Ellie & Quinn ❄️ || WLW (Eng)

CHAPTER 1

I'm hoping that we get along
It's time for innovation
It's time for us to make a change
It's time for a Chinese New Year
- Chinese New Year, SALES

Christmas had always been Ellie's favorite holiday.

She loved how happy people got around Christmas time, how they seemed to have a lighter step, practically bouncing through the streets. She loved all the happy, smiley faces and the people greeting each other in the shops. She truly enjoyed the Christmas songs, even the cheesy ones and the Christmas lights and decorations in all the streets.

But what she loved most about the Christmas season was Christmas Eve. Her whole family would get together for Christmas, every single cousin and all the second-degree aunts and uncles would come to eat dinner and share presents on the 25th but on Christmas Eve, it was just her and her parents.

They would sit down in their living room together, putting on some kind of cheesy movie and drink tea or hot chocolate. They'd turn off the big lights, the room being only lit by the TV and some candles that Ellie's mother placed all over every available surface. When Ellie was younger, she would get to open one present - just one - on Christmas Eve but it really was not about the gifts, it had never been. Ellie enjoyed giving presents to other people far more than she enjoyed receiving them, just to see the sparkle in people's eyes when they got excited for the content of their gift.

Still, for her, it was more about getting together and enjoying the time they had, putting all conflict aside and simply enjoying each other's company. Talking about random things, living in the moment, a little calm in the rushed and hectic world. It made her feel happy and at peace with life.

This year however, everything had been different.

The atmosphere was tense, unspoken words lingering in the air between Ellie and her parents.

Ellie knew her parents were disappointed in her choices. It was not that they did not love her, they truly did care about their daughter and only child. Maybe they even loved her a little bit too much. Her mother and father wanted her to have a good life with a good job and dropping out of college after just one semester was not really what you called 'academic success'.

But Ellie had been so unhappy with her psychology major that she did not see any other opportunity. So she had started writing applications to other colleges with different majors and had finally dropped out at the end of her first semester. Her parents were furious, understandably. Ellie still lived with them, since she had to leave the college campus room, of course. The disappointed looks her mom shot her every time she was in the same room as her and the way her dad would shake his head every once in a while really had not made December the most pleasant month.

But after her semester had ended, Ellie had nothing to do but wait until she got notification from the new colleges she had applied to. The replies would most likely come in March or April and until then, she had at least three months of waiting. Her parents did not like this at all.

"We just want your best," her mother had said very softly yet sternly.

"We just don't think you should waste a whole year like this," her father had added while scratching his balding head, "maybe you should just try again next semester, I'm sure you'll grow to like it."

Ellie was certain she would not. Psychology just did not fit her at all and she was angry at herself for not picking English Literature in the first place. It had taken her weeks to decide between the two and apparently, she had decided wrong. Which was already a cardinal sin, at least in the eyes of her parents.

But Ellie herself had a reason to be disappointed, too. She really did not want to go to Canada for three months but what choice did she have? With her parents refusing to leave her alone at home and not having any money to get her own place, she had to oblige and go with them.