The Taiwanese woman curled her pendant necklace around her fingers as she stared in the mirror, briefly admiring the way the pink shirt hugged her frame just so, and the way the bright skirt made her feel a bit more like herself.

Mei smiled as she pulled away from the mirror and glanced towards the window, already excited to meet up with her friends for a day of fun and good times together.

Anya was always one of the first to arrive, dragging Ivan with her, and ultimately looking more enthused for the moment than Ivan could manage to be.

Mei greeted them each with a hug, smiling at the small polar bear cub charm that Anya had given her some years back and the big intimidating snow leopard pendant that Ivan had given her about a year later, telling her to always be safe.

They as usual would soon not just be the three of them as Lucia clambered in with a brilliant smile and a halfhearted apology; her brother must have pushed her out of the house again though the snowflake necklace that she wore shone in the light as the beautiful woman calmed down and took deep breaths. She'd start acting sterner and may be even worry over them in difficult situations as the evening went on.

Lucia had been the one to give her a small snowflake charm as she'd told her to see the beauty and individuality in herself and even in others when the blizzard of life's difficulties washed them away.

Mei smiled at simply just thinking of that thought as Eduard stopped by for a visit dropping his laptop case carefully to the floor and hugging her; she'd barely snuck a hug from Lucia after all, and Eduard was always so warm near his friends.

She remembered the cute, little laptop charm that he'd gotten her for her last birthday; he had said that since it was the one thing that he couldn't leave the house or live without, their friendship now held that same level of confidence.

Mei nearly blushed remembering it; Eduard could be so sweet. They'd known each other for so many years now and had become amazing friends in that time.

She trusted him with so many secrets that were often hard to hold in.

Lovina now rushed in, stammering that her family had distracted her and that traffic felt impossibly crowded today though she tended to walk almost everywhere and had definitely walked or ran to get to Mei's house.

Mei hugged her anyway, cuddling her close, and not minding that at times it could feel like hugging a prickly cactus; Lovi was the one that had gifted her the elephant one, claiming that sometimes big things happened for a great reason.

The Taiwanese woman kind of looked towards her as someone with unbelievable philosophy that often inspired others to unbelievable levels though she doubted that Lovi viewed herself as anything close to that level of high praise.

Alfred was the last of their group to arrive and was hugging everyone with eager joy; he'd gifted her an eagle charm a while back, because eagles are absolutely awesome.

She was pretty sure that one of her friends that day though not Alfred as he'd gotten more than a little distracted told her that she was too, so the eagle charm really described her quite well.

Mei smiled as she hugged all of her friends tight as they left her house to just explore the city and goof off for a few, short seeming hours before binge watching their favorite movies as they told jokes and playfully cuddled up on Mei's couch that often felt too small for all of them.

The Taiwanese woman relaxed anyway and knew that while their own group was rather odd, they had a certain charm to them and that they made for an interesting family of sorts as they all viewed each other as close knit siblings rather than just friends.