Exhaustion took over as I laid myself down on the grey sofa in my living room. The apartment which I had been given was by no means uncomfortable; it had a large comfortable living room with two sofas, a tv and a radio off to the right was the kitchen, and then there were the four bedrooms off to either side. I had been informed earlier that I would be sharing the apartment with roommates, which is something that I was unsure of how I felt about. The last time I had roommates was in boarding school, but then again there I had actually shared rooms, while here I would have my own, it was something that I hoped would make matters better than they had been back then.

The decoration of the place was sparse to say the least, only equipped with the essential, but I had been informed that we were welcome to decorate the place as we wanted it, which was something that I was looking forward to doing.

It was with that thought that I heard the lock on the door give way to reveal a girl struggling to keep the door open with one hand while lug her luggage in with the other all the time holding her papers in . “Oh hang on let me help you with that.” I called out in Korean before running to hold the door for her.

“thanks.” She replied in English, it only took one glance at this girl to know that she was not originally from Korea.

“No problem, I’m Lisa.”

“Oh him sorry, I’m Alex, it’s great to meet you. When did you get here?” Now that I had heard her speak I could hear that she had a distinct American accent.

“I just arrived today, from Denmark, how about you.”

“Same but from the US, have you been to see Lee Yoan yet?” she joked.

“Yeah she wants me to assess my riding style and skills tomorrow after chores.”

“Oh cool, well anyway if you don’t mind I would like to go to my room and rest for a bit.” With that she made her way to the opposite side of the apartment where there were two vacant rooms, and as much as I loved being in Korea it was great to know that there was another foreigner like me here.

“Leg, leg, look where you are going!” Lee Yoan called out from across the arena, I could feel Sonny surge forward as he locked onto the jump before him, and before I knew it we were in the air soaring over the obstacle, “Good, look to the next one, don’t let him fall back, yes exactly, good girl!” the pony grunted with strain as we cleared the final obstacle of the course.

“Ok let’s leave it at that, just walk him off, you did well today.” Before I could reply Lee Yoan was already out of the ring and on her way back. I had been here now a week, and it seemed like my assessment was not over yet, it was not that I did not enjoy riding Sonny, I loved the pony, but I was ready to move on to the real thing, but to tell her would surely be a mistake. So I just kept my head down and always remembered to be grateful as one of the country’s top riders had chosen to train me.

“Lisa!” I looked to my left to see Ara, walking towards me with, Red, a red pony trailing at her side.

“What’s up?” I asked jumping down from Sonny. Ara was one of my roommates from Korea, and even though her parents lived in Soul she preferred to live at the dorm, just so that she could be in the atmospheres of training at all times, and not constantly have to morph between two personalities every day.

“We are all done and were going to go grab a coffee at Starbucks if you want to join us.”

“Absolutely, let me just un-tack and change and then I am all yours.” It was a good thing that I always brought a spare change of clothes with me to the stables; after all it was not uncommon for the girls and I to go for a coffee after training.

“Cool, see you in a few then.”

I hurried to get Sonny ready for his stall, and it was to no surprise that he seemed particularly un-pleased that I was not giving him the same attention that I normally did, “Sorry boy. I promise to make it up to you tomorrow, but today I am in a hurry.” In answer he only nodded his head as if saying ‘oh yes you will.’ Laughing at his silliness I untied him and led him back to his stall where I gave him a carrot and a kiss goodnight before leaving to get changed.

It was only a little later that I found myself in the packed Starbucks with Alex, Ara and Semmi our last roommate, a multi-cultural girl with parents from Korea and Japan. I was truly blessed to have landed in a house where we all got along so well, it is true that we had only been here for a week but I felt like we had become fast friends. “What does everyone want?” Ara and I asked the other two girls.

“Hot Chocolate for me please.”

“Caramel Frappuccino for me.”

It was a wonder how a franchise like Starbucks could be so popular in absolutely very part of the world, and it was this this knowledge that we always decided it was best to send two up to the counter while the other two saved the table.

“Hey, I was talking with Semmi and we were thinking of asking Lee Yoan if it would be possible to go out for a nice quiet hack this weekend, what do you say, wanna join us?”

“Yes! Please that would be amazing!” We had been training solidly for a whole week with only one day rest, and that was really more for the horses, so the idea that we could go out for a relaxing hack, had me jumping up and down in excitement so much so that I did not realize that I was on a collision course, and it was then that I heard it.

“Ay!” it was a voice which struck a cord of recognition in me.

“Seriously, Mir, you are a magnet for having girls crash into you.” Another voice said in a loud whisper, all the time I had been facing Ara and the expression on her face was one that made me hold a bated breath, and so slowly very slowly I turned around to see who I had run into, and the site that greeted me did not leave me disappointed.