White Lies (Completed)

Arrival

Thank you at chubbychaechae_ for the book cover💜💜👌👌😁

I arrived at Incheon Airport full of mixed emotions. I am excited on this new journey...worried of this new surrounding...new country...diffirent culture.  I'm a little sad leaving my family and friends in California and knowing no one here.But I am looking forward to what the future holds for me here in Korea. I feel good and hopeful overall...I wanted this, I worked hard to get this promotion at work and to finally be independent.

I walked out of the arrival area and I instantly saw my name written on a paper held by this girl who is supposed to Jinhe Lee. This girl will be one of my team member at work and will accompany me at the apartment I will be living in.

"Annyeong! I'm Elizabeth Williams, are you Jinhe Lee?!" I asked her.

"Annyeong Ms. Williams, yes, my name is Lee, Jinhe, it is nice to finally meet you in person" she said as she bowed and I did the same.

"Welcome to Korea, the team is looking forward to meet you." she added as she helped me with my luggages.

"Me too, thank you for picking me up, you can call me Liz by the way" i replied.

We talked more on the road going to my apartment that they helped me find. It was difficult to find an apartment just based on the pictures online, good thing Jinhe helped me find a decent one.

I met Jinhe 2 months ago, she works as the office admin/receptionist in our Korean office. I work for a recruitment firm back in California. It is the main headquarters but we have several offices outside the US since the company has grown for quite some time. We have one in the Philippines, one in London and one here in Korea. I was promoted to manage the operations here and to grow the company, get new clients and increase the revenue. I will be handling a team of 6 recruiters plus Jinhe which will also be my assistant.

Jinhe has been with the company for half a year now, she's still young, 21 years old, a fresh graduate when she was hired. I am just 2 years older than her but I started working for this company at the age of 18 as a working student and they eventually hired me full time when I graduated in Psychology.

I am a consistent performer as a recruitment specialist. I hit my goals every year so my boss decided to expose me into business development as well where he trained me and brings me to his client meetings to see how it's done and aftera few months of training, I started to bring in new accounts for the team.

My boss which was also the owner of the company gave me this long overdue promotion as a Recruitment and Operations Manager for the Korea office, he wants me to establish and give growth to this office.

In California we are 55 in the office handling several clients from different types of indistries. Korea is the smallest office but my boss and me believe of it's potential to grow. Being in the heart of Seoul and it's known high end technology and manufacturing companies, I took the opportunity to help the company grow.

When my boss talked to me about managing this office a year back, I started taking professional lessons in Hangul, it was pretty hard for me at first especially reading and writing since they have a totally different way to write their letters.

Jinhe is taking me now to my apartment that she found. She is really friendly and smart, very detail oriented and that's important in our line of work.

"We're here!" Jinhe said when the driver stopped the car.

It was a medium rise condo like building, I heard this is the usual kind of housing establishment in Korea. I am used to living in a house with a porch, a front and back yard with your own garage. But since I'll be living alone, I don't really mind as long as I have what I need.

My unit is on the 5th floor, Jinhe has been here, she was the one who spoke to the landlord. Thanks to her I already had this set up even before I arrive.

"Thank you so much Jinhe! I owe you big time! I'll report in the office next week, I just need to settle down" i said as the driver

"No problem, just call me if you need anything...there's a convenience store on the corner, a coffee shop across." Jinhe said

"Thank you and take care...I'll see you next week" i said as I wave her goodbye.

The place is very decent, it has a living room where I can set up my office desk, a fully functioning kitchen with built in appliances, one huge bedroom with a bathroom which I like, there is a powder room in the living room though. The place will be needing a few more things like a couch...TV...and small things like a coffee table, kitchen and bathroom stuff.

I felt very good actually, having my own space, my own peace, my own world... i really felt independent.

*******

The next day I woke up pretty early, had a hard time sleeping... still getting used to the new place and being alone.

I took a warm bath and rummaged on my luggage on what to wear. I wanted to explore the area and try the coffee shop across.

I still have a week to fix my apartment and go shopping for things.

I went out and started walking, my first stop is to get coffee, next to get a phone and grocery.

In the U.S I like to walk and enjoy the view, people watch and just simply burn some calories going to work so I told Jinhe to find me a place where I can still do that, I don't mind walking a few blocks.

After a few hours I was able to do a lot of things, got a phone and activated it so I was able to call my parents back home. I asked Jinhe where I can go to have the internet installed at my place, went to the print shop to laid out designs for my calling card, needed it for my job. Then I was to shop for a few furnitures to be delivered within the week and lastly to stock up my fridge and got some personal things for me from the grocery. Thanks to Jinhe she was able to tell me where the closest mall.

It was a very productive day, I was able to accomplish so many and will probably start fixing my apartment this week before I start working.