Chapter 1 

Lydia looked out of the car window. Her father had taken a shortcut and passed by the university where she was going to study. She was going to be in this place for at least six years. Medical student. Her dream had come true. She had passed to the only university she had ever wanted in her life. She was proud of herself, excited and at the same time scared. She was wondering if she had made the right choice but that would only become apparent over time. No one in the family was a doctor to have an inside opinion or listen to their experiences. Her mother had studied culinary arts, as well as aunt Hannah, where they had met, in England and France, and had opened her own restaurant. Her father, as an accountant, worked for a company. Her sister was studying to be a teacher and was now in her final year. 

"Do you want me to stop and take a walk?" Her father asked her but she refused. 

She was in no hurry to get to know the place. 

"Dad, from October I will be here every day." she commented and continued their journey to the hotel where they would be staying. 

After all, they had to look for a house to rent in the next few days to, a home for her to stay the next six years. She picked up the notebook in which she had noted the houses they had planned to see the next three days, organized per hour and day they had the appointment. On the paper were painted hearts and stars from Crystal along with some Korean words that meant "go on, you can do it". She had just left the day before. She had been escorted to the airport after almost a month of choosing to stay with them. The twins had returned to England, as planned, a few days after the end of their vacation as the time approached to move to China. Danae had also left early to take exams in some courses she had left from previous semesters and to prepare for the new year. So alone with her parents she took this step into the new chapter of her life. 

"We have arrived!" Her mother's voice brought her out of her thoughts. 

The car had stopped in the parking lot of their hotel. She opened the door and went out putting her notebook in the knitted backpack. Her father opened the trunk and took out their suitcase and together they entered the building, a third class hotel which, however, seemed quite tidy. The young receptionist welcomed them and led them to the triple room they had booked. A small space that could only fit one double and one single bed. Lydia looked at her cell phone but didn't have any notice. So she threw it in her bag and lay down on the bed, closing her eyes. The mattress was uneven and uncomfortable but she didn't care that much. She heard her mother talking to Danae on her cell phone for a few minutes and saw her father went out to the balcony. They had some time to rest until they started looking for a house. She tried to imagine how she wanted the house to be, in which she would live from now on, but it was difficult to form an image in her mind.

That night, having seen enough apartments, they felt disappointed. Several of them consisted of a single room which was a kitchen, bedroom and living room at the same time, while the rest were either old buildings or had some other problem. In one of the latter, the bathtub was paleolithic and had a hole in one end! Lydia had noted one that she had liked but it was a studio she didn't prefer, especially at the price they were renting it for. When they arrived at the hotel she fell into bed tiredly hoping that the next day would be luckier and dozed off with her clothes on.

The next day their luck was indeed better. Among the apartments they had seen was one with two small rooms and a small living room with which she fell in love immediately. It was located in a nice quiet neighborhood near the campus canteen where she would eat and at the bus stop where she would take the bus to uni every day. It was just outside the city and the rent was reasonable and the utilities from what they had learned from other tenants were not exorbitant. It also had a small but practical balcony that overlooked a beautiful yard that served as a parking lot for the residents. So after seeing the other apartments they had planned they decided to book it. 

As she wandered through the empty house a strange feeling overwhelmed her with the thought that this would be her first home in her adult life. Here she would now live alone. She would be responsible for herself and her own expenses. She pulled out her notebook and tried to think about what her new household needed. Her mother took it from her hands and immediately began to write down the chores that needed to be done. Outside it was getting dark and the house still had no electricity so they decided to carry on while they had something to eat. They left the car at the hotel and walked the rest of the way through town. It was a beautiful cool evening. The weather had not yet started to cool down and people had chosen to walk around. 

"Tomorrow we can take care of the water and electricity and get back home to get ready to move." Commented her father as they enjoyed their walk at the same time. 

"And I get to choose a couch and a bed?" Lydia asked hopefully.

"If it's something cheap, yes." Her mother now had to take care of the needs of three houses. Lydia danced happily.

"I'll pick out a double bed so Danae and Crystal can stay with me when they come!" She began making plans excitedly.

"And where will we sleep when we come?" Her father teased her. 

