"Unfortunately for me, I can't find things." I laughed. Italy smiled and shrugged back.
"You never know. I made a friend during my interview, and I hope he got in."
"See, Italy, friendship comes naturally to you. Not me, I have this irrational fear or I think nobody wants to meet me or my 'family'." I said.
"I beg to differ," Italy argued. "It's not your fault. You're a different person."
"Some think not."
"I do." He finished and craned his neck to look at the crowd. "Where is he?"
"Your new friend?" I asked.
"Yeah, he applied for music too, but I'm doing classical strings, while he'll be doing electrical modern."
"Sounds hard, maybe there was a lot of competition."
"Oh Germany, there's a lot of competition everywhere. It's IUUP after all." He commented. "Oh! There he is!" Italy waved frantically at the crowd, and signalled for one person to come over. Finally two people came out and sat in the row behind us. Italy started to talk with the taller boy who was carrying a bunch of metal equipment and had headphones on his neck. His face was white, save for a red and blue ying and yang, as well as black markings on four sides.
"Germany, it's him." Italy introduced me. "Germany, this is South Korea. South Korea, this is Germany."
"Hi," I said nervously. His dark brown eyes reminded me of pine trees in the dark. He wore casual clothing, a tee shirt under a Multicoloured jacket and artistically ripped jeans. He looked like he fit at a pop concert.
"Hey, call me South. You'll be able to distinguish me better, since we share our post fixes with my brother." He gestured towards a seemingly bored boy with a blue face and a thick band of red. He wore a white eye patch with a red star on his right eye. He was reading a small book, but he also had black earphones that snaked across his chest and into his pocket. "North, be polite,"
"Oh, hi," North Korea said gruffly, then adjusted his posture in his seat and sighed. He wore muted colours, many of which were dark brown and blacks. He didn't look as vibrant as South, but he still didn't look bad. They harmonised somehow.
"It great to be here, right?" South continued on. "New people! Gosh, haven't seen a lot of those."
"Yeah," Italy agreed. "Hopefully it will be a good year."
"It was my dream from when I first saw it." South sighed dreamlike. "I never thought that I would make it."
"Yeah." Italy nodded in agreement. "Do you know the structure here?"
"We have 'major' courses and 'prerequisites'." North butted in with his voice. "They are different."
"Difference?" Italy asked, moving his wrist in a circular motion.
"'Major' courses are ones we, well, applied for," South continued for his brother. "So our major courses, Italy, would be music, and then we would go deeper, like classical or modern or things like that. 'Prerequisites' are what we need to take, no matter what. Usually they take up most of our first year."
"Oh," Italy said. "Well, we have four years through."
"Technically eight or more." South corrected him. "We need a four year degree, and then we have to apply again for the Master's degree."
"And if you want a doctorate, be prepared to apply once more and defend your dissertation." North smiled at Italy's shocked face. "But it's not required. You can go work with a four year or Master's too. A Doctorate degree is pretty hard to get, especially since you need to make a thesis paper and then defend it in front of others."
"Sounds complicated. I think that someone ought to help us with careers and everything."
"So these prerequisites?" Italy continued.
"Prerequisites are a pain, but I guess we only really need a pass." South looked at his timetable for classes. "About mid year we can drop some of them."
"English, a science credit, a music credit, a math credit, a culture credit, technology credit and everything else is electives." Italy looked at South's paper. "So any kind?"
"No. In each category, you pick a sub topic." North suddenly interjected. "We'll all have to take English, and then we pick a type of Science, math, ext. So you could do one in science, like Biology or Physics or something like that."
"Thank you," South said politely. "But we knew, North."
"I thought you needed clarification." He grunted.
"Where are you going to major?" Italy see me unfazed with North's passive aggressive behaviour.
"Eh, mechanics, or chemistry. Unstable atoms, radioactive isotopes, that kind of thing." He said. "Not sure though. Maybe acting."
"Acting? Arts?" Italy asked.
"I'm kidding. I'm sure you heard the sarcasm in my voice." North cracked a small smile.
"Wow, you made North smile, respect." South looked surprised and happy.
"Not for long." North went back to slouching in the seat, his dark brown eye went back to scanning the book he was reading.
"Well you still did." South turned to Italy. "That's a rarity."
"How about you Germany?" North finally closed the book, his dark gaze rested in me. "Where are you going? Know your foster father, he's tough." Suddenly the two and a half pairs of interested eyes turned to me.
"Eh, well, I'm kind of like North, I have some ideas. You know, math, maybe economy..."
"You look 'mathy'," South giggled. "Not to offend you or anything. I only know another person who wears glasses, and he's really a stickler for rules."
"That's okay, my foster father wanted me to do engineering." I said offhand. But the Korean brother perked up at my comment.
"You disobeyed him?" North said, eyes wide.
"Eh, no. I didn't. He told me to go for what I know. He said everything but drama, which I can't do."
"Oh, I thought, you know, you openly said 'no'." South sighed. "But I guess if he said so, yeah."
"Mhmm," North nodded.
"I think they're about to start." Italy gestured to the podium, where most of the staff had converged and a middle height man with the Union Jack on his face stood up and cleared his throat. I knew that was Mr. UK, but if I didn't, the atmosphere around him radiated respect and authority. He wore a formal suit, accented with a deep red tie. He also had his signature top hat which he tipped back on his head. One word rung in my head when I saw him: sophistication. He cleared his throat, and the whole theatre stopped the chatter. North put his book in his case, Italy stopped fidgeting and South sat down next to his brother.
"Hello students, and welcome to the International University of Unified Partnership."