Meeting Her

Although Professor Shin was annoyed with all this drama but something about her made him interested.

Listening to her request he teased his wife lightly "Are you making me a stalker for your nephew Mrs. Shin??"

"He is your nephew too. I know this mischievous look of yours. Even if I had not told you, we'll surely do it. Afterall it's for Yang." Mrs. Shin blushed.

But in reality the professor actually payed extra attention to this Lina Park without anyone's knowledge.

He often noticed her spending most of her time in libraries and classes. She purposely used to avoid the boys chasing after her. And the undeniable fact was her being a briliant student.

Professor Shin became used to his colleagues talking about some exceptional talented students from anatomy classes and found out them to be Yang and Lina.

According to other professors especially the girl was an excellent learner while the boy was charming with his skills.

The Professors often used to praise Lina and Yang for their exceptional performances.

Prof. Shin also noticed her spending times by the banks of the lake, carring her peculiar easel bag and a sony headphone over her hoodies.

Prof. Shin began to believe her to be Lina not the cheerful 'Alexa'. These two were miles apart from each other.

The investigator Mrs. Shin appointed also provided the same informations.

"This girl was nowhere to have any connections with the riches of the city. She lived in a rental apartment near the college. Her father is a regular staff of Dong- Feng corporation working on a high position. The mother was a renowned professor of the prestigious Shen-Tian University.

The couple parented 3 kids. Lina was the oldest among her siblings. Her family stayed in a well known compartment building in the main city.

There was nothing particular point of doubt found in the datas. The neighbors also couldn't provide further information as they just moved there last year. "

This made Mrs. Shin calm down the turbulence in her heart. Their life also went back to usual.

During one of the summer holidays Prof. Shin & Mrs. Shin came to visit the orphanage.

They used to come with lots of gifts and books for the children and spent the entire day with them. The Shins loved the children there.

As usual they were spending time with the children at the courtyard. Prof. Shin was doing full body check up of the children while Mrs. Shin was assisting her husband.

Suddenly they saw some children were running towards a someone just stepped on the courtyard.

" Jie jie... where were you? We missed you.. "

" Jie jie.. you are late this time.."

" Jie jie you will teach us drawing this time right?"

The children were complaining to a girl surrounding her.

" Sorry guys.. I had exams and classes.. " She consoled them and opened her hands for a group hug " But I have got holidays now.. We are going to have lots of fun."

"Yaaah!..." " Jie jie will stay with us." "we are so happy " the children shouted in joy.

" Were we all behaving? Were you all good?" The girl asked them in a serious tone.

"Yes jie jie. As if you didn't know!!" the children laughed at her question.

She sat down there distributing some chocolates from the packets she was carrying and happily chatted with them listening to all the complains they were making to her.

Professor. Shin and Mrs. Shin could not ses her face through the children and wondered who she might be. They saw in amusement t the new guest getting blended with the children.

The children suddenly ran towards them dragging a foreigner with themselves.

" Doctor uncle, please do a check up for jiejie also" a little boy instructed the girl to sit the chair in front of Prof. Shin.

The girl was laughing brightly. Her laugh could immediately bring smile to even severe depressed person.

"Sorry to bother you Doctor uncle. Please don't be mad at them." The girl bowed to them in a apologetic tone.

"Hi, Uncle Shin and Aunty Lu. I've heard a lot about you from these little guys. Nice to meet you." The girl finally looked at them fixing her long smooth blond hair.

She slowly removed her sunglass and tucked in the hair behind the ears that was falling all over her face.

Now the Shin couple could saw the person standing in front of them clearly.

Mr. and Mrs. Shin were literally dumbfounded. The one they were looking for everywhere was now standing here.

It was that mysterious foreigner girl, Alexa, alive and ever- smiling.

Mrs. Shin took a closer look at the girl. Her figure was very similar to Lina , that medical student from the college.

Not only her blonde hair and blue eyes and that bright smile, the differences between them were way too prominent. Everything about this girl was different.

Mrs. Shin looked at her husband and found him to be in utter confusion too.

Mrs. Shin asked her to sit beside her. " Hi.. ?"

"Oh. Sorry. I forgot to introduce myself."

"Hello aunty, hello uncle. I'm Alexa. Alexa Ray." She extended her hand towards her.

"Ah... Alexa. Nice to meet you."

Mrs. Shin briefly shook her hand and smiled.

"Aunty Lu. I've heard a lot about you from the children. You are awesome. " Alexa seemed to be in awe meeting her.

