A loud thud was heard inside the Pham household. It was a hot day in Australia. But the oldest daughter of the Pham family seems to ignore the fact she's drinking her soup without budging in 43 degrees Celsius weather. She gulped the hot and savory liquid. She hoped she had misunderstood her parents' words, their suggestion was too absurd to be taken seriously.

"That's absurd, Dad," she groaned softly, wincing as the scalding soup burned her tongue and throat.

But her parents' silence was deafening, leaving her wide-eyed and incredulous. "You're seriously considering marrying me off to someone I don't even know?"

"Han, please understand. It was your grandfather's final wish. Our families have been friends for years, and this was written on his will," her father explained, his voice tinged with a mixture of hope and determination.

Hanni stood up, dumbfounded. She can't believe her Father's words. She wasn't the best at school at all, but this situation doesn't require her to be a smart- in terms of understanding the situation.

"Dad, I am your only daughter, and you're willing to send me to Korea just to marry?" She rested her hands on her waist, questioning every sanity left on her parents' minds.

"Who said you'll be traveling alone?"

Hanni let out a sigh, she knows that she was totally in trouble.

"How about my studies? My friends here? I can't just leave them,"

"You know we can't talk about that like it's the biggest hurdle in your life Han, you can always come back and visit your friends here, or maybe they can even visit you!" Mr. Pham exclaimed. He excitedly smiled and looked at his wife.

Mrs. Pham returned with a small curve on her lips.

"We'll be with you, and trust me, I just know and I have a big feeling you'll be happy with your married life."

Her frustrations mounting, Hanni stormed off to her bedroom, collapsing onto her bed. Clutching a favorite plushie, she unleashed her frustration in a primal scream, hoping this nightmare would dissolve into a dream.

"THISSSS IS KKED UPPPP"

The short girl screamed her lungs out, hoping she was just dreaming.

And unfortunately, she wasn't.

***

A month later, Hanni found herself dragging her luggage lazily. She smiled at the immigration officer at least and her face immediately went back to her unamused face which she has been wearing the whole flight of 12 hours. Her father told her that they will be staying at her Aunt's house in Seoul in the meantime. Once she has been settled with her new school, then they can go back to what they were talking about.

Her marriage.

Hanni wore her headset and played a Troye Sivan song. It helped her relax a bit listening to "My My My", she just hoped that this is going to end her misery at least for a moment.

Hanni pouted and cried internally, she was making a cute face and her parents noticed it. Both her parents smiled at each other looking at Hanni, they just have a good feeling about this marriage.

***

"Oh my! Hanni, you have grown so beautiful!" Hanni smiled slightly and bowed to her Aunt, she then walked towards the old woman and hugged her. "Auntie, how have you been? It's been years." She missed her and her cooking. Hanni suddenly thought of good food for the week to cheer her up.

All of them settled for now and Hanni went to her temporary bedroom. It was just a small room with a single bed. It used to be her cousin's room. But she heard that Danielle went to Jejudo for a seminar for 3 weeks and just left yesterday. She sighed that she didn't even see her favorite cousin. She looked at Danielle in the picture frames, her cousin was doing well at school, Hanni scanned the room and found a lot of awards and medals around. She bit her lip. She knew she wasn't the smartest girl on earth, she may be the dumbest.

She recalled her last scorecards and remembered the numerous Fs on her grades. She grimaced at the thought and shook her head.

Hanni knew she grew up in a very kind-hearted family. Her parents didn't expect from her anything at all and were thankful she goes to school regardless of her grades.

Hanni wasn't also blessed by a smart brain, for her, brain fog was a normal thing. She thinks that her brain was made of cans and rust and nothing was ever recorded properly on her head.

She even remembered spelling her name incorrectly last time when she was signing up for a club and it took her 5 minutes to assess what was wrong.

Hanni heard a subtle knock, "Hanni-ah, let's have lunch?" Her Aunt peeked from the door and smiled.

The short girl removed her negative thoughts for now and went down to cheer herself with some of her Aunt's delicious cooking.

***

Days passed, and now Hanni was just looking at the school board with her eyes stuck to it. She was reading the school board members, the principals' names indicated, and her eyes traced the org chart while reading their names.

It was her first day of school and she was amazed at how big their new school is. She kind of underestimated Korean schools before, not that she knows of, but she's just plainly not thinking.

She