Pink. The room was all pink. The girl who woke up before her alarm even rang off fixes her bed and greets her pink bear, pink pig, pink penguin, and pink-haired mermaid stuff toys a good morning. She brushes her hair and looks in the mirror with her eye turning into crescent moons and her lips tugging upwards as if today was the day smiling was first discovered. Her smile is brighter than any morning, and her room cleaner than any freshly-mowed lawn in her hometown. She first goes out in the living room to see her brother drinking coffee.

“Good morning to the coolest bro ever!” happy seeing that her brother prepared pancakes for her breakfast.

“Good morning, Fany! It’s your first day in school today. I guess you’re excited for waking up this early. Make a lot of friends okay?” her brother greeted in return.

“Yup, it’s a good morning. Yes, it’s my first day. A-huh, I’m excited. BUT NOPE I don’t know how to make friends here! My Korean is terrible and I don’t know if I can even utter a sensible phrase, not even a sentence!!!!” Nervousness kicking in which slowly erases the smile on the girl’s face.

“Hey, it’s not like we’re not Koreans at all. Trust me, people are going to love you. Just be yourself and everything will work out fine. Most especially, your school is filled with girls, and you’re the girliest girl I have ever met in my whole life. You’ll fit in just right.” Her brother reassured her with a wink.

“Hmp. I bet you’re not nervous at all since you know you’re a prodigy with your cooking. Will there even be girls in your culinary high school? I hope you’d meet your soon-to-be wife there, since dad is starting to think you’re gay for having no interest in girls yet.”

“Yah! I’m interested in girls! It’s just that my dream is way more important than dating someone whom I know won’t be immediately my ‘wife’.”

“Yeah… yeah…. I’ll go take a shower now. Thanks for the breakfast, my chef bro.” she said with a slang accent.

Fany, or Tiffany, originally lived in states. Due to her brother’s dream and passion for cooking, he asked their dad to let him enroll in a culinary school in Korea that offered him a scholarship. Despite of being only one year older from Tiffany, he was advanced a year higher in high school, now making him a freshman in college, while Tiffany a junior in high school. Their father only approved of Tiffany’s brother pursuit of his dreams if only he will be accompanied by one of his sisters. Leo, the brother, chose Tiffany since they were a lot closer (even sharing the same birthdate, August 1) than their eldest sister, Michelle who is 8 years older than Fany.

After needed preparation, Leo sent off Tiffany for her first day and told her to just be her happy self. Tiffany said goodbye and walked her way to her new high school feeling all jittery.

Before entering her classroom, she expected her classmates to already be in groups forming circles while sharing about the most recent gossips or trips they had during the break. But in reality, it was dead silent with a few people talking quietly. Some were sleeping on their seats, some were reading a book, some were eating breakfast, and some were simply daydreaming. She didn’t know which seat to take, but she knew that the seats won’t be permanent yet for the whole school year. She assessed the class and searched for the most sociable person she seems to perceive. And there she was, a girl who had a trace of a smile on her, would be the perfect first friend to have.

“She looks nice. She’s pretty too. Gosh, she looks like a doll.” Tiffany thought to herself as she started walking towards the seat beside the doll-looking girl.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?” Tiffany asked the girl with an eye-smile.

“What’s so good about mornings?” the girl emotionlessly said.

Tiffany was only able to respond with a few blinks of her eyes with a confused look.

After a few moments of silence…

“Well, what are you waiting for? Sit. This is a free country, go do what you want.” The girl looked at her with a blank expression.

“Uhmmm hi, I’m Tiffay. Tiffany Hwang.” She said as she sat down and settled her bag on the backrest of the seat.

“Hi. I’m Kim Taeyeon.” The girl responded, obviously trying hard to pull her lips a little bit upward that it made it seem a little bit creepy.

“Ohhh, it’s nice to meet you Kim!” Tiffany confidently offered her hand for a shake.

Taeyeon laughed and said “Kim is my family name, call me Taeyeon.” then gave her a ridiculous are-you-serious kind of look.

“I’M SORRY! Pardon me, I’m not really from here.” Tiffany could only respond in humiliation

“You look Korean enough to me. Where are you from then?”

“Well, I am Korean. It’s just that I lived in America and only came back with my brother to study his bachelor’s degree here. So, I don’t know a lot about the culture and all that stuff.” Tiffany carefully explained.

“Tiffany does sound unusual for a Korean name. You must have one then. What is it?”

“I don’t like my Korean name.” Tiffany shyly replied.

“Oh come on, it’s not like I’m going to tease you about it.” Taeyeon responded sincerely.

