The smell of sandwiches hung in the air, Soojin had finally managed to meet her friends Miyeon and Yuqi, they had known each other since their school days and despite their busy professional lives they insisted on meeting at least once a month

-A CRIMINAL?!

Miyeon screamed and Yuqi asked her to be quiet

-Prison Pen Pal program? Really Yuqi?

Soojin looked incredulously at her friend

-What? It's a great idea Soojin, plus she is really funny

-Even so…

Miyeon looked fearfully at her friend

-Her name is Soyeon and she is my age

-And do you know what she did?

-Apparently she hacked a bank

-YUQI HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!

-Miyeon doesn't scream please

Miyeon looked to Soojin for help

-Yuqi this can be very dangerous

-She doesn't know my full name or where I live, I receive the letters by P.O. Box

-Yuqi...

- Soyeon made a mistake and is paying for it, why shouldn't she get a second chance? A friend? Someone to talk ?

The table became quiet

-And how it works?

Yuqi looked at Soojin in surprise

-There is a site where you can register, I'll send you the link later

-You too Soojin? That´s it, both are crazy

--/--

Soojin looked at the page on her computer screen, would she have the courage? She looked at her dog sleeping under her desk and at the computer screen again, she would write once and if she didn't like the person she wouldn't write anymore. She started to browse the program page, thankfully she has already opened a P.O. Box due to her store so she just needed to register and that´s it, she is a Pen Pal. After she finished the registration it was time to choose, first she discarded the men and went to the list of women, she discarded those who committed serious crimes and looked at the remaining profiles, there were no photos, only name, age, their crime and their hobbies, she was scrolling when one name pops out at her, Shuhua, an interesting name, Soojin entered her profile and found out  that Shuhua had been convicted of drug trafficking, was a year younger than her and loved animals, Soojin looked at Haku who snored at her feet and decided she would write to Shuhua, she just hoped not to regret it

Dear Shuhua,

My name is Soojin, I´m 25 years old and I have a poodle named Haku, I saw on your profile that you like animals, do you have any?

Sincerely, Soojin.

The first letter comes on a few days later, Soojin looked at the plain envelope and was impressed with the pretty handwriting, she would definitely need to do better in her writing, she opened the envelope carefully and began to read

Dear Soojin ssi,

Nice to meet you, thanks for the letter, when I signed up for this program I didn't think anyone would write to me but here we are. Well, as you know my name is Shuhua, I'm 24 years old and I'm here because of drug dealing, I don't know if they put this on my profile so I'm telling you "in person" and I hope you don't mind it. As for dogs, they are my favorite animals, when I was a child I had a poodle too, her name was Mata and she was my best friend, you can't imagine how much I miss her... do you have any hobbies?

Sincerely, Shuhua

And that's how Soojin and Shuhua became friends, Soojin discovered that Shuhua was born in Korea, the daughter of Taiwanese family who emigrated in search of a better life, which unfortunately didn't happen, language barriers, her father's drinking problem and the prejudice that Shuhua's parents suffered didn't bring great opportunities for them,they moved around a lot while she was growing up and despite being the middle daughter Shuhua felt responsible for ensuring support for her sisters, that's how she started hanging out with the wrong people and making small deliveries for Mr Kim, the local drug dealer, she worked making deliveries for him for years until an informant turned in Mr Kim's scheme and they all ended up in jail.

In return, Shuhua learned about Soojin´s little sister that lived in her hometown with her parents and grandparents, about her years of ballet training that were interrupted by an ankle injury, and about her new passion, bakery. Soojin told her about her friends, mainly about Yuqi and how she had encouraged her to write to Shuhua and they both had a pleasant surprise, the prisoner Yuqi corresponded with was Shuhua's friend, Shuhua assured that Soyeon was a very nice person and apparently had a crush on Yuqi because she was the first one at line of mail to receive Yuqi's letters and kept smiling like a fool every time she finished reading the letter

Th