why did i move here?

that was your first thought as you stepped off the plane to the country of your friends choice. the stench immediately fills and shocks your system and now you see why everyone has masks on their faces. that and to protect themselves from the terrible germs floating around in the air.

you curse yourself for ever trusting your best friends judgement.

it will be fun, she said. you'll meet new people, she said. it's a good opportunity, she said.

you now wish you could take back all the endless hours of researching and making a powerpoint to convince your parents of ever letting you do this. surprisingly, out of all the research you did nothing ever mentioned the horrid smell.

the reason why you were here suddenly seems like a crazy thought in the past. you were taking a summer program for your university, which would hopefully increase your chances of getting in. you know, all the cultural new learning experiences and whatnot.

your heart aches as you remember talking to your friends about it, telling them it would only be a couple months. they were all so hesitant at first because they didn't want you to go. you specifically remember one of your closest friends trying to persuade you to not go.

you smile at the thought, and then remember it was your best friend that came up with the idea. you shake yourself out of it, knowing that this will be an amazing opportunity for you.

you now realize that everyone is giving you weird looks. maybe it's because i'm not wearing a mask? or maybe it's my clothes or luggage or some shit?

you shake it off, and grab the rest of your bags from baggage claim and make your way outside of the huge airport to try and grab a taxi to the apartment signed in your name. you have gotten used to the smell now, but the loud noises and screams outside shocked you in a completely different way. there was so many people screaming in korean for a cab. the traffic to get out of the place looked like a nightmare. it reminded you of a busy city american airport, just with people screaming in a foreign language you barely familiarized yourself with.

this was going to take a while.

~

after about an hour of trying to flag a taxi to give you a ride but ultimately failing, you sit back on your suitcase rubbing your eyes with the palms of your hands. why did this have to be such a struggle?

two people have stolen a potential ride for you, and many have shoved you out of the way either on accident or on purpose. you got irritated but forgot it and continued to try and get a ride.

you think over your failed attempts while staring off into space until someone comes into your view.

you look up and see that it's a man with a mask and hat on, and he's staring at you with blank eyes. you look behind you to see if he is staring at something else, but when you turn back his eyebrows are raised slightly at your action.

you rack your mind to form a sentence in the very little korean you know.

he says something to you in korean and you catch a few words that sounded like house and clock, which was probably not what he was talking about.

the confused look on your face was probably what made him smile. you could tell from how his eyes went from serious to soft little crescents. you yourself broke out into a little smile of embarrassment before he bamboozled you by speaking in perfect english.

"i asked if you needed some help? i saw you constantly failing to catch a taxi."

you are still completely shocked at his language skills. he didn't have a korean accent at all!

now his eyes look confused, "you don't speak english either?"

you stand up, "oh no no i was just shocked." you laugh nervously as his eyes go back to the crescents from before.

"but thank you," your eyes trail off as you say this.

"for what?" you look back up at his words to see the confused expression again.

you smile a little, "for offering to help me. i've been here for an hour and no one tried to help me."

he laughs, and it fills the air with the most melodic sound you've ever heard. the traffic and yelling sounds are gone and it's just his laugh. you're completely mesmerized until he snaps his fingers in your face.

"are you okay?" his eyebrow is raised.

you shake yourself out of it, and let him catch you a cab. surprisingly, it only took him about 2 minutes to flag one down. maybe today you were just really unlucky.

you are still surprised as you drag your luggage to put them in the truck of the car.

"here let me," he says as he grabs your luggage and lifts them into the truck.

"thank you again for everything," you say with a smile.

"it's no problem," his eyes scrunch up again as he watches you get into the taxi and shuts the door behind you.

he waves at you and you watch through the window as you get farther and farther away from the strange man and closer to your apartment.