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Minh Quân had a great skill for getting himself lost.

It was all right the first year. After all, he had been very young and very new to Beauxbatons. Many others often found themselves walking in circles in the grand school as well, and so he had not felt so alone in his troubles. It had been okay to laugh it off with his friends and then forget all about it.

After a whole year at the school, however, and with two weeks already to re-familiarise himself with his surroundings, Minh was starting to realise quickly that no matter where he was, he was bound to lose himself. It had happened many times too in Sài Gòn. (Although he had to admit, that was a whole city. He did have somewhat of an excuse for that, then.) It had taken many years for him to learn his own neighbourhood. When he started to go to school and he had had to walk there and back on his own, his parents had nearly had a heart attack each when he had not come home for dinner on the first day. They spent three hours searching for him and riling up their immediate neighbours to do the same. They thought that perhaps their treasured son had been kidnapped, or that he might have gotten into trouble with the older children and been beaten, or perhaps attacked by an animal.

In actuality, Minh had been walking in circles in the nearby neighbourhoods for those past three hours.

His parents could not police him constantly, so they grew used to it and simply let him figure it out on his own. It had taken him a good few weeks to learn the route home and memorise it (which made him consistently late for dinner during that time), and it had taken months more to navigate the neighbourhood. By the time he left Sài Gòn, it was still difficult for him to travel a distance without a map. And it seemed that his sense of direction was intent on treating his school in the same manner.

Ah, well, that was no matter. Today was a Saturday, after all, and it meant he would not be due for any class. Minh had had his fair share of shouting from the professors for being so late, and scoldings to last him the whole year. And all over the past week alone. One of them had even wanted to give him detention, but he had apologised profusely enough (and genuinely, too!) to be let off. It was only the second week, after all, and he swore that there would be no reason in the future to mark him down as tardy.

He'd left the dorms this morning so that he could practice his route to History of Magic so that he could keep his promise of never being late again. But the problem with mornings — even though he loved them — was that Minh's mind tended to drift and wander off. And when he did, his feet often followed. Ten minutes later had found him looking around and coming to the startling realisation that he had somehow wandered into completely unfamiliar halls.

But there were no worries to be had. It was fun to discover new places, and he might as well take his time now. It wouldn't do him any good to stress himself out further over it, and so Minh moved on at his own pace, taking the time to stop and admire his surroundings when he felt they deserved it. But walking around aimlessly could only be interesting for so long before he began to worry about missing breakfast. There might be a letter from Ba Mẹ waiting for him, after all, and he absolutely couldn't miss it. He was already homesick.

Even if he couldn't eat his mother's chè chuối or give his little sisters a kiss on the forehead when he tucked them into bed, at least he could have pictures of them. (He had asked his mother very specifically, in his last letters, to take pictures of their every meal. Food was food, after all. Perhaps he would even have her send a recipe next time.) But he had to find his way back to the Dining Hall if he wanted to receive his letter on time.

He looked back and forth for anyone who might be nearby. The halls were empty, so he picked up his pace, jogging around the corner, and — there! There was a girl standing nearby. She looked young, maybe even a first-year student, but maybe she knew how to get back better than he did. As Minh approached, however, his anticipation melted away into delighted surprise.

"Hello! Excuse me, chị ơi!" he called out, barely holding back his excitement as he jogged over to the girl.

He could hardly believe his luck. Another Vietnamese person! Minh had known that there must be other people from Vietnam who attended Beauxbatons (there had to be! He couldn't be the only one in all the school!), but he had never seen them. But finally, he had found someone! It certainly looked like she was, anyway, and he didn't think he was wrong. It was difficult for others to tell if he was Vietnamese or some other Asian race, but if they weren't mixed, Minh could tell straight away. He knew a Vietnamese person when he saw one.

What a wonderful morning! He wanted to skip with joy, but first he had to introduce himself to the girl.

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[attr="class","textknock"]horns of a deer,  feet of a tiger