"Wow, that was a really long flight." Taeyeon muttered to herself as she got off the plane after 14 hours. Sure, she had had the luxury of travelling first class, as always, but what would she do here without the support of her rich and influential parents? She knew that she had been sent here to learn independence, having been far too pampered at home in Korea. But she had also come.. to escape the lingering pain of her breakup with Wooyoung after high school.

She was here, in New York, having been offered a scholarship to read medicine by Columbia University. Her parents and schoolmates back in Seoul had bid her farewell as she left, hoping that one day she would return to practice as a doctor in Seoul and follow in her parents' footsteps. As she headed out of departure, she looked for her childhood friend, Yuri, who was also studying in Columbia U, who she had arranged to stay with in a penthouse off the Upper East Side that Yuri's parents had bought for her.

Spotting her name written in Hangul on a placard, Taeyeon walked towards its holder, excited to see her childhood best friend who she hadn't met in years ever since Yuri migrated to the US. She saw two girls waiting for her, and wondered who had accompanied Yuri.

" TAEYEON!!!! So good to see you after such a long time!!!!!" Yuri embraced Taeyeon in a hug as she hadn't seen her in forever.

"Wow, Yuri!! You've grown so much since I last saw you, and gotten so much prettier! I'm sure you hit it off with nearly everyone here!" Taeyeon replied. 

"Welcome to New York. This is my g-- good friend, Jessica!" 

" Annyeong haseyo, I'm Taeyeon. Nice to meet you!" 

"Hi Taeyeon, welcome to America!  I first met Yuri after she transferred to my high school 3 years ago, and now we're all in the same university!  I'm Korean too, but am born and raised in the US. We'll have fun together even though we're in different courses (Yuri's reading law and Jessica's doing political science), and I know some other Koreans who also study medicine and they would really like to meet you! We're always happy to welcome fellow Koreans, and don't bother with formalities around us, we're perfectly happy to help you with English and you can speak to us casually."
 

After the introduction, the three girls helped to get Taeyeon's luggage and got into a limousine which would take them to Yuri's apartment. 

"Taeyeon, here in Columbia, we have a buddy system where foreign students will be paired up with local students of the same nationality to allow them to learn English and make new friends here! Jessica was assigned to me as my English tutor, and she's really awesome at teaching me English - I can converse easily in English now compared to back then when we were in Korea. The teachers there didn't even care about us learning English and weren't fluent at it themselves. You'll have a tutor assigned to you when school starts on Monday. Till then, enjoy and make the best out of this weekend!" 

" Araso. I wonder who my tutor is..."

*END OF CHAPTER 1*

Clarifications:

- Taeyeon has just arrived from Seoul to study medicine

- She broke up with Wooyoung after high school

- Yuri is Jessica's girlfriend but she hasn't told Taeyeon because she knows Taeyeon is still conservative at heart and might not be receptive to this

- Tiffany will come in the next chapter

- Taeyeon and Yuri are both from rich families