ground, including over the guy's shoes. The argument between the two comes to a halt as they suddenly realize someone else is here.

They both stare at me like idiots for a while; either amazed that an actual human being is living and breathing so close to them without them ever noticing, or taking in my not-quite-but-still-kinda Korean characteristics. The one with the cute smile says what I believe is sorry in Korean. The blank look on my face causes him to awkwardly chuckle a bit, "Sorry."

I just let out a soft laugh in return and frantically bend down to try to pick up my papers before the wind does it for me. While crouched, I sense movement in front of me. Two large hands begin to gather some paper together. The guy then pauses and I can feel his eyes burning into my skull. I look up shyly only to be met with the eyes of the more intimidating guy. The friendly one is off running after what looks like my orientation schedule.

When I bring my gaze back up I realize he is still looking at me. My face burns even hotter than before as I hastily grab the last page and stand up quickly. Too quickly, as my head bangs against the scary guy's head on my way up.

He lets out what I can imagine being profane words.

"Sorry," I do a little bow, that's what you're supposed to do here right? "Sorry."

"Whatever. It's fine"

I freeze at the use of these English words, which come out very non-Korean sounding with only a slight accent. He continues to rub his head, and I take this time to get a better look at his face.

His eyes are really something. I mean they're just dark brown eyes, but the shape makes them attractive. The epicanthic fold softly flows into a perfect crescent shape over the centre of his eye, then fades straight out but slightly downwards, seemingly reaching past the lower lash line. It is slightly reminiscent of a puppy, but the intense gaze of the irises inside say otherwise. His lips are also something to stare at—very pink and very full with a wide cupid's bow that blossoms outwards to the edges of his mouth. My eyes also catch onto an endearing beauty mark below his eye.

He is quite beautiful.

"Hyung!" The cute one yells. My eyes quickly leave his lips, and that's when I notice him staring at me too.

He caught me checking out his face.

Like a flame being ignited, heat quickly burns through my entire body and I stutter out a bye before scuttling away.

"Wait!" The friendly one calls out after me but I just keep bee-lining to wherever my feet end up taking me.

Damn it.

The cute one has my schedule.

. . .

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Love,

Sooaura