“Excuse me…sorry…pardon me!” I made my way through a crowd of people before finally seeing the baggage claim lazily rotating in front of me. The bright green ribbon I had tied on my luggage was nowhere in sight and I was already running late, but that was all I had for the next week until the rest of my stuff shipped to my cousin’s house, and I really didn’t want to wear the same pair of underwear for four days straight. I tapped my foot impatiently to the beat of the song blasting in my earbuds, waiting for my dumb suitcase to roll around, and when it finally did, it was stuck to someone else’s leopard print ribbon. “What…why?” I groaned and quickly unknotted my ribbon, leaving it attached to the other one, and hastily made my way out to immigration. The shortest line still took twenty minutes to get through, and I started to feel the stress build up in the form of tears. Deep breaths, in, out, in out…

 

“Mei mei!” A tall figure approached me from across the lobby, his snapback turned backwards with a pair of aviators resting on top. I pulled my earbuds out and smiled for the first time in a long while, ignoring my stress from earlier. Rolling my suitcase across the tile, I felt myself speeding up to receive my long awaited hug. “Ah, you’re so much taller than before!”

 

“I should be the one to say that, ge.” I buried my face in his chest and laughed. It was a foreign feeling, as if happiness was a thing of the distant past.

 

He ruffled my hair grabbed the handle of my suitcase pulling it behind him as he slung his free arm over my shoulder. The drive to my new home was brief, but it felt like I was making my way to a prison sentence. We caught up the whole way; it had been almost ten years after all. He was working part-time at a coffee shop near his university and was finishing his second degree, this time in some obscure major he only wanted to take for fun, and he was thinking of going back to China for a while. I didn’t say anything, but I really wanted him to stay with me. He would be my only friend for who knows how long, and I was actually really scared. I mean, I could barely speak enough Korean to hold a conversation since the move was so rushed, not to mention the cultural differences between Korea and Canada.

 

We arrived at Kris’ house and his parents greeted me with open arms. My aunt and uncle were my favorite relatives, besides Kris of course, and they always treated me like their own daughter. It was a pleasant change.

 

“Mei Li! Look at you; all grown up now…I’m going to cry!” My aunt my face and smoothed my hair out. I smiled and hugged her before hugging my uncle.

 

“Ayaaah, how old are you now? Twelve??” My uncle chuckled and messed up the hair that my aunt just fixed, but I didn’t care. I had a real family now. “Yi Fan, is that all her stuff?”

 

“Everything else is coming later this week,” I shrugged. “It really isn’t a lot though, so I won’t take up that much room…”

 

“Nonsense, mei. You get your own room and everything!” Auntie ushered us inside and made Kris take all my stuff upstairs. I followed him to a nearly empty room and my eyes widened. The walls were a boring, off-white, but the darkly colored furniture really complimented it. A bed rested against the wall opposite from a large window that overlooked the backyard, and a door to a small walk-in closet stood ajar. There was a desk and an empty bookshelf, as well as a standing lamp, but otherwise, it was empty. It had so much potential.

 

--

 

That night, I had unpacked my entire suitcase, and the room was still really bare. I put my toiletries in the bathroom I shared with Kris, and I couldn’t believe how much stuff he had for his face alone, but hey, he had really nice skin so I couldn’t complain. I hung my clothes in the closet and finished organizing my things. I stretched before heading downstairs to explore the rest of the house; my aunt and uncle left to get dinner, and Kris was on the way back from his shift at the coffee shop, so I was left alone. There was a comfortably sized living room that lead into a small dining room with the kitchen one doorway away, and there was another bathroom across from a hall closet, but other than that, there wasn’t much downstairs. I looked out the kitchen window and did a double take when I saw not one, but two heads of rainbow colored hair above the fence that divided our backyard from the neighbors’. How interesting… As if he sensed my staring, the face belonging to the head of colorful hair popped up above the fence. His mouth was set in a straight line, the corners pushed in a little, and one of his eyebrows was raised. The other head, belonging to a girl, appeared milliseconds after, and she gave me a huge grin before waving. I awkwardly smiled back and gave a small wave, and before I knew it, I found myself walking towards them. 

 

“Hi! I’m Serah!” She grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously. 

 

“M-mei Li…” The guy stood next to Serah, and that’s when I noticed how alike they looked. Both were tall and thin, with sharp features, and the same exact nose. Serah was still smiling and her teeth were perfectly straight. They even had a mole in the same place on their necks, which made me realize that I was staring at them and not saying anything. Maybe if I don’t say anything, they’ll leave me alone…

 

“This is my brother, Sehun. He has a lemon face, but I’m cute right?”

 

“Wha- hey!” For the first time he spoke, and his face contorted into this strange bratty child face, which was the total opposite from his face earlier, and he totally pouted like a baby. But I would be lying if I said it wasn’t oddly endearing. “We’re twins. So she’s a lemon face, too.”

 

I really didn’t know what they meant by lemon face, so I just smiled and nodded.

 

“It’s really nice meeting you guys...does this mean you're my new neighbors?” They both cocked their heads in the same direction and gave me a strange look.

 

“You live here?!” Serah grinned and her eyes widened even further. “Kris is, like, SO HOT.”

 

I almost choked on my spit.

 

“Well, I mean, not as hot as his best friend, but we’re just going to never mention this. Ever.” She nodded in a very serious manner and Sehun rolled his eyes.

 

“Please excuse my sister and her total lack of self control when it comes to boys.”

 

“Sure…?” I raised my eyebrow and looked between the two of them. “Just please don’t ever call my cousin hot ever again.”