I was not in a good mood this morning. It’s Snowflake day and I miss my friends. I felt a pang of guilt when I sat down for breakfast and saw that the first email in my inbox was from Li Lo.

From: li.lo85@appaloosa.net

To: abbie.chis@simmail.com

Subject: What’s up? Hey, Abbie,

We haven’t heard from you since you left and it’s been 3 months now. Hope all is well and you are not working too hard. Me and Alani are decorating the flat for Snowflake day. We miss you! Xoxo

Li Lo

I knew I won’t have too much time and opportunity to talk to my friends while I’m here, but she was right. I haven’t sent a single email to anyone. I had to leave in a few minutes, but I hit the reply button.

From: abbie.chis@simmail.com

To: li.lo85@appaloosa.net

Subject: RE: What’s up? Hi Li Lo,

You can’t imagine how happy I am to hear from you. I haven’t been the best of friends lately (again), and I’m sorry. You two are crazy as usual! I love the picture! Everything is just great! The food is also amazing here. I have a lot of work to do, and don’t have much time to meet anyone, except Liang, my instructor. He’s cool though, so I’m not complaining. Have fun! Say hi to Gracie for me. A.

I let out a sigh. Everything is great. Why did I say that? Everything is not so great actually…

Although my trip to Shang Simla was arranged by our diplomatic contacts, my first few weeks were less than smooth. Upon arrival I was informed by our contacts that my house is not ready yet, I will need to stay in the local hotel. My first instructor did not speak English, so our trainings were extremely tedious.

Finally, after two weeks, they assigned me my new instructor, Liang, and the work began.

We spent most of our time together. He was teaching me Sim Fu, and Chinese, while I was giving him lessons about our military history and culture. I can’t really say much more because my work here is classified.

We got along fine from the beginning. He’s intelligent, fun, and inspiring. More often than not we spent hours and hours talking even after our lessons were finished. I really enjoyed our conversations. Some night Liang just passed out on my sofa, too tired to go home. As I sat next to him one night, my nose buried in the book I was reading, while he was sleeping peacefully next to me, I had this sudden urge to touch him, run my fingers through his hair. I of course resisted it, but I was missing human touch. At home I would often hug my friends, but here most people kept their distance from me because I’m a foreigner.

Between trainings we found some time to walk around the town and meet other locals. After the first week Liang took me to his favourite restaurant where we have spent most weekends with his friends ever since.

I enjoy hanging out with them, though they still haven’t stopped teasing me about my disastrous first Sim Fu practice. They found it immensely funny that only five minutes in our first session I managed to sprain my ankle and Liang had to carry me back to the hotel in his arms.

They dubbed Tuzi, which apparently means a hobbling bunny.

One night we went out to celebrate his friend’s birthday. We started drinking and then one thing lead to another, I found myself tumbling up the stairs to my room in the hotel, Liang right behind me. I tried to protest when he followed me to my bedroom, but one look at his face was enough to change my mind. I collapsed on the sofa next to him, his lips hot on mine.

When he carried me to my bed, I did not resist.

The next morning we both realised what we did was not right. I’m here to do my job, and we were supposed to work together. We agreed that we will not mention this ever again.

Our next few sessions were awkward, and Liang left as soon as our tasks for the day were completed. I should have been satisfied, we agreed that we will keep things professional, but I couldn’t help noticing that Liang seemed disappointed, and somehow it was my fault.

Today I could finally move in to my new house though, so I decided to throw a little house warming party and invite all my new friends. They don’t celebrate Snowflake day here, but that’s not a reason not to have a bit of fun.

Everyone brought food. If I didn’t know it’s a tradition here I would have thought they heard about my infamous cooking skills even in China. Sima made a killer key lime pie.

I even learnt how to eat it with chopsticks.