“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!”

The entire hallway went silent, and I suppressed a snicker at the petrified look on Carina’s face as all faces rotated to stare at her. I’d returned to school that Monday, ending my hiatus from classes, on the advice of Junhong, and my appearance was greeted promptly by two very frazzled and concerned friends. Carina and Hazel had me cornered against a row of lockers, their worry evident in the frantic tones of their voices. They’d thought my parents had revoked my extended Visa, having become more than incensed with my abroad education.

Alas, here I was, with my explanation being little more than a severe cold, which had been cured by herbal soup and bedrest. But who had kept my food stocked if I hadn’t been able to use my wages for groceries? Junhong’s name slipped out casually, and the remaining story of my recovery - patches of truth and fallacy quilted together – made it painfully apparent that the two of us had become more than neighbors or classmates.

Now, I had Hazel’s arms around me, practically detaching my thoracic spinal vertebrae from my lumbar. She was past excitement. “I am so proud of you! No more 2.0, you’re gonna get your first kiss and get laid, finally!” I winced at her aspirations for me; Carina seemed slightly less thrilled by this prospective.

“Oh no she isn’t, she’s staying just as innocent as me. I’m not gonna sit around listening to you two talking about that all class period. And I know you will, because no one else is fluent enough to understand ia talk.” Her expression may have said ‘joke’, but her tone was tax attorney serious. I couldn’t blame her, since her initiation into the world of uality had been of our doing. Carina’s knowledge on the subject had been vastly expanded during our time together, and she wasn’t completely appreciative of it.

Hazel groaned but dropped that arm of the conversation, ready to address the one with almost equal importance. “So when do we get to hang out with him?” Nodding, Carina looked up at me and pursed her lips judgmentally. “Yeah. We’ve never talked to him before, and I need to make sure he’s not a total jerk before you get too invested.”

It was impossible not to show my hesitancy towards the four of us congregating. My friends were great, but they might be too much for Junhong to handle when his people skills were so declined from his years of seclusion.

“About that... I don’t want to get serious too fast, so I think you guys should hang back until he seems more comfortable around me. It’s hard getting to know someone when there’s a partial language barrier.” I was trying hard, and failing, to come up with a good scapegoat. In reality, I needed to condition him into a comfort zone around strangers who were as... enthusiastic as my friends.

Hazel’s mouth set into an emphatic frown. “I guess we can give you a few weeks. He’s probably not as fluent as Jiyong was when we met, so.” I