Tiffany gave a sigh and said, “It’s Mi Young.”

“Myong!” Taeyeon resaid it like a cat meowing. “It’s pretty. It means pretty flower. Why don’t you like it?” ending her question with another cat-meow myong and an American, though hard Korean accent “Purrrity”

“It’s weird. It’s not pretty.” Tiffany replied with her fluent usual accent.

Before Taeyeon can respond, the two girls who entered the classroom a few minutes a while ago commanded the two seated students behind Tiffany and Taeyeon to move to another seat after hearing Tiffany’s English-speaking moment.

“Hi, I’m Yoona. This is my friend Sunny. Arrre you frrrom Armericuh?” the long-legged girl asked Tiffany in a trying-hard way of speaking in English, while the other girl, Sunny, could only nod and smile enthusiastically at Tiffany.

“Yes, I am. But you can talk to me in Korean so that I can also practice myself in speaking the language. I’m Tiffany! It’s nice to meet you, Yoona and Sunny.” She said smoothly with her eye-smile leaving the two girls nodding in lack of comprehension to what just Tiffany said.

Taeyeon broke the nodding cycle by saying “I’m Taeyeon.”

The two girls responded with surprised looks. Apparently, Taeyeon is a quiet and weird girl for the other students. She prefers for her existence to not be known. She’s obviously an introvert who puts up a sign in her forehead stating “I AM SOCIALLY AWKWARD.” Students don’t hate her, in fact, she gets enough respect to be left alone to her daydreaming. She doesn’t talk in class but she does well in their examinations for the past two years in high school. Many students have tried befriending her, since some were curious of how she would act as a friend. But unfortunately, nobody succeeded in breaking down her walls. By introducing herself, she surprised the IT girls who were led by the ice princess, Jessica. These two weren’t really bright students, they can’t be satisfied with grades, but only their icy and authoritative reputation in school. Knowing that Taeyeon has high impenetrable walls, the two girls took it an acknowledgement of Taeyeon’s respect to their social status in school.

“Nice to meet you, Taeyeon.” Sunny said in a high-pitched tone. Too high-pitched that Taeyeon furrowed her brows that was seen by Yoona who was ready to confront about it but prevented thanks to Tiffany’s question.

“Are you a transferee too, Tae?” Tiffany asked.

Taeyeon blushed at the shortened name Tiffany called her.

“No, I’m not a transferee.” She regained her blank expression and responded.

“You just don’t know each other?”

Taeyeon looked up trying to find the ceiling more interesting than the conversation they’re having.

“We’ve known her for more than two years now, actually.” Sunny more of questioned herself rather than answering Tiffany’s question.

“Then why does it seem like you only met each other today?” Tiffany saw her question as a joke as she left while saying it.

“She wants to be non-existent. We respect that, so we don’t talk to her unless she talks to us. It’s always been that way with her. Everyone treats her that way because that’s what she wants.” Yoona sensibly explained.

“You don’t talk to people???” Tiffany asked Taeyeon in disbelief

Taeyeon was now finding the floor more interesting than the ceiling and the conversation. She was starting to feel uncomfortable, seeing that her fingers are recklessly tapping her seat’s arm rest. Tiffany saw the sign and turned the question into a statement.

“I’m surprised because when I first entered the room, you’re the person who seemed to be the most approachable person here.” Tiffany smiled at Taeyeon who was now redder than their uniform’s bright red bow.

 “Come to think of it, Sunny, your name isn’t a Korean name too, is it?” Fany asked.

“I was also born in America, as well as Jessica who’s also our friend, but I’ve lived here in Korea ever since.” She answered in as-a-matter-of-fact tone, proud that she too, came from the states.

“No, she just hates her Korean name. It’s Soonkyu.” Yoona admitted while she laughed hysterically with open as wide as an alligator’s.

“Yah! Im Yoona! I’ll get you back for this!!” Sunny shouted.

As the two IT girls were playfully teasing each other and Taeyeon being her socially-awkward self, Tiffany can’t help but be happy for herself since she made so much progress in so little time. She just made three friends, and she’s starting to feel at ease with the environment. She’s expecting that these girls would take care of her and not only be friends of her because she’s a bit more high-class than the other transferees. Although she’s having doubts with Yoona and Sunny who first looked like mean girls to her, she’s sure that Taeyeon would be a nice friend to have. On brighter note, she can talk to Yoona and Sunny about make-up, shopping, boys, and other girly stuff because she seems to also be an IT girl who just so happens to have more class than the others. She’s happy, and she’s complementing it with her eye-smile. In a few minutes, her first day in school will officially start as the opening ceremony of the school year commences.