Alicia Christiani Darmawan (28), seorang peneliti muda yang ceria, pintar, dan penggemar berat K-Pop serta K-Drama, tinggal di Indonesia dan sesekali membantu mengurus kebun teh milik orang tuanya. Karena kecintaannya pada budaya Korea, Alicia belajar bahasa Korea secara otodidak lewat lagu dan drama hingga akhirnya cukup fasih—bersama kemampuan bahasa Inggris, Prancis, dan Spanyol yang sudah lebih dulu ia kuasai.
Di sisi lain, Bryan Kim Min Ho (40), seorang arsitek sukses dari Seoul, memilih berlibur diam-diam ke Indonesia untuk mencari ketenangan. Setelah bertahun-tahun hidup dengan tekanan pekerjaan dan pertanyaan keluarga serta teman-temannya tentang “kapan menikah?”, Min Ho ingin menikmati perjalanan tanpa dikenali siapa pun dan tanpa pembahasan soal kehidupan pribadinya.
Takdir mereka dimulai di tempat yang sangat tidak dramatis.
Pagi itu Alicia terlalu bersemangat menyambut rombongan wisatawan yang datang ke kebun teh keluarga. Karena sedang membayangkan adegan khas drama Korea—lengkap dengan soundtrack imajiner di kepalanya—Alicia berlari sambil membawa keranjang daun teh…
…dan BRAK!
Dia menabrak seorang pria asing sampai keduanya jatuh ke tanah.
Dengan panik Alicia langsung meminta maaf dalam bahasa Indonesia lalu refleks pindah ke bahasa Inggris lalu entah kenapa gugup dan malah meminta maaf dalam bahasa Korea yang terlalu formal seperti karakter kerajaan di drama sejarah.
Pria yang ditabraknya hanya diam beberapa detik sebelum berkata dalam bahasa Korea:
"사과를 세 가지 언어로 한꺼번에 하면 제가 어느 언어로 대답해야 해요?" (Sagwareul se gaji eoneoro hankkeobeone hamyeon jega eoneu eoneoro daedaphaeya haeyo?)
(Artinya: “Kalau minta maafnya sampai tiga bahasa sekaligus saya harus jawab yang mana?”)
Alicia membeku.
Orang Korea.
Asli Korea.
Tinggi.
Tampan.
Dan dia baru saja menjatuhkannya ke kebun teh.
Karena malu, Alicia bersikeras menjadi pemandu pribadi selama Min Ho berkunjung. Namun niat baiknya sering berubah jadi kekacauan lucu mulai dari salah menerjemahkan istilah kebun teh ke bahasa Korea, mengajak Min Ho mencoba makanan super pedas tanpa peringatan, sampai terus menerus secara tidak sengaja membandingkan Min Ho dengan tokoh drama favoritnya.
Yang membuat Alicia semakin bingung: Min Ho ternyata sama sekali tidak seperti karakter CEO dingin di drama.
Dia tenang, perhatian, suka membantu, dan diam-diam menikmati kepolosan Alicia meskipun sesekali kehilangan kesabaran saat Alicia terlalu heboh atau melakukan hal aneh.
Sebaliknya, Min Ho yang awalnya datang untuk kabur dari tekanan hidup mulai merasa nyaman. Bersama Alicia, dia belajar bahasa Indonesia sedikit demi sedikit meski sering salah ucap hingga menimbulkan situasi memalukan. Alicia juga mulai menyadari bahwa kehidupan nyata orang Korea jauh berbeda dari drama yang selama ini ia tonton.
Hari demi hari di antara kabut pagi, kebun teh, dan percakapan campur empat bahasa, hubungan mereka berubah dari turis dan pemandu tidak resmi menjadi dua orang yang saling memahami.
Tapi saat liburan Min Ho hampir berakhir, muncul pertanyaan yang tidak bisa dijawab dengan subtitle atau aplikasi penerjemah:
Apakah perasaan yang tumbuh di kebun teh cukup kuat untuk menjembatani jarak Indonesia–Korea Selatan?
Atau semuanya hanya akan menjadi kenangan manis tentang seseorang yang pernah jatuh secara harfiah di tengah kebun teh?
[Bahasa Inggris]
Alicia Christiani Darmawan (28) is a cheerful and intelligent young researcher from Indonesia who is also a devoted fan of K-pop and K-drama. When she is not working, she occasionally helps manage her family's tea plantation. Driven by her love for Korean culture, Alicia taught herself Korean through songs and dramas until she became fairly fluent, adding it to the list of languages she already spoke: English, French, and Spanish.
On the other side of Asia, Bryan Kim Min Ho (40), a successful architect from Seoul, decides to take a quiet vacation in Indonesia. After years of living under the pressure of work and endless questions from family and friends about when he plans to get married, Min Ho wants nothing more than a peaceful getaway where nobody recognizes him and nobody asks about his personal life.
Their fate begins in the least dramatic way possible.
That morning, Alicia is overly excited to welcome a group of tourists visiting her family's tea plantation. While daydreaming about a classic K-drama scene—complete with an imaginary soundtrack playing in her head—she runs through the tea fields carrying a basket of freshly picked tea leaves.
And then
CRASH!
She slams into a complete stranger, sending both of them tumbling to the ground.
Panicking, Alicia immediately apologizes in Indonesian. Then she reflexively switches to English. Somehow becoming even more nervous, she blurts out an apology in Korean—so formal that she sounds like a royal character from a historical drama.
The man she collided with remains silent for a few seconds before replying in Korean:
"사과를 세 가지 언어로 한꺼번에 하면 제가 어느 언어로 대답해야 해요?"
("If you're apologizing in three languages at once, which one am I supposed to answer in?")
Alicia freezes.
A Korean.
A real Korean.
Tall.
Handsome.
And she has just knocked him over in the middle of a tea plantation.
Mortified, Alicia insists on becoming Min Ho's personal guide during his stay. Unfortunately, her good intentions often turn into hilarious disasters. She mistranslates tea plantation terminology into Korean, tricks Min Ho into trying extremely spicy food without warning him, and constantly compares him to her favorite K-drama characters without realizing it.
What confuses Alicia even more is that Min Ho is nothing like the cold, arrogant CEOs she watches on television.
He is calm, considerate, and quietly helpful. He finds Alicia's sincerity and enthusiasm charming, although he occasionally loses patience when she becomes overly dramatic or does something completely unexpected.
Meanwhile, Min Ho—who originally came to Indonesia to escape the pressures of life—slowly finds himself feeling at peace. Through Alicia, he begins learning Indonesian, often mispronouncing words and creating embarrassing situations. Alicia, in turn, gradually discovers that real life in Korea is very different from the dramas she has spent years watching.
Day by day, amid the morning mist, endless rows of tea plants, and conversations mixed with four different languages, their relationship transforms from tourist and unofficial guide into something much deeper.
But as Min Ho's vacation draws to an end, a question emerges that cannot be answered by subtitles or translation apps:
Are the feelings that blossomed among the tea leaves strong enough to bridge the distance between Indonesia and South Korea?
Or will everything remain nothing more than a sweet memory of someone who literally fell into her life in the middle of a tea plantation?
Komentar
Posting Komentar