I snatched the plane ticket from the table and hurried out.
"Bye mum, bye dad!" I shouted, lugging my suitcase into the taxi.
"Bye honey, have a nice time in England! We're cheering you on the whole way! You'd better learn some proper English, or you're coming back to South Korea, got it?" mum called.
"Yes!" I replied, slamming the car door. I switched my iPod on, letting the soothing voice of Lee Hongki relax the tension that was building up inside me. As we neared the airport, I got more and more worried. What if my English family didn’t like me? I was told they were called Mike, Catherine, Austin and Olivia. We were there before I knew it, and I got off.
“That’ll be twenty-five thousand won,” the taxi driver said. I handed him the money before entering the airport. I checked the times of the flights with my ticket, and found the one to London. Two twenty-five, yes. After checking in, I bought a fruit smoothie, then sat down and waited.
~
“This is your captain speaking, please get ready to land!" the captain said. I buckled up my seatbelt and put my book back in my handbag. In just less than half an hour I would be meeting with the people I would be living with for the next six months. The plane landed and I got off. Now all I had to do was find my suitcase. My eyes switched from suitcase to suitcase before finding my very own FT Island one. I had bought all the stickers and stuck them on a plain black suitcase. But of course, Lee Hongki appeared the most on it.
I put my suitcase on a trolley along with my handbag, and pushed it through the doors into the 'arrivals' place. There I saw a woman holding up a banner saying 'Welcome to England, Hye Yeong!'. I beamed before running over. There was a seriously good looking boy who I supposed was Austin. Olivia on the other hand was grinning with a big lollipop in her hand. They were wearing pretty normal clothes, not much compared to my mini skirt and blouse. My dyed strawberry blonde hair was down and my grey contacts were in. I had brown boots on with an inch of a heel. I made a big effort, but it wasn't needed! I even painted my nails and put make-up on.
"Hello Hye Yeong! I am Catherine, this is Mike, this is Austin and this is Olivia. We hope you enjoy your time in England!" Catherine said, pointing to each one. I smiled.
"Hello! Nice to meet you!" I managed. That was probably the only English I knew except from 'excuse me', 'where is the toilet' and 'my name is Hye Yeong'. Understanding English was easy for me, it was just saying things I couldn't quite accomplish.
"Let me introduce myself. I am Olivia, I'm eight years old and I love rabbits! You know, we have one and it's called Snoopy. I think she'll really like you!" the girl said. She had a pink dress on and her blond hair was tied up. On her feet were two sparkly ballet pumps and a pair of silver roses were inserted in her ear lobes.
"Nice to meet you too," I replied.
"I'm Austin. Sixteen. Not much about me, but you know. I like listening to music, K-Pop in particular!" Austin said. He had a hoodie on with jeans and some Nike 6.0's. His voice was lovely too, a bit like an angel. I nodded, flicking my fringe out of my eyes. He blew me away with his sea-green eyes and dirty blonde hair, which had a woolly hat sitting on it. Catherine and Mike smiled. He liked K-Pop too?
"Shall we go?" Mike said. I nodded and followed them out of Heathrow Airport. They brought me to a blue Audi convertible It was pretty cold so they didn't put the roof down. I sat at the back with Austin and Olivia, listening to Olivia blab on about random things. As expected from an eight year old, right? Austin stayed silent with his Beats headphones blasting out music into his ears.
"We've got your school ready for you Hye Yeong. Would you like to change your name to something else?" Catherine asked. I thought of some names but since I wasn't English I didn't know any. The only ones I knew were Korean ones. "I was thinking maybe Haylee, or Henrietta, or something beginning with 'h' as your name is Hye Yeong. Do you have a preference?" I shook my head. "Okay, maybe it could be something else. Jessica? Katie? Lucy, Elizabeth, Natalie, Wendy, Sophia, Georgia, Cherry, Lucky, Denise, Freya, Yasmine, Danielle, Lotus, Lily, the list goes on! Do you like any of them so far?" she asked reading out names from a piece of paper. I liked Cherry. But I also liked Lucky.
"Cherry?" I said. She smiled.
"It's your choice so pick whichever one you like. If you definitely want Cherry then it'll be your name for the next six months," she replied. I thought hard. Cherry, or Lucky?
I decided on Cherry since I loved cherries anyway. I kept the name Lucky in my head in case I wanted a change. The journey went on for an hour or so, with me answering questions asked by Olivia, Catherine and Mike. I could've sworn Austin was in a different world or something because he showed no expression at all.
