The Traveling Tale of the Two Troublesome Twins

Kourtnae was talking to the cab driver about something in Korean and I wasn’t paying attention. I was looking at the beautiful city of Seoul. Then, scaring me almost of my seat, my phone rang. It played ‘Love Like This’ by SS501. I sang part of the song in my head then answered the phone. “Hey, I hope this isn’t a bad time or anything, I just couldn’t get you off my mind.” Jae said. Oh yeah, the Korean guy from the plane.

“Oh hey, Jae.” I said with fake enthusiasm. He was just way to clingy! Already! And I only met him like three hours ago.

“Yeah, so what’s up?” He asked me.

“Um, actually we were just pulling into our Umma’s house. So, I’ll call you.” I said lying to him, which I immediately felt bad because he was a really nice guy.

“Oh, okay.” He said then I heard the click button and knew he had hung up.

“Whatever. Kourtnae, you can have Jae. He too clingy for me.” I said snootily. Then we both chuckled. Then she closed her eyes.

“I’m. So. Tired.” She said leaning her head against my shoulder.

“How late did you actually stay up…?” I said afraid to ask.

“Late enough.” Then she fell asleep on my shoulder. I’ll have to remember to ask her what she was writing. Then I got my answer. She had written a short verse on a piece of paper. I slipped it out of hand.

It said, “We’re traveling round the world, just my sister and me. Gonna go many places, gonna see pretty faces.” I had a rhythm in my head and had memorized the verse by the time the cab driver pulled into our Mom’s house.

“Kourtnae, come on Unnie. Time to get up…” I said shaking her whole body violently. She still didn’t wake up and the cab driver offered to help, and I accepted, I grabbed our bags and the cab driver toted Kourtnae to the door step. Then, Kourtnae woke up.

“Whoa, dude, personal bubble!” She shouted. I laughed hysterically, the cab driver put her down, waved, then got in his car and left.

Then together, we knocked on the door. “Mom?!” Kourtnae shouted. A middle-aged women answered the door.

“Kaylea?” She asked. I hugged her tightly. “Kourtnae?” She asked. Then Kourtnae hugged her. “I missed you girls so much!” She shouted.

“Babe, who’s at the door?” A man asked from inside the house. His Korean was totally fake.

“These are my daughters. Twins.” Mom said in authentic Korean. I smiled and hugged her again. Kourt was about to fall asleep on the door step so we walked into the house.

“Girls, this is my husband.” Mom said. I half grinned and Kourt rolled her eyes and scoffed. This is what happens when she’s tired.

“What.” The man demanded. That did it.

“First off! Umma doesn’t need any lying guy in her life who claims he’s Korean then throws together this fake Korean accent! Second off! She doesn’t need some guy trying to show off his abs at the first person that comes to the door! Third off! If you’re going to be a mean person, then I think I should kill you right here on the spot. Don’t. Mess. With. Me.” Kourtnae said unleashing her vengeance.

“Kourtnae!” Mom exclaimed. I just sat back and watched with a smirk on my face. “I think you should apologize, right now!” She shouted.

Kourtnae shook her head no. “Obviously, we’re leaving now, Mom. By the way, we were accepted into the All Girls Best Academy of Southern Korea. Come on, Kaylea.” With that, we grabbed our things and went out the door.

Since we practically see the school from our Mom’s house we began to walk toward the school. “Why’d you get in the fight?” I asked Kourt once she had calmed down.

“Because I didn’t like Mom’s husband.” Kourt answered truthfully. I didn’t say anything more. Eventually, we came upon a massive school. Ours.

“Let’s find the office. Shall we?” Kourt prompted, I laughed at her trying to followed her to the school map.

I laughed again when she looked at the Korean map. “Uh, that way, I hope.” She smiled sheepishly and pointed to the left.

I followed he to the office door. She pushed open the heavy door and the receptionist jumped up to meet us. “Annyeong-haseyo, ajmni.” Kourtnea bowed to the receptionist. I didn’t know what she was bowing for so I stood there. The Kourtnea hit me in the knee and hissed at me, “Bow, stupid.” I bowed and came back up. “We are the American’s that have been invited to attend classes here.”

