“See what I mean? Isn’t she pretty?”

“Wow, she’s the prettiest person I’ve ever seen!”

The cabin of a Korean Air flight headed for Tokyo, Japan. Two stewardesses are talking about a female passenger before takeoff, as the others are standing in the aisle giving safety instructions. Once all the passengers were seated, the captain made an announcement, taxied the plane down the runway and tilted its nose to the sky. Among the passengers was a baby-faced teen girl, whose eyes were strikingly pretty. Whoever saw the girl's glossy dark brown hair, small forehead, long thick lashes, porcelain white skin, and perfectly bisymmetrical face would marvel at her beauty. However, what was most conspicuous about the girl was the look in her eyes. Her dark brown irises radiated a bright intelligence, woefully blemished by a mysterious tinge of melancholy.

The girl was 17 years old and had grown up in a broken family. Just 2 years ago her mother had died from breast cancer. This was a big shock to her. The person she had loved the most… She had cried and begged the doctors to save her mother, but even after the doctors carved out half of her chest, the cancer cells spread and in the end she faced an agonizing death. But, shortly after something truly absurd occurred. Just 2 months after her mother’s death her father remarried, and her new stepmother entered the home. Her new stepmother was a former hairdresser with a cold, straight forward personality. After she entered the home the girl had become silent, and they fought frequently. Her stepmother’s calculated hatred and ostracism made her life hell. And the straw that broke the camel’s back… was her stepmother’s pregnancy. The girl wanted to kill her father, her stepmother, and her stepmother’s child. After her step mother gave birth, her high-handedness was exacerbated, along with her father’s anger and resentment. The girl was continuously beaten and verbally abused by her stepmother and treated like a complete stranger by her own father. She frequently snuck out of the home to avoid the abuse. And eventually came to the conclusion that she was done, whether she died or ended up in a coma, she didn’t care.

*********

The girl arrived at Narita International Airport and after making her way through customs, she grabbed her luggage and came out to the waiting room. She looked around frantically, “Where is she?” she thought. She was looking for her grandmother, whose face she didn’t even know. She had only found out she had a grandmother living in Japan just a few months ago. When she first learned about her grandmother It was a day of Heavy snow, and she was home alone, when the postman knocked on the front door. A telegraph had come from Japan: it was her grandfather’s obituary.

Why didn't father tell me? Even mother had never mentioned her. What could be the reason..

The girl’s father had never mentioned her extended family until she was 17. The unusual thing was even on national holidays her family wouldn’t go to their relatives’ houses to perform ancestral rites ceremonies. And her father would get mad every time someone brought up her grandparents, but she didn’t understand why. She assumed there must have been some turmoil between them.

The day her grandfather’s obituary arrived she had happened to hear her stepmother and father’s conversation. They said they wanted to use this chance to send her to live with her grandmother in Japan. At first, her father said she was too young and refused, but eventually he agreed.

“Please don’t stand up for your useless daughter.”

Hearing her stepmother’s sharp words all the girl could do was swallow her tears. My idiot father… she thought, as she laid under the blankets and cried with a quivering chin, before clenching her teeth together and promising to herself: I will get revenge on my stepmom one day!

Her stepmother worked busily to send her to Japan as quickly as possible, with the help of her father. The two had the teamwork of athletes. A month later when the two had packed her suitcase she was defiant.

“Why do I have to go?” “Why do I have to go meet a grandmother I don’t even know?”

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But, it was no use, her stepmother was adamant.

Before sending her away, the girl’s father put a photo in her hand; it was a faded, black and white picture of her grandmother. The girl carried the photo in her hand as she wandered around the waiting room aimlessly looking for her grandmother, but couldn’t find her anywhere. A strange country… a language she didn’t know… surrounded by strange travelers… The girl was terrified. Her father had clearly told her: “When you get there just wait in the waiting room, your grandmother will come pick you up”. But an hour passed and she still didn’t see her grandmother. The girl slowly started to feel uneasy.

Did my dad lie to me?

She wondered as she sat in the waiting room, repeatedly standing and sitting every time she saw an elderly woman enter. The girl bit her nails, and her palms began to sweat when she remembered what her father had said.

“This is a very old photo, so you might not recognize your grandmother. Or she might not recognize you. So take this with you, it's your grandmother’s address, just show it to someone and they will help you.”

The girl reached in her pocket and took out the memo paper her father had given her. Her father’s scrawled, Japanese handwriting… It would have been nice if he had at least written a phone number. The girl knitted her brow with anxiety, she had no idea that if she didn’t meet her grandmother at the airport, that she would have to go searching for her. But how could she? She couldn’t communicate, and she didn’t know where anything was. The girl couldn’t do anything, except blindly hope her grandmother would show up. As she waited various thoughts flooded into her mind.

It’s clear that my father and stepmom sent me here to get rid of me! Father probably didn’t even contact my grandmother. If that wasn’t the case, why would she be over an hour and a half late?

The girl clutched the handle of her luggage with an anxious face; she was a complete mess, a face full of tears. Several people had already come and gone from the seat next to her,

when a young Japanese man came and sat next to her. In fact, the young man had been staring at the girl from the snack corner of the waiting room for quite a while. He was a pretty boy with clear white skin, thick eyelashes, and an androgynous face. As the young man sat next to the girl she pulled her luggage closer. When he looked at her and said: “good evening....”. As soon as she met eyes with the young man, she became shy and lowered her head. The girl looked stiff and awkward. The young man looked at the girl with curiosity, and when she let go of her luggage handle and stretched her legs, the young man stood up, ran toward the entrance of the waiting room, and vaulted over the barricade. He had extraordinarily agility. A woman who had just finished going through customs was coming through the turnstile. She was a slender woman with a spring in her step, she was wearing a white trench coat, a black cardigan, and a wide-brimmed hat similar to one Audrey Hepburn would have worn. The woman looked straight out of a melodrama. She also looked rather haughty with her stylish bobbed hair, and the way she carried her head high. The young Japanese man ran up to the woman, greeted her with a hug, and kissed her.

That must be his girlfriend… The girl assumed.

Behind the woman was a stocky man with a crew cut who seemed to be her bodyguard; he was wearing a black suit, sunglasses, and carrying the woman’s luggage. The strange young man and the exotic woman linked arms affectionately and made their way out the waiting room. The girl lowered her head when the two walked by her, and raised it again to look at their back. A black limousine was waiting for the two; the driver bowed 90 degrees as the two approached, and then opened the car door for them. After the two got into the limousine the driver closed the door, and the woman’s body guard unloaded her luggage into the trunk of the car.

To be riding in a fancy car like that they must be rich right? I wonder what they do.

The girl thought as she observed the couple.

But just as the limousine was about to leave, the door opened and the young man got out in a hurry. “Is he going to the bathroom?”. But contrary to the girl’s expectations the young man came running towards her. The girl got startled and dropped her gaze, when the young man said: “feel free to contact me.” and handed the girl a business card. The girl was confused and looked at the young man’s face, differently from earlier, his face was serious, and his gaze was piercing. The young man ran back to the limousine and once they had left, the girl looked at the business card the young man had given her. What a weirdo. The girl thought she had really seen it all now. She contemplated if she should throw the business card away or not, but instead just stuffed it into her bag, and continued the monotonous wait for her grandmother. What should I do now?