"I have something... important to tell you..."

Li Qinyang snapped out of her daydream noticing the bus nearing in the distance.

After getting on this bus and arriving at her usual destination near the university, Li Qinyang would still have to walk for at least 10 minutes to arrive at the actual campus. However, she was still supposed to meet up with her friends. They had planned to meet at one of the small cafes that were about five minutes from the campus grounds, thirty minutes before they had to walk together to the campus to get their degrees.

Luckily the bus arrived on schedule, she thought to herself, as she got on the bus and took a seat near a window. She continued to squirm throughout the bus ride wondering if she would be late to the meeting with her classmates. She had thought about texting them to tell them to leave without her. However, today was supposed to be her last day in Country R since she would be flying back to her homeland in Country K tomorrow morning.

She hadn't been back to Country K since she left for her freshman year of university, not wanting to go home until she got her degree. She wanted to make her father proud. Even on her holidays, she would be at home studying, and she would use some of the extra time to prepare for exams so much so that she was overworking herself. For once, she wanted to be a bit selfish seeing as this may be her last day to spend with her friends for a long time.

Despite her reluctance, and after some more consideration, she took out her phone. She sent one of her classmates a quick text message telling them to leave without her, sighing to herself as she did so. She would have to meet them directly at the campus.

A couple of seconds later, she received a text message from the same classmate asking if she was sure about not wanting them to wait, to which she replied that she was sure.

About fifteen minutes later, the bus stopped at her destination.

Quickly getting off the bus, she speedily walked the rest of the way to the campus and made her way to the graduation ceremony.

****

"Wow, I can't believe it! All of my free time being reserved for studying is finally over."

"I can't believe it either! After so many late night study sessions." Li Qinyang laughed as she fluently and casually chatted with her friend Shailey in Country R's national language.

She had met Shailey her first year of university in one of her classes, and they became close ever since that day. Shailey was the same classmate Li Qinyang had messaged earlier.

They had just exited the university campus and were walking on the sidewalk. Some of Li Qinyang's other classmates that she was supposed to meet up with earlier were guiding from the front and some following from the back. They had agreed to go and get some lunch together at a nearby restaurant.

"Well," Brian started loudly through a laugh from behind them, "whilst you and my sister were at home studying, I was out partying!" He had snuck up towards them, listening in to their conversation without their knowledge.

Brian was Shailey's older twin brother whom Li Qinyang had also met during freshman year of university through Shailey. He quickly became one of Li Qinyang's closest friends in Country R.

Shailey and Brian also came from a rich family like herself. However, they weren't snobbish or spoiled which is why Li Qinyang figured she got along with them so well. They appreciated everything their parents gave them. They had insisted that they were just ordinary human beings trying to get through life day to day.

Shailey, who knew Brian was joking but was used to her brother's silly antics, smacked him upside the head, shaking her head at him, "You and your nonsense again Brian."

"Ouch!" Brian yelped then hissed out a breath, whilst he rubbed the back of his head, "Why do you always have to hit my head! ?"

"I'm sorry, but who else is going to knock some sense into your head if not me, your dear little sis?" Shailey insisted, laughing under her breath when her older brother shot her a glower.

Li Qinyang was used to their bickering every day, but she could never get over the amusement of it all whenever they did. They're just too amusing she thought to herself, openly laughing at them as they continued to bicker. It seemed that all of the other classmates following them were used to it as well, for they all began to laugh when Brian began to chase Shailey down the sidewalk after she smacked him upside the head once again. To put it simply, he shouldn't have insulted her. No one in the group seemed alarmed in the slightest.

Continuing down the street, they arrived at the restaurant where the twins were waiting after running off without the rest of the group.

"Qinyang, sometimes I wonder how you're able to hang out with these two all the time?" Ayla, another one of Li Qinyang's friends in the group mused whilst gesturing to the twins.

"They're such a handful to deal with. Don't you feel like their mother sometimes?" Ayla asked her rhetorically, not expecting an answer.

She seemed genuinely confused.

Li Qinyang laughed at Ayla's obvious confusion on the situation. However, now that she thought about it, she kind of did feel like a parent at times in the twins' presence. There were quite a few times over the previous years where she had to intervene before the arguments took a turn for the worst. But all in all, thinking back she shouldn't have too many complaints to say about the twins. Right?

Nevermind, she loves them anyway, Li Qinyang thought sighing to herself.

She entered the restaurant along with her peers as she reminisced over the late nights when the twins had accompanied her on her late study sessions. They had supported her through all the stress she endured to make sure that she made deadlines in the past.

Inside the restaurant, everyone gathered around a group of tables, starting to make seating arrangements. Li Qinyang sat at a table for four with Shailey next to her, and Brian and Ayla on the opposite side to them. Finally seated, they began to order their dishes. As it had now been a few years since Li Qinyang arrived in Country R, her taste buds had already become accustomed to the national dishes available, so she ordered one of the more simple, common dishes. Nonetheless, it was still one of her favorites.

Once everyone's dishes arrived to the tables, everyone started eating, and the hubbub of conversations started up again.

"Hey Qinyang," one of Li Qinyang's classmates on another table behind her's named Jax called out to her, "Aren't you going back to your home country, Country K tomorrow?"

Turning around to face him, Li Qinyang nodded her head, "I am. I'll be leaving early tomorrow morning," she sighed.

"I'm happy to be going home, but I'll miss seeing all of your faces," she laughed cheerily.

"How about we go see you off tomorrow at the airport in the morning?" suggested another one of her peers.

"No, definitely not." Li Qinyang insisted. "My flight is too early, so I can't let you all do that."

"Besides, I don't want to do the whole goodbye thing so let's just leave it at an 'I'll see you soon' after this lunch today." Li Qinyang continued to insist, not wanting to burden her friends with waking up so early the next morning to see her off.

"Let's do it Qinyang's way then!" Shailey called out loudly to the rest of the group, understanding her friend's intentions.

"Cheers to seeing you again soon!" she added clinking her glass with the one in Li Qinyang's hand. The rest of the group quickly joined in with the cheers.

As soon as everyone settled down again, the loud ringing of a phone broke through the comfortable lull in chatter.

Li Qinyang recognising it was the ringing of her phone, excused herself exiting the restaurant to find a quiet spot.

Answering the phone, a cherry voice came through the speaker speaking in Li Qinyang's native language, "Qinyang, my little sis, you're coming back to Country K tomorrow, right?"

The person on the other side of the phone was Li Qinyang's older step-sister, Li Ching. Li Qinyang had called her about a week ago to inform her of her plans to return to Country K before anyone else.

"Yes, I am. My flight is tomorrow-" Before Li Qinyang could finish her sentence, she was rudely interrupted by her older sister.

"Okay, I'll get the driver to come pick you up at the airport tomorrow," Li Ching rushed off saying before getting to her main point of topic, "I have something... important to tell you... but I think it should wait until you arrive in Country K."

Li Qinyang was genuinely confused as to why Li Ching had brought it up now if she wouldn't tell her at the exact moment.

A sense of foreboding overcame Li Qinyang.