THE CHEMISTRY OF US

SWAPPING SKIES

EPISODE 1

The air in Seoul was hot and wet, and it felt completely different from the cool autumn air Ella left behind in Vancouver. She was holding a crumpled paper in her hand that said, "South Korea student Exchange program," She whispered to herself, "Okay, Ella, new country, new school, no going back now."

The next day, she stood in front of the big iron gate of Sangwon Academy, and the school did not look like a normal high school at all, it looked more like a rich palace with glass buildings, perfect gardens and expensive black cars dropping off students. All the students wore navy and gold uniforms that looked neat and expensive, while Ella felt strange in her own uniform because back in Canada, high school meant oversized hoodies and sweatpants. Here, it felt like a high school fashion runway.

As she walked through the courtyard, people started whispering about her, saying, "Is that the exchange student from Canada ?" and " look at her hair, she stands out so much," and " I wonder if she can speak Korea."Ella understood every word because her mother was korean and her father was Canadian, but her own Korean accent was still rusty, so she kept her head down and walked faster toward the main building.

But she was looking at her map instead of the road, and then thud, she crashed right into someone, and all her folders flew out and papers scattered across the clean marble floor like confetti. A cold voice spoke in Korean and said, " Be careful, " and Ella dropped to her knees right away to pick up her papers while saying , "I'm so sorry, I wasn't paying attention," she began in English before switching to Korean.

She reached for her student ID card, but another hand got to it first, and when she looked up, she saw a boy standing over her who looked like he had walked straight out of the magazine. He had sharp dark eyes, perfect black hair, and an expensive leather jacket over one shoulder instead of the school blazer, and his face was cold and hard like he did not care about anything.

He reads her name out loud, "Ella Vance," with very smooth English, then dropped the card back onto her papers and said, " Watch your step, foreigner. Next time, I won't be so polite." Then walked away without waiting for an answer, and three rich looking boys followed him while laughing and whispering behind her back.

Ella sat on the chair for a moment, with her heart beating hard in her chest, because this was Kim Seojun, the boy her host family had warned her about, the rich heir, the king of Sangwon Academy, and the guy who famously hated outsiders, and now it felt like he hated her too.