“Good Moring!” is the first word I heard. I could feel my head hurt like crazy. I felt as though there was a ton of rocks weighing on my head. I was feeling so much pressure that my head could burst any moment. Amidst all that, I slowly opened my eyes with a lot of difficulty. Sitting right opposite to me, was Siwon draped in an unusual dress and bandaged hand.
“Lay down if you are not feeling better.” He said in a soft tone.
“Where are we? Where is this place?” I asked looking around a small bamboo cottage that looked like something from an old Chinese or Japanese movie as I got up and settled myself to sit in a comfortable position.
“I’ll tell you later. You first take rest.” Siwon advised me.
“Just tell me where we are.” I asked him stubbornly.
“We are in the village of Showa.” He said with soo much tiredness in his voice.
“Showa? Were the hell is Showa?” I asked with irritation
“In the Fukushima district.”
“Fukushima? So you mean we are Japan already?”
“yup.” After a bit of silence, he asked again.
“Do you remember anything from yesterday?”
“Yesterday?”
“The accident and …..and…the accident?”
“I don’t know….i just …………my head hurts like crazy and I feel like my body is squeezed up and I feel so uncomfortable. But how exactly did we get here? And what happened to Min Jin and Yan Suk?”
“Ok, so we had a major accident last night. The plane we came in crashed and I don’t know how many survived. When I came to my conscious, I saw you next to me, breathing, so I brought you here. But woman you are heavy!” he said. He further continued, “The police are checking the place and I don’t have any clue about Min Jin or Yan Suk. I really hope they are ok.
I showed him a nasty face and continued, “But whose place is this?”
As I asked this question, a young lad entered the room. “Oh you are awake.”
I just looked at him with amazement and wide eyes. “Wow don’t look at me like that. She is seriously very surprised huh?” he said and to which Siwon smirked.
“who are you?’ I asked.
“I’m Arata. I’m a local Japanese medic. You were badly injured yesterday when Siwon brought you here. So I gave you some treatment and looks like you are good now.”
“Huh?” is all I could say.
“ok, our girl is still a bit tipsy. I’ll send one of my helpers to help you change.” He said.
I have to say, he may be some village doc, but damn he was cute. I knew Japanese people are cute and known for their’ kawaii’ but seeing him so close, made me giggle inside like a school girl.
As soon as he exited form the room, an old lady in her traditional Japanese attire came in with a big package. She said something to Siwon in Japanese, and apparently he understood her. “So he knows Japanese huh?” I thought to myself.
On the other hand, I did not understand the lady at all. I did as she motioned me to. She cleaned me from all the medicines and ointment I had on me and dressed me in Japanese attire. I looked very different. She gestured me to join her for the meal. As I walked out of the room, I saw the two men having a chat and their conversation suddenly dyeing down. “Do I look that bad?” I asked looking at the men staring at me.
She came out of the room after more than an hour in a traditional Japanese attire., “wow!” is all I could say. She looked compellingly beautiful. No makeup, no glamorous shoes, nothing, natural beauty is all. She looked really pretty. Damn woman, why do I have to work with you?
“do I look that bad?” she asked as she walked out of the room. I fell for her that moment i saw her unconscious face yesterday. I know this is very stupid of me falling for a foreigner at the first sight and knowing nothing about her and when she came in with a guy with her. But her face was so innocent and there was something about it which ticked me. The way she held on to my dress, when she was unconscious, as I treated her, made me be even more careful as I inserted sharp objects into her skin. Now she is in my house, in the dress I gave her and ready to have a meal with me. If god wills, I want to know more about her.
We all sat to have our meal. A couple of ladies served us some hot soup and noodles and other dishes, which I have never seen before. Within minutes, the whole table was filled with items. “wow, not even our local Japanese restaurant serves soo much variety.” I said in astonishment. “That is because, the Japanese restaurant you went to is not authentic and this is real Japanese.” Siwon hissed.
“Seriously, now Siwon? I’m trying to give a compliment here.” I hissed back
“Sure not a problem Sandara. Please enjoy our hospitality.” Arata told me.
“So what exactly happened yesterday?” I asked as I took a spoon full of hot soup into my mouth.
“Well, the plane we came in had a major accident and we crashed. As soon as I came to conscious, I saw you and brought you here. No one really allowed us inside, but then Arata here, was generous enough to allow us ad treat us.” Siwon filled me up with details.
“Thank you so much Arata. I don’t know, maybe I would have died in the accident. But thank you.”
“No you should not thank me, but thank Siwon. He carried you all the way from the field to the village and went to each and every house before he could reach mine. He collapsed the minute I said come in.”
After Arata said these words, Sandara, looked at me. She gave me a look that was different. I have now known her for a month and a little more, and during this month, she has never looked at me this way. I liked it and unknowingly, it made me smile- shyly.

