Chapter 1
“It’s time to start fresh, no drama, no boys and definitely no crazy stalker ex boyfriends for me,” Lily thought to herself.
She stands in line, preparing to board her plane, ready to endure the next 15 hours of awkwardly having to ask the next person to move so she can go to the washroom.
For the last 2 years, Lily had been moving around to different cities, changing her name and restarting every chance she got. The reason why? Jay.
Lily and Jay dated for 5 years and were high school sweethearts. The only issue was that in the last year of their relationship Jay became irritable, obsessive, a completely different person. Lily’s friends and family had become so concerned that they staged an intervention after Jay made the proclamation that no one else can associate with Lily.
After the intervention Lily broke up with Jay and moved to a different part of town. However, it seemed as if no matter where Lily moved, Jay would be right outside her door. Lily filed a restraining order against him, and when he broke the terms, Jay was arrested and is now in the process of being sentenced to jail.
Lily decided to start fresh and move to South Korea, she doesn’t know anyone there, but something is drawing her there. Or someone. In Lily’s dreams, someone is calling her name and she wanted to tell her best friend but she was worried that they would think she is crazy for feeling this way.
She doesn’t know any Korean besides how to say the most important words which include hello, please, thank you, sorry, and I’ll have one beer. But she is staying positive and is hoping to find a tutor once her plane lands.
“Speaking of planes, when will we leave?” Lily asked herself. “We’ve been waiting to board now for the last twenty minutes and they haven’t even scanned our tickets.”
She tries to look at the check in attendants but unfortunately given her 5 foot stature it’s quite hard to see above everyone’s heads. Just as Lily tries to jump to see, someone bumps into her and Lily’s bag falls, dropping all that was inside onto the floor. She looks down at all her stuff scattered around.
“Watch it will you?” The man looks at Lily and sees her belongings on the ground. “This isn’t the place for high schoolers to be fooling around.”
“I’m sorry but I also think you are at fault too,” Lily looks up and sees nothing but a man’s muscular chest. “Please don’t be angry with me but if you can, I would appreciate it if you would help me collect some of the items.”
Finally, after realizing she was talking to his chest the entire time, Lily tilts her head to look at the man’s face. He seems to be Asian, his eyes are quite confusing. One moment his eyes are a deep brown, but when his eyes meet Lily’s they turn golden orange, like a sunset after a long day. For some reason, she feels safe.
He seems to be a bit speechless once our eyes meet. “Sorry, it’s been a long day,” he apologizes. “I really would help you but I need to go to the front quickly and check in.”
He runs to the check in attendant and after his ticket is scanned the rest of us start moving finally.
Lily quickly collects her things and follows the crowd until she reaches the check in attendant. She scans her ticket once, twice, three times but the scanner keeps beeping.
“Sorry, do you mind standing off to the side, it seems there’s been a mixup with your ticket,” the attendant says.
Lily stands off to the side looking at her ticket, “I wonder what the issue is, could it be the wrong flight? Or maybe in some freak situation my ticket was upgraded without me knowing. Just kidding there’s a 0% chance of that.” Lily laughs to herself.
After about 15 minutes the line is gone and the attendant walks over to Lily.
“It seems as if someone else had the same seat as you, so let me just check the system for available seats. Sorry for the inconvenience.” The flight attendant bowed and apologized.
“I’m guessing in Korea they bow a lot? I just hope I’m able to make it onto this plane. I really don’t want to wait around for 5 more hours,” Lily thought.
“Well, it seems like it’s your lucky day. There is a seat available on the same flight and it also is in the first class section. I hope that works for you,” the attendant smiles at Lily and motions for her to go onto the plane. Lily smiles back and bows. “Figured I might as well start getting accustomed.”
Lily passes the other attendants and makes her way to her seat, as she enters the first class section she wonders “Should I pretend to be some sort of celebrity? It’s not as if I will see the others on here again.”
She sits down, takes out her cell phone and starts taking pictures like crazy. After she’s taken about 15 photos she hears someone clear their throat. Lily looks up and sees her seat neighbour, it’s her lucky day as it turns out to be the smoking hot man who bumped into her while she was in line.
“Didn’t mean to interrupt your photo shoot but do you mind just lowering the shade a little bit? I’m quite sensitive to sunlight.” He looks into her eyes. “Oh you were from earlier! I had no idea you were in first class. Why were you in the line then?”
“Long story short, they double booked my seat so I got an upgrade.” Lily laughs “Honestly with how things have been the last few years I thought my luck was so bad, so any sort of good luck is a breath of relief for me.” Lily gazes our the window, trying to hold back tears.
“If you don’t mind me asking, what scale of bad luck is it?” He seems genuinely curious.
“Well I have moved to 9 different places in the last year, have an ex waiting to go to jail, and my mom...” Lily feels a tear fall down her cheek.
She hears rustling and looks over at the man, she sees him looking into all his jacket pockets and he pulls out a pack of tissues.
“Not quite sure how long they have been in there but you can keep them.” He smiles at Lily. “Everything happens for a reason, I’m sure more good luck will come your way.”
The man waves down a flight attendant and orders some wine, naturally the flight attendant asks Lily if she would like some, to which she replies of course.
We both get our glasses and then the man looks at Lily, “You know, I don’t condone underage drinking”
“Well lucky for you I’ve just turned 22. Though I always am mistaken for being 15” Lily laughs.
The man looks startled for a second then lifts his glass, “My name is Hyunjun but you can call me Jun. Cheers to good luck.” He winks at Lily, she feels her body getting hot and decides to wink back, then she clinks her glass with his.
“I feel my luck is getting better already.”
