Lost in Seoul

“SO, YOU’RE FINALLY meeting him?” asked Cheska's friend Mikaella.

Cheska had a smug smile on her lips when she fixed the collar of her checkered dress. She just bought the new boots she intended to wear when she fetch Darryl at the airport. For the record, she didn’t buy it from thrift shops but at the mall. She saved up money from her allowance for a month in preparation for meeting Darryl who would come straight from South Korea.

She’s nineteen and a third-year Accountancy student at the Lyceum of the Philippines. Mikha was her board mate who was taking up Psychology at the same university. Mikha’s okay, but sometimes, her friend was just such a villain in her story, always dissecting everything that was happening around them. Especially when it comes to Cheska’s love life.

“Yes. I told you we would eventually meet and prove to you that what I feel for him was never an immature love,” she told her friend, sticking out her tongue to her like a child.

Mikha folded her arms over her chest and leaned against the pole of the double-deck bed while watching Cheska adjust her boots. “Come on. You will only know that if you have actually met. It's different when you fell in love because you saw him and not because you just thought you’re in love with him.”

"I told you he is not just an illusion!” Cheska insisted. "We are going to meet soon."

“You know what I mean. What he shows you in chat and his emails to you are different. It’s different when you’ve met the person and have been with them. It's different when you fell in love with him through the words that you wanted to hear from when you are meeting him face to face. You will find out his true color. You will also know if what he is showing you is real.”

“What Doc Darryl shows me is true even if we only talk via email. I feel the goodness of his heart especially in helping those in need.”

Doc Darryl Kang or Kang Jung Rin was a half-Korean, half-Filipino doctor. He was an oncologist at a hospital on Jeju Island in South Korea. He’s 5’10”, has a lean body and his complexion looked like that of a mixture of coffee and milk. His eyes were narrow and has a nice pointed nose. He looks more Filipino than Korean but was still handsome.

He’s Jaimee’s cousin whom she met at a youth camp when she went to Bataan. Doc Darryl was the first to message her by email to thank her for helping out the children with cancer. He also introduced himself as her friend Jaimee’s cousin. He said he saw her when she and his cousin both volunteered. Cheska found out he was helping out children with cancer in South Korea voluntarily and hoped that he would be able to do the same in the Philippines one day. Since they have been chatting over the internet. He sent her pictures and he always ask her about her studies and exams.

It wasn’t like her to get close to men. She tend to avoid them because of her father’s instruction not to get into a relationship just yet while she was still studying. But Doc Darryl is different. He made her feel good about herself. He doesn’t care about how she looks. Unlike other men she encountered before who only look at beautiful women. They ignore wallflowers like her.

It’s been a week since Doc Darryl confessed that he likes her. He said she makes him laugh, that she has a beautiful personality. She didn't want to believe it at first but her friend Jaimee told her that her cousin was actually asking Jaimee about things that Cheska likes in a man. Of course she was thrilled to learn about it. She just didn’t tell anyone because she didn’t want them to think that she was crazy. Afterall, who would even believe that a handsome doctor like Doc Daryll would fall for a Plain Jane like her.

Maybe that’s how a matured man is. A man who no longer looks at a woman’s physical appearance but her personality, her character. That's why she prefers mature men like Doc Darryl who was not childish like people her age.

“Who wouldn't suspect him anyway? He never even talk to you over voice nor video chat. He doesn’t even have a social media account,” Mikha said while looking at her fingernails.