Lake Bluff, IL
"9:58 am," mumbled Erika staring at the clock on the microwave. "That means it's almost midnight in Seoul." Pressing send she waited while the phone rang leaving a message when it went to voicemail. After being told five weeks ago she was being laid off Erika decided not to renew her lease and accepted her dad's offer to move back home until she found another job. She'd had her resume professional reviewed and had begun sending it to daycares, elementary and middle schools and hadn't received any telephone calls about it.
She blinked back the tears of frustration and anger that were threatening to bloom in her eyes as she opened her mobile banking app she stared at the negative amount. Her dad was planning to marry some desk sergeant named Pheobe Tyler from North Chicago so she didn't dare ask him for money plus she doubted he'd give it to her anyway. This was the perfect opportunity for him to throw what he considered a waste of time and money in her face. Against his wishes, she'd went to school and studied for a degree in arts with an emphasis in Horticulture.
Dropping her phone on the table she checked her email on her laptop to see if any of the districts she'd applied to responded with anything besides the automated thank you but saw nothing. "Maybe I should look outside of Illinois," she mumbled back to scrolling through her email.
Plucking at the material of her yoga pants she sighed; when she'd graduated everything was working out. Through some miracle, she and Liam were still together and he'd come to see her. He'd said something about not having anything pressing to do for the next three months and they'd played house, as her dad liked to call it. While he was visiting, she'd interviewed and gotten a good paying job and signed a lease for her first apartment. But now after paying to break her lease and move out plus paying six months ahead on her student loans, car insurance, and her car note she was lucking the bank didn't close her account.
Feeling a bout of anxiety rise up at her own dismay she sat her phone back on the table not realizing it had redialed. It seemed like everyone and everything was out to make sure she couldn't get ahead. If she didn't know any better she'd think her dad had something to do with her not being able to get a job.
Staring at the computer screen, Erika sat with her elbow propped on the faux marble kitchen table in her dad's two-bedroom townhouse ignoring the boxes from her old apartment that she refused to unpack. "I'm not staying here," she whined.
"Call me back when you're done crying," she heard a familiar voice snap through her Bluetooth followed by something she couldn't quite make out.
"Liam," she heard herself saying as she plucked the earbud from her Bluebooth from around her shirt's collar and placed it into her ear.
His panic was palpable when he responded, "Erika, what's wrong?"
"God I'm stupid," she whispered picking up her phone and realizing somehow she had dialed him again.
There was slight a pause before Liam responded along with a little shuffling and if she didn't know any better she'd think he was agreeing with her. "What's wrong," he finally asked on a yawn. "Is your father okay? Did something happen to my parents?"
"No," she whined wishing she could take it back as soon as she'd done it. Ugh, I sound like one of those chicks from a k-drama whining on and on expecting the guy to make everything better for me. Liam is a struggling artist I need to fix this crap myself.
She wondered why he was still but before she could ask him if she'd woken him he sighed, "what's going on then?"
Erika debated with the idea of laying her problems down at his feet but decided to take Bong Cha's advice. "Ms. Ernhard," she whispered, "Ms. Ernhard fired me." There was another pause before Liam began to ask questions and by the end of the phone call Liam had decided for her that she was going to apply to a Teacher's Exchange Program with a company called All Bright and move to South Korea for a little while.
Later that night, while she sat once again at her dad's kitchen table she heard a ding and saw she had an email. Opening her laptop she chuckled, true to his word Liam had sent her not only a link to the application but a direct email she was to send it to along with a link and a few articles about the company.
"Tomorrow," she mumbled looking at the time and seeing it was 9 pm. "Early to bed, early to rise," she mumbled staring longingly at her phone but quickly dismissed calling pretty sure Liam was already too busy to speak.
The next morning she checked KakaoTalk responded to Liam's messages, sent a picture of her smiling morning face along with confirmation that she'd received the email. Not waiting for a response but hoping there would be one she jumped in the shower. Upon exiting she checked her phone and was pleased to see not only did he respond but he'd sent her a few pictures as well.
