Su-Min and Ji-Hoon, our program coordinators and guides for the next few days, usher me and the girls into the ballroom. The place is packed with people, all dressed in formal attire and wearing badges with their names and affiliations. The air is thick with perfume, cologne, and excitement.

“Step over here, girls, and hold these. Make it’s facing the cameras,” Ji-Hoon instructs, handing us each a placard with the program’s logo on it. 

As the cameras flash and click, I put on my best professional smile, trying to ignore the heat that spreads from my neck to my cheeks and the unusual speed of my heart.

He’s somewhere in this room, I know it. Even though I can’t see him now with all the lights flashing, I can sense his presence, like a magnet, drawing me in

I swallow hard, my heart pounds in my chest as we move to another spot for more photos. 

Dr. Kang joins us shortly and introduces us to some of the guests. She speaks highly of us and them, and our achievements, but I can barely focus on her words.

The heat on my neck intensifies, as if he’s breathing down my neck. I smile politely and nod, pretending to be interested in the small talk, as if everyone in this room right now is not a barrier from me to him, and as if there’s not something else I rather be doing.

Like going to confront him about this inexplicable thing between us; this thing that seem to defy logic.

A few minutes later, the coordinators split us up and take us to different corners of the ballroom, to mingle with more people.

As I walk across the room, I catch a glimpse of him. He’s holding a glass of white wine and laughing at something his blond male companion says, but his green eyes are locked on me. He looks at me as if I’m the only person in the room.

William is from Australia. We hit it off right away at orientation today, so much so that he insisted he wanted to transfer to the apartment I’m staying at instead of the stuffy hotel accommodation he chose.

He’s also a first-timer in Seoul, and he was thrilled to find someone his age who speaks English here.

He’s blond, tall and a bit younger than I am, twenty-one to my twenty-five, and he hasn’t stopped talking about himself since we met. He’s studying to be a doctor, and he has a fiancée back home.

“She’s brilliant,” William gushes, talking about his fiancée, as he takes another sip of his wine. “She’s going to be a top-notch surgeon.”

I nod vaguely, as I gaze at the most stunning woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.

All day I wondered if I’d imagined our encounter at the airport.

So when I saw her on stage earlier, I could not believe my eyes. I thought I was dreaming.

There she was, wearing a blue puffy dress and knee-high socks and white shoes, dancing and singing on stage with five other girls in matching outfits.

I watched the whole thing in a trance, convinced my mind was playing tricks on me.

But then William jolted me back to reality as he clapped and cheered with the rest of the audience.

When our eyes met, it was like the airport all over again.

The world slowed down, and we were the only two people who existed.

Until they pulled her off stage and she started posing for pictures a few feet away from me. The people around her didn’t give her a moment to breathe as they shuffled her around the room like a fancy object.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her, studying her features more closely, making sure she was real. That she was really this beautiful.

And now, that she’s looking at me again, my heart stops again.

Her smile is devastating as she shakes hands and accepts compliments from the guests.

“So what about you, Alexander? Got a special someone back in the States?”

I clear my throat and down the last drop of my wine. Shaking my head, I tap William on the shoulder and say, “I’ll be right back.”

“No problem, take your time, mate, but don’t think we’re finishing this day without you telling me all about yourself.”

I give him a small smile as I head towards… her.

I don’t know what I’m going to say, what I’m going to do, or what I’m going to risk.

I just know I need to be near her, speak to her.