Hacking Seoul

3 - Definition of Jailbait

He glanced at me and added quickly, "If...If that's okay with you, of course."

The lady started to smile at the both of us like she was our matchmaker. I shook my head automatically.

"It's really not necessary, I can just buy it some other time, thank you so much though opppp..." I almost bit my tongue off in the attempt to stop myself from calling him oppa, I swallowed hard and then continued, hoping no one else had picked up my embarrassing slip-up, "...um, you really don't have to do that."

I could not believe I was about to call him oppa. Did I just try to flirt with him?! He was a stranger, and a stranger who was way younger than me at that. This trace of information finally hit me and I was mortified. How could I have been such a creepy pedo-noona?

"Hey, oppa has..."

I widened my eyes in panic. He did pick up my stupid "oppa" fail.

I watched in terror as he cleared his throat and rephrased his sentence.

"Sunbae wants to."

I couldn't think but the fire alarms in my heart were growling. This situation was serious.

"You shouldn't, s-sunbae. I can just come next time, I am really sorry for all this. Sorry ma'am, sorry sunbae."

I tried to back out of the store while bowing but almost tripped myself over when the guy took a couple of steps toward me, looking mildly amused.

"Would you let me buy it for you if I let you pay me back later?"

I crazily shook my head and moved my hand back and forth meaning no.

"Sweetie why don't you come back and try this on? Your oppa wants to get it for you!"

The lady was laughing and waving me over with her hand. I bowed more and moved my feet quickly.

"I am so sorry, I will come buy it next time..."

I finally backed out of the store successfully and a huge wave of relief washed over me as I saw that the guy had stopped walking out because he realized he hadn't paid for his ties yet. Twelve ties? Guess someone was trying to save on those laundry bills.

I took some deep breaths and evened out my heartbeat. He was so cute. The corners of my lips were turning upward and I bit my bottom lip to prevent the smile from getting wider. It was always flattering when a cute guy wanted to treat you nice. I marveled again at the cultural difference. While Korea was probably not the only place where strangers would offer to pay for your uniform, America was definitely not the place if you wanted to experience this delicacy; the only times a stranger would buy you anything was probably when he was at a bar, and he wanted you to drink some alcohol.

I sighed and walked on slowly, my mood extremely well even though I kind of wanted to slap myself for fawning over a jailbait teenager. Then I shook my head. Whatever, young or old, he was still a cute guy.

My feet stopped themselves in front of a store. On display was a pair of cute couple dolls, the ones you and your boyfriend wore on your backpacks together. My heart sank. My good mood went away as fast as it had come.

I had been thinking about David less and less since I came to Korea. Guilt and shame overtook my being. The whole time I was falling for a forbidden stranger, not a second had David crossed my mind. Not once had I even remembered my own, boyfriend.