Different people react differently in cases like these. Some are cool and ooze charm. Some use humor to offset their awkwardness. And then there’s me; I go all quiet, I avert my eyes, I crawl into my shell and it makes me seem like I’m cold, distant and disinterested, when it’s really the opposite. And even when I try not to be, everything I say or do still turns out seemingly standoffish. It’s a plague really. I’ve since learned to minimalize this effect I have on people but it is, nevertheless, still a huge drawback of mine. Miyoung on the other hand was the first kind. She was sweet and extremely friendly; everyone loved her.

“Yuri’s told me quite a bit about you,” Miyoung said. She still had that wonderful smile of hers plastered on her face accompanied by the narrowing of her eyes into cute little crescent shapes like those of anime characters – eye smile.

I was a little confounded because Yuri hadn’t mentioned Miyoung to me once. And a second later, I also realized that I had yet to let go of her hand but she didn’t flinch or even let go of my hand either. Although her smile did shift a little into what seemed like a little grin of amusement.

I released her hand as quickly as I could but I might have done it a little too abruptly, which I regretted immediately because it made me seem just a little hostile. “Sorry, I uhm, didn’t realize that you knew Yuri. She didn’t tell me that she knew you…” I responded. My tone probably sounded a little agitated to her because I was still trying to figure out how Yuri knew Miyoung but didn’t tell me.

“I met her like two days ago…” Yuri answered.

“And she told me about how you were the first person she met here, how you helped her move in and everything… Where were you when I was moving in?” she laughed. Oh God, even her laugh was lovely.

“Oh, uhm, when did you move in anyway? I don’t think I had seen you until the night of the party,” I said and then I realized what I had just said and my insides went into code yellow.

“How did we not meet that night? You didn’t come introduce yourself?” Honestly, she was probably just teasing me at the time but I was so flustered I didn’t sense it.

“Oh, I uhm, I was just… You know… like walking around… Then I heard you play… and you were amazing by the way… and uhm, you were surrounded by a crowd… and then the girls arrived… and I uhm…”

She started laughing again. “Yeah it was a little crowded wasn’t it? That was the day I moved in by the way and I was just playing to pass the time but then people started grouping around. Next thing I knew, I was surrounded. Actually, it was a little suffocating but I didn’t know how to, uhm, get out… You should have came and saved me…”

Let me explain one thing. This was the way Miyoung was. She treated everyone she met as if they had been friends for a long time. In the beginning, I didn’t really understand why she was like that. At one point, I even thought that perhaps she was really flirtatious. But later, I understood why she does what she does; it was her way of breaking the ice. I