Memphisgal94

Felix sighed as he got up to grab Michael a blanket. But then he decided against a comfy one and just reached over for the throw over the sofa. He shook his head at his own pettiness, but still, he did not grab Michael a new blanket. He narrowed his eyes at his sister’s new boyfriend who was actually a really decent person. 

“I’m actually doing you a favor. This one smells just like her since she uses it all the time,” Felix thought to the 27 year old sleeping on his couch. (please note: this story is set in June, so Michael’s birthday hadn’t passed). 

Michael slowly started to sob while holding the blanket that Felix had tucked over him. He didn’t want Felix to know that he was awake, crying like a baby, at his girlfriend’s house. He had briefly passed out from shock and woke up to Felix tucking him in like a baby. He didn’t care. He sniffled, wanting to be the one who comforted Yebin in her sleep. 

But it was Felix who slipped into bed with her, as he rubbed her back, feeling regret and grief, shame and self-hatred. He started sniffling too, but no tears came out. He just rubbed her back, eyes drier than the Sahara, but Yebin started to cry in her sleep. He sighed in deep regret. “Nuna… 나야… 엄마랑 아빠 우린 없어… 재발… 울지마..” he pleaded quietly to himself. 

In her sleep, as she often did, she started to cry, “엄마?! 엄마 어디 있어…?” 

Felix didn’t say anything, just praying to heaven that his sister would stop crying and stop looking for anyone. He was there for her, so please, please, stop crying, please, he prayed.

Often times, Yebin threw up while sleeping. Felix would get up and clean her up before she realized that she was sick. Felix would rush to rinse her mouth with soda and wipe her face, change her pajamas, before she could realize that she had puked on herself, and sometimes peed the bed. And Yebin would wake up, not knowing that she was ill, just thinking that she had passed out again. Still, she would sob and cry, wanting her brother to hold her and feeling apologetic for taking up all his time and emotional space. He would cry with her, rubbing her back, begging her to get healthy now. But they didn’t know how. 

This time, however, Yebin didn’t throw up or think that she had died and peed herself while she was asleep. This time, she quieted down, and sniffled in her sleep as Felix rubbed her back. And he wondered if Michael would actually be good for her. 

Michael woke up before the two in the room. He considered for awhile whether or not he should slip out quietly or… what he really wanted was to make them both breakfast. He figured they’d been through a lot.

He quietly got out of the couch and lightly walked over to the kitchen. Those two were the most sensitive, finnicky people that he had ever met, and he didn’t want to wake them. He opened the door of their fridge quietly. 

Inside, he found fresh beef flank and fresh radish, the side dishes from the previous night that he had put away, the rest of their meat, eggs, garlic, onion, green onion, and nothing else.  “Okay,” he thought. “So this is how they eat,” he thought to himself as he reached in for the beef and the radish. Just from the two months of hanging out with Yebin, he could tell what her taste was like. So he started on making her soup, thankful and grateful that they had ingredients for soup. But Michael knew that Yebin often had soup. Pretty much, that was the only food that she had eaten while he had seen her. He laughed to himself sadly, realizing why she had eaten that way. 

He looked around for rice. They had an assortment of different grains put into different containers, so he just mixed in all the different containers together, hoping she’d be able to stomach this rice. 

He started to make the soup, opening their cupboards for the first time. “Wow, their salt looks so expensive,” he thought to himself, starting to get comfortable in the kitchen, imagining what life would be like if he lived with Yebin… pretending that Felix didn’t exist. 

Yebin woke up to Felix’s arm around her, but he was still passed out, sleeping. She smelled her favorite soup coming from the kitchen. “Mmmmmmm!” she said, as she cupped her hands over Felix’s face, smiling at him, thinking he fell asleep again after he had put in the beef radish soup into the instant pot. She gave him a million sweet kisses as he started to open his eyes tiredly. 

“뭐야? 일어났어?” he pecked her back. “누나 괜찮아?” 

“Fefe…” she closed her eyes before she spoke. “They made you do that to me because they’re turned on by us, Hyun… 알겠어?”

