The heavy suitcase slammed the ground, and she looked up at the building. The one she would be living in for the following school year.  

After taking a few deep breaths, she walked in. It took her a few minutes to find her suite, on the second floor. She stood in front of the door and fetched the key from her pocket, but stopped before sliding it in. Someone could already be there, so it should be a better idea to knock first.  

A few steps after, the door flew open.  

“Hi!” The girl who opened the door, with long, light brown hair and bangs just above her eyes, shot her the brightest smile. “Are you our roommate?”  

“Y-Yes.”  

“Great, you’re also Asian! Let me help you with that.” She grabbed her suitcase and brought it inside. “I’m Kim Jiwoo. Sooyoung, our roommate is here!”  

She stepped inside, thanking Jiwoo, and a tall, brunette girl emerged from the corridor at the right side of the room.  

“Omo, hi!” Her cheeks rose with an also beautiful smile. “I’m Ha Sooyoung, nice to meet you,” she said in English full of a Korean accent.  

“Nice to meet you guys too. I’m also Korean!" She didn't bother talking in English after noticing their Korean names. “My name’s-”  

“Son Hyejoo,” Jiwoo said.  

“Huh?” She frowned, finding Jiwoo looking at the tag in her suitcase. “Son Hyejoo?”  

“Yes. It’s your name, right?”  

“No,” she said, almost stealing the tag from her hand. “My name is Park Chaewon.”  

Chaewon took her time to read and re-read the tag. Not her name, not her address, not her email.  

“Oh dear God,” Chaewon mumbled, a hand on her chest. “This suitcase is not mine.”  

Sooyoung and Jiwoo shared a look. “How do you have it then?”  

“It looks the same as mine. I was in a hurry when I picked it up at the airport and I didn’t even bother to make sure it was mine. Oh, Jesus.”  

“Hey, it’s okay.” Sooyoung rested a hand on her shoulder. “If you have this Son Hyejoo’s suitcase, she must have yours. Call her.”  

“I just got here, I still don’t have an American number,” Chaewon said, her heart already beating wild fast. “C-Can you search up this address? I’m going there.”  

Sooyoung grabbed her phone and with a few taps, she turned her phone. 

“It’s actually really close by. It’s your lucky day,” Sooyoung said while Chaewon memorized the way.  

“Thank you, I’ll be right back.” And Chaewon stormed out the room.  

Great. She had arrived in Boston after a long and tiring flight, and of course, she had to mess something up. It was her first time flying, and she did it alone after all. But that wasn’t an excuse. How could she pick up someone else’s suitcase? And how did she only notice when she got to her new dorm at Harvard? And embarrassing herself in front of her roommates. What an awesome first impression.  

With the way and the address in her mind, she rushed down the road. It took her five minutes to find the building and since the front door was open, she stepped inside.  

It was quite a modern building, so Chaewon wondered how old would the owner of that suitcase be.  

She stood in front of the door C, as it said in the tag, and before the nervousness could get a hold on her, she rang the bell.  

Just as the door opened, a cloud of smoke greeted her nose, making her cough. 

“, I forgot to open the window,” the girl said in English, running back inside.  

Chaewon stopped coughing and the girl was back, fully opening the door. She eyed Chaewon from head to toe and irked an eyebrow. “Yes?”  

She towered over Chaewon, looking down at her. The tips of her dark hair were painted in blue, and the red lipstick matched with her black leather pants and tank top.  

“I-I’m sorry for bothering but, are you Son Hyejoo?” She asked in Korean.  

“Yes, the one and only,” she answered in the same language.  

“Oh, thank God." Chaewon heavy sighed. “I don’t know how this happened, but I have your suitcase. I suspect, and hope, you have mine.”  

Hyejoo blinked. “What? But mine’s right here.” She pointed at the suitcase just like hers beside the entrance.  

“It must be mine!” Chaewon blurted, and Hyejoo frowned.  

“Bring it here.”  

Chaewon nodded and did as told, stepping inside. She took a quick look around the almost empty room. In the full white of the apartment, there was a couch in the middle of the room and a coffee table in front of it. An ashtray and a beer laid on the table, and even though the window was now open, the whole room still reeked of cigarettes.  

“Let me see.” Hyejoo squatted, peeking at the tag of the suitcase she had brought. “Oh. Park Chaewon?”  

“Yes, that’s me!”  

“So that’s my bag?” Hyejoo pointed at the one by Chaewon’s side.  

“Yes, here.” She pushed the suitcase and Hyejoo checked the tag.  

“How the did this happen?” She shook her head, almost laughing. “Well, thank you, I guess. You saved my before I even realized I was in deep .” 

Chaewon tried not to show too much the shock in her face by the amount of swear words in such a short period of time and nodded. “Y-Yeah, it’s fine. I’m glad we both got our suitcases. Thank you.” She gave her a quick bow and turned to leave.  

