This was Lucas' third week holding the same darn test results in his hands with the same darn remark from his tutor about how there's potential but not enough motivation hence, the hideous red markings on his answer sheet. Lucas didn't even want to be here, let alone motivating himself to learn the language of this unfamiliar nation. People think all East Asian countries are similar. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Seoul and Hong Kong were worlds apart. From their cultural norms and lifestyles to their fashion and perspective, South Korea and China were anything but similar. However, ever since they moved to Seoul the toughest challenge he was facing wasn't related to his unfamiliarity with the new country but the new language he was obligated to learn. It wasn't just about Hangul being read and written differently from Cantonese. The difference in diction was baffling! All his life his tongue was accustomed to certain pronunciations which had become his biggest limitation when it came to learning Korean. Every time he tried to speak in the new language, the words spilling out of his mouth sounded so strange, he knew for a fact that he'd be mocked by his new classmates if he joined a Korean high school in Seoul anytime soon. He wasn't remotely ready for such a humiliating experience. Fear took over the best of him until he couldn't so much as hold a Korean textbook in his hand without playing imaginary incidents in his mind of being bullied in school for being... well, different.

Moreover, he was given absolutely no time to adjust to the major changes in life as he knew it. He had to leave everything behind at one week's notice and move to Seoul when his father's old business suffered a major loss. Everything he had known and cherished in all the seventeen years of his life, was snatched from him in a breath. His home, the neighbourhood he was born and brought up in and the neighbours who were like family to him, the group of friends he had grown up with, his high school that he had worked so hard to get into which also ranked among the top three high schools in his city, he had to leave all of it behind. He couldn't even bring his dog with him since transferring animals between nations required the completion of a lengthy legal process which was impossible in a weeks time. He had to give his bestfriend-of-eight-years away to the only person he could trust his precious baby with, his immediate neighbour and childhood buddy, Qian Kun. As if these atrocities of fate weren't enough, the moment he stepped foot in Seoul Internation