"We're here!" Mike said, turning the car into a drive. In front of me I saw a beautiful detatched cottage with ivy on the walls. The garden was cool too, with a fountain and lots of flowers. There were two maple trees and an apple tree. The actual house wasn't that big but the front and back gardens were huge! I got out of the car and made for my luggage but Catherine stopped me.
"Austin, be a gentleman and get Hye- sorry- Cherry's suitcase.” He slouched over to the car boot and heaved my suitcase out.
“I see you like Lee Hongki then?” he asked. I blushed.
“Yeah, I do. I really look up to him, plus he’s pretty good looking.”
“I see.”
We went into the house and Olivia showed me to my new room. My breath was taken away by it – literally! It was pretty big and had a double bed. The wardrobe doors were mirrors and slid across. There was a balcony attached and a desk with stationary already in the drawers. Above the bed was a long shelf, which I supposed was either for photographs or books. I was surprised to see there was an en suite as well, which had a big round bathtub in it. There was also a shower, along with the toilet and sink. I went back into the actual bedroom and Austin had already dumped my suitcase on the wooden floor. I unzipped it and let Olivia help me unpack, which was what she wanted to do.
“Where should I put this?” she asked, holding up my Whole Hauss hoodie.
“In the… the… wardrobe!” I managed. She beamed before running over to it and hanging it up. Meanwhile I tucked the four pairs of shoes I brought with me. My Adidas winged trainers, coral high heels from Jimmy Choo, Ugg boots, and polka dot peep toe wedges. In Korea I had about thirty pairs of shoes and half of them were high heels. Well I was a serious shopaholic!
Olivia finished tidying my things and went downstairs. I finished up too and went down. I didn’t bring many clothes to England because according to mum there were lots of amazing English clothing shops, so I only brought a few pair of jeans, a couple of t-shirts, two skirts from Angelic Pretty (which were shipped over from Japan), a winter coat and some thin dresses.
“Ah, Cherry, do you want anything to eat? You were on the plane for eleven hours, and I’m sure you didn’t like the plane food!” Caroline said. I was pretty hungry actually.
“Mm, yes that would be nice!” I replied. She patted my shoulder before showing me to the kitchen. She made me some chips, which I happily munched on.
“Take them to your room, don’t you want to contact your parents?”
“Oh, yes,” I said, going up the stairs. I had changed the sim in my iPhone already so I called them even though I knew it would cost a lot.
“Oma, are you there?”
“Aigoo, Hye Yeong! Where have you been? You should have called earlier! Aish, chin cha! Do you know how worried me and your father was?” mum said.
“Sorry… I didn’t really have time…”
“Anyway, how is England so far?”
“Yeah, it’s okay. I’ve tidied everything away, I’m just waiting for someone to show me around!”
“Ah. Have you spoken any English?”
“In fact I have! I think I’m already improving!”
“Ha, no way. Do you want to speak to your father?”
“Mm, okay.”
“Hye Yeong? Hello! How are you doing?”
“Ah-bu-ji! I’m fine!”
“Oh. Have fun, okay? Aish I need a number two… Aigoo…”
“Ahbuji! Fine, fine, I’ll call later, okay?”
“Mm. Bye!”
I hung up. That father of mine… I have no idea why my mum married him. I threw the phone on my bed and got out my Mac book air. I was just about to take some pictures on Photo Booth when Austin came in.
“Hey. Is it okay if I call you Hye Yeong? It’s just I’m not fond of the name Cherry.”
“Of course!” I replied.
“Do you want me to show you around?”
“Okay!” We went out and he showed me his parent’s room, his own room (which was so tidy!), Olivia’s room (which was pretty much a pink fairy land), the living room, drawing room, kitchen, dining room and of course the garden.
Olivia was right, they had a rabbit. Austin got it out and let me hold it. It was really soft and cute! There were loads of fruit trees, including a cherry one. I saw one and picked it. Austin took it from my fingers and placed it in my mouth. I looked up at him, who told me to bite it. When I didn’t, he laughed.
“Hye Yeong, you’re cute! Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I said. He simply smiled. Did he just say I was cute? No, I must have been dreaming.
~~~
Hello! This is my first story, thanks for reading! This is dedicated to senserstarshine for her awesomeness xxx