"For you, I'll pick out a nice comfy couch that becomes a bed." She declared and found herself in his arms.

"Would you like pizza?" Natalia interrupted them, pointing to a pizza spot that, judging by the crowd she had, seemed to be good. Father and daughter nodded and soon found themselves seated at a table waiting for their order. 

Natalia turned a page in her daughter's notebook and began jotting down items she needed to prepare for her little one. She made a mark on the things she could give her that they already had, such as sheets, towels, tablecloths and calculated how much they could spare for the rest. Lydia admired her mother's ability to be able to do mathematical operations with just her mind when she herself needed to write down the simplest addition to do it correctly. 

 She read her mother's list and thought about what she could take from her room and use in her new home. She would definitely take the brown bear that Crystal had given her as a gift, Mr. Gom, and the painting that Christian had given her that represented her as the heroine of some fantasy game. 

Christian walked into the house and lay sprawled on the couch with only his shoes off, his bag still slung across his back, and closed his eyes. He heard a door open and close and felt his brother nudge him. He sat up and unconsciously started fiddling with the ring he was wearing. It had been almost a month since they had moved to Shanghai and they had managed to find a small comfortable and relatively inexpensive apartment next to Aaron's work. That way his brother could ride his bike back and forth. Christian, on the other hand, had found a temporary job as he couldn't get used to living in a country where he was a stranger. He was used to the western mentality and the racism he faced. And even though in England he was considered Chinese, regardless of whether he was Korean, that was now his home. It was where his family and friends were. Here he was a complete stranger. He would rather have moved to Seoul where the rest of his relatives were than to Shanghai, though he had done so without a second thought for his brother. 

He stood up and took the bag off his back. He put water in the kettle and ducked into the space next to the living room that was his "room" to change. He looked at the calendar on the wall and the picture where all five childhood friends were together. He had made a big decision. He was going back home. There was nothing keeping him in China unlike his brother. 

"Wonder how Lou is?" His brother asked him. 

"Yes. She's not used to being alone." He replied. 

"Why didn't you tell her how you feel?" 

"Because she prefers you." She teased him.

"Yeah I'm better than you!" his brother replied smugly and received a fierce look.

"Does anyone know you plan to go to Greece in a  month?" 

"Only our parents and her parents. I'm thinking of surprising her." 

"You know."

Christian walked past him and headed to the counter that served as a kitchen to make a cup of tea. 

Aaron looked at their picture and wondered why these two were so blind and stupid. Lydia was no longer a minor and it was obvious that they were born for each other. When she was with him, she changed completely. She could be her true self. She stopped being closed in on herself. She wasn't afraid to speak her mind even if he teased her or didn't agree. Even when they fought after a while they were together again as if nothing had ever happened. He was the one she turned to when she was scared. His room was her choice when they stayed in their house as she enjoyed the stories he told her from when they were kids to sleep. She couldn't understand why they had chosen to be apart. His brother had never confessed to her what he was feeling and she had simply never admitted her own feelings even to herself. He sighed and went up to his room. He hoped they wouldn't regret this decision at some point.

Lydia stood next to her mother and they looked at the result with satisfaction. In her small living room now there was a blue comfortable sofa arranged to become a double bed and on it three coloured cushions of various sizes had been arranged. A yellow armchair and two small round tables of slightly different heights and sizes completed the simple but practical furnishings. A small square table with three chairs separated the living room from the kitchen corner. And on a short and narrow drawer they had placed the old small television set. On the wall they had hung her portrait and a picture of her with Danae and Crystal. In one room they had placed a desk and a small bookcase while in the other she had chosen a semi-double bed with a thick wooden headboard on which she had placed a portrait, a frame with a picture of all five friends together and books for her to read at night. On the opposite wall they had set up a three-panel wardrobe and next to it a full-length mirror. 

She didn't need any more stuff. Few good things were enough. They sat on the couch and Lydia closed her eyes tiredly. The next day she was starting classes and wondered if she would see Katerina, the girl she had met when she had gone to the school's registration office at the beginning of that week. They were starting with a foreign language. She had chosen English over German and wondered if she had done the same. The next day her parents would be leaving after dropping her off at school. She would be on her own from now on and that terrified her but she had decided she could handle it.