Untitled, 2018

Chapter 2: Customs

Author's Note: Okay, I'm just introducing people right now I'm sorryyyy bear with me for a bit.

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              A semester in Seoul, just as college starts? Great. Great idea. Barely started my classes, haven't even made friends, but now I'm off to a country with a language I've only picked up through dramas and language-learning apps. Just great. But then which idiotic whim in my body did I decide to accept the offer with? I honestly don't know. What my priorities are, what I want to do... I only have vague ideas that I need to start working hard, and clearly, I'm easily distracted. It's a prestigious internship with Dr. Kang and Wang -leaders in their field - I kept telling myself, as if that justified my ridiculous decision. I wanted to stab my eyes or something.

             I walked towards the lab I was told to go to a few days ago when I got the email from Shonda - apparently Dr. Kang was visiting the university and would meet me and the other student chosen for the project. I was told he was a senior. The school had already made an announcement of congratulations to us (at least I got some attention from this whole mess).

At the lab, I went to the only meeting room visible, and saw that a young man was already seated, his back facing me. I took the seat next to him with a "Hi!"

He turned and flashed some pearly whites at me. I could only describe him as... chocolate. He was quite goodlooking and clearly a few years older. "I'm Riti - I'm a freshman."

            "A freshman, really? Wow! I'm Mateo. Senior. I'm a double-major in Information Science and Psychology." I smiled - he seemed affable. We were interrupted by an older woman clad in all-white, followed by a man with a thick handlebar mustache. She looked distinctly of Chinese heritage, but spoke with a European accent as she exclaimed, "Students! It's so lovely to meet you. I'm Dr. Stephanie Wang, and this is my assistant. I'm so very excited to introduce our project to you guys."

              She plugged her laptop into a wire and a large display appeared on the screen behind her. "In short, it's a project on human desire. What is it we want most? What drives our decisions? Love? Lust? Money? Fear? Honor? We're formulating our theories based on tonnes of data bytes and interviews." She let out a small laugh. "Our main financiers are, in fact, companies in the advertising and entertainment industries - frankly because they want to know what sells. Our largest backer is a top media conglomerate in South Korea- so we're headed there. We'll be interacting with exciting personnel and gathering information - so remember to stay calm, keep your eyes wide open, and keep an open mind. I expect nothing but the best from you two." She swept her eyes over us but her gaze lingered on mine with a knowing glint and a slight smirk.

              "Gather everything you need for such a long trip! We leave in a week!" My eyes shot open. This is really happening. In a week. My stupid dreams from less than six months ago were somehow bubbling up again and I was excited.
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             The morning of the flight, I called my mother and I think I heard her sigh a little. "It's your unhealthy obsession with those singers, isn't it?"

             I rolled my eyes with exasperation. "Mom! Even you've read about Kang and Wang in the newspapers. This is about me."

Hanging up after another minute on the phone, I got ready to leave in Chocolate- I mean, Mateo's taxi with my three suitcases. He gasped a little when he saw the volume of my luggage and I just sighed and muttered, "A whole semester!" when I saw the one backpack he was carrying.

            The plane ride was mostly pleasant, but I got a little congested from the sheer duration of the flight. I got to know Mateo and handlebar mustache guy a little better- whose name I found out was Jon; he was from France. Mateo's thesis would borrow heavily from the research we're doing, and I guess he was doing his own thing on the side for a bit with the research funds allocated to him for the project. As for Jon - he'd worked for Wang for only a few months, and worked at a company in Nantes before, to which he was returning in a week. He would transfer his work to us and then leave. I guessed he probably liked me a little better of the students, because I spoke a little French too.

             As we stepped off the flight, I noticed a large crowd at the exit. When we asked around, turned out that we were in the airport at the same time as 4Ever, a popular girl group that had released their newest album and was apparently returning from a fansigning in Japan. My inner kid leapt around when I saw a group of seven or so huddling and rushing through to a limo outside. I laughed aloud. Mateo gave me a look and I just shook my head in response.