“Ah, one moment please.” The lady said. She walked out of the room.

I glared at Kourt. “Why did we have to the whole hello and bow thing?!”

“Because it’s polite.” Kourtnea answered.

“But she’s American!” I shouted.

“Do you want to seem smart or stupid about the country we are living in now?” Kourtnea challenged. I snarled but stopped talking.

A minute later, the lady came back in with an older man and pointed to us. “Annyeong-haseyo!” He said and bowed. “Eoseo-oseyo.” When he said that, he lost me.

“It means ‘Welcome’.” Kourt said feeling my distress.

“Alright, girls. Here’s your uniforms. We just estimated your sizes, I hope they fit properly. Now, your dorm room number is 634. You’re roommate is also from American and can speak English.” The Dean, I assumed, said. Then, he handed Kourt and I a piece of paper, “There are your classes. Your roommate will help you and show you around.” He bowed once more then went back into his office.

Then, we left the office. “I still can’t believe we’re finally in Korea.” I said hugging my class schedule.

Kourt laughed and told me to come on. Magically, we were able to find our dorm room fairly easy. I knocked on the door and a young-looking girl answered. “They didn’t tell me you were coming today!” She fretted. “I would’ve cleaned up a little.” She said. Kourt and I just looked at each other. “Oh, excuse me, come on in!” She said. She took one of my bags and tossed it on the bottom bunk.

“Annyeong-haseyo, Jeoneun rago heago Kourtnea.” Kourt said wanting to feel smart. She had said her name was Kourtnea.

“Oh, well, my name is Kangelanlegnri. And if you call me that, I will personally have my brother and his six best friends come beat you within an inch of life. My name is Kahri.” She said in all seriousness.

“Well, I’m Kaylea.” I said shaking her hand.

“Oh,” Kourt said, “Kaylea won’t let me sleep on top.” She said when she saw Kahri had but my bag on the bottom.

“Yeah.” I agreed.

“How come?” Kahri asked. She sat down on her bed and fluffed her pillows.

“Because I practically have to light her on fire to get her up in the mornings. So, sleeping on the top will only make my job harder.” I explained. Kahri had that look of ‘Oh’ on her face.

“Hey, Kahri, you said you had a brother is this him?” Kourt asked looking a brightly colored picture with seven guys and Kahri standing next to an artificial blonde.

“Uh-huh. That’s him. His nickname is Kevin, so I call him Kevin.” Kourt and I looked around the room. Kevin was her brother. Kevin was from UKISS. Kevin was famous.

“No way.” Kourt and I said at the same time.

“Yes way, Kevin’s my oppa.” Kahri aid looking at her calendar. “If you can wait until Friday, I can take to see my brother and the rest of UKISS at their apartment." She smiled. "That's the only day their off."

“Really…? You could do that…?” Kourt asked. She was in love with Kibum. While my heart was set on Hyung Jun.

“Yes, I can. I’m Kevin’s dongsaeng.” Kahri confirmed. Kurt and Kahri then became busy with talking about UKISS and I became disinterested.

I climbed up on the top bunk and began separating my clothes. Then I remember Jae. I took out my phone and called the last person who called me.

“Hello?” Someone asked.

“Jae?” I asked. For a moment it was silent then someone said something in Korean.

“Hey, I can’t talk here, but you can meet me at a restaurant in Seoul. Um, the Kae’s Kitchen.”

“Uh, sure.” I said. I hung up the phone and looked at Kahri and Kourt. “Hey guys, I’m gonna go look around.” I lied.

“Okay, be back in time for dinner! Remember school in 2 days!” Kahri called after me as I was walking out of the door.

I walked out of the school grounds and began walking to the busiest part of Seoul. I had to ask for directions several times, but I found the meeting place. I walked into the place and immediately spotted Jae. I came over and sat in front of him. “Hey!” He said happily. “I thought you weren’t gonna come!”

“Of course I would.” I said. Then I looked at my outfit, I was still wearing the clothes I had on when we landed in Korea.

“Well, since we’re here, what do you want to eat?” Jae asked kindly.