Days passed and slowly I started walking out in the little village. Siwon and Arata were making arrangements for us to get back to Tokyo and then back to Seoul. All I wanted was to go back home and sleep in my soft bed.
“Sandara, it’s done, we will be leaving the village the day after tomorrow to Tokyo. Arata helped to set the bus for us.” Siwon announced his excitement. Well I can’t blame him, even I was excited to go home.
“wow she is excited to go back huh? May be this is not the right place for her. May be she is a city girl. I was crazy to start having feelings for a foreign girl.”


Me and Siwon were packing the stuff, we were able to recover from the accident when Arata came in. “since you both will be travelling soon, I want to treat you both to a traditional bath. You must have heard of the natural hot springs? The one we have in our village has medicinal qualities and only a few are allowed to take a bather there. I want you to enjoy our spring before you go.”
I was very excited and said yes immediately.

It was cold winter morning and the climate was dull and the hills surrounding us were snowcapped. I was taken to the hot water spring which was located in a small valley like set up and the area was coved in ankle deep snow. The spring was beautifully steaming with hot water. As I was observing the beautiful nature, I saw Siwon pierced himself thorough the hot water. “huk” “did my heart just skip a beat?” I asked myself looking at Siwon who was looking straight at me.
“You can go change there.” the lady who escorted me guided me to a room. She helped me change my clothes into a traditional bath dress. After I got changed, she helped me get into the pool. I immersed myself into the hot water. Wow! It was heaven. It was so beautiful. So much opposite to the temperature outside, the pool was so warm and comforting.
She came into the pool area looking so lost in nature. I wanted to let her know I was here, so I got from the water, but she looked at me with her big wide eyes again making me shiver in excitement. She then went in to change. “She is you colleague and you have done a lot for her. Now stop. Just take a bath, get ready and lets go home.” My mind said. She came out of the dresser in the Japanese bath dress. My heart was beating faster with every step she took towards the pool.
Finally we were both alone in the silent valley of hot pool. She was sitting right opposite to me, trying to avoid my eyes. Well I was trying to avoid her’s too. There was an awkward silence between us. I was about to start a conversation when she cut me and said, “thank you” in a soft tone that pierced through me.
“For what?”
“For bringing to a medic safety. If it was not for you I would have died in this cold weather. So thank you.”
“sure……I mean its ok.”
She smiled at me. May be she noticed me stammering and acting childish?
“I wanted to ask you about something.” I started again.
“Yes?”
“Your diary.”
“You found my diary?”
“Yes….well, it was laying around and I took the liberty to ready it. I’m sorry.”
“YOU READ IT??” she got angry! But then immediately started laughing.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because, I have written all stupid things in that diary and your face when I asked you if you read it was so funny.” I smiled at the little joke she made out of me.
“Not everything is stupid in there.”
“well……………”
“ I see that you have suffered a lot when growing up and trying to be independent even if you had all the money. I read that your friends………………used you and because of that you have a trust issue with everyone and you’ve never dated anyone.”
“What you said is all true Siwon. From my childhood, I was given everything materialistic. I never received true love. The one person, who gave me love, was my nanny, but then when her child was sick, she did not care about me, but just quit the job, just like that without even thinking about me. That was my first bullet hole in trusting someone. Then, the friends I thought were there for me and support me, just pulled me down this was my second bullet in trust. All this never made me think about men or even date. Not like anyone came asking me to date them or anything. But, yes I’ve never experienced love in my life; whether it from family, friends or a special one.”
As she confessed this to me, I could see tears forming in her eyes. She was fighting hard to control them and tried to paste a fake smile. That is when I realized that inside all that attitude and anger and arrogance, she is a sweet person, longing for love. The betrayal of people has made her the way she is and has made her guards so strong and hard that she not ready to let anyone see though. But now she has told me all this. Does this mean, she trusts me? There is one way to find out. As she was looking down into the depths of the pool, I got up from my side of the pool, walked towards her in silence. I stood near her for a minute and looked at her while my mind clears. “Sandara, I don’t know why you told me all this, but the tears in your eyes, are true. I don’t know how you feel about me, but deep down, this is how I feel about you.”
He said those words and he kissed me.

Notes