ADYNATON

Kris relaxed back into his seat, heaving a deep sigh and shooting a pointed look at his seatmate Hannah , or if you’re Korean, Hyosung. At the start of the flight he could tell she was nervous by the way she gripped the armrest and how her eyes danced to every corner of the tiny aircraft.  She had contained her fright pretty well up until the take off. That’s what scared her the most about planes. The feeling of being pushed back into your seat as the plane took on a steepness that she would never willingly take on in her dreams. But she’s here now , and the desire to ask why probes Kris’s brain like an annoying itch. He hasn’t talked to her since the tiny episode she had after the plane reached a slow cruise in the sky. But as she anxiously glanced across him and out the window once again, he can’t hold himself back.

 

 “Soooo,” Kris drew out the word until Hannah swiveled her attention from the window to Kris’s face. “What’s got you flying across the world to Seoul, Korea?” 

 

Hannah’s eyes, once filled with a hint of paranoia , turned guarded and wary, staring at Kris with curiosity. “Work. Business things,” she said as she crossed her arms, a challenging look reaching her gaze. "Why are you wearing a suit ?”

 

Kris’s eyes widened at the attention being turned back on him. Thoughts jumbled before he thinks of 

something to say. “Well, I have a meeting when I land. I won’t have enough time to check into my hotel and change so...” he shrugged, suddenly self-­conscious. Although he didn’t mind wearing it really. With the hours he worked he should be used to it by now.

 

Hannah just nodded and said, “Interesting,” with a smirk,  before glancing out the window and then turning to the book in her hand, cutting the conversation, or what he thought was a conversation, short. But Kris had two more hours left on this flight and he had nothing to entertain himself, so why not be the social butterfly he had always aspired to be? So he pulled the blind over the window and turned towards Hannah, “ What kind of work are you flying in for?”

 

She looked a up at him with...interest, causing Kris’s eyebrows to raise. He would have expected anger at the most or a hint of  annoyance at the least; if he had gotten that, he would leave her alone. But she looked like she was willing to answer , fulfilling Kris’s nosy needs. 

 

“It’s a­,” she flipped through her little book, that now when Kris took a closer look at it, seemed to be a 

Korean­English Dictionary. “비밀( bee­mil). It’s a 비밀(bee­mil).”

 

“A what?”

 

 Hannah laughed and grinned, “ I thought you were Korean. 비밀(bee­mil) means secret in Korean.”

 

“Oh,” Kris chuckled. “ My parents are from China, actually. I speak decent Mandarin. But what about you,” Kris gestured to the dictionary, “ you don’t speak Korean ? Hyosung," he said in a teasing tone.

 

“Actually, I don’t. I’m adopted,” she fidgeted with the book and smiled. "But I’ve learned enough to get by though. To travel Korea all by myself  and experience the culture. That’s all I want.” 

 

Kris paused momentarily, then said, “괜찮아(gwaencanh­ayo). It’s all right, I understand.” Because he  did, to an extent. Not living in your homeland or speaking your mother tongue perfectly. 

Never being “Chinese” enough for your relatives and never American enough for your peers. It can be 

hard. So he can relate on a level, but not fully.He never will. And he hopes Hannah gets that from his 

butchered, Korean response.

 

“Do you mean ‘gwaenCHAnh­ayo’,” she giggled , hiding her mouth behind her palm . ‘It makes me feel better that my Korean is better than yours.”

 

Kris groaned. “I know , I know. I’ll work on it once I get there. I’ll be there for awhile anyway.”

 

“Me too,”she grins “Maybe I’ll see you around...wait, you never told me your name.”

 

“It’s Kris, or if you’re Chinese, Yifan Wu.”