I sit on one of the sofas in the living room. ChoHee comes in from the kitchen, trying to balance three plates full of food. She turns to me, “Aya, you wouldn’t mind getting the other three plates, would you?” I shake my head - grab the two plates left on the counter - and head back to the living room. ChoHee and I arrange the plates carefully on the table, so that three can be reached from each of the sofas.

“It’s dinner time!” ChoHee yells, we both stand and wait for the other four girls to come. They all respond in turn:

“Coming.”

“Wait for me!”

“On my way.”

“Give me a second!”

ChoHee and I sit down on one sofa. I sit in the middle with ChoHee on my left and a space to my right. The first to come is a girl wearing blue shorts and a simple black jumper - I recognise her as ChoonHee, ChoHee’s little sister. I hear a thud from the door ChoonHee had just closed. It must be AeCha.

“She always... does that?” I ask.

“Pretty much,” ChoHee laughs.

AeCha comes in, rubbing her head and pushing the red hair out of her face.

“ChoonHee! Can’t you hold it open for me even once?”

“Can’t you look when you run, rather than blindly running at doors?” ChoonHee replies curtly. Her expression softens, “You’ll get hurt, you know.”

“I know,” AeCha whispers, head bowed in shame.

ChoonHee sits and pats the space beside her; AeCha joins her happily and begins talking about something. ChoonHee just listens and smiles - I think she just wants AeCha to be happy. Another girl enters, it’s HeRan. She flicks her long, silky black hair out of the way and takes a seat beside AeCha.

“HaNeul’s on her way, she’s just finishing something off,” she says.

HaNeul then enters, wearing a knee length white dress, with random splodges of paint on her legs - I’m not going to ask how paint gets on her legs when she’s painting. She smiles softly and apologises for being late. She takes a seat on the other side of me and we all get ready to eat. ChoHee taps her plate with her chopsticks.

“So... this is our first meal with Aya! Let’s enjoy it, OK?” She faces me, “Aya, I know you’ve only known us for, like, an hour and we probably seem like an odd bunch, but we really want to be great friends. We’re here for you and we hope you enjoy your time with us!” The others clap and I blush slightly.

“Let’s eat!” we all yell and start eating.

We finish eating and AeCha does all of the washing up - as a punishment for going through my luggage. When she finishes, the girls offer to help me put away my luggage. ChoHee leads the way to the first door on the right side of the living room. We enter and I gasp. The room looks so beautiful. There are two single beds, separated by a small white drawer, in the centre of the room. The wall to the left is mainly made up by a large window which the school building can be seen from. The curtains are long and white, reaching all the way to the floor, they are pulled back by a small mint green ribbon on both sides. All the other walls are also white, with small geometric black and mint green patterns plastered onto them. The floor is also white and pristine, easily reflecting the view from the window. A large, white cupboard is kept to the far right of the room, beside a white door.

“Cool, huh?” ChoHee grins.

I nod, mesmerised.

“Well, this is my bed,” she says, pointing to the bed to the right, “and that one’s yours,” pointing to the one to the left. “The cupboards are split in two, so just take the left half. That is our bathroom,” she points to the white door.

“Wow...” is all I manage to say, still taken aback by the splendour of the room.

We bring my two suitcases to the middle of the room and open them. They are slightly messy - mostly due to AeCha’s prior hunt through my belongings. The girls help me put the things away systematically: clothes in the big cupboard, by type, and everything else in the little drawer. It takes little time and when we finish, we all sit in a circle on the floor.  I hear a beep, I look at ChoHee questioningly.

“The phone,” she answers. HaNeul goes to pick it up.

She returns a second later and nervously approaches me, “It’s for you. It’s your parents.”

I rush to the phone and say, “Hello?”

“Aya, we’re leaving. We’re going back to England with your Granny. Bye.”

It’s said so quickly, I can’t even respond.  There’s a beep coming from the phone, letting me know, unnecessarily, that the phone call has ended. I feel tears start to form in my eyes, I blink them back, I don’t want to seem weak. The phone is taken out of my hands - by ChoHee.

“HaNeul, take this back to the kitchen, will you? You guys, I think it’s time for bed, Aya seems to be getting sleepy, right Aya?” she nudges me.

I nod.

“I don’t want to leave yet!” AeCha complains.

“We don’t want to bother her, do we?” ChoonHee intervenes.

“No...” AeCha says.

ChoonHee gets up and pulls AeCha with her.

“We’ll be off to sleep then too. We have school tomorrow. Good night.” ChoonHee says.

“Goodnight,” AeCha says, while being dragged out of the room.

HeRan and HaNeul follow suit.

“I’ve got a drama I want to watch, so I’ll sleep soon, OK?” HeRan says.

“Sure, but don’t sleep too late!” ChoHee wags her finger.

“And I want to finish my painting, it’s almost done,” HaNeul says, in a voice that is almost a whisper.

“OK! Have fun then~” ChoHee says.

“Goodnight!” they say together before leaving.

“Thanks...” I say to ChoHee.

She smiles brightly, “Don’t worry.”

She closes the curtains and door before propping herself onto her bed. I lie in my own bed and we both face each other.

“What happened?” she finally asks.

“My parents are going back to England with my Granny...” I whisper, the tears returning to my eyes. “They’ve left me all alone... I can’t trust anyone here, not Shou, not ChanYeol.”

“Hey!” ChoHee interrupts. “What about us? We’re your dorm mates and your new family,” she points out, making me smile. “When you have no one else, you’ll still have us,” she continues. “Now, get to sleep and wipe those tears off!”

She gets off her bed and turns the light off. She lies down too and I can see her slightly in the darkness. I close my eyes and I slowly feel myself falling asleep in the silence.

“And about ChanYeol,” she says, breaking the silence, “he doesn’t seem right. He’s changed so much - too much. I think he has his reasons too, we just don’t know what they are yet. Don’t hate him. I think he has his own problems too.”

I fall asleep before I can reply.

(Sorry! I said there'd be more plot development but then I was like... she hasn't even met her dorm mates yet. Have you all realised, all of these chapters have been over the same 3 days? It's sorta weird XD I will eventually start skipping time a bit more. Also, NEXT chapter now should have more plot development, possibly a POV change and possibly a flashback too. I wrote this whole thing on paper today and then changed it so much when I got on the computer :S Also, sorry for late timing, visited my Grandma and friend so I was too busy to type this up! Thanks for all your comments guys! I just wanna say, THANK YOU ALL 24 SUBSCRIBERS! I've only been a user on AFF for like.. a week, but I got so much love from you guys :) <3 I will stop bothering you with questions now, I think I'm sorted, - I repeat - I think. Please keep commenting and stuff! I'll do my best to make this more interesting, but please bear with me, coz I'm busy right now :D Also, I will only friend users who have subscribed or commented because if you haven't done one or the other - I don't know you XD and I don't know you've been reading, so please do one :D)