(January, 615)

Hye-jin Kim watched with rapt attention as a postcard hanging on her roommates’ side of the wall fell to the floor. First, the tape on the top came unstuck and it flipped over, baring its blank back. Then, the tape on the bottom peeled off at a torturous pace before it finally plummeted to the ground.

Hye-jin sat still, wondering whether to jump off her elevated bed, but finding she was too comfortable in her cocoon of blankets. She squeezed her eyes closed and opened them again, dispassionately levitating the postcard back to its original spot on the wall. She thought about how the tape would feel beneath her fingertips and how she’d smooth it down and watched as it happened. She unfocused from the postcard. It stuck for about two seconds and then the tape gave out, leaving it to fall again.

Hye-jin rolled her eyes and allowed herself to burrow deeper into her bedding when she heard familiar voices and the jangling of keys outside. The door opened to reveal Hye-jin’s two roommates. The shorter of the two, Scarlet Choi, barely shot Hye-jin a grin before making a beeline for the bed on the left side of the room.

“Home, sweet home,” said Scarlet.

Their other roommate Amalia Stabl exclaimed Hye-jin’s name and stretched a little to give her a hug. Amalia had a long, oval face with a large straight nose. She looked strange but pretty, like a folk singer or someone who’d sell you MDMA at a rave, though Amalia would be aghast at the latter comparison.

Amalia pulled back smiling and navigated her suitcase around Scarlet’s abandoned one to approach her own bed.

“You already unpacked?” asked Scarlet, her head half-submerged in a pile of pastel pink pillows. An ocean of shining brown hair streamed around her heart-shaped, childlike face and across her shoulders. Her big brown eyes met Hye-jin’s.

“Go get your bag,” said Hye-jin in lieu of an answer.

Scarlet groaned.

“I’m not unpacking until March,” she said.

Amalia laughed from the other side of the room. She stood in front of her fallen post card and picked it up.

“Is it damaged?” asked Hye-jin after a few seconds.

Amalia jumped a little and looked around to face her.

“No,” she said, “But I should have brought tape.” She paused. “But even if it had fallen—”

She held it up for Hye-jin to see. Printed on the postcard was a photograph of a castle close by with the words ‘Chateau de Borlême’ emblazoned on it in elegant black letters. Amalia would only need to take a half-hour bus ride to the city to replace it.

Hye-jin nodded and repackaged herself in her blankets. It was the second week of January and Hye-jin was glad to finally see her friends again even as she was sorry to see her winter break go. Scarlet, Amalia, Hye-jin, and the three other friends they’d allowed into their group chat had communicated endlessly but it hadn’t felt the same. This was partly because Hye-jin knew that they were all spending their break in interesting places all over the world while she was stuck in Borlême.

Scarlet’s suitcase glided by Hye-jin’s bed as if pulled by ghostly hand and landed beside Scarlet’s dresser. The brunette’s eyes narrowed as she tried to yank the zipper open with her mind. After a few failed attempts, she just about tore it open and an array of skirts, sweaters, and socks spilled out of her suitcase.

“That’s it for the day,” she said and grinned mischievously at Hye-jin who grinned back.

Scarlet sat up, her long hair tumbling down her shoulders. She pushed her fringe out of her face.

“Let’s go annoy the guys,” she said.

Hye-jin thought Lucas Pereira was the only one of them who really looked like he’d been on holiday. Lucas’ father had paid for his son to come back and visit his home country of Ebrela this year to make up for all the other holidays he’d missed. Since Lucas’ step-dad was a pilot and worked on New Years’ eve anyway, Lucas had gladly accepted the invitation and returned sporting a very flattering tan. But then, everything seemed to flatter Lucas, including the fluorescent lights of the students’ lounge they all sat in. He took in the sight of his friends with a dimpled smile like a proud monarch examining his subjects.

They had commandeered one of the circular white tables and grabbed six chairs, though Will and Amalia sat so close that Hye-jin thought they might have been alright with five. She whispered this to Leo Holmes, who snickered and repeated it to the immediately flustered couple. Leo was a good-looking boy with dark brown skin and and a sharp face that lit up with an almost impish grin when Will made a sound of distaste at Leo stuffing a handful of sweets into his mouth. Will Han-Wilkinson’s skin was the same color as Leo’s, but his face bore a far stronger resemblance to that of his cousin Scarlet.

“You’d think they hadn’t seen each other for months,” said Scarlet, just as Will geared up to admonish Leo. “But my auntie tells me that they’ve been video-chatting every day until three in the morning.”

Amalia sputtered something about time zones but her face was as red as her hair. She had been the furthest away from Borlême on some tiny island Hye-jin had never previously heard of where her parents were doing research to find the cure for a disease Hye-jin had never previously heard of either. Hye-jin assumed Amalia had gotten as much sun as Lucas, but the redhead only had a few more freckles to show for it.