“See you around, Chaewon.”  

She stopped and turned around. “What?”  

“I’m going to Harvard too so I’ll probably see you on campus.” Hyejoo walked to the window with her still lit up cigarette.  

“Oh. Why aren’t you in the dorms?”  

“Since my father made me come here, getting me a house was the least he could do.” She shrugged, breathing out the smoke from her lungs outside the window.  

Chaewon’s chin dropped. “A-Alright, I’ll get going, then. Sorry for the bother and thank you.” She bowed before leaving, still hearing a faint ‘bye’ as the closed the door.  

She stepped outside the building and took a deep breath, cleaning her polluted lungs with fresh air. What in the heavens. Chaewon couldn’t even come up with a proper opinion about Son Hyejoo. Did it matter, anyway? She seemed weird and scary and sounded petty. Chaewon had to work her hardest to earn this scholarship for the second year of her psychology degree, and the least her father could do was getting her an apartment for herself? Was she spoiled...  

Not to mention she had barely arrived, like Chaewon, but having a cigarette and beer was her priority. Well, whatever, that was not Chaewon's problem. She had solved hers, and could now breathe, pretend this embarrassing start never happened, and go back to her dorm.  

This time, instead of knocking, she decided to use her key to open the door. With a click, the door opened, and she slid inside-  

“Oh my g-god-" Chaewon yelled, and even though her eyes widened, she looked away, making both girls break away from their intense kiss and snap their heads.  

“C-Chaewon, hey, w-we thought you would take longer. Sorry.” Jiwoo cleared . “Do you have your suitcase already?”  

With much effort, Chaewon looked ahead and Jiwoo was no longer in Sooyoung’s lap. They were on their feet, their faces so red there could be steam coming from them.  

Chaewon opened , trying to come up with any sound at all, but she could only nod and move her legs towards her room. The one she presumed was hers, with the door opened and only one single bed.  

She closed the door and fell on her bed, her face buried in the clean, floral-scented sheets.  

They were... kissing. And Jiwoo was sitting on her lap, and... 

Chaewon shook her head, trying to get rid of the images in her head, but they were too shocking.  

Never in her life she had seen something like that. She felt like she was sinning just by thinking about it. Was it real, after all? There were people like that? That wasn’t normal. It wasn’t right.  

Her stomach twisted. She was going to live with them. What if they tried to do something with her? She rolled on her bed to breathe and sat, bringing her hands together near her chest. She closed her eyes and prayed.  

---  

Chaewon sat on the enormous staircase of Harvard’s Library, where she could hide from the blazing sun. Judging by how many students were there, it was a popular place for them to meet, have lunch outside, or take a break.  

Morning classes of the first day were over, and Chaewon was alone. She rested her chin on her palms and sighed. It had been only a couple of days since she arrived, and things were already going south.  

Since the first day, when she walked in on Jiwoo and Sooyoung’s... thing, she had been avoiding them. She couldn’t look them in the eyes when they tried to talk to her. The images would pop up on her mind, and she was sure her body language showed how uncomfortable they made her feel.  

But they were the ones that shouldn’t be doing those things in the dorm. They shouldn’t be doing it at all in the first place. It didn’t feel right. And the more Chaewon thought about it, the weirder it became, to a point it was almost disgust-  

Chaewon coughed when she breathed in smoke. She looked at her side to find Hyejoo sitting a few meters from her, smoking her cigarette and rocking her head back and forth.  

"Couldn’t you smoke somewhere else?”  

Hyejoo didn’t answer nor did she move. Was she ignoring her? Chaewon stood up and crossed her arms right in front of her, catching her attention at last.  

“Oh, Chaewon.” Hyejoo met her eyes, removing her fancy airpods.  

“You can't smoke in here.”  

Hyejoo irked an eyebrow. “As far as I know, this is a public place.”  

“It’s in the rules.”  

“ rules. See someone complaining?” Hyejoo looked around.  

“Yes, me.”  

“What a shame.”  

Chaewon’s chin dropped. Was she for real? She scoffed and turned, walking down the stairs.  

She heard steps, and when she peeking around, Hyejoo walked beside her. She stopped in her tracks, and so did Hyejoo.  

“What are you trying to do?” Chaewon asked, crossing her arms.  

“Walking.”  

“So why did you stop?”  

“Why did you?”  

Chaewon sighed and resumed her walk.  

“Hey, okay,” Hyejoo said, as she took fast steps and stopped in front of Chaewon. “I was thinking and I should make it up to you.”  

“For what?”  

“For going through the trouble of coming to my place to bring me my luggage.” 

“I went there to pick up mine, not to give you yours.” Chaewon rolled her eyes. 

“Fine, but I still got mine, right? So, let’s go get lunch.”  

Chaewon stared up at Hyejoo, swearing her face got redder.  

