Your POV

My shoe went flying off and I almost dropped my backpack as I ran toward boarding with my parents in front of me. I quickly adjusted my bag and went back to slip my sandal back on my foot. "Why are you so worried about missing the flight?!" I called out to my parents who didn't stop running.

"We don't want to be late!" My mother shrieked excitedly, never turning back to look at me. I tried running to catch up to them, and I was still ten feet behind.

"We're not going to be late! Calm your tits!" I exclaimed as we finally stopped in line right after the attendant had finished the first boarding call. I took my passport and my ticket out of my back pocket and waited to give it to the attendant. "Why do we have to go to Seoul?" I whined like a 4-year-old.

"I've already told you, your father's business has become very successful and now the company is moving to Seoul to hopefully expand the company," my mother explained to me again.

"But we were doing perfectly fine here in Bangkok! Everything was going great with dad's business here, I don't see why we need the sudden move!" I threw my arms in the air in exasperation.

"Because we don't have all the right resources here, and your father will be able to get more employees in Seoul."

"Ugh! I hate this! And I'm not old enough yet to move out! I have to wait until December, that's still six months away!" I whined and almost dropped to my knees, but we'd just come up to the desk and I needed to hand the attendant my passport and plane ticket. "And so now, I'll have to learn a new language, we have to buy a new house, I have to make new friends, we have to do all sorts of paperwork since we're moving to a whole new country and we'll all have to get a second passport!"

"(Y/n) honey, please calm down, people are starting to look at us... And we've already bought a house and done most of the paperwork, there isn't very much left to do."

I could already feel my eyes welling up with tears, "But I'm going to miss this place so much, and I'll have to leave all my friends behind." The attendant handed my passport and ticket back and we walked down the stairs, out to the plane.

The hot, humid June air hit me as I stepped outside the door and my mom decided to grab my hand at that moment. "Mom! It's like 400 degrees out and I'm not a baby, don't hold my hand!" I screamed and harshly pulled my sweaty hand out of her grip.

"(Y/n), you really need to calm down, please," she said gently as we followed the path up to the plane.

"No, I don't need to, you just want me to," I said and stuck my tongue out at her. My mother shook her head and sighed. "Dear, why is our daughter acting like a child now? She used to be so good, now she's 17 and acts like she's 5," she said quietly to my father, but I was still able to catch what she said. I just saw him shrug his shoulders and continue down the aisle to our seats.

I sat in the window seat, beside my mom with my dad in the aisle seat. I kicked my bag under the seat in front of me and sighed as I put my face in my hands, staring out the window. "Mom?" I asked quietly.

"Yes honey?" She asked sweetly.

"Do you think I'll be able to make new friends... I won't be in school, so won't it be difficult?"

"Possibly. But you could always go to University or College and meet people there, you could get a job and be friends with your coworkers," she suggested.

I sighed again. "But I don't want to do any of that stuff, I want to stay in Bangkok."

"Well I'm afraid it's a little too late for that," she placed her hand on my shoulder and made a sympathetic sound. "I'm sorry, but after everything we've done, there's no turning back." She gently rubbed my back as tears began to well in my eyes again.

"I know..." I said sadly. "But sometimes I just wish Dad had never started this business and we could've stayed and lived in Thailand forever."

My mother hugged me tightly. "I know you do, but sometimes change is good, you never know what'll happen in Korea. There's always a possibility that you'll meet a cute boy, huh?" She asked, nudging me teasingly.

I giggled softly and put my hand on her elbow so she'd stop nudging me. "Maybe..." A small smile appeared on my face as I thought about it. "Maybe..." I repeated quietly.

~~•~~
We'd been flying for a long time, and I slept most of the way. Before I knew it, we were already at the Seoul airport.

I yawned and stretched in my seat, taking off my seatbelt soon after. I grabbed my bag and put my hand on my mother's shoulder so I wouldn't loose my parents on the walk through the busy airport.

I glanced around at all the people in the airport, children, teens, adults, seniors, and many of them were wearing medical masks. "Hey mom, why are so many people wearing masks here?" I asked, curious to know.

"Hm?" She looked around a bit. "Oh! It's because there's a bit of a dust problem here in Korea, I've heard that it's worst in Seoul, so you might want to wear a mask too when you're outside," she explained.

I nodded, yawning again. "But we can worry about that later, I just want to get out of the airport and go home."

We reached the luggage carousel and grabbed our bags, heading over to the car rentals. I sat on top of my two suitcases, waiting for about an hour before we'd finally rented the car and were able to go outside and get it.

We walked out the doors, it was the middle of the night but it was still super busy, and when I stepped outside, the first thing I noticed was the temperature. It was a lot cooler than Thailand, but considering it was June it wasn't too cold for me. My mother was also right about the dust, by the time we reached the car, my mouth was drier than the Sahara Desert!

I shoved all of our luggage into the trunk and then climbed into the back of the SUV. "How far away is the house?" I asked my parents.

"About half an hour away, and be prepared, it's small," my father replied.

Great, I thought to myself sarcastically.

I fell asleep in the car too, I was woken up when my parents got out of the car and closed the doors loudly. I got up and clambered out of the car as well. "It does look small," I looked down at the asphalt under my feet. "And I wouldn't even call this a driveway! I don't know what to call it! It's so small!"

"(Y/n) please don't yell, it's 1 in the morning, there's people sleeping everywhere, we don't want our neighbours to be woken up," my mother whisper yelled.

"Whatever," I dismissed what she said and grabbed my bags out of the back of the car. The house was a duplex and we lived on the second floor, so I had to walk all the way up those steel stairs to the house, I wasn't going to be able to do that everyday!

I walked inside and flicked on the lights, the house was practically empty except for a counter, a sink, a refrigerator and an oven. Four rooms was all it had, the main room with the kitchen and everything, the bathroom and two bedrooms. The bathroom had everything you'd need, but the shower was actually the whole room, there was just the little handheld nozzle by the sink, that actually wasn't anything new for me.

I walked into one of the small rooms, claiming it as my bedroom. It was empty except for a burnt out light, a green stain on the carpeted floor, a small window looking right into the neighbour's window and a tiny closet that would barely hold anything. "This place is an outrage!" I yelled, but quickly covered my mouth, remembering what time it was.

"Sorry!" I whisper yelled to my mom but got no reply, she must've still been outside bringing in luggage.

I didn't have a bed or anything, we'd have to buy all of our furniture during the next few weeks, but I did have a sleeping bag and pillow which I'd have to use. I laid down my pillow against the wall, on the side of the room furthest from the green stain, and rolled on my sleeping bag beside it. I closed the sliding door to my room to get some privacy while changed into my nightwear, but then the damn thing broke!

I sighed in outrage and changed in the tiny closet. I looked out the window to see the lights in the room of the house beside us were on. I kinda want to know who lives there... I thought to myself before crawling into my sleeping bag and drifting off to sleep.

~~•~~
So there's the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, and I'd like to know who you think lives in the house next door. 🤔Can any of you guess? If you guess correctly then you'll win a prize, not sure what prize, but you will get one!

-IvyAvery