Today is my last exam and my last day of college in India. As usual, I woke up with all the messed up thoughts like, "Will I be able to pass the exam?" As I rushed into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, I started scrolling through WhatsApp to see if any papers came in and then got dressed up. My dad came out of their room and asked the usual questions. "Did you take your bike keys?" bottle? hall ticket?" I nodded and said, "Of course, I did." Once he made sure I had all my belongings, we both walked towards the door, as I was wearing my sandals, he told me, "All the best" and smiled, I looked at him and was very nervous as I told "bye". As I waited for the lift he was looking at me with cheerful eyes and saying, "bye ma" When he saw the lift arrive, I waved at him as the lift closes.

I rushed to college and then went to the exam room. I saw all my friends murmuring the imp concepts and ranting about our college and exams, and some of them making plans for that afternoon before they leave for their hometown. For the first time in my life, I was feeling empty and too sad to leave these people and the city I loved for the past 2 years. I wrote my exam well, and when I came out of the exam hall, all my friends gathered around me, took me to my favorite restaurant near clg, and celebrated my departure. As I was eating biriyani, one of them took out a gift box wrapped in pink, as soon as I saw that, my eyes filled with tears and the spoon in my hand fell onto the plate, Even though I spent most of my clg time with them, I never realized their value until then. As I was unwrapping the gift, all of them were looking at me with 4 eyes, 2 of theirs filled with tears, and 2 cameras. The moment I saw black boots, I was too excited and hugged my friends who were beside me and gave air kisses to the ones in front. Kriti, Sara, and Swetha were always by my side in all my ups and downs and it was the best parting gift they could have given me. We started talking about our past moments in these 2 years for 2 hours, and then we left as they had their trains that night.

For the next 2 weeks, I was busy shopping and sweeping all the malls to buying all the things for my journey. Out of the way, my mom kept asking what I wanted to eat every 1 hr and was looking at me as much as she can, I got to sleep in my parent's bedroom, and everyone around me was acting so sweet.

The d day came, and by 9 I reached the airport with my mom, dad, cousin, and aunt. I kept clinging to my dad and didn't want to take a step away from him. This was my first solo trip and 1st journey out of the ordinary. I was acting all tough and all by telling them " I am going to enjoy my life in Korea, and explore all the culture and oppa's", but down to myself, I was sad and almost broke, to leave my life in India. As I escalated through the elevator to the 2nd floor, tears rolled down my cheek, but I still waved to my parents with the brightest smile possible. For the next 8 hrs, I just followed the flow and reached my destination, without realizing it.

As I stepped into the airport, I was swayed by the view. The airport was beautiful, everyone was rushing their way to the gateways, most of them on their phones and the airport was almost as silent as a prayer hall. As I was walking to the gateway, I saw people carrying placards and journalists waiting and looking eagerly at us, but it wasn't for me, of course. They were apparently waiting for a girl band to arrive, which is common in Korea. As I was standing by the cab lane, I saw many couples wearing matching clothes, holding hands, I saw that my body temperature rose and my cheeks were turning red, and I was smiling as if I've reached my final destination in life. As I was deep in thought, suddenly I heard a guy shouting at me asking "Hey, where do you want to go?". I took a deep breath, came to my senses, and told him the address to my college as he was struggling to put my luggage in the cab. After 1.5 hrs of driving, I reached my college.

As soon as I reached the security office, I saw Miss Sue smiling and waving her hand at me. She is my FA, that was the first time I met her in real life. For the past 3 months, I have been in contact with her to know all the details regarding my stay, studies, and stuff. She was always sweet and answered my texts immediately, and in reality, she was beautiful on top of her sweetness. She made all the arrangements for me, As I walked by her side from the security office near the main entrance,

That night I settled down in my dorm, Finally, my room was glowing pink and my bedsheet was white and I had cute slippers near the door. A dreamcatcher was hanging down the wall on the right side of my bed, last but not least, my family picture was near my bed. The room was set according to my likes and fantasies. I sat down on the floor, leaning on the side of the bed, and started scrolling my phone. As I was scrolling through, I started having thoughts about meeting new people and becoming friends with new people immediately, and those thoughts were comforting and made me smile with joy. As I climbed onto my bed, my glance went to the window present right beside it, and I could see the sweetest moon, which is at a long distance from me but gave me the comfort that it is always present when needed, as my parents are. With those emotions clinging around, I slithered into sleep.

The next day I woke up right when the clock hit 7, feeling as if someone was pushing me out of bed, I was running around my room brushing and choosing the dress, that would give the best first impression and all. Finally, I got out of the room after changing over 3 dresses. I took the stairs on my way down, and as I reached the ground floor I saw many guys waiting in the lobby to pick up their friends and girlfriends, looking at them I felt all of it was cute and nice which made me miss my friends. I started walking towards CSE blook where classes are, and on my way, I saw a valley that seemed like a road that leads to an Eden garden, the valley was filled with trees, with pink petals and their branches touched each other as if they were reaching out for each other, it was sad I couldn't go through it as my destination was the other way. As I walk in the opposite direction for over 2 blocks, I found the CSE block, as I looked at it, it was more like a box made of glass and some sections of it protruding out.

As I enter the building, the cafeteria was on the left side, and people were rushing in and out of it, there were people eating sandwiches and rushing to the elevator, there were about 10 elevators in that building. I got into one and went to the 11th floor. I got out off the elevator and was completely confused about which side should i go, the class names and numbers, and directions were all written in Korean, so I was looking to ask someone where my classroom was, and there was a 6 ft tall guy, slim body with an oversized black sweatshirt and black jeans, he was looking straight into my eyes and walked towards me, as he approaches me he said "Are you looking for something?", pulled out the slip from my pocket and showed him my class number and said "Can you tell the directions to this class?", with a sweet smile he looked at me and said "So you are the new student in the class,.. By the way, I am kin, we are in the same class." he forwarded his hand as he said those words, I gave a handshake and introduced myself. He then started walking towards left and I followed him, he started telling me how the classes go around here and about labs and all, and as we were walking he gave hifi to almost half the people we walked past through, he seemed like a popular kid in college.

