We were just housemates

Life in Korea

The cars are honking as Sarah walks alone on the street. The streets feel so unfamiliar and the people look so annoyed at her. As if they don't like her being there. She hates it.

She hops into the convenience store and tries to figure out what is what. She grabs things she thinks to know what it is and pays in the money she can't understand completely yet. She tried to calculate it into Japanese Yen or Euro, but it doesn't go that smoothly, so she just gives up. She hates it.

She comes out and walks to the busstop. Seoul doesn't have that much trains and subways, and busses are more common. But the busses aren't that nice. The driver doesn't wait for you to sit down, they drive very roughly, are confusing with all the numbers, and to get to the right stop, the signs in the bus aren't alway accurate. She sighs as the bus is shaking and making such a loud noise, being slightly older. The seats are hard and small. She dislikes the busses a lot. But she has no other way of transportation. Forget biking, Seoul has mountains. She hates it.

She finally arrivees at his apartment, and climbs up the stairs. She is already tired from climbing the steep hill to his apartment. She hates it. 

At home, she is alone. She tries to cook a bit but it is so hard with the ingredients because she has no clue what she is doing. She taste test something she thinks to know, but as she tastes it, it burns her mouth. It is spicy!! She hates it.

When she takes a shower, she is in the middle of the bathroom. Everything gets wet. The sink, the toilet, the floor, the walls... She misses the comfortable, clean bathrooms in Japan. They might be small and prefab-plastic, but at least it was more comfortable than the stone tiles she had here. The first beams of water hit her face and the water rinses all the dust particles away from just walking and being outside for a few hours. She sighs. She hates it.

Jin comes home after a whole day of finding a job. The house smells like rice and it's nice and warm. Sarah is still behind the fire, and tries out some soup. He grabs her hips and places a bite-peck in her neck. "Jin... I'm almost finished cooking. Have a seat." He hugs her one more time thightly and takes a seat. She puts the soup on the table and he eats from her food. "Hmmm delicious!!! OMG You are amazing in cooking." He smiles wide and Sarah smiles softly too. He doesn't know she's been trying for 3 hours already, and had to throw away a lot of ingredients that she misbought. She looks at the trashbag with pain in her heart. She hates wasting food. Jin is exitingly telling her all about his jobsearch and how he will probably be hired soon, but she is eating some rice and poking into her soup. Occasionally she smiles and nod and scoffs when it is appropriate, but her soul isn't in it. Jin doesn't notice it. He hasn't noticed it ever since he took her to the Han river that evening. 

The next week the doorbell rings. Sarah opens the door because she is home anyway. In front of her is Yoongi. He smiles softly. "Can I come inside?" Sarah smiles, happy to see a familiar face again. "Sure, come in!" Yoongi enters. He looks around and nods approvingly. "He lives in a nice apartment." He starts to do some small talk. She offers him some herbal water from cold tea and invites him to sit on the bed with her. He gratefully accepts and sips it. "Did you get used to Korea already?" He asks. Sarah hesitates. His small eyes are gazing at her expression, meticculliously. "Sure." She lies between her teeth. He notices the hint of sadness coming over her face, just for a small second. "Lots of people have this misconception, especially foreigners, that Japan and Korea are similar. They are wrong. But you knew that already." Sarah bites the inside of her cheek. She feels so comfortable around Yoongi, and it feels good to have someone around, other than Jin, that she knows and trusts. A tear escapes her eye. Yoongi notices and softly rubs it off with his thumb, facing her. "Tell uncle Yoongi what is bothering you. Although I already know." Sarah can't stop her tears anymore and lets it all go.