Lucas took mercy on Will and Amalia and changed the subject.

“Did any of you make New Years resolutions?” he asked.

Leo made a show of rolling his eyes but Will perked up.

“I’ve decided to try and use my time more productively,” he said.

Leo snorted.

“By doing what?” he said, “Increasing your study time from twelve hours a day to twenty-four?”

Will opened his mouth to protest but Lucas barked out a laugh.

“How could you possibly be more productive?” asked Scarlet.

Amalia and Hye-jin exchanged a fond look as Will produced a leather-bound notebook and flipped through pages of neat handwriting to what looked like a very filled out schedule. Leo leaned over Hye-jin to take a closer look and cursed.

“Are you insane?” he asked.

“When are you going to sleep?” asked Hye-jin.

“When are you going to see your girlfriend?” asked Scarlet, leaning forward and folding her arms on the table.

Amalia put her hand over Will’s. He let go of the journal to give Amalia’s hand a squeeze.

“Well, I also made a resolution,” she said, “Since I’ve been kind of, uh, high-strung lately—”

Both ‘high-strung’ and ‘lately’ were huge understatements but nobody felt right mentioning that.

“—my resolution is to be more relaxed,” she said. “Will suggested that a little more structure might help with that so we’re going to do a lot of these things together.”

Scarlet raised her eyebrows. Hye-jin noticed Lucas had also leaned forward and was trying to catch Scarlet’s eye, though the brunette didn’t notice.

“That sounds fun,” said Scarlet.

Leo snorted again though more quietly than the last time. Amalia’s responding glare was more maternal than annoyed.

“It will be,” said Will, “We’re starting with a morning run tomorrow at six. You guys are welcome to join us.”

Amalia’s eyes widened comically and she let go of Will’s hand to pull the notebook closer to confirm that the morning run was indeed at seven. Lucas, who was usually the one to suggest athletic activities at inhumane times, didn’t seem to catch Will’s invitation and shifted his weight to where his arms were resting on the table.

“What about you?” he asked Scarlet, “Did you make any resolutions?”

Scarlet blinked in mild surprise and Hye-jin found herself once again incapable of figuring out whether a game was being played and how aware Scarlet and Lucas were of their playing it.

“I did, actually,” she said, her expression shifting into a charming smile that told Hye-jin that yes, a game was happening before her eyes.

Scarlet drew herself up a little.

“I met a lot of really cool people over the holidays,” she said, “And I thought to myself ‘Why don’t I ever meet any people at BISM?’”

Hye-jin thought it might be because there were only so many people you could meet at a boarding school.

“We have so many people transferring in and out every year,” Scarlet continued, “And I still only talk to five people, which is a little weird.”

“Geez Scarlet,” said Leo, “Tell us how you really feel.”

Scarlet gave him a look.

“I don’t mean it like that,” she said, “I love you guys! But I want to meet even more people so I’m going to try and make a new friend every day.”

Hye-jin nudged Leo.

“She’s breaking up with us,” she said.

Leo looked less amused than Hye-jin had hoped as Scarlet fell into reassurances of how that wasn’t what she meant at all.

“No, I understand,” said Hye-jin with exaggerated despair, “It’s over. We’re done! Why do the good ones always leave?”

Leo glowered at Hye-jin who again tried to nudge him out of his strange mood. Scarlet realized they were lost causes, albeit for very different reasons, and turned back to Lucas.

“Do you have a resolution?” she asked.

Lucas pondered this with the air of someone who had been asked something far more meaningful.

“No,” he decided, “But I should get one.”

Hye-jin gave up on Leo and rolled one of Scarlet’s sweets over to Lucas.

“Me too,” she said, “They seem fun.”

Lucas nodded, smiling his gleaming newscaster smile.

“We should find one together,” he said.

Hye-jin leaned so far across the table that she was nearly lying on it. Will reached over her to grab the nearly empty bag of sweets.

“That would be so cool,” said Hye-jin.

She heard another quiet snort from Leo and slid back into her seat. She elbowed him one last time as the conversation shifted from their resolutions to the harsh realities of the remaining school year at Borlême International School of Magic. The sunlight had already vanished when Will found out Leo hadn’t finished his part of their group project over winter break and fiddled with his pen until he made everyone so nervous they decided to go back to their dorms to make sure they hadn’t committed an equally heinous oversight.

Despite their curfew being hours away, they scurried across campus to escape the cold January wind. The boys broke away from them at the Language Centre and Amalia, Hye-jin, and Scarlet jogged past the dimly-lit lanterns that barely broke the darkness, thinking of the warmth awaiting them in their dormitory.