Only a few days in and Yuri and I were basically inseparable. I had finally found someone whom I could bond with despite her being a year younger and although, I’m not a hundred percent sure, she became close to me probably because I was the first person to speak to her in this new environment for her. Again, lucky. Or fate. Whichever you prefer. Sometimes they seem like the same thing, along with coincidence. Because, to be honest, Yuri and I have little in common but our friendship became one where she and I try to convince each other that the other should learn to appreciate our different interests, and I did. Slowly. Actually, we did have one thing that bonded us: FOOD! Although, even with food we had our differences. She was quite the picky eater while I was more tolerant of new foods. But we always manage to find a middle ground and that’s why our friendship worked. For example, I preferred savory foods while she preferred sweets. So for dinner, it was usually me cooking the entree and she would make dessert. And yes, I can cook. I wasn’t exactly the best cook in the past but having to take care of myself while I lived away from home, I had no choice but to learn. And in fact, it later turned out to be a very useful skill that impressed a lot of people.

So in the few days that lead up to the start of the semester, the dorm really filled up. Yuri and I found ourselves a few other oddballs like us and we formed ourselves a little possy.  Surprisingly, it was me who befriended Soonkyu and Sooyoung, without the help of Yuri. It turned out that the two girls were best friends and they were from a neighboring town from where I lived, so we bonded over that. The two of them were the funniest of pairs. Sunny was short and adorable while Sooyoung was tall and slender. Sunny was loud and cheerful while Sooyoung was witty and sarcastic. Yet both were equally intelligent and mischievous. Together they were just a vortex of hyperactivity, and I was in immediately despite my greatest attempts to resist. They were also in their second year of college; Soonkyu was a physics major whilst Sooyoung was a chemistry major. It’s funny how two such unserious people were in such serious majors. And somehow, they had found me amusing and had decided to adopt me as their pet.

The weekend before class officially started, a party was held for the students to mingle and get to know each other. Initially I was quite hesitant about going because I hated parties; crowded places and loud noises made me uncomfortable. But then Yuri, Soonkyu and Sooyoung somehow convinced me to go and so I did. We arrived at the party separately. I had a habit of being too early for gatherings and it was no different for that party. I was definitely early but amazingly there were actually people who were earlier than I was. I walked around the room just to see if there was anyone I recognized, and also to give me something to do rather than to just stand around awkwardly, when I found a group of people crowding in a corner. I couldn’t really see what exactly was going on but I could hear someone playing the guitar and singing. Yes, I was so early they hadn’t even put the music on yet. Usually, I would just bypass such commotions but the person who was singing was actually pretty good so naturally I was curious as to whom it was. I moved closer to the crowd but I still couldn’t see who it was until I realized she was sitting on the ground.

Please forgive me, I need just a moment to gather my feelings…

I still remember the