" Ha.. ha.. you are too modest. Miss Ray." Mrs. Shin blushed at her praise. "Are you a tourist here ?"

"Ah yeah..."She nodded.

"I met these little bundle of joy during my last trip here. I just couldn't forget about them. And see! Now I'm here...!!" the children began to laugh at her explanation.

"If you try to even think about forgetting us... you'll see then..." one of the children warned her.

"Sorry guys. I'll never ever. Promise And I'll be more regular now." she looked at them sincerely and offered them the bag she was carrying.

The children went back with the gifts she brought.

"It's seems they miss you too Miss Ray." Mrs. Shin commented seeing their little interaction.

" Yeah... I know.. these muchkins are just too cute to not be loved... couldn't visit them often... I've got classes and exams... such busy schedules.. very little time is there left for myself.. I wish I could visit them more... They are like fresh open windows.. they relief all my stresses at once. "

Alexa waved towards the children who smiled back at her.

" You are a student Miss Ray?" Mrs. Shin asked.

" Yeah.. gotta complete my graduation... you know... my family is too strict about education." She replied.

" You have such amazing mandarin skill. It's quite rare for foreigners to have such skill... I must say I'm impressed Miss Ray."

" The pleasure is mine ayi."

"Actually my father always tells me that if there is language barrier you can't speak freely with someone. Conversations are all about making the people comfortable with the language he or she speaks. It was mandarin that made them comfortable to express their feelings. I wanted to make sure these muchkins are comfortable around me."

"So, I learnt." Alexa smiled. "Hope you don't mind calling you ayi."

" Ho..ho..ho.. you are so funny Miss Ray. No problem at all... the honour is mine." Mrs. Shin was once again found her impressive.

" Thank you ayi. Just call me Alexa.'Miss Ray' sounds so distance you see."

"The children always talked about you. I wanted to meet you but last time I could not. " Alexa blurted out all in excitement.

" Okay.. deal. Alexa. It's your second trip here?" Mrs. Shin helped her putting her things down.

The children came back again to them.

"Ah.. yeah." She replied her fixing the hair of a little boy. She gave him a wrapped up box from his bag and kissed his forehead

"Happy Birthday Wei Yi!"

"Thank you Nana Jie. I knew you'd remember." The boy kissed her cheek and ran to his friends to show them his birthday gift.

"Nana Jie?" Professor Shin raised his brows at her.

"Ah.. Yeah... My father calls me by that name. Me 'Nana' and my sister 'Nini'... last time these guys accidentally heard it from my call and afterwards.. you know the children right..." she giggled.

"Ah I see.." Mrs. Shin was getting used to her lovely laughter..

Suddenly a bunch of children came to her. " Nana Jiejie , you have to teach us drawing today.. don't leave early okay?"

Alexa assuringly smiled at them " okay.. done!! . I'll stay with you all day. This jiejie promises you."

The children left shouting with joy.

" So , you are a painter Miss Alexa... ? " This time the question came from Prof. Shin.

He was observing the mysterious girl since the time she came, trying to find out any least possible similarity between the Lina they used to know and this Alexa.

He failed to find any though.

However, Prof. Shin knotted his brows while attentively listening to the children's conversation with her.

" A part time you may say. It's kind of a hobby." Alexa replied " Would you mind me calling you uncle Shin?"

" The pleasure is mine young lady. Nice to meet you." He smiled.

A child standing there interrupted their conversation. "Uncle please check up jiejie."

Prof. Shin looked at Alexa. "Oh.. Really? Should I Miss Ray?"

" What about them then?"

She pointed towards the children.

Professor Shin told her they were just about to end the check up session when she came and got her consent for checking her up.

"What do you do Alexa?" Mrs. Shin unfolded the machines of checking vitals.

"Umm.. I'm a student actually. Currently doing graduation."

She bluntly tried to hide her embarrassment.

"I'm in my first year. I couldn't even make time to come here regularly. I miss those little guys."

They noticed her longingly looking at the children with eyes full of affection.

"It's normal." the professor made an announcement.

"Ah... yeah... the little ones are hard to ignore." the girl blushed at his comments.

"Your vitals are normal too Miss Ray." Professor Shin was amused by her reaction. This girl surely was fone of the children.

"Ah.. thanks uncle. It was a great experience to be able to meet you."

The girl went back to her usual lively- self.

The Shins watched her getting along with the children.

The girl lived in the moment and then too it's fullest.