There were a hundred reasons why it was surprising when Dara saw Kwon Jiyong again.

Top of the list was that she was in New York City, thousands of miles away from the middle school in Seoul where they'd been friends years before. Though it was more likely to run into another Korean person in the dorm where she was designated to live for four months, she'd been here for three weeks already and hadn't seen him anywhere.

Before now, at least, because there he was: taller, stronger-featured, definitely not in a school uniform... but unmistakably Jiyong. After eight years, Dara was staggered to see him. The two beers she'd had before the party probably helped with that.

"Dear me, she's already stumbling." The arm through which Dara's right arm was twined tightened helpfully despite the sweetly poisonous voice.

"What are you looking at, Dara?" the keeper of her left arm asked, ignoring their friend's words with characteristic cool.

Dara squeezed them both even as she continued her attempt to process Jiyong's sudden re-appearance in her life. She'd been worried about coming to New York without knowing anyone, but these two had found places in her life from the first time they'd met. Now here was another person she knew, too.

"An old friend," she said, sliding her left hand down to thread her fingers through Chaerin's. Jiyong was talking to a girl in a pretty dress and knee-high boots. He looked very grown-up and different from the round-cheeked boy who'd been the earnest, determined puppy of their group of friends in their adolescence.

"Oooh, that's perfect," Daesung said on her other side. He let go of her arm and gestured in the vague direction of Dara's gaze. "He can be my prescribed new friend this week! I'll get out my phone..."

"He looks busy," Dara said, taking in the amorous look in Jiyong's brown eyes with startled amusement. "And I need a drink."

"But my new game is waiting," Daesung whined, shuffling closer to give her a pleading look. "If I get my proof now, I can go back to my room-"

"And leave us here?" Chaerin interrupted and raised her eyebrows at him. "No. You're the only one who knows anyone here. Where're your friends, anyway?"

"Friend is a strong word," Daesung said bitterly, but he put his phone away again. "Top is more of an acquaintance, really, and one who can't take a hint. And I don't know anyone else at all."

"And yet you're here," Chaerin mused.

Dara stopped listening. Jiyong was moving away from his conversational partner, though not without a look back at her that almost made