It was a week since Pritika had come to Seoul, the capital city of Korea. The conference was over and all her colleagues had gone back. The week has passed in a jiffy and she did not have time to call on her friend. Today I must call him, she told herself.

After a few rings the phone was answered by a female voice. “Sir is in a meeting. Who should I say called?” the voice was very sweet; Pritika felt a twinge of jealousy.  Then she smiled. Jayant is just a good friend, she thought.

Pritika walked out of the hotel lounge. The breeze suddenly hit her. It’s cold, she thought. She walked on the footpath. The darkness had just begun to set in. The roads looked busy with people returning home from office. The hotel was in the downtown area, with mostly office buildings around.  It must have been about two hours since she began walking.  Her legs began to ache. The area she had reached looked like a trendy place. She entered a small Indian restaurant. She was keen to eat some Indian food, though she was not fussy and enjoyed all kinds of food. The lights were rather dim and the place was filled with smoke. She found an empty table and went and sat there.

“From India?” The waiter asked her. She nodded with a smile.  He spoke to her in Hindi and from his accent she realized he was not from India but from Bangladesh. She did not feel very comfortable.  The hectic pace of the week was probably catching up now and she felt very weak.  The loud Bollywood music, the smoke and the smell of alcohol all made her feel sick.

Pritika looked at her watch. It would be 2 am in India. Not a good time to wake anyone up. Her hands were trembling. She was waiting at the side of the road for almost half an hour.  There was no cab around.  The roads were totally deserted. In the distance she could see a person cleaning up. Everything around was closed. And her cellphone had run out of charge.

May be she should wait in the restaurant till there is some daylight she thought. She turned to go in, but the shutters were down. Just then she heard the screeching of car brakes. A short middle aged person got out and bowed to her with a smile. He said something in what sounded like the local Korean language and opened the car door for her.  She was not sure what she should do. But she as she did not have much choice, she decided to get into the cab.

She sat in the car and he gave her a glance through the rear view mirror.  Novotel Hotel she said.  He did not respond.  You know the place? She tried to find out if he had heard her. He nodded and smiled. She felt relieved.

She closed her eyes and probably had dosed off. Suddenly the car braked and she saw a policeman standing outside the driver’s window. He spoke to the driver in the local language and caught him by the collar and dragged him towards a small booth. Pritika could not understand what was going on.  The policeman then came to her and began to speak in broken English. She could vaguely understand that the driver was drunk. He asked her for her papers. And she had carried none. She had left the hotel with the intention of taking a walk and having some dinner.  He looked very sternly at her.  She was trying to tell him what happened, but she was not able to answer why she was roaming alone at this time of the night.

Little did she realize that an evening walk would land her into so much trouble! The officer at the police station was not listening to her. Language was a big problem. The interpreter would come only in the morning and till then she was expected to just sit in one place.

“Do you have a charger for my phone?” she asked the officer at the police station, pointing at the phone. He took her phone and put it on his table to charge.  She sat in the chair looking at the clock which seemed not to move at all. The officer at the desk would occasionally look at her almost expressionlessly. Koreans don’t express emotions, she remembered her colleague telling her. Extremely talented and intelligent people but like to keep to themselves. Ah, a perfect example she thought.

Jayant had sent her a message since he could not reach her on the phone. With that the policeman allowed her to make the call and Jayant had come to fetch her. He spoke good Korean and convinced the officer of Pritika’s innocence.” Language is such a great barrier as well as a bridge she thought.  “Come let’s go” Jayant signaled to Pritika.  He opened the door of his car for her.  “I am sorry, I could not come earlier. I am sure you are very tired. Let’s go to my home which is a few miles away and you can rest. I have a breakfast meeting I can’t avoid. But I will be back soon and then we can catch up. “

Pritika woke up with a headache. Was it a bad dream? No, she looked at the door. She realized that she was in Jayant’s house. She walked to the kitchen and made herself coffee. She looked around the house. He had a nice house. In the distance she saw some photographs hung on the wall. She went to look at them closer.  Jayant and she were good friends and colleagues. Jayant had left the company four years ago to join a Korean multinational and had agreed to be based in Korea. This was all she knew of him after he had left. They were friends on Facebook but no other contact. When she was to travel for her conference, she got in touch with him and he had responded by saying that she could take a few days off and he could show her around.

There was a click and the door opened. “So how are you now? Feeling better?” Jayant looked fresh and chirpy.  “Now tell me your story, how did you land in that God forsaken place last night?” When Jayant heard her story, he looked grim and said, “You are lucky, they just doped you a bit. These places are very dangerous.”

Three days had gone as if in a dream. The palace tour was the best. The gardens and malls were fabulous. The shopping and sight-seeing was over. Jayant tried to explain to her the close similarities between India and Korea. The family culture is very strong here. They like loud Bollywood type of music, they are very hard working. Pritika felt that Jayant was missing India.

It was time to pack up and leave for India. She began to go through the pictures and called Jayant. “See this one, it’s so cute”, she was pointing at a picture taken in the cable car while going to the N. Tower.  “Yes the last few days have been …..” he murmured something she could not catch, looking away. “Care for some coffee?”

They stood in the balcony of his 23^rd floor apartment. The strong breeze was blowing her hair and the hot coffee felt nice. Jayant said, “You know Priti, (that was how he called her so many years ago) after my Korean girlfriend left me two years ago, I thought I would never fall in a relationship again.”  There was an uncomfortable silence. “I worked for eighteen to twenty hours a day. I did not like coming home to an empty house. The last three days of my life, are probably the best days in a very long time, and I want to thank you for it,” he gently kissed her hand. Pritika smiled and said, “You saved my life, Thank you my friend” and hugged him.

The journey to the airport was spent mostly in silence. Jayant felt he wanted to tell her that he had fallen in love with her, but could not muster the courage. He did not know much about her life after he came to Korea. Whether she was in a relationship or not….

“Next time you come to Korea, please ensure you call me to pick you up. Don’t ever venture alone like you did this time”, he said with a smile. “Will there be a next time?” she asked, with a little sadness in her voice.  They hugged each other and she went into the airport with a heavy heart. Had she also fallen in love?