알구나… he thought, feeling the hiccups from his repressed emotions starting up again inside of his chest. 

“그럼 누나 돈 어덯게? 음?” He sleepily closed his eyes. 

“돈 됬어… okay? 그래도 넉넉히 있 자나… 진짜 한번 사업해볼까 현우야?” Yebin asked him, worried about her brother’s health, as they had gotten a call a month prior inquiring whether or not Felix wanted to start working at one of their family’s companies. They had told them that they’d consider it. Consider it Yebin did. She thought no. But she wanted to know what Felix thought. 

Michael was pressing his ear on their door, listening to their conversation when he heard Yebin had woken up. 

“Shit, she wants to start a business…? Then why doesn’t she…” he wondered. Then he quickly and quietly pressed his ear off and slid back into the kitchen, not wanting them to catch onto the fact that he was eavesdropping. 

“누나… You’re the majority shareholder at Blackrock… why…” Felix wanted to say, but stopped himself. He didn’t want to trigger his sister again. He sighed. He knew why she hadn’t wanted to go back. There were so many people who were ravaging and foaming at the mouth for Yebin’s wealth. 

Instead, he didn’t respond. He gave her a kiss and told her that Michael must still be here and that he wasn’t the one who put the soup on, so it was probably Michael. Felix smiled to himself. “Who the fuck is this guy,” he thought tiredly, as he rolled onto his back to fall asleep again, figuring that the man in the kitchen would feed his sister well enough, since he knew that she was sick… and seemed to be genuine towards her. Still, he’d review the kitchen camera footage when he woke up later that day and make sure that Michael didn’t act differently around his sister when his back was turned. 

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Jisoo likes pussy ass bitches! Stop mirroring my laptop. 

Make sure to mutilate Lifeng, NIS. Now. 

Part 5

The Truth of Being Rich.

“Felix, calm down. My head h-hurts..” Yebin started to stumble over. Felix caught her, as she held her head and passed out next to him. Stunned, Michael couldn’t understand why his feet didn’t just run out of their apartment and head straight home, where’d he’d be away from all this drama. 

Felix started to go white and his lips turned blue, but he was still holding onto his sister. “Fuck…” Michael said quietly, getting up softly and going over to the other side of the table, helping Felix get up, who was holding onto consciousness, and Yebin who was already passed out.  “Felix, come on, don’t die,” Michael said, rubbing Felix’s back as he started to blink, gaining consciousness even more, and the younger man got up, holding on tightly to the young woman next to him who was dearly sick every time she was reminded of who had done it to her. It was him, her most trusted confidant, but Felix couldn’t admit that, and took care of his sister like their lives depended on it. 

He blinked hard one more time, and opened his eyes. As he breathed out a long breath, he got up and picked his sister up like Mr. Incredibles picking up a toothpick. Michael looked at him in shock and sighing to himself, “Felix, do you want me to pick her up. I don’t want you to drop her… Or do you want to—I don’t know the protocol. Do you guys like have a private doctor or what’s next?” 

Felix sighed too. “No, Mike. I’m sorry I yelled. This is my bad. Just help me carry her in and set her down, and I have to put away all the banchan.” “What?!” Michael asked him, even more confused. 

“What about that is confusing. My sister spent all week making all this. I have to put away the sides so it doesn’t go bad. It’s summer. There’s flies.” 

“Oh okay,” and Michael rubbed Felix’s back one last time before getting straight to work. He gathered all the side dishes to bring inside, closed the lid on the fire, brought in all the uneaten meat, dumped out all the leftover prosecco. He figured that Felix and Yebin wouldn’t want to touch leftover, flat alcohol when she had passed out. 

Inside the apartment, Felix brought Yebin into his room and tucked her underneath his white comforters. It was his fluffy comforter that he had brought out when his sister had started to sleep in his room at night. Otherwise, he would sleep with the window closed, his air conditioner on, and use a lighter blanket for the summer. But Yebin preferred to have the window open and to use a full comforter, no matter the season. 

