you:

After about two days of settling into our new dorms at a nearby campus, and signing in, It was time for us to look at our new school and get the necessary supplies.

"I'm so excited!! ppalIi hye!!"Sarah yelled at me as she stood outside waiting for me to put my shoes on.

I shoved my feet into the shoes, and ran out to meet her with a big grin on my face. We ran out to the streets of seoul to shop for our supplies. I was so excited to be getting a uniform. I'd always thought that uniforms were so cool. They made me feel like I belonged somewhere, kind of like a couple shirt except for a large group of students.

We entered the uniform shop, and went to our new schools section. I took one look at the outfit and bust out laughing. Sarah looked at the uniform with extreme worry on her face.

"There not seriously asking us to wear these are they"? I asked changing my tone to deadly serious. We stared at disbelief at the skin colored frilly skirts.

"It looks like someone took tissue paper, peed on it, and  then sewed it together". I said exaggerating the look of the dress. They were made of light material, which could be blown away and worst of all, they were short, not complimenting my long legs. I mean i'm no fashionista but i'm not one to wear skirts easily in the first place, neither is Sarah, and to top it off, we had to wear THIS to school. I mean it looked really good with the outfit and I bet some people, but it was not as sophisticated as I thought it would have been.

"Lets just be careful with how we act with these skirts on okay?" Sarah said. I nodded furiously in agreement. we were the type of people to wear dresses/ skirts so easily, and I had thought the skirts would have been a longer length. but apparently not, they did cover our bottoms but I had never really worn something so short. it didn't really make me feel comfortable.

To add onto the short skirts, both of us were huge goofs, we tripped on a clean floor like everyday. It was basically a daily ritual like brushing one's teeth to fall at least once. so I knew that something was going to go wrong eventually.

"Well just throw on a pair of stockings underneath them so I don't feel so " I stated. I really did not like exposing my skin.

Sarah laughed what if your boyfriend sees you in those?" she said in a mocking voice "You know you're gonna have to choose between your hubby or Onew eventually...just saying" Sarah said continuing to taunt me.

"well, well see whos gonna make what decisions when they go into school and start getting a bazillion love letters". I responded in an attempt to make a comical comeback...I .  Sarah was really pretty, I mean she had straight blonde hair and white skin with bright blue eyes...the "ideal type" for most koreans.  I just knew she would get at least one confession by the end of first semester.

We walked out the store with our merchandise. it was getting dark, but since our dorms werent too far away from the shops, we walked back instead of taking the bus.

"I can't wait to see some of the guys in our classrooms" Sarah exclaimed

"Me neither!!, but we'll have to be careful to not be too creepy to prevent the guys from seeing us as a huge billboard sign that says "KOREAN RAPISTS" I giggled.

"Aigoo!! you always have these thoughts don't you" Sarah said as she slapped my arm.

"And you're telling me you've never had them" I asked staring her straight in the face.. she smirked, and then laughed.

"You're right haha, we do seem pretty erted, but  hey atleast we know how to control ourselves and plus thats only towards our oppas" Sarah pointed out

I nodded in agreement.

I was so caught up in walking and talking about all the things we would do for the next month before our school started. that I hadn't even realised, we were being followed by four strange men.

The first time I heard the laughter, I ignored it thinking it was just passersby but as we turned several streets, and the streets gained to get less populated and narrower,  I began to feel something was wrong.

Sarah nudged me. Her breath was heavy. I could tell she was panicking. "We should call Onew" she said.

I took a deep breath, and tried not to show my fear.

"A-anyah just let him be, where almost here, its only 2 more minutes of a walk"

One of the the guys behind us whistled. He whistled at us as if we were some kind of dogs.  and the rest of the three laughed, my fear turned into strong hard anger that was just itching to get out.

I froze in my tracks. Horrified, Sarah, began yanking on my arm.

"hurry up, what are you doing!" Sarah said. I was turning hot with anger. the guys stopped a few feet behind us, I pulled my arm away from Sarah, swallowed the anger to the best of my ability.

