Grace Winslow and the others attended classes for two days, memorizing the location of each classroom and finding out the daily class schedules.

The first day, they all moved as a group, but after realizing there were too many classrooms and courses, they split up on the second day.

Early on the morning of the third day, everyone gathered to report what they had found out.

Grace Winslow had gathered the most information.

With her flawless Valorian accent, she successfully integrated into the local student body, even making friends with two local girls and getting a complete course schedule directly from them.

After sharing the information, Grace Winslow arranged her schedule with the courses she liked, and the others did the same. Then, they all went their separate ways to attend class.

Grace Winslow and Joanne Chase had different interests, so they chose different courses.

Grace Winslow studied design, music, and art, and even audited their physics and chemistry courses.

Her schedule was packed every day.

Even though Joanne Chase was her roommate, there were days she barely saw her.

Often, Grace Winslow was already out the door before Joanne had even woken up. When Joanne returned from her classes, Grace was still on campus, studying.

Time always flies when you’re busy.

Half a year is a long time for many people.

But for Grace Winslow and the others, it felt short.

In those six months, Grace Winslow learned a great deal.

In the past, she had relied on memory and her raw artistic talent to sketch her designs. Now that she was formally studying fashion design, her passion for the field grew even stronger.

She even entered a school-wide design competition and won second place.

In addition, she managed to get into a few labs, learning advanced foreign experimental techniques and taking note of many that were not yet available back home.

The libraries there were open for students to use freely, with countless reference books available for browsing. Whenever Grace Winslow had a spare moment, she would be in the library, filling her notebooks with densely packed notes. When the notebooks she brought from home were full, she went to the supermarket and bought several more.

She wrote home every week, tucking copies of some of the materials she’d gathered into her letters.

Not only did Grace Winslow learn a great deal, but she also made many friends.

With her naturally sociable personality, good looks, and excellent language skills, she completely blended in within just a couple of weeks of arriving abroad.

Occasionally, wealthy local students would invite her to parties, and some even tried to court her.

Joanne Chase sometimes found herself envying Grace Winslow.

She envied how easily Grace seemed to learn everything, unlike herself, who had to pour all her energy into mastering just one skill.

"Hey, you’re Joanne Chase, right? You’re close with Grace Winslow?" The one asking was Emily Callahan, another sophomore on the exchange program. Unlike Grace, Emily had only been diligent with her studies at the very beginning. Soon after, she started messing around and partying every day with her new friends. She had even gotten a local boyfriend, a rich kid whose family had some money.

Seeing Joanne all by herself every day, she couldn’t resist going over to say hello.

Joanne looked around in confusion before realizing the other girl was talking to her. "Are you talking to me?"

"Duh. Is there another Joanne Chase in our group?" Emily Callahan rolled her eyes, then looked Joanne up and down before smiling. "Want to come hang out with us?"

"Why be such a bookworm? Even Grace goes out with her classmates. She even went on a trip a few days ago. You’re the only one who’s so straight-laced, doing nothing but going to class every day."

Joanne forced a smile. "No, thanks. I’m not that talented. If I spend my time having fun, I’ll fall behind in my studies. It wasn’t easy to get this opportunity to study abroad, and I can’t waste it. You guys go on without me."

"You can’t be serious. Grace ditched you to go have fun, and you’re still going to study? Out of the eight of us who came here together, you’re the most uptight," Emily Callahan said, speechless.

Joanne Chase just smiled again.

Seeing that Joanne was being so stubborn, Emily grew annoyed. "By the way," she said, deliberately trying to sow discord, "back home, you and Grace were inseparable. How come she doesn’t take you with her when she goes out now? Do you think she finds you embarrassing and doesn’t want to be your friend anymore?"

Joanne didn’t say anything. She just excused herself and left.

The house was quiet and empty. The landlady had taken her husband to the hospital; his health hadn’t been good lately, and their trips to the hospital were becoming more frequent. Even the household pets seemed listless, as if they sensed their master would soon be leaving them.

Grace wasn’t back yet. Joanne stared at the closed door to Grace’s room.

’Since coming abroad, Grace has been busy every day, even on weekends. It’s been so long since we’ve even sat down to eat a meal or talk together.’

’She even started to miss the times they’d spent together in school back home.’

’But she knew, deep down, that she and Grace were destined to drift further and further apart.’

’After all, Grace was so brilliant. Even when they returned home, she would go on to enter all sorts of fields and learn so many different things. She wasn’t like that.’

’But she had never been jealous of Grace. Everything Grace had, she’d earned through her own hard work.’

Taking a deep breath, Joanne returned to her room to continue studying.

Grace came home late; it was already ten o’clock.

She had gone to a professor’s house with a few classmates. They listened to him discuss all sorts of fascinating topics, things she had never encountered in any textbook. She became so absorbed that she lost all track of time. By the time the professor finished and they snapped out of it, it was already past nine o’clock.

A classmate who was with her drove her home.

When Grace arrived home, she noticed the light in Joanne’s room was still on.

She hesitated for a moment, then went to make two bowls of egg noodles before knocking on Joanne’s door.

Joanne came to the door, looking dazed.

Grace handed her the bowl of noodles. "Still busy?"

"Grace, you’re back?" Joanne’s face lit up with joy as she accepted the bowl of noodles.

The room wasn’t large. It was simply furnished with a bed, a wardrobe, and a desk, but these items already took up two-thirds of the space.

The two of them sat at the desk, eating their noodles.

After they finished eating, Grace smiled and ruffled Joanne’s hair. "Silly girl, did you forget your own birthday? Happy birthday. Here, this is for you."

Joanne was touched and flustered. "Grace, you... you actually got me a gift?"

"I’ve had it ready for a while now. I meant to give it to you earlier, but it’s my fault—I got so caught up in my studies that I almost lost track of time. I’m just glad I made it back before midnight to give it to you. Quick, open it and see if you like it."

Grace urged Joanne to open the gift.

Joanne opened it and froze.

It was a beautiful necklace, in a style Joanne had never seen before.

"I made it myself," Grace said. "It took quite a bit of time, but I’m glad it turned out well. Try it on." She smiled, stood up, and helped Joanne put the necklace on.

"It’s beautiful. It suits you perfectly."

Joanne’s eyes welled with tears. She turned and threw her arms around Grace. "Grace, thank you so much. I love it. I’m so, so happy."