08-28-2024, 07:31 PM
One day, Eun Ju hoped that she could take Damian to Korea for real. This was the Korea of her high school career, this was the Korea that she remembered most fondly. Mostly because her Halmoni was still alive and there were places that would populate here that were no longer in existence in modern Korea. Right now though, she was excited to show Damian her world, her culture, and the haunts where she spent a lot of her time growing up as well as running around with friends and her brothers.
Korea was well populated though the birth rates had dipped desperately low some time ago, they had recovered through governmental assistance and a slight change in Korean work culture. Koreans did everything hard; work, ate, drank, slept, anything they did was 100% or nothing at all. Ju remembered going to school and afterschool for almost twelve hours a day. When she got to the Academy so many student struggled underneath the burden of heavy class schedules and long hours but Ju had been built for such a thing.
Damian had picked a tour of the city and her favorite places so that was what they would do today. Ju wanted, when they could go to real Korea, she wanted to actually cook real ramen for him. The kind on the stove, with additives, that made it the best. They could eat it over a pan lid and small bowls with kimchi and other sides she made. Ju hoped that one leave they could actually go and give Korea a good few days so she could show him different things in reality and they could go on dates. It was a pipe dream, perhaps, but it was one she was holding onto none the less.
As they walked through the bustling city center she pointed to a massive tall building which had a modern bent to it’s design. “That’s one of the biggest entertainment companies buildings. Much of the Kpop groups that are huge, come from that company.” It wouldn’t really be important or mean much to him but it was something to note. Even now several men were piling out of a large black van with heavily tinted windows and heading inside, she wasn’t sure who they were supposed to be but it didn’t matter the Holodeck was running the software the way it wanted.
Ju turned them left and they began to head out of the city proper and into a more suburban area. It was populated with little food shops, stalls, cafes, parlors, and more. The scent of Korean food wafted through out the streets and many old and young women calling to the pair to peddle their food sales. Coffee was a rather large presence in Korea much like alcohol but it wasn’t exactly the time for alcohol just yet, the tent bars wouldn’t open for a few hours yet. The two kept walking past the shops and stores until they turned another left and found themselves soundly in a residential district. Here clothing lines were strung across yards and roof tops. Mold grew here and there on the walls, duct tape on windows, trash against the buildings on the street having blown there by the wind and mixed with leaves and other standard debris. It wasn’t the slums, but it was a poorer neighborhood. Kids were playing in the streets and a dog barked from someone’s yard.
“I think next time we go on a long leave we need to go to Korea ourselves, for real. Nothing is like real life. This is so close but it’s not perfect. I want to show you the temple, and the old throne room, I want to show you my actual home and things like that,” Ju admitted. They walked for a few more blocks until a large white stucco style wall came up on their right. A large gated entrance sat in the center of the long wall, which was open. Students came and went out of the gate and into the school yard with their uniforms on. Navy blue skirts and pants paired with white button down shirts. Their names emblazoned on a golden toned plate pinned to their shirts.
“This was my high school.” She admitted stopped in front of the school. The school was a massive three story building that had once been white but was now closer to cream. Brick accents around the entrances were also dingy but the campus as a whole was devoid of clutter and debris. To the left you could see large sporting fields with students running around on them and hear the distant chirps of a PE whistle being blown. To the right you could see other buildings which were connected to the main building via bridges and breezeways.
“Let me show you the secret hide out!” she took his hand and lead him with the rest of the people through the school yard and into the school. There was a shoe changing station at the front but they bypassed that since it wasn’t really Korea and headed up the three flights of stairs but didn’t stop til they got to the roof.
“Come on.” She said tugging on his arm playfully they headed across the roof and up four more steps to a higher roof top. Across the roof in the back corner was a small maintenance access point. It looked locked but when she pulled on the handle it opened just fine because the screws had long since been pulled out of the metal and so they just pretended to fit now. Inside, there was a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling which she pulled illuminating their surroundings. It was a little dusty but one could probably see how people used it frequently. A stack of books were piled to one side. A collection of sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, and cushions created a cool comfortable spot to chill. Someone had even run an extension cord up here for phones or computers.