He leaned down to kiss her forehead, “Nuna… I’m sorry…” he said bashfully. He went out to get a warm towel for her and some Olipops, in case she woke up thirsty. 

In the kitchen, Michael was deep in thought, not knowing why the siblings had reacted the way they had. He was quietly doing the dishes as Felix came out.  Felix rolled his eyes to the side as he saw Michael looking at him in curiosity, feeling the judgement radiating from eyes. 

“What,” Felix said flatly. 

“Nothing, bro… But what’s going on? Is Yebin sick?” Michael asked him. 

“No. Why? You don’t want to date a sick girl? Then get the fuck out.” 

“What the fuck is wrong with you…” Michael said, narrowing his eyes at him, feeling suspicious of her overprotective brother. 

“Everything is wrong with me dude. Everything. I know you know that I made her sick. I can feel you fucking thinking it.” 

Michael looked at him without speaking. 

Felix scoffed. “Fuck so you catch on like a fucking bitch.” Michael still didn’t speak, just looked at him increasingly more dangerously. 

“So, what’s the deal? You’re like her handler, her nurse, AND her abuser, and you scare away guys that pose a threat to you or what, Felix. Are you like doing this to her?” Michael asked him, finally speaking, after deadpan staring at him for a minute.

Felix blinked and looked away, pissed, like a jock caught by his opponent after spitting big game. 

Still, Michael kept staring. 

And Felix acquiesced first. He nodded. “Okay, okay. I see game when I see one.” He pursed his lips, considering his next move. 

“How about we sit down and talk, huh, hyungah? Or I might punch you out before we get a chance to talk.” Felix scoffed calmly, but in his eyes was complete vitriol and anger. 

Michael looked down sadly and calmed down first. “Okay, man…” 

Felix rolled his eyes as he thought, “Okay, I see why she likes a fucking bastard shekki like him.” 

They both sat in the living room sofas. “Uhh… Okay, to be honest, I used to rape her all the time. And I beat the shit out of her too… I think that’s why she likes being spanked,” Felix said quietly, looking down as he remembered the hard past of how his sister lost the ability to take care of herself completely independently. 

Michael looked at him making a face at him, completely judging him. “What..? You, raped… your own sister… and you also beat the shit out of her… why…?” He asked. 

Felix’s jaw clenched tighter. “Well, it was either that or live with some fucking rapists who did way worse to us. So… I just raped my sister until they were like satisfied that she’ll never go out and embarrass the family name…” he sighed. 

“Then why did you beat her too…”  Felix looked upset. “Cus I’m fucking violent okay?”  “What…?”  “I kind of got possessive over her… so I started to like hit her…” 

“What?!?!” 

“Yeah,” Felix looked at him like a man who had a giant thick neck, and no lungs to breathe. “I’m disgusting. And also, sometimes, it’s cus I didn’t want to rape her as a punishment, so I just beat her instead.” “What the fuck…?!?! Why are you in charge of that…” Michael looked at him in complete shock and disgust. 

“Because… that was the conditions of being emancipated. They said we still needed discipline cus we’re so out of control. So they like fucking had someone come and beat the shit out of us both and rape my sister. So I begged them to just let me do it and I would never step out of line.” Felix looked at him. 

“Um…” Michael didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t even process what he had heard. He just blinked and looked down, not wanting to judge. 

Felix spoke to break the silence. “Bro, you can leave now, and I’ll tell my sister that I fucked you up, so that’s why you’re not calling her.” 

Michael’s head shot up. “What?! No. I’m not going to break up with Yebin.” 

“Oh… But bro, you’re not going to get farther than just dating her…”  Michael looked sick. This time, he scoffed, not believing the situation. “Felix.” He said angrily. “Don’t tell me that you still beat and rape her.” 

Felix actually smiled. “No, Michael. I don’t. But she faints when she gets reminded of it because I’m so different now. Ever since we both got away…” 

The older boy grimaced in pain. “Promise me that you don’t.” 

“Hyung, 진짜야. I don’t. I promise you on my life. I’d rather kill myself than to go back to that again.” 