"Ooooooohhh" the guys said in rhythm, you sure do listen well" one of them states as he came closer to me. the others kept their distance. he must have been the leader. I maintained my pose from my anger I bit my tongue.

"Please leave  us alone. We don't want to cause any trouble." I stated in a cold hard tone staring right into his eyes. he looked at me. cocked his head, his filthy face came close to mine. and laughed as the other kids followed.  I felt like throwing up, but I maintained my gaze. He smelled strongly of  cigarette and alcohol. I pushed him back in a desperate attempt to breathe.

"i'm warning you, please leave us alone...how much money will it take for you to leave us be? " I inquired with desperation my voice wavered. the man smiled. by this time his four buddies had us surrounded.

"ooh you're not so bad, but your friend here, he said grabbing Sarah by the arm, is extremely beautiful". I panicked. Sarah let out a little scream.

"shut up you little " he said as he pulled a knife up to .

I stood there dumbfounded. do something!! _____!! DON'T JUST STAND THERE DO SOMETHING. my whole brain was screaming at me to take action, but I couldn't move. my best friend was about to die and I could do nothing but stand there and watch.

Suddenly, something in me snapped. I don't know what, but it did and I went flying at him with all my power, pushing Sarah out of his grasp. "RUUUUN" I screamed to Sarah, who was out of my vision now. the next few minutes passed painfully.

I kicked and screamed and pulled and bit anything that came near me. I could hear cursing and saw blood but it took me a split second for me to see the world spinning, and I fell to the ground motionless, I lay there. I felt shoes on my body kicking my stomach and head. I tasted blood on my mouth and my nose was numb as if it had been beaten like a punching bag. they stopped, out of breath.

Despite my condition, I got up, using every last bit of energy I had left, but it wasn't long before I felt a sharp pain on my side, and I fell to the ground. The last thing I remember seeing was  a police car and Sarah screaming my name, crying.

Everything turned black.

I don't know when I woke up, but when I did I was blinded by light. I tried to sit up but in my attempt to do so, a sharp pain from my side and a jolt to my head pinned me back on the bed. sensing my movement, I felt someone wake up beside me.

"who are you?" I inquired.

Sarah stared at me in shock.

"oh lord no please" she gasped. "its me Sarah you idiot, remember??"

Her face. I could barely see her but I remembered. I let out an involuntary gasp at her face she had scratches and mud and dirt on her face and it was so swollen that I barely recognised her.

"Oh my god. what happened to you?! I thought I told you to run! " she said

"and leave you to face those people alone? fat chance. Oh and may I remind you once again that you did an excellent job last night of avoiding strangers by talking to them and getting physical" she said sarcastically. She was pissed. I would have been too. I should have listened to her

"well what else could I do, they had a knife on you" I started apologizing with my eyes and a goofy chuckle.

" ooops"I said. she looked at me with disbelief of me able to make such jokes at this time, but eventually ended up laughing. Sadly this was not enough to make up for my actions.

"yeah! you did a great job of protecting your bones although none were broken, several were displaced or damaged... you have a minor concussion and you got stabbed on your side. You should have just pretended to play dead you !!"  she yelled.

"Okay okay i'm sorry, but how did we get here anyways?" I inquired. " uhh.. I called the tooth fairy and asked her to give us a ride to the hospital".

Yikes this was going to take some time to get over. Sarah left after a while because visiting hours were now over. she promised to be back the next day with Kimchi... the food I had been dying to eat ever since I got here.

I looked around and saw a boy looking at me. I smiled and waved. but he just sat there. well that was normal. I thought. and suddenly, the negative feeling I had been ignoring with little success, went away, and I began to feel free.

Kris:

The hospital days were boring, the same old patients, kept repeating their actions: the man beside me kept snoring, however, it was beginning to seem less like a lullaby day by day and more obnoxious noise. The ajumma in front of me kept switching the TV channels causing a ruckus among all the other ajummas in the room. I didn't speak to them much. Only when jong suk and L came, did I try to open my mouth. The rest of my spare time was well spent on wondering what I did all of last year. Trying to collect my memories. However my eforts were futile. It was like trying to grab water in a bucket without a bottom.