Erika smiled so big it made her face hurt as she put on a pair of black yoga pants and a red and gold tank top with a gold half top over it. Running her fingers through her hair she made a mental note that she needed to go to the beauty supply for more locking gel.
"I'm leaving," she heard her dad call from downstairs before the door slammed shut before she could even yell goodbye. Shaking her head she reached for her laptop only to realize she left it downstairs on the kitchen table.
Almost forty-five minutes later she sat staring at the screen with her chin was cupped in her left palm reread the completed application making sure that she'd entered Seoul, South Korea as her first choice followed and Busan as the alternate option in the location field. Saving the document as a pdf file she attached it to an email inserted the professional cover letter she'd only had to edit slightly and emailed it the address Liam had provided yesterday.
After hitting send she decided to look a litter deeper into the company aside from the basic information that Liam had emailed her yesterday. All Bright Exchange Program was founded in 2009 by Archibald Allbright in Cotswold, England. Current and former employees gave it a 3.5 star out of 5 with most unsatisfied with the organization's approach to housing the teachers and the lack of individuals that spoke English.
"I can deal with that," she nodded hoping her side gig was really helping her with her ability to speak Korean. "I guess I should work on my passport," she mused using the address bar to type in her search and pulled up the instructions along with the application.
Erika made quick work of typing the information into the fields online and quickly printed it out. Smirking Erika packed up her laptop, deciding to do like Liam suggested. "Carpe diem," she all but shouted before grabbing her stuff and going to the local post office. In less than forty minutes she'd taken her passport picture and filed her passport application using the last of the money on her credit card and in her checking account.
Pulling out her phone she smirked as she took a picture of the receipt in her KakaoTalk app. 'I did it,' she typed sending it with the image before closing the app without waiting to see if he'd seen it.
Rolling her shoulders Erika walked out of the post office with a pep in her step and a smile on her lips. Pausing she decided to grab her laptop and headphones out of her car and do some work at the local coffee shop instead of going home.
"Thank goodness for Quattuor," she thought out loud as sat at one of the empty tables with her drink and booted up the computer. A little guilt tickled at her since she'd never told anyone she'd opened an account with them two months ago and started to do translations. If the text she received was real she'd be paid for a translation by Friday and that money would get her savings out of the negative. Plus they approved her as one of the many translators on a new assignment. "My Korean skills are going to improve leaps and bounds," she enthused making sure to keep her voice down. still wasn't the best but she understood a lot better, she thought smugly putting on her headset.
She quickly skimmed the assignment she'd requested and continued through her email pausing when she saw a reply from Tang Kyung-Ho at All Bright. "Must be the confirmation for my application," she thought until she saw an auto-generated response with the subject 'Thank you for your submission'. Quickly she moved back up to the second e-mail and opened it, scanning the contents several times she did a happy dance in her chair. The email told her she was a shoe-in, the person Tang Kyung-Ho wanted to set up a time for an interview and he was hoping to streamline a few things by doing it via Skype or Google Hangout.
"As long as they don't ask for money or send me a check asking me to send half back," she snickered pressing the reply button and typing out a response that included her Skype username. Erika stared at the screen for several more seconds as it fully hit her; if this interview goes well she'll be in the same country, hell the same city, as Liam.
Ignoring glancing from the bistros and the other seated customers she did another happy dance in her chair before moving the flashing cursor. Liam was showing himself to be a godsend and she quickly sent him a message letting him know what had just happened. "He's definitely asleep by know," she murmured dropping her phone back on the table. Slowly she tilted her head at the screen and the overwhelming desire to search for Liam struck her but she'd promised after the NO Limit Scandal.
"Whatever," she grumbled to turning glare at the display that was missing the blueberry scone she wanted. Satisfied with her childish antics she chuckled, "To Quattuor so I can earn this money!" Slapping a headphone over one ear she went to the website's translator login page.
