Author's note: Original scene was taken out of this chapter and moved further back in the timeline. It is still canon and will occur later on. The reason I added this first as it was more important to set up the beginning of the story with the main protagonist's family in Korea.

Language note: This conversation is spoken in Mandarin Chinese by the characters while they're at their home in Seoul, South Korea-I decided to translate it all to English for the reader's pleasure...but remember they're not speaking in English so some of the things they say might have hidden double meanings...

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 Seoul, South Korea 2300 hrs

"Long time ago in Ancient China...", a man's voice boomed from the tv speaker.

"It's starting!", my crazy aunt shouted at the top of her lungs, grabbing tissues on the way from the kitchen to the living room sofa and planting herself in front of the hypnotizing view of a romantic drama.

Feeling groggy about packing my suitcase all day in addition to not being able to sleep much due to the early morning flight, I opened my eyes to see my aunt staring at the screen, fixated on the opening narration and the accompanying music.

"Aunty, please tell me you're not watching a Korean drama again...", I muttered, knowing she could have cared less what I thought.

She countered, declaring, "It is a Chinese drama, Baiming!" Looking deep into my eyes, she countered, "And how did you know it wasn't a Taiwanese one, hmm?"

"Cuz most Chinese historical dramas originate from Hong Kong or the mainland, not from the Republic of China." I added, "It just as well might be Chinese as its probably a ripoff from a Korean drama you've probably watched before."

"Hey, you're Chinese! How dare you insult yourself!", she teased.

"You're also Chinese and you still have to admit the truth-that Chinese films/tv like to copy formulaic plots from South Korea...", I remarked only to be interjected.

  "Hush! The narrator is speaking again!", she chided.

Sighing, I sat down on the sofa and heard some phrases like, "a forbidden love", "monster in love with human girl", "arranged marriage", "witch's magic", "a curse", "father cast out from village", "legend", but zoned out. Only to wake up, catching myself nodding off on my aunt's shoulder, and the commercials muted.

"Mochi?", my aunt offered.

"Aunty, it is too late to have sugar at this time of night!", I stated.

"So you don't want some?", she asked.

I extended my arm and mumbled, "Give me the ice cream."

She grinned in the pale blue light of the television and said, "Just don't tell your uncle, ok? He worries too much about my health you know."

Suddenly, footsteps sounded in the corridor and I froze, knowing my uncle had surely finished packing by now.

Quick as a bullet, my aunt surprised me by dashing to the tv, turning it off and then leaping to the sofa to stroke our Fox flower cat, huzi, appropriately named whiskers because he had a lot of facial hair and he was a thief too. That clever cat tried to take my fish from my plate every time he could and got away with it too.

"Worry about what?And isn't it a little late to still be up?", my uncle inquired when he arrive in the living room, obviously having heard her last words from the hallway.

"I was staying up so that I could see you both before you departed for your flight! I was worried I might miss saying goodbye," she answered.

Eyeing how we were sitting in the dark and probably suspicious something was up, he stepped forward and touched the tv, lifting his index finger and pointing it up at the ceiling once he was done.

"Then why is the tv warm at this time of night?", he replied sarcastically.

Knowing the jig was up, my aunt pouted and responded, "It was the only way I could stay awake until 3 am in the morning;otherwise, I would sleep through you leaving."

"Right. Because I was thinking it was you wanting to watch another soap opera again...Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I wouldn't want you to fall for one of those dashing male protagonists."

He was interrupted when my aunt rose from her seat, approached him, and tapped his shoulder, whispering, "I could never fall for one of those handsome male leads when I have a handsome male lead of my own who met me at a tech convention and after some time, asked me to be his costar."

"Really? And what did you say to that dashing fellow?", my uncle responded back.

She leaned in closer and pecked him on the cheek; in response, he pulled her to him in a warm embrace and initiated a full-blown kiss.

Disgusted, I did what any teen-aged only child might do-"Ew! Uncle and Aunty, I do not need to see that!"

"How do you imagine you were born? Storks didn't deliver you to your mom and dad," my uncle remarked after I had finally taken my hands from my eyes.

Aunty said, "You're not a little girl anymore, Baiming. What do you think me and your uncle will do once you've gone off to college?"

"I don't know...and I don't think I wanna know!", I responded back.

Uncle chuckled, and then his face soured into a grimace as if something was wedged up his butt. "But seriously...we should get the rest of our things ready for the flight to Baltimore. It'll be 20 hours so I hope you have something to entertain you during the flight, Baiming."

"I have a Disney DVD collection of movies to watch," I bragged to his horror.

He furrowed his eyebrows, sighing as if to say, "Why did I even bother? These women will eventually make me go crazy anyhow."

My aunt tugged on his arm hard, trying to guide him back to bed, but he persisted, commenting, "Baiming, tell your aunt to not eat vinegar while I'm gone, ok?"

She replied, "Oh please...as if! I am not scared that I'll lose you and neither should you."

Uncle Pierre turned slightly while saying, "I am not the one with melanoma. Should anything..."

"Pierre, I have had surgery for melanoma before as a child. I am fine." Noticing he was still hesitant, she added, "Besides, the doctor that will operate on me is a colleague from the hospital that I work at. As I have taken a sabbatical from nurse work, those people will take care of me-I am in good hands, honestly."

"If you want me to cancel the trip, I'll do it. Just say the word and I'll tell the higher ups.."

"No! It was a simple checkup where they discovered a growth again...it was tiny and will take not a lot of time to heal. I just can't be on a plane for a while now because of my biopsy. Anyways, you cannot cancel now, you made a commitment to your work and you must fulfill it."

He gazed into her eyes, crying softly, "I don't want to lose you..."

"No need to worry, Pierre. Baiming and you can video chat me whenever you want, sound good?", she asked.

Then, she hugged me and whispered, "Our little girl...all grown up and going to America!"

I muttered, "You act as if I'm going to save China. We'll be back soon, Aunty."

"I know you will," she stated confidently.

When it was finally time to leave, she opened the door for us. As we stepped into the night together,  I looked back for a second and saw her waving at the window.

Waving back, I mumbled a half-hearted bye and braced for the unknown.

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Author's Notes: This is basically a love story to my childhood growing up as part of another culture, moving to mainland US and then raising myself in yet another foreign culture-Chinese. It has become a part of me so much that I find myself identifying with my Chinese peers/friends/teachers more than regular American students. (I'm Hispanic so not regular American) So no I am not Chinese, but I do know Chinese. This girl is not me, but its a sweet story with a lot of action. If you want to read it, read it. If not, don't send me hate mail!