I finally started unpacking. I unpacked my luggage one by one, slowly. I only brought things which were important to me. I saw a few pictures inside the small bag and I looked at them one by one. A few pictures with my family, two pictures with my friends and that was it. One of the pictures had Kris in it, I didn’t want to bring it with me but it was a precious memory and could help me miss home less.

I heard a knock on the door and welcome them in. It was Jake. “Hello neighbour” He said and brought me a plate of cookies. I laughed.

“Is this freshly baked cookie?” I asked Jake and all he could was laugh.

“Well, if you call, opening a wrapper and placing them on a plate is fresh then yes, it is.” Jake grinned.

We both laughed, Jake stood near the door. “I’m glad you like the room, it was getting quiet up here” Jake said.

“How long have you been living here?” I asked Jake, Jake lived in the opposite room.

“A few months after you went home, I realised it was easier to walk from here to school” Jake answered. I nodded again. “How was home?” Jake asked.

I hesitated but decided to answer the question honestly. “Home was difficult, I always had a feeling, I felt like running away”

“What happened?” Jake finally sat opposite me; we were separated by my luggage.

“A lot has happened” I took a deep breath after answering.

“Kris?” Jake prompted.

“He’s still seeing Jane” I answered. “He came back home with her” I continued.

“How are you feeling?” No one had asked me the question back home. Their questions had mostly centred on Kris.

“Hurt, sad but I can’t really do anything about it. I mean, I guess Jane means a lot more to him” I muttered in the end.

“It’s okay to be mad at him Lena, It’s okay if you want to fight for him, Lena. You can.” Jake said.

“I don’t really care about it anymore. I want to let everything go.” I stood up and walked to my back pack. I handed a parcel to Jake. “Thank you Jake for the book” I smiled.

“You could keep it” Jake said but I shook my head.

“No, you keep it. It’s yours.” I thank Jake again. Our conversations continued with questions regarding about my university. We stayed up late that night, talking about a lot of things.

I finally settled in my life in Singapore. It’s been three months since I started living here. It has been a very interesting experience. It was great having Jake in the same university. Conversations with Tia has been very fruitful especially when it comes to fangirling over boy bands. I sometimes help out Tia and Jake at their guest house. I try helping them with the cleaning up, cooking and welcoming guests. It was really because I spent a lot of times downstairs.

I received e-mails from home, including from Kris. I replied to everyone almost immediately but had only replied to Kris once. After the third e-mail, I started ignoring. I couldn’t read and not be affected with his words. I was still with my decision; it was time to let things go.

“Hey Tia!” I walked in the house. Tia was at the reception desk welcoming new guests. I said my hello to the guest and Tia asked me if I could check on the kitchen. It was in a little mess, a few dishes were still on the table. I help clean the plates and washed them. It was almost lunch time, usually Jake would be back home by now.

I looked over the fridge and checked on the ingredients. I decided to take out the chicken out from the freezer. Jake usually makes fried chicken for lunch. We need it to defrost. “Hey Lena!” I heard Jake said. I turned around and waved at him. It was easy for him to start cooking, if it was me, I would spend a whole thirty minutes googling up recipes.

In 45 minutes, Jake managed to serve up a very light local lunch meal. It was my favourite, the guests’ favourite as well. Guest usually comes back for more of the food. After lunch, I went up my room and continued working on my works. I decided to check my e-mails; few mails from subscribing alerts, mails from my brother and one mail from Kris. I hovered along the lines. I was about to let it be when I accidentally opened the mail. It wasn’t as long as the first few mails I got from him because this only contained three words;

I miss you.

I closed the tab and tried to continue my work. I was distracted. I decided to go back downstairs and talked with Tia.