“No, thank you.” Chaewon walked past her.  

“Hey, that’s rude.”  

“You don’t need to spend your money on me." Chaewon could still hear Hyejoo’s steps following behind.  

“Money’s not a problem-”  

“Of course not.” Chaewon scoffed. “You don’t need to shove it in my face.”  

“ing god, I was not-”  

Chaewon halted and turned around, almost making Hyejoo bump against her.  

“And do not insult His name like that.”  

Hyejoo blinked. “Whose name?”  

“God.”  

Her weird triangular-shaped lips twitched but she couldn’t hold her laugh. “Are you serious? Do you believe in that load of...?”  

“Yes, of course.”  

Hyejoo shook her head, still laughing. What was even there to laugh about?  

“What did God ever do to you?” Hyejoo stopped laughing and her face became serious, scaring Chaewon as she looked down at her. “Did he open the door for you? Did he lend you his shoulder for you to cry on during difficult moments? Did he try to cheer you up when you were sad?”  

“You clearly don’t understand and I won’t waste my time trying to explain.” Chaewon turned to leave for good.  

“Yes, I really don’t, and I don’t want to, anyway,” Hyejoo said, but there were no more steps behind her, only her voice becoming lower as Chaewon walked away.  

Did she really make fun of her for believing in God? Of course, Chaewon shouldn’t even be surprised that came from someone who smoked and drank and bragged about how much money she had.  

What a lost cause.  

---  

The first day was over at last, and much to her relief, she was alone at her dorm. She plopped on her bed, trying to let her muscles relax, but her head started working again. She had so much on her mind she felt like she would explode if she didn’t let it out.  

There was only one person she could do that with.  

“Vivi-unniiieeeeee,” Chaewon whined as soon as she accepted her call.  

“Yah, you’re lucky I’m on lunchtime. You need to be careful what time you call me, we’re thirteen hours apart.”  

Chaewon rolled on her bed. “I know. I really need to talk, there’s too much going on.”  

“What happened?”  

“Remember Son Hyejoo, from the first day?” She asked and Vivi answered with a hum. “Today she made fun of me because I believe in God. And she also called me rude.”  

Vivi chuckled. “Why did she call you rude?”  

“She said she wanted to get me lunch to pay back the trouble of returning her luggage, and I said no.”  

“Well, that was rude. Why did you say no?”  

“She’s spoiled! And she smokes, drinks, and swears a lot. She’s weird and scary.”  

“She wanted to make it up for you and offered you lunch, you refused, and she’s the weird one? It’s not because she smokes or says bad words that she’s a bad person. You need to stop rushing into judgments or you’ll end up with no friends at all. You’re all alone in a foreign country, you need people.”  

“Hey, that’s harsh...” Chaewon sulked.  

“It’s true. And maybe she was a bit rude too for making fun of you, but you don’t know her history and her reasons. Just like you don’t want to be judged for having your beliefs, you can’t judge her for having her own. Doesn’t God guide you not to judge others and accept them as your brothers and sisters or something? You’re not practicing what you preach.”  

Chaewon stayed silent, and instead of answering it, she changed the subject. “There’s also another thing I need to talk about. It’s been on my mind since it happened and I can’t let it go.”  

Vivi sighed. “What is it?”  

“You also remember my roommates, Jiwoo and Sooyoung? There’s something about them I didn’t tell you about because I was too shocked. I... I think they’re a... a c-couple.”  

There was silence over the line. “Vivi?”  

“Why is that shocking for you?”  

“W-Why?! I caught them k-kissing, unnie! That doesn’t happen in Korea, I didn’t know that was an actual thing! I can’t even look or talk to them properly.”  

There was silence again. “In what world are you living in, Chaewon? It’s not because people don’t do it on the streets for everyone to see that it doesn’t happen here, of course it does! Just like there are girls liking boys, there are girls liking girls and boys liking boys.”  

Chaewon stared at the ceiling. “But that’s not God’s will, a woman is supposed to be with a ma-”  

“With whoever they want to be. You’re being judgmental again. You don’t like your roommates because they’re gay, you don’t like Hyejoo because she doesn’t believe in God and smokes... You’re rejecting people who could become your friends for petty reasons that don’t affect you in any way. I reiterate, you’re going to end up alone if you keep acting like that.”  

“Yah, unnie...”  

“I’m serious,” she said, and indeed, Chaewon rarely got to hear that tone from her. “You need to apologize to Hyejoo, Sooyoung, and Jiwoo and make an effort to get to know them.”  

It was Chaewon’s turn to stay silent. “Thank you, Vivi unnie. I’ll think about it.”  

“You better. You’re already far from home, don’t make things harder for yourself.” 

---

A/N: *screams*

IT'S HERE, I'M SO EXCITED, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE FIRST CHAPTER ♥️

I'll update a new chapter every three days. Please let me know what you think so far ^-^