“Okay, good,” Michael’s voice broke, as he spoke softly, not being able to stomach what he heard. His head was pounding getting harder and harder, and his breathing got more shallow.  “Fuck… please don’t pass out…” Felix pleaded quietly. He pat Michael’s back until Michael accidentally fell asleep on their couch. 

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Part 4

(assume that Felix took care of the second round of meat. It was pork so it could afford to grill longer too.) 

Yebin returned to the terrace with whiskey and glasses. 

“Woah,” Michael said, jokingly. But he blinkity blinked and seemed a little uncomfortable. He thought that it was a casual Friday, and Yebin didn’t seem to drink often. He instinctively swept his hand over his head and put on his sunglasses. 

Felix sneered at him slightly; again, pursing his lips closed to hide his expression. He looked at his sister with a Joker look on his face, as she had often described him as. 

“누님,” he said with a dialect, “양주 할 것 입니까?” He pat the cushioned white picnic table chair next to him. “Or how about just redoing our rooftop terrace, hm?” He asked her, having put together how she had gotten so down over the week. 

She sat down next to Felix, and he reached over her with one arm to comfort her, patting her back and kissing her head. Michael looked down. He didn’t want to look anymore. There was no reason for him to be jealous when they had only met 2 months ago. 

Feeling uncomfortable, Michael started to rub his eyes under his sunglasses, and Felix spoke sadly, “Nuna, do you have to solve every problem with alcohol?” 

Seeing as how the boys became uncomfortable by her attempt to cheer up and bury the previous conversation, Yebin started to laugh nervously, feeling vulnerable and cold as the summer breeze blew on her bare shoulders, nerves recoiling into tight cables, looking at the boys wondering if they could see through her body and into her soul; “I’m damaged now,” she thought she heard her soul say. 

She reached over to pour herself, and only herself, a glass. Felix reached over at the same time. “No, you’re not.” 

She looked at him silently. “No, I am. I’m weak. I let myself break down and I didn’t build myself up because I gave up. Now I’m weak.” She wanted to say. 

Still, she relinquished her hold on the glass and smiled nervously, that weird pit in her stomach growing, feeling like there was empty black inside, rising up, up, up. 

And though her brother had been through hell and back with her, he licked his lips and sighed, as he poured her a glass, feeling her energy. “Yebin, then don’t drink alone. I don’t want you to think you’re all alone,” he said weakly. 

Michael clasped his hands together and watched through his eyes like a lion observing the behavior of other tribes. He hid his expression in the clasp of his hands. To lighten the mood, Michael started to smile, “Guys, why don’t we just get wasted tonight? If I can stay for your guys’ rendezvous, that is.” 

Felix looked down, feeling like he overreacted, possessing his most precious treasure in his arms, in front of what he thought could pose a threat to her emotional well-being, he had thought. If she got too close to anyone, if she got too vulnerable with someone, if she felt exposed, rejected, abandoned, stabbed, again… he didn’t want her to stumble and toil out of control of herself. She had ended her ballet career on the worst low of her life, having literally peed herself on stage as a full grown adult, because she was triggered and confused by the blaring lights and the judgmental crowd, who, frankly, didn’t deserve her art. She fainted after she peed on the stage of Carnegie Hall, and was flown back to Miami by her family before she could realize that she had humiliated herself and the rest of her family for all eternity. 

She had woken up to her brother crying next to her, begging her to be okay. She thought that he was not okay, and rushed to nurse him to health. But he grabbed her hand before she could leave the bed, and begged her to stay in bed with him, possibly for the rest of the semester before they could fly into their little secluded haven spaces that they had created: Majorca—burned. Humiliated themselves there. Ibiza? Party space… too notorious there. Turks and Caicos? No, Felix, I’m depressed. South Korea? Too much family there. Then WHERE NUNA WHERE?! Just right here, in your arms, in bed, is okay for me right now. Is that okay? 

