Minji

I hadn’t told my parents yet, but I’d gotten a message from my aunt inviting me to go to New York for the summer. I hadn’t seen or spoken to her or my cousin, Evie, in years. We used to see each other often either in Korea or New York, but after my parents got strict about me getting into college they said I had no time. I knew that I wanted to go to New York which meant I had to convince my parents. I was their ideal child and all I could hope was that it would work out in my favor while persuading them. I got home and waited for them to arrive so that I could bring it up. When they arrived I asked them and attempted to make my point. Surprisingly, after an hour of discussion they agreed to let me go so long as I kept up with my tutoring assignments. Two weeks after my parents had agreed to let me go, my suitcases were packed and ready to head to the airport. We got to the airport and for the first time ever, I boarded a plane by myself. Evie was my best friend as kids and I couldn’t wait to see her and reboot our friendship. I looked around me at all of the other passengers and noticed the artificial smelling air surrounding me. I put on my headphones and closed my eyes ready to tune out everything and sleep for the whole flight. 

Evie

My mom just told me that my cousin Minji would be staying with us for the entire summer. I hated that she invited her to visit with us without asking if I was okay with it. I know that she’s family, but we drifted apart and I didn’t know how it would go. She tried to keep in contact consistently, but I was resentful towards her. I asked her multiple times to visit us and asked if I could come see her, but every time she said no claiming she was busy. My mom knew I was going to be mad and neglected to tell me until we were on our way to the airport to pick her up. We went to the arrival gate surrounded by the smell of trash and smoke. We looked for her until we saw her head through the crowd. My mother started to call her name until she noticed us and came over to greet us. She went up to hug my mother and then me, but I shrugged her off out of spite and just said hello to her. 

Minji

I arrived in New York, getting off of the plane and being greeted by the humid air and noises of bags being unloaded. I gathered all of my belongings and went to meet my family at the arrival gate. I looked for them until I heard my name being called and went to hug my family. My aunt returned my hug, but Evie pushed me away which made me confused. I thought we were on good terms when we last spoke. We got into the car and my aunt informed me that we would be having dinner along with Evie’s boyfriend Eric. We used to tell each other everything, yet I didn’t even know that she had a boyfriend. When we got to their apartment Evie showed me where I would be staying and I tried to talk with her, but she kept ignoring me. I finally had enough and asked her why she wasn’t talking to me and if I did something to upset her. She responded saying, “You really have no idea why I’m mad? I tried to keep being your friend, but being an online penpal isn’t the same thing as being with you Minji! I asked you over and over again to come visit or if I could visit you, but you were always too busy. Why would I keep trying to be friends with you after being rejected so many times?” I had no idea she was angry at me. I apologized to her and tried to make peace with her but she kept ignoring me. We went to dinner and made small talk at the restaurant while Evie stayed close to her boyfriend Eric who seemed like a nice enough person. 

Evie

We were all at dinner trying to ignore the awkwardness as I continued to ignore Minji. I could see Minji getting angry the more I ignored her and finally she snapped and said, “I’m your best friend Evie I missed you so much why can’t you see that?” After hearing that I started to soften thinking that I may have taken things a bit far. I really did miss her while we weren’t talking, other people never quite measured up to her. After dinner when we got back home we had a heart to heart and started catching up on all of the details of our lives from the past few years. 

We had gotten back into our old routine, doing everything together and never hating each other’s presence. Just being with Minji made the entire summer better than it ever could have been being bitter. We spent the entire summer doing every fun activity we could imagine and sometimes forcing Eric to join us in our adventures. Eventually, the summer ended and Minji had to leave which meant we would have to be apart again. We said goodbye to each other at the airport and promised to visit each other at least once a year.