Lost Without You

chapter 1 --- CHRISTMAS SEASON

CHAPTER 1 

         The wind was cold and the snow fell softly around Sangi University, covering the sports arena with a crisp blanket of white, and transforming the University's rolling ground and old stone buildings into a scene from a Victorian Christmas images.

        It was late afternoon, and the dark was slowly spreading on the ground; inside the brightly-lit centrally-heated classrooms there was a feeling of well-earned idleness. After all it was nearly Christmas and 3 days to go before the end of term.

      Money is not needed for you to enter Sangi University, even though the parents of many students were very well off indeed, but you need brains and something which the teaching staff and the Board of Directors--- every employees-- valued even more.

      Individualism, thinking for your self, standing on your own feet -- or stubbornness is something which is positively encouraged at Sangi University. School work is important, certainly and nothing but the best possible grades were expected from each and every student; but preparation for adult life and work was deemed just as important and therefore there is a whole host of extra curricular activities from which Sangi students could choose.

     At the end of school day the corridors are packed with students, only half of those are in a rush to go home; half are busy working on school papers, going to a school's drama society for rehearsals or preparing for Charity Hall New Year's Eve Party.

    There was this one beautiful tall girl with a black shiny hair, who is so mesmerized with her own thoughts at the end of this day, that she isn't looking where she is going, and she bumped into a a fellow student, a pretty and petite blonde-haired girl. as they ran into each other, the file and folders the dark-haired girl was carrying fell tumbling to the floor.

    "Damn it.. aish" cried the taller girl, and bent down to pick the files and papers.

    "Minahae, Hyun-Jae," the blonde girl said, as she knelt down to help her friend gather up her papers. 

    "Its not your fault, Ga eul..." she said and smiled. "If i stopped charging around Sangi, like a bat out of hell, it wouldn't have happened.”

     "Its Christmas you know," Ga Eul said, handing over the papers to her best friend. "You are allowed to have a little time off, wind down, have some fun. Thats what Holidays are for."

     They stood up and walk through the corridor.

    "You know that Christmas is the busiest time of the year for me," she reminded Ga Eul. "For starters theres a revision for next term's exam---"

   "Don't remind me," Ga Eul said glumly.

Christmas, supposed to be a time of goodwill to all, but obviously no one had informed Mrs. Minching, their math teacher, when she had set them their holiday homeworks.

     "And there's a Charity Hall's New Years Eve Party, " Hyun-jae continued. "You promised  to help me out this year." 

     "I Know," Ga Eul said. While in fact, she had secretly been wishing that Hyun-Jae had forgotten about the promise she had made her 8 months ago. When the thoughts of helping to organize a party for disabled kids at Charity Hall hadn't seem so bad. Christmas and New Year were supposed to be times for enjoying yourselves, not for spending much of your time elbow-deep in someone's jelly or custard.

    "Plus there's stories to prepare for The Lode Star," Hyun-Jae said "The New Year issue's is due on the 1st week of next term." She sighed and chuckled. "Holiday?? What Holiday huh?"