I was trying again to collect my thoughts when I heard panicking from the hallway it was increasing towards our ward. thats when I knew that I was going to have another person sitting next to me. the only bed in the room that was empty.

it was a girl, she was a foreigner, with tanned skin and big brown eyes complete with wavy hair. my head begain to ache, and suddenly the world India appeared. I shook it off but something was off. how did a girl I had never even met, help me recall my memories? had I known her?

I glanced at her once again, observing her body. She was beat up pretty badly. I sensed a gang fight. Aigoo, why don't girls take care of themselves much more, they should know they're not supposed to be out doing bad things.

I kept looking at her wanting to know more about her.

a couple minutes later, a white girl with a scratched up face, and bruises walked in. her face was all swollen, like she had been slapped around and then had cried all night. a shame though, she was attractive.

I watched quietly as she ran to the unconscious girls bedside.

I later realised how wrong my earlier judgement was, as I overheard the white girl tell the indian one about what had happened as she had had temporarily had memory loss. It seemed that of the two friends, the bruised one was not the thinker, and the White one had called the ambulance.

I figured out the white girls name when the indian one woke up. Sarah. her name was Sarah and apparently by the way she was talking I could judge that she had given wise advice that the bruised one didn't seem to follow. so she was Indian and a bhabo.

I smiled to myself, haha Indubhab. the nickname tickled me, but I continued to eavesdrop into their conversation.

I had a sudden realization. I hung my head down in shame. This girl, stood up for her friend when four guys bigger and stronger than her attacked her, yet  I couldn't even stand up to one drunken man when he attacked me.  

the part of the story that made me mad at  her was when it was revealed that despite all the beatings, when most high schoolers would usually just lay on the ground, she stood back up! Ready to fight again,only to be stabbed in her side right before the police arrived.

I don't know if I should have considered this an act of bravery or plain stupidity. it angered me how stupid this girl was..I thought harder, or was I angry about her amount of courage to still get up when the world was kicking her down?

I clutched my head as it started to hurt from all the thinking, and began to take deep breaths. to calm myself down.

wait....why was I so concerned for someone I didn't even know?

by now Sarah had left and the indian girl remained, looking as bored as I was. She was a talker though so it didn't take long for her to make friends with the ajummas after I rejected her hello with a blank stare.

"OMO!! unnies!! your faces are so pretty!! how did you stop your age at 16?" she flattered the ajummas with such comments.

"Aigoo, this ippun jashik. Your korean is so well!!" an ajumma flushed at the comment and replied.

"Where did you get such a good seoul accent?"

"I taught myself within a year"  she replied beaming with pride at her accomplishment.

And to that I even had to acknowledge the fact that her korean was so good that I had forgotten she was indian.

"Mannaseo bhangawoyeo, im _____, jhal putthakheyo" she said. _____.

"Aigoo, you speak so well"  _____.  " you don't have a boyfriend do you?" _____. "thwo owld areee youuhh" _____. "wwwheeree diidd youu coomme frroom" _____.

the name kept repeating itself, and slowly the ajummas voices began to drone in together, for the first time, I felt my heart race. but I had no clue as to why it was doing this or what was going on. I fumbled for my headphones and plugged them into my ears, and raised the volume allowing "I can hear your voice" to sooth my shaking body. I relaxed, and a tear dropped. I was so confused, why?

Why was I crying?

Who was this girl?

And how did she know me?

These three questions dug their way inside my memory cabinets opening every file that was to be found and searched for any relevant information on this girl, my brain was in a frenzy. I dropped asleep. When I woke up, everything was back to normal again, my heart did not beat as fast, my head didn't buzz, and I wasn't thinking about the strange girl, _____ lying only a couple faces next to me.

I looked around. it was 7:03. A.M.  and most fo the people in the room were asleep. I looked over at _____ once again, and couldn't help but chuckle. she had wide open pouring drool all over the pillow, while she was arm-locking the bed sheets. she was more ontop of them then they on her.

Attractive, I laughed. this girl fights even in her sleep. I noted that this indubhap was going to be a fun thing to watch for the next few days.