An exclusive, all-boys school in Greenwich hadn’t been an obvious choice- but Jin felt immediately calmed when the bus left the Merritt parkway for the gentle slopes of Round Hill road. The houses were massive, but they were also elegant. There was an air of entitlement that swept through the oak trees and along the well kept paths that Jin hadn’t encountered since his childhood in Montgomery County, where his father worked in the Solutions Division of Carahsoft Technology. People didn’t feel guilty about their wealth in Greenwich the way they did in Cambridge. At Longy, Jin had been invited out at weekends or for the occasional Thanksgiving, and he was always struck by the way his friends parents went out of their way to maintain an uncomfortable relationship with most of their possessions. If Jin complimented the dinner service, he would be instructed to disregard the chips in the porcelain plates. If he made a general remark about the framework of the house, the lofty ceilings or the intricate staircase, for example, the hostess would divert his attention instead to the pile of books beneath the staircase, the dismal state of the lawn, or the limpidity of the water pressure in the upstairs bathroom. One time, on his way to a first floor powder room, he caught sight of a woman in the kitchen cooking something on the stove. She gasped when she saw him and Jin found the door to the kitchen closed on his way back from the bathroom.
In Greenwich, people found comfort in the tactile things a luxurious life afforded them. Long, winding driveways with professionally lit landscaping and outdoor chess boards with moveable pieces the size of a large dog. He’d yet to meet anyone who felt the need to apologize for the things they had, and this made Jin feel far more comfortable than the opposite scenario. After all, what did it say about him if people were constantly making excuses in his presence for the way they lived? The parents of his students didn’t know a single thing about him. The fact that he was Asian offered Jin a protective outer layer that few people felt comfortable puncturing. Jin looked different, which meant that he might be different, and no one wanted to put themselves in a position that proved the profundity of their ignorance.