I walked from the baggage claim to the terminal, chatting with Jon loudly, earning a few looks from others, when I felt a large load bump into my shoulder and winced from the pain. I dropped one of my carry-on bags and whipped around in annoyance. "Excuse me!" I gasped indignantly as I bent down to pick my bag up. The stranger bent down at the same time and we accidentally crashed foreheads - well, more like his cap slammed into my forehead and we both shook from the impact. I winced from the pain but glared at the wide eyes belonging to the stranger.

He looked apologetic- or at least it seemed so from his eyes; He wore a black mask over his face to hide everything below the tip of his somewhat flat nose. As soon as we both grabbed our bags he stood up in a rush but I grabbed what I assumed was his rather skinny wrist under his thick dark green jacket. A look of panic crossed over his eyes at that, and I got a little confused but whispered angrily: "Watch where you're going." He yanked his hand away with quite a bit of force and gave an accented "sorry" before joining his tall friend to scurry away, who looked a little panicked but ready to pounce in case anything went wrong. I was a little offended that they thought I'd rip them to shreds or something strange like that. They were clearly taller and stronger; I'm literally barely a couple inches over five feet.

Mateo, Jon, and I decided to sit at a Starbucks at the airport to wait for Dr. Wang to make her way to pick us up. She had arrived a couple of days early for some legal transactions she had to make right away. While sipping on a stupidly sugary drink and feeling ridiculously guilty about it, I realized there was a charging outlet right next to me- jackpot. I reached into my duffel bag to pull out my charger and realized - this wasn't my duffel bag. In fact it looked nothing like my duffel bag- it was literally just the same weight and a similar color. I groaned in frustration- it was mask face guy's bag, probably. But the problem is I hadn't even seen his face- all I knew was that he was in the customs area, so likely just arrived from abroad. I needed to find him, or an officer.

While Jon waited for his dark coffee I quickly informed him of where I was going. Mateo insisted on helping me, and I smiled at what a gentleman he was. We half-jogged to the large exit hall in the airport and decided to split up to look for him. Right as Mateo left I turned towards the customs checkpoints to see a pair of eyes watching our moves. It was mask-face guy! He seemed to be alone. I waved to make sure he knew I saw him, and raised the duffel bag I had at him. He raised mine, and we started walking towards each other in the bustling crowd until we were a few feet apart.

Suddenly, I heard a sharp whistle to my right and turned to see a police officer walking towards us. I all but dropped the bag when I saw the man's face. Now as he stood right by us, he spoke in fluent Korean- funny because he was giving a certain lecture in a certain event hall not very long ago. "Excuse me madam, sir," He pushed a ridiculous pair of sunglasses onto his forehead and looked at the two of us disapprovingly. "I'm going to have to ask you to open your bags for inspection. I just stood there in shock at seeing the rude lecturer up front so close, in a uniform, speaking Korean, which mask-face guy likely took as me not understanding the officer.

                  He chimed in Korean behind his mask, "Excuse me, we were just exchanging bags because we had accidentally picked each others' bags up earlier." He had a surprisingly sweet voice and I glanced at him for a moment. He reminded me of someone, but I couldn't quite place who. The officer just said "I'm sorry- this is protocol, I need you two to follow me right away." Mask-face guy tapped his foot a little impatiently and said "I'm in a bit of a hurry. Respectfully, could I ask why we need to follow you?" The officer just reached to grab the bag in my hands, which I pulled away instinctively. I asked him in English, "Who are you?" He looked at me with a smirk and a glint in his eye but kept his mouth shut. Instead, he reached for the bag in mask-face guy's hand, who offered no resistance, and unzipped the bag hastily. A little offended by the lack of privacy, I let out a noise in protest, but right then he pulled out a small white plastic package from my bag. I froze and looked at him, confused, then shifted my gaze up to mask-face guy's shocked and accusing face.

Wait are those... Drugs?