“We used to come up here to skip class, eat snacks, and hide from our teachers.” She grinned looking over at Damian with a proud smile on her face.
Korea was well populated though the birth rates had dipped desperately low some time ago, they had recovered through governmental assistance and a slight change in Korean work culture. Koreans did everything hard; work, ate, drank, slept, anything they did was 100% or nothing at all. Ju remembered going to school and afterschool for almost twelve hours a day. When she got to the Academy so many student struggled underneath the burden of heavy class schedules and long hours but Ju had been built for such a thing.
Damian had picked a tour of the city and her favorite places so that was what they would do today. Ju wanted, when they could go to real Korea, she wanted to actually cook real ramen for him. The kind on the stove, with additives, that made it the best. They could eat it over a pan lid and small bowls with kimchi and other sides she made. Ju hoped that one leave they could actually go and give Korea a good few days so she could show him different things in reality and they could go on dates. It was a pipe dream, perhaps, but it was one she was holding onto none the less.
As they walked through the bustling city center she pointed to a massive tall building which had a modern bent to it’s design. “That’s one of the biggest entertainment companies buildings. Much of the Kpop groups that are huge, come from that company.” It wouldn’t really be important or mean much to him but it was something to note. Even now several men were piling out of a large black van with heavily tinted windows and heading inside, she wasn’t sure who they were supposed to be but it didn’t matter the Holodeck was running the software the way it wanted.
Ju turned them left and they began to head out of the city proper and into a more suburban area. It was populated with little food shops, stalls, cafes, parlors, and more. The scent of Korean food wafted through out the streets and many old and young women calling to the pair to peddle their food sales. Coffee was a rather large presence in Korea much like alcohol but it wasn’t exactly the time for alcohol just yet, the tent bars wouldn’t open for a few hours yet. The two kept walking past the shops and stores until they turned another left and found themselves soundly in a residential district. Here clothing lines were strung across yards and roof tops. Mold grew here and there on the walls, duct tape on windows, trash against the buildings on the street having blown there by the wind and mixed with leaves and other standard debris. It wasn’t the slums, but it was a poorer neighborhood. Kids were playing in the streets and a dog barked from someone’s yard.
“I think next time we go on a long leave we need to go to Korea ourselves, for real. Nothing is like real life. This is so close but it’s not perfect. I want to show you the temple, and the old throne room, I want to show you my actual home and things like that,” Ju admitted. They walked for a few more blocks until a large white stucco style wall came up on their right. A large gated entrance sat in the center of the long wall, which was open. Students came and went out of the gate and into the school yard with their uniforms on. Navy blue skirts and pants paired with white button down shirts. Their names emblazoned on a golden toned plate pinned to their shirts.
“This was my high school.” She admitted stopped in front of the school. The school was a massive three story building that had once been white but was now closer to cream. Brick accents around the entrances were also dingy but the campus as a whole was devoid of clutter and debris. To the left you could see large sporting fields with students running around on them and hear the distant chirps of a PE whistle being blown. To the right you could see other buildings which were connected to the main building via bridges and breezeways.
“Let me show you the secret hide out!” she took his hand and lead him with the rest of the people through the school yard and into the school. There was a shoe changing station at the front but they bypassed that since it wasn’t really Korea and headed up the three flights of stairs but didn’t stop til they got to the roof.
“Come on.” She said tugging on his arm playfully they headed across the roof and up four more steps to a higher roof top. Across the roof in the back corner was a small maintenance access point. It looked locked but when she pulled on the handle it opened just fine because the screws had long since been pulled out of the metal and so they just pretended to fit now. Inside, there was a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling which she pulled illuminating their surroundings. It was a little dusty but one could probably see how people used it frequently. A stack of books were piled to one side. A collection of sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, and cushions created a cool comfortable spot to chill. Someone had even run an extension cord up here for phones or computers.
“We used to come up here to skip class, eat snacks, and hide from our teachers.” She grinned looking over at Damian with a proud smile on her face.