As we reached class he showed me the way in and then went forward to talk to his friends, The classroom was huge, it was about 3 times the one I had back in India. The rows were also built one step higher than the before one and the stage had a huge projector, almost like a home theater. I went and sat in around the 6th row which was almost in the middle of the classroom. As I look around the class all I could see were boys and boys, there wasn't any girl in that class. I then went ahead and tried to initiate a conversation with the guys in the same row as mine "Hey I am Riya, you?", he stuttered a bit, and looking down he said " I am Kim min Jung", then he looked at me with a questioning face and said " you... new student?", I said yes, then he turned away and continued his work in the laptop. I was a bit nervous to talk to someone else as I was afraid I might get the same reaction, as I was mustering up my courage to speak to someone, the teacher entered the room. He was about a 5.8 ft middle-aged man, his hair was gray, and was wearing a black round spectacle. All the students came and took their seats. Kin rose from his place and spoke to the teacher, "Sir don't you see a queen bee in this beehive?" Everyone started laughing, the teacher shouted "Control, control" to him, and the whole class including the teacher was looking at me. The teacher looked at me and said, "Welcome to the class, I am Kim ha Kun your python teacher" I did a half-head bow at him, and then he asked me to give my introduction, after taking a long breath I said "Hi everyone I am Riya, from India, I came here as part of the twinning program and I look forward to getting well acquainted with you all...", as I was saying those words I noticed half of them looking away and some of them smiling at me, it was a mixed reaction which wasn't helping me to continue to speak, so I said "I don't know much Korean so far but I am eager to learn it from you people", the teacher then gestured me to sit down and started to teach," Python is an object-oriented language.....", I zoned out, I didn't pay attention to rest of the class, I felt suffocating and nervous with that intro and those reactions. The next two classes were the same.

Finally, after 4 hrs of continuous classes, a break came. As I was packing my things to go to the canteen, there were 4-5 guys approaching me from different directions, out of them one approached me and said, "Hey, wanna go out for lunch with me?" Despite the fact that the look on his face was more desperate than a casual approach for lunch, I said "Yes, let's go" without giving it much thought. As soon as I said yes all the other guys who were around just took an about-turn and left, I found it ludicrous. When we were walking to the cafeteria, I noticed that many of my classmates were staring at us and smiling to themselves, I didn't understand what was happening so I asked him what it was, as he pulls the chair out and gestured for me to sit down he said, "Just ignore them, they are just jealous that I got to eat with you", I was confused, "why are they jealous, they can also join us, right?" I asked with a question mark on my face. he goes around and puts his hand around my shoulder and makes me sit in the chair and sits in the chair in front of me and says "I approached you first so, they can't sit with us now." with a smirk on his face. I got a clear picture of what was going on, and so I pushed the chair back and as I rose I said, "Thank you for inviting me but, I think I lost my appetite". Then I walked back to class. In the class, 6-7 people were sitting, I saw kin, the only guy who spoke to me like a normal person, so I went towards him and tried to talk, "Hey aren't you guys going for lunch". He looked at me with a straight face, and then pointed his hand from his shoulder to his hip and said, "To maintain a body like this one, you see, I have to go on diets.". I smiled at him and nodded and I didn't know what else to reply to. I then walked back to my place. As I sat down, I was confused over all the incidents that happened that day, was it me, Am I not broad-minded enough? because all the guys I encountered today were either completely desperate or naive.

I concentrated on the next 3 classes, after all the classes ended, I started walking down to get out of the class, and a guy appears in front of me suddenly, I was taken back, I took a step back as I said "O my god", he reaches out and holding my fingers he says "are you ok" with sincerity and diligence in his eyes, he was 6 ft tall, slim but musclar body, cat-eyed specs, wore a black t-shirt and a white unbuttoned shirt over it with black trousers, he was handsome but also seemed like a nerd, as I said "I am fine" I draw my hand back. Clearing his throat and looking at me with those deep black eyes while adjusting his specs he says " Hey i am Park Soo Jin..." Lowering his hand and holding the back strap of his bag he says," You became my loop condition since morning, as I keep looking at you. Do you wanna be my infinite while loop?". My cheeks turned red and I burst out laughing, as I waved one of my hands at him and the other trying to hold my laugh, I said " sorry....1 min. Hey.. Hey... u just said the cheesiest line I have ever heard,.." with calming voice. " I don't think I am worthy enough to be your infinite while loop, and I am more like exit(), so ..'' I did a "Bye" while doing a robotic shutdown. It made him smile, he understood what I meant so he waved at me as I walked out of the class.

I proceeded to my dorm. I saw many couples, holding hands, wearing matching coats, having deep conversations, looking into each other and all. The breeze was as soft as a feather and was balmy, and the vibe around the campus was all lovey-dovey. I went to the supermarket inside the dorm and took ramyeon, as it seemed to be the perfect food to eat in that weather. I placed my bag on the hangar behind the door and dropped dead onto the bed. As I looked out of my window upside down, I also felt like my life did. Back in India, I was this common girl who no one noticed, as I never got a proposal back there, but here it was different. It's just been 1 day and I already got 2. To refresh myself from those thoughts, I went ahead and took a hot shower. That night I video-called my friends, showed them my room and the decor I did, and they all liked it. They were happy to have a chat and also sad that I am not physically present with them, We all spoke about how all of the days went. After a nice conversation lasting about 2 hours, we ended the call.