For some reason, adjusting to life in Seoul wasn’t as easy as it was the first time round. Back in freshmen year, my brain was like a sponge, simply zapping every new piece of information, sight and sound up. But this September, my brain seemed to be frozen - it felt odd for everyone around me to speak in Korean instead of English. I had adapted to the American lifestyle like a duck took to water in January - some things proved to be hard to reverse.

I had struggled to catch the last bit of what the professor had said in the Money and Banking lecture - he had announced the topic of the first assignment next week - and scrambled to jot down that bit before I forgot when I finally interpreted his words. It was only the first few lectures of the new school year, yet I felt severely handicapped. I had not told anyone about this. Like lovebirds on their honeymoon, Luna and Onew were joined at the hip. An aura of happiness engulfed my roommate, I didn’t want to bother her with what was probably just a slight bump to starting my third year. I had not seen Jin Woon in the last week and tried not to think about it. The beginning of the semester was usually a blur of securing the desired modules and tutorials, every one was just as preoccupied with school stuff. Jo Kwon lived in his own world and probably could not understand.

Kris did come to mind, which was pretty ironic since I normally didn’t tell him these kind of things, especially since we lived in separate countries. And honestly sometimes Wu Yifan was just not interested in certain things - my best friend’s eyes had a tendency to glaze over when I related stuff about school or my friends. But now, when Luna spent most nights over at Onew’s place instead of ours, I got quite lonely. I wasn’t used to being by myself through the night as of yet. Kris and I had decided as part of adjusting to our new relationship that our daily Skype calls should kept just to once a week.

In the crowded canteen, I spotted Onew’s perfectly styled coiff before I heard my roommate’s twittering laugh in the canteen. Luna was picking bites off her boyfriend’s plate. “Aww, are two of you sharing lunch? You guys are so sweet, I’m getting diabetes.” I dropped my heavy satchel on the table and cursed the heavy textbooks.

“Don’t mind Amber,” The girl fed Onew a mouth of rice. “She’s just sour now that she’s single.”

Rolling my eyes, I sat down with a thud. Luna and Onew were advocates of public displays of affection and on occasion, they grossed me out.

“Yups, I’m totally jealous!” I grabbed Luna’s chopsticks and stole some of Onew’s food too.

“Get your own lunch!” grumbled Luna.

I pouted and stood up to go stand in line. While deep in thought contemplating my limited gastronomical choices, I inadvertently bumped into a passerby. I made my apologies only to see that it was Sora.

“Hi Amber,” The girl simply glowed - there was little wonder she was a star in the making. I could foresee skincare endorsements in her future.

“Oh Sora, sorry about that!” I felt like a troll standing near her.

“That’s alright. Actually, I was looking for you.” There it was again, that smile - all bright and sunny.

Pointing a finger at my nose, I blurted out, “Me?”

“Yes you! It is a good thing I found you in the canteen. If not I would have no idea whether to find you in the arts faculty. It’s huge!” She lightly held my elbow, steering me towards the quad.

“Well, the music department is really tiny,” I wondered where we were going with this polite small talk. We had only interacted briefly the other day in the auditorium - oh right, Jin Woon mentioned he would set things straight with Sora. Was our conversation going to be about that? Damn, now I wished Jin Woon had told me something, anything about how it went down.

She patted the area next to her and I plonked down obediently, feeling like a sitting duck and anxious about what the girl had to say. God, I’m going to kill Jin Woon if she cries, I promised myself.

“Jin Woon and I had a long talk two days ago.” Sora shifted her hips on the hard ground. I felt sorry for her - she was probably as uncomfortable with this as much as I was. “He said he hoped he had not led me on with his actions because he simply sees me as a friend.” Her smile now faded slightly. I felt like the most horrid person on earth and wished for a second that I had not told Jin Woon that Kris and I were no longer engaged. “Well, I have to admit the entire thin