Bypassing the images showing the 10 most talked about k-dramas that were going to be released she opened up the file for the series she was working on. Seconds later an image of a man staring intently at the camera with piercing brown eyes, wearing a black turtleneck and tan pants appeared with his arms wrapped tight around a woman pressed against him staring off over his shoulders but angled in a way that her entire face was still seen. She was wearing a long pencil red pencil skirt and a flowing pink top as she pressed her body against him. "This can't be right," frowned Erika scrolling pass the image to the title of the show in hangul that had already been translated. 'The Moon Shines Bright," she whispered to herself taking in the woman's small heart-shaped face with her pale translucent skin, light brown come-hither eyes, pouty pink lips, and dark brown hair. "Starring Lee M. Park and Arabella Lee of Doe Eyed Girl," she read a little further down.
"Liam," she mumbled sucking air through her teeth as she tried to remember their conversation from yesterday. He'd said he'd had a long day and that he was tired. Not once during any of their conversations had he told her he was a leading man in any of the dramas he'd been in. He'd led her to believe he was part of the supporting cast and once he'd flown in all sad telling her his part was eliminated during editing.
The promise not to search each other online died in that moment as she opened a new window and typed in the state name she'd never bothered asking him.
'Lee M Park' she typed surprised when article after article popped up. 'Lee M Park's girlfriend' she typed without missing a beat and clenching her fist pictures of him with other women slowly appeared on the screen. The articles seemed more like gossip connecting him to several women he'd worked with in the past. Staring blankly at the screen and against her better judgment she typed, 'Lee M Park's wife'. Hitting enter she held her breath waiting and released it in a whoosh when nothing appeared aside from a variety show called 'We Got Married' where he partnered up with a pretty petite woman after a few more minutes of searching was now married to a director.
"No wonder he didn't want me to search him," she grumbled gazing in awe as she clicked the Image tab and more pictures of him appeared along with a few other random male Asian idols in image search. "He's freaking famous as hell over there."
"Stop it," she admonished herself closing out the three windows she'd open. "Don't look any further," mumbled Erika chewing on her bottom lip as the tone for KakaoTalk sounded. "I need to work," she nodded in an attempt to stop her fingers from typing any other questions about him. "Fudge it," she announced grabbing her phone while using her index finger to type in one letter at a time after Liam's stage name, 'net worth'.
"This is a bad idea," she whispered to herself as the little circle spun. Finally, it came to a halt and she exhaled in relief when the information didn't readily appear. Feeling all kinds of guilty Erika opened her messenger app and read Lim's response and giggled at the emoji he sent. 'Silly,' she responded before sending his a kissy face emoji followed by 'Love You'.
'Love You More,' came his quick response.
Closing the app she went back to the screen so that she could start translating when one article caught her attention. The article was from 2016, 'The 14 highest-paid K-drama actors - Quattuor.' Clicking the link she scrolled down slowly until she found Liam at the number one spot and began reading to herself, 'On top of the pack is the talented and handsome Lee M. Park, who has had a string of successful dramas in both Korea and Japan including Wishing Upon a Star, The Sun That Holds You Close, and Assistant. When filming Wishing Upon a Star Lee M. was a transitioning idol and it was speculated he received about 10 million won an episode but now Lee M. is considered a full-fledged actor who can belt out a pretty tune. It is speculated that he receives and deserves the 108 million won he receives per episode.'
Blinking at the sum Erika slowly brought her camera up and snapped a picture and without consideration sent it to Liam with one question, 'what is 108 million won in US dollars?"
"Oh God No," she gasped when she realized what she'd just done holding the image down waiting for the option to delete but it never appeared. It was too late and read already appeared next to the image and the question. Trying not to vomit she grabbed all her stuff off the table and threw them into her bag just as Liam's name and photo appeared on her phone's screen.