Yuki left me in the shadows of the room, alone. I think she sensed how tired I was. In the corner of the room, there was a sink with an overhanging mirror. I approached it, drawn with its familiarity; my fingers smoothing the elegant cedarwood frame which was so like the one in my bathroom back home. I closed my eyes, almost hypnotised with the smell of the wood; an oily smell of the earth and of life. This mirror was new, but when I opened my eyes and saw my reflection surrounded by all of that same elegance, I did not like what I saw. My skin has always been unbearably pale. I do not tan, nor do I burn- it always stays the same shade in a most irritating way. But today, my complexion was different; almost grey and my eyes, ringed with darkness, were protruding extraordinarily. I looked much, much older than I was, which almost frightened me.

A shooting pain in my head rudely cut across my thoughts. I groaned, raising my hand to my temple, massaging it gingerly. I poured out a glass of water from the tap using the clean tumbler next to it, popped a couple of ibuprofen and lay down to think.

I felt as if I were floating in a blank, unfamiliar world. I traced the cracks of the ceiling with my eyes almost mindlessly, half awake when I should have been excited and alive. I missed my family terribly now I was here and, although knowing that Yuki was a kind-hearted soul who I already felt I could rely on, I knew nobody from the university which I came here to attend, or my housemates. The sharp, stabbing pains in my head however, on the brighter side, were beginning to cease. I sat up and looked at the clock. To my amazement and irritation, I had been daydreaming for over an hour. I breathed deeply, trying to get it together and picked up Lucy.

Not to be egotistic, but my guitar is the most valuable thing I own and she's gorgeous. She's a Jackson Randy Rhodes in a faded cherry paint, ultra shiny and virtually sings when you play her. I was lucky enough to get her from my parents as a reward for passing my A levels, so I've not had her long. I appreciated getting her an awful lot, which is why I guess I was a bit on the incredibly weird side by naming her and giving her a gender. I've played guitar most of my life, so I guess you could say I'm a musical type of person to the slightly extreme side. I strummed a couple of chords, the silky strings slipping through my fingers. Unfortunately, carrying my bags had blistered my hands to hell, so I couldn't play for long. Halfway through the Moody Blues' 'Nights in White Satin', the blister on my little finger caught on the B string. I swore loudly, unable to help it and clapped my hand to my mouth. I hoped Yuki hadn't heard me.

Then, I heard a giggle behind me.

"Don't stop playing," the voice said. It was a girl's voice, willowy and light, "you're really good, you know."

I turned round to see who it was. A girl around my age was standing in the doorway. She was Japanese, but her hair was burgundy with slices of bright red and pink running through it, which I really liked. Her style was kooky- she wore bright pink trainers, silver legwarmers, a stripy pink sweater and purple overalls which ended at the knee. It was indeed quite noticeable that her situation had been similar to my own- her burgundy hair was soaked through and her clothes looked freshly laundered.

I think me staring at her must have made her feel bad, because she immediately looked taken aback, as if she shouldn't have come in.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, looking upset, "I'm really sorry, it's just the door was open and, since I play bass, I just couldn't STOP myself-"

"No no, it's okay!" I replied, laughing, "I forgot I left the door open actually, it's fine. I'm sorry if I seemed rude. Come in if you like."

The girl laughed, seemingly relieved. She sat down next to me on my futon, sticking out her hand in a goofy way which made me laugh. I took the greeting cheerily.

"Just to warn you, we usually bow here rather than shake hands," she said, smiling, "we're a weird little country that way. I'm Taeko Hanabishi. You're Yuki-san's niece, right?"

"Miroko Kawasaki." I replied, smiling back. "Not- so-fresh from the UK."

We talked for ages about everything and anything, so much so that I almost felt my homesickness and fear physically dissipate. It turned out her parents had kicked her out of her house early to 'encourage' her to 'find her own feet', so she'd been living at the boarding house since the beginning of the summer. She liked it here an awful lot; due to the reasonable prices of living and the 'exquisite' board (to quote). She was attending the same university as well, although not the same course; I was reading Physics (to which she laughed and called me a nerd) and she was reading Business Studies and English. She'd been playing bass since she was twelve and brought it over to my room for me to see. It was an Epiphone SG in black and was covered in stickers. It was cute, equally kooky as Taeko herself and went by the name of Ichigo-chan. We then jammed for a couple of hours, until it got dark outside and Yuki called us for dinner. Taeko stopped playing immediately at the call and grinned dreamily. I followed suit and realised the crashes and bangs over the road had started again; it appeared that our jam session had been an encouragement.

"She always makes stuff that smells good and tastes even better." Taeko murmured happily. She picked up her bass and got up, turning round at the door to face me. "You coming down for the eats?"

She noticed I'd paused from moving and was listening to the noise outside, at which she rolled her eyes.

"They're always doing that," she explained, looking out the window, "but despite the noise, they're all really nice. I bump into them time to time when I'm out and we talk when we see each other."

"Who are they?" I asked her, looking at the silhouettes through the window.

"They all live together and are starting at U Tokyo as well-" Taeko started to reply. She then jolted, looking like she'd just remembered something.

"You okay?"

"Just had a thought actually," She replied, grinning, "They're having a party tonight which they invited me to. Want to go?"

I felt thrilled at the idea, but didn't want to show it too much, or make her think I was needy, because she seemed amazingly nice. So I shrugged and acted casual.

"Sure, why not?" I replied, smiling, "Sounds like a plan."

"Hey!!! I called you both ten minutes ago!!!" Yuki cried, exasperated, "Taeko, you're never this late for dinner!!"