“Oh, I’m not hungry.” I said truthfully.

“Well, let’s skip the food and go straight to dessert!” Jae said cheerily.

“Fine with me!” I said smiling. Jae ordered something in Korean, so it’ll be a surprise for me. A few minutes later, a monster sundae came to our table.

“If we eat this, we get a free t-shirt and our picture on the wall.” Jae explained. I looked at the wall, we’d be the first people on the wall. So, we picked up the spoons and began eating the monster sundae.

A quarter of the way through with the sundae, I was stuffed, but didn’t say anything to Jae, because for every one bite I was taking, Jae was taking three, yet he was as thin as a stick.

At some part he smeared syrup on his nose and we laughed hysterically about it. I think I really like him, he’s really sweet. When he realized we couldn’t finish the sundae, the waitress took our picture anyway. She took one for the wall and one for us to keep. In the one we could keep, Jae had his arm around me, and I was smearing whipped cream on his cheek and we were both laughing.

After the picture taking, Jae and I walked outside. “Well it’s been really fun.” I said. Jae smiled and handed me the picture.

“Maybe we can do this do again sometime.” Jae said.

“Defiantly. I’ll call you.” I offered.

“Cool…Well bye.” He said. I waved and turned the way I came and went the opposite way. I managed to find the Academy without any problems. Then I remembered, Kourt and I were suppose to call Dad, so I called him then remembered it’s 8 p.m. here so it’s 5 a.m. there.

“Uh hello?” A groggy voice asked.

“Sorry, Dad. It’s Kaylea. I’ll let you sleep.” I said sincerely.

“No, it’s okay, Kaylea. I was about to get up. I’ve started a new shift at the company. So how’s Korea?”

“It’s great. Really great.” I said at the picture of Jae and I and smiled.

“When do you start classes?” He asked.

“2 days.” I said.

“Ah…how’s Kourt?” My Dad asked. He must’ve became bored with me.

“She’s fine. Her and our roommate are checking out our school.” I said playing with the things still left to unpack.

“Alright, sweetie, well tell her I said hello.” Dad said trying to close the conversation.

“Alright, Dad, well I better go. I still have to unpack.” I said.

“Okay, I love you.”

“Love you too.” We hung up and I began putting my clothes into the dresser. By the time Kahri and Kourt walked in I was arranging my pictures on the shelves above my bed.

“Hey Kay.” Kourt said laughing. I slightly smiled.

“Did you have fun?” Kahri asked.

“Yeah, the ice cream sundae was the funniest part and Jae is totally cute---”

“Told you she wasn’t looking around the school.” Kourt smirked.

“Hey, you tricked me!” I shouted.

“Duh.” Kourt snorted. I can’t believe I fell for that! I quietly came down from my bed and hit Kourtnea upside the head.

“Ow!” She shouted.

“Unpack.” I demanded. She reluctantly got up and became busy with unpacking, so I decided to talk to Kahri. “Hey, so who do you like in UKISS?” I asked.

“Kibum!” Kourt shouted.

“Alexander. Him and I are secretly dating. Just about everyone except Kevin knows.” Kahri scoffed.

“So in other words, don’t think about liking Alexander…” Kourt said muffled beneath her clothes.

“Why can’t Kevin know?” I asked, because I kind of thought Kevin was cute in a boy-ish kind of way, but Hyung Jun was still cuter.

“Oppa, can’t know because he’s my oppa and is very over-protective.” Kahri laughed. “Wait, you said you like Kibum?” Kahri asked Kourt.

“Yeah…Why?” Kourt asked.

Kahri just looked at Kourt. “No reason.” She lied. “And you like?” She said referring to me.

“Um, Hyung Jun.” I looked over at Kourt who was arranging her pictures on her shelves. Along with her glasses, notebook, and light-up bumble bee pen.

“Well, I’m ready to go to bed.” I said yawning.

“Me too.” Kahri said. She turned off the light and we all crawled into bed.

All except for Kourt, who I despised because of that bumblebee pen. For a couple of hours that pen stayed on, from what I figured, actually I fell asleep.