All these years, he never noticed me.

The boy I fell in love with while he was visiting my hometown.

I knew I was a few years older than him and he was only an exchange student for a few months, but those few months were a magical experience. Of course, his grasp of English was subpar but I was willing to set that aside and try to pursue him anyways.

"Thinking about him again?" A voice breaks me away from my daze. "You've spent all this time learning Korean for a guy you've known for only a few months. Are you sure you want to go through with this?" The voice asked me.

I nodded.

"Yes, I'm sure Alexis." I smiled, kissing the girl's forehead gently. "You know I'm going for more than just him anyways." I huffed. "But if I do run into him by some chance, I hope he remembers me." I sighed.

"Now how could he ever forget you? You're a diamond in the rough kiddo." She grinned at me, making me roll my eyes in reply.

"Tell Mom I'm sorry I wasn't able to see her before I left." I reminded Alexis, my older sister. She shook her head.

"She gets it, you're a busy woman pursuing your dreams and kicking ass. I'm just happy you got into the program! When you told me about your audition I was worried you weren't gonna make it." She admitted.

"Thanks for the faith." I snickered, my tone sarcastic. She ruffled my hair, laughing.

"I didn't mean it like that, kiddo. It's just that you mentioned how nervous you were and how the judges kept giving you weird looks, but maybe it's because they liked you." She pinched my cheek and I swatted her hand away.

"I mean, I guess." I shrugged. "I sure hope so, otherwise, I'm going all the way to Korea for a boy and that's just ridiculous." I smirked.

"I would never let you do that and you know that." She assured me, pushing me forwards toward the gate to my flight. "Now go get a damn seat or the plane's going to leave without you." Her voice was firm as she held me tight.

"I love you Lexi, I'll get an international phone plan as soon as I can. Send me plenty of letters in the mean time!" I reminded her. She nodded.

"Yeah yeah, I will. Don't worry about me now, go on, kick some Korean ass!" She cheered.

I grinned, hugging her tight once more before taking my suitcase with me to the gate. This was it. I was officially going to Korea at last, Dad would've been so proud.

The flight was uneventful, and after several hours it was finally over. I hailed a cab and made my way to the locations of my new dorms, finding that I was stuck with a few other trainees who all ranged in age considerably, in fact, one girl was even 15 years old.

Here it was, my new life, which consisted of hours of training, eating healthy, and exercising. When we were finally able to take a break, most of the girls would go sleep for as long as they could, but I didn't want to waste my time in this beautiful city.

[Korean is spoken from here on out]

"Hey, we're going to the butterfly sanctuary next time we can leave, if you wanna join us. We're taking all the first year trainees since you guys seem really lonely." An older trainee said one day. I agreed, of course. Being stuck in that stuffy dorm with no hopes of finding a lead for the exchange student was far less appealing than a peaceful tour of nature.

"Sure, I'd love to go!" I exclaimed, giving the girls my number and going back to the dorm for the night.

When the time finally came, I went with the girls to the butterfly sanctuary, excited to see the outside after being stuck within the confines of the dorms and studios for days on end.

"So, you've all been trainees for a while then?" I asked them, making small talk as we walked through the sanctuary, observing the different flowers and butterflies.

"Yeah, we're hoping to debut soon, but since the company is still relatively new, we'd be the first to debut from AN." One of them explained.

"Well, good luck then! I hope you can debut soon!" I cheered.

"By the way, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. I'm Ahn Nana, this is Kim Seunghee, and this is Lim Minhee." She said, pointing to the respective girls.

"Oh, you're from Japan?" I asked Nana, and she nodded. "Yeah, my father was Korean, but he moved to Japan for work." She explained.

"Oh really? My dad is Korean too, but uh, my mom isn't." I replied.

"You never told us your name by the way." Nana said.

"Oh, yeah, I'm-." I was interrupted mid sentence by a girl in our group gasping.

"Oh em gee Seung, that's totally rude. She didn't even finish her sentence!" Nana scolded the younger girl.

"Sorry Unnie." She murmured, before perking up once more. "But there's this really cute guy looking our way and he's totally got the hots for the new girl." She nudged my shoulder.

"She has a name." Nana huffed. "You were saying?" She looked back to me for my answer to her earlier question.

"Oh, I'm-" I was interrupted once more, but I shrugged it off. Normally, I would've blown a fuse, but I had to keep my calm in front of these girls since it's best to get on their good sides.

A tall man who looked to be around my age had bumped into me, sending me tumbling to the ground.

The man turned red in the face immediately, scrambling to help me up. I placed my hand in his politely as he pulled me back up to my feet. As soon as I stood, I realized the fall had snapped the heel right off of my shoe, making me awkwardly unbalanced in height.

"I'm so sorry." The man apologized, supporting me as I stood so I wouldn't fall over from the uneven footing. I shook my head in reply to his plea.

"No no, it's ok!" I smiled at him. "It happens." I reassured him with a hand on his shoulder.

"I still feel like I should've been more careful."

You should've. I thought to myself.

"Don't worry about it, I mean it. I don't usually wear heels anyways." I shrugged, removing my heels since it wasn't practical to keep them on.

"At least let me take you out for coffee." He smiled. "To make it up to you." He quickly added.

I thought about the offer for a moment.

So this guy runs into me, and now he wants to get me coffee? Charming. God, what is this? A chick flick?

I didn't really want to be rude, especially since I should've also been more careful myself, so I sighed, nodding to his offer.

"Yeah, sure. I could go for coffee sometime." I smiled. "By the way, I'm uh-" I was yet again unable to finish my introductions, like the world was against me saying my name out loud.

"Oh hey, sorry, I just realized I have somewhere to be." The man took out a slip of paper and scribbled something down onto it before slipping it into my palm. "Just give me a call or shoot me a text and I'll let you know when I'm free for coffee. Don't blow me off." He grinned, running off as soon as he finished.

"Well then..." I turned back to the girls who were all smiling from ear to ear.

"He's cute, who is he?" Nana asked me curiously.

I looked at the slip of paper in my hands, reading it.

"Uhm, his name is uh... Kim Seokjin." I put the slip in my pocket.

"Your shoes are gone." She pointed out.

"Broken." I said simply.

"Oh..." She looked confused.

"You weren't watching?" I asked.

"We were while he was getting closer, but then when he got close enough we kind of turned a blind eye. It wasn't my business anyways." She shrugged.

"Oh, okay..." I blinked.

What an oddly polite, but also possibly horrible habit. I thought.

"Come on, let's get back to the dorms it's getting late." One of the girls said.

I nodded in agreement, following them back to the dorms. I was positive there was something watching over me, sending me it's good luck charms. Not only had I come to Korea, but I was a trainee at a large entertainment company, AND I was asked to get coffee with a cute Korean guy, SCORE!