lost and found || hvc

II the other boy

After my long, relaxing bath and three episodes of Modern Family, I was ready to take on the world again. It was currently six in the evening, and we were supposed to have some kind of a get-to-together with some of our new classmates, something to do with the exchange student thingy. So I put on a pair of black ripped jeans and white plain t-shirt, tucked my hair into a bun, fixed my face and left together with Alex to the school we were supposed to start attending in a week. I suppose we were going to get some kind of tutors or something as fun. I was actually in need of any type of help I could get, so I was looking forward to meeting these supposed tutors. We found our way to the school, which was a miracle taking into consideration our previous experiences with finding places here. It was actually a pretty nice building, with lots of modern-y glass windows and a huge wooden main entrance. We walked in, immediately faced with a huge foyer, with stairs going into different directions. Oh shit.

"Jessica and Alexandra?" a voice spoke from one of the staircases. We both turned to face the person, who turned out to be a tall boy with a kind (and probably a bit confused) smile on his face. He was pretty damn adorable.
"Yeah, I'm Alex and this is Jess", Alex collected herself from staring at the boy and introduced us to him.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Joshua" the boy, Joshua, spoke with a smooth American accent. "Welcome to Korea". We thanked him and followed his lead to what I supposed would be the place we were supposed to meet the others. And sure enough when he opened the door at the end of the fourth flight of stairs we had climbed, we were faced with a classroom with about six other people in it. We stayed at the door awkwardly as Joshua went to talk with a few other boys in the room. Soon an older woman dressed in a classy skirt-and-blouse combination and a sharp, yet gentle, look behind her glasses made her way to the room and we all greeted her bowing down (we had at least bothered to learn the basics on the culture to not seem impolite). So I guess she was the teacher.
"Hello everyone", she greeted us all (in English, thank god) and smiled at me and Alex. "Today we are joined with our new exchange students from the U.S, Alexandra Stailes and Jessica Clay. Welcome to our school girls, would you mind telling us a little about yourselves?"

I cleared my throat while fixing the hem of my shirt that had escaped its state of being tugged in my jeans. "Hi, I'm Jessica but most people call me Jess. I like short walks and long baths, and I have terrible sense of direction. I love chill music, singing and dancing, and I'm extremely nervous about what the next year will be like".
"Hey all, my name's Alexandra or Alex and I love running. And beaches. And the smell of coconut sunscreen. I am also really looking forward to this year in Korea, and I hope it'll be dope", Alex said finishing with a big grin. The rest of the people (who we found out to be a group of school tutors whose job was to help new students) introduced themselves I found out the two boys Joshua was with were called Junghan (a very beautiful boy with enviable hair) and Seungkwan (a dark-haired boy, with a nice accent) and the three girls, who were called Ji-yoon, Amy and Min-seo. They all seemed pretty nice, and they told us some pretty useful tips on how to get to school with the subway and which buses come here along with some advice on some of the classes we would be taking (apparently the math teacher was pretty laid back, but the English teacher had a huge problem with almost everything students did). We also gathered useful information on good cafés and restaurants, and on other "important" stuff we needed to know (like what foods in the cafeteria didn't taste like poop). It was actually a very successful meeting, and when we got back to our dorm (in which Amy and Seungkwan also lived in) we decided to just call it a night and get some sleep to be ready for our new attempt on exploring the city, with an actual map this time.

It had been exactly a week from the day me and Alex got lost in the city, and our school was supposed to start. We had spent quite some time with the group of tutors, who had been kind enough to give us a quick tour of the area near our dorms and some of the city. So at least we knew a couple of people, but I was still a nervous wreck, checking my bag about 1000 times (I couldn't afford having any more human contact than necessary, since I would probably end up offending them about ten times because of my terrible language skills, even though I had been practicing Korean with the help of Joshua) and making sure I looked fine to at least try and make a good first impression. We had to wear a uniform, which I wasn't super excited about, but it was cool as at least I got the advantage of not having to think about what to wear. It was a pretty standard school uniform with a black skirt, a white button-up shirt and a dark navy colored blazer. I let my long, wavy hair cascade down my back, as I was a bit lazy when it came to doing stuff with it. It was tangled 24/7 anyway, so why bother.

"Jess, you ready to start speaking terrible Korean and looking confused?" Alex said, waking me up from my thoughts. I sighed,  and nodded once while gathering my stuff and making my way to the door to leave the dorm. The walk to the main school building took us a good few minutes, and the schoolyard was filled with students talking to each other while walking into the school, catching up after a the now-ending summer break. We stopped in our tracks, taking a deep breath in unison and then giving each other a look which was supposed to be encouraging, but mostly coming out as a "help-me-I-can't-understand-a-word-and-I-want-to-cry-a-little" type of a look. Then we, like everyone else, made our way into the school and for once we actually knew where to go (thanks to the saving angel Junghan, who had told us where our new homeroom would be). We walked in, took seats next to each other, and examined the room. All the other students were busy talking to each other, so we could look at the room in peace.

"Hi, you must be the new students from America", a girl said while making me jump in surprise. Geez, people should learn to not sneak behind our backs.
"Oh, yeah, hi", I managed to get out of my mouth. "This is Alex and I'm Jess".
"My name is Su-bin, nice to meet you", the red-haired girl said while nodding her head slightly and giving us a smile. "I hope you enjoy our school". I gave her a small smile and she returned to her seat. Due to her interest in us, some of the other students noticed us too. And then the whispering started. Oh joy.

----

"Oh god I'm so sorry!" I blurted out after colliding with someone's chest, and then slamming my forehead with my hand. "Stupid Jess, you're supposed to speak Korean. Um, minhae, gwaen chanh a yo?" I tried in my terrible Korean, possibly ordering chicken while at it. I wanted to jump into a hole, as I noticed that the person I had bumped into was a very attractive black-haired boy with messy short hair covering his head. He chuckled a bit, handing me my biology book I had dropped while being a clumsy clown. What a cliche way to meet a guy.

"Don't worry, it's okay", he spoke (with a lovely deep voice may I add, which made me slightly scream on the inside) speaking English way better that I did Korean. He chuckled at my embarrased and slightly confused expression. "I'm Wonwoo", he said, offering his hand, and I shook it.
"Jess", I introduced myself. His hands were really big. And he was tall and good looking. Oh lord, I could already feel my inner typical schoolgirl fainting. I managed to give him a small smile, before the bell rang as a signal for me to make my way towards my next class. Apparently once in Korea, a certain Jessica has developed a skill to embarrass herself in front of every hot guy she meets. Smooth, Jess, real smooth.