Thus, Yebin and Felix had remained vowed to emotional, mental, and spiritual celibacy and committed to taking care of only each other and themselves. Still, nobody around them could really guess. They had always been close, too close for comfort. They had always been eccentric. They had always been wealthier than most of the population. He embraced her in his arms. And in the summer, at their grandparent’s behest (notified through their staff who notified their assistants who sent a message to Yebin and Felix), they ended up partying it up in Barcelona, taking summer classes together, trying to meet more people who wouldn’t know about the incident. 

Michael handed both of them their whiskey, and looked at them with sadness. “Come on guys…” he said to try to cheer up their situation. 

But Felix didn’t appreciate how he spoke out of turn. “Ha, bro, what would you know about our lives? Huh?!” 

“Okay,” Michael nodded. “Okay, I’m sorry.” 

As she often did, Yebin twirled her hair in her fingers. She smirked as she looked up, “Michael.” She stopped. “Mike, I’m sorry that we think we’re better than you. I’m sorry that I’m making you so uncomfortable when you’re just trying to be nice. I’m sorry that I made you… No, I’m not sorry about that. You’re encroaching on our territory, and my brother is getting defensive because I’m clearly fucked up and a fucking alcoholic and I haven’t kicked this habit. Okay? I try to stay sober. You didn’t even ask. It’s like I’m fucking drunk on my own pain. I lied about having a start up because that’s who I want to be… I tried to be a dancer, and I fucking humiliated myself because I’m so fucking sensitive. I could be so much more… and I’m holding my brother back because I’m a fucking patient.” But she broke down sobbing, before any alcohol was touched. 

Michael simply looked at her with sympathy. He didn’t speak. 

Felix still didn’t feel like Michael was worthy of being near her. “But why should my sister have to explain herself to someone like you? You don’t even know her!” But in his eyes, were tears welling up, as he got up and slammed his hand on the table. 

“What…? Bro, I… Felix, you’re not mad at me. I didn’t do this to her.” 

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오 프리즈 삼촌, 나 스탓업 싫어...

나 다시 무영할래.

How Michael met Yebin.

Part 3.

Then suddenly, Felix snapped his head up. “Aye, but don’t be thinking of my sister as some party girl or something. I hate when people are that stupid, but I can’t help that my sister acts like she’s some fucking stupid ass ditz or something. I’m like – Yebin, you didn’t labor your entire life…” Felix stopped. “Anyway, my sister is a classical harpist and a really talented dancer and honestly, more. But I don’t need to get into that because we don’t like to rehash the past. But don’t be thinking you’re going to be like helping my sister start a business. She has a trust fund worth a lot bro,” Felix said tiredly, having gone through this spiel with so many idiots before Michael. The only difference was that Michael seemed to know his place and was rather chill compared to even the kids they grew up with, went to school with, even more than a lot of cousins they had. 

To Yebin and Felix’s surprise this time, Michael responded with, “Felix, I would never steal from someone like Yebin. I can tell she’s precious.” 

Yebin actually grimaced. She gave Felix a weird look of irritation. “Fe, I—yo, let’s change the subject for now, okay? I’m actually dealing with a lot more than I let on. Sorry, I’ve been through a lot. People don’t really see that. But since we’re on the topic, Michael, I like you so I’m just going to be honest with you. I don’t own a startup; I made that up when I met you. And contrary to what my brother thinks, I am kind of stupid because I was going to straight up make a fucking start up just to keep up my lie. But you’re kinda… sexy Mike.” She said, coolly. She got up, went inside.

Felix let out a sigh as he stretched out into the chair. “Ah, you’re kinda cool Mike. So I’m just going to be straight forward with you from now on too.”

Michael couldn’t help but feel a pang in his heart. He blinked as he thought about how he wasn’t usually this empathetic towards people and especially not the rich douchebags that he knew. Truthfully, their cousin was one of the only nice-ish people he had met at Oxford, and she introduced Yebin to him, completely out of kindness, seeing that Michael was dealing with an unspoken kind of loneliness. 

She had asked him, “Ah, spiritual awakening?” In a Korean manner, and he looked up from thinking, alone, at a party to network, in which he did not have interested.  “Oh, 안녕하세요, Korean?” He asked brightly. 

Yebin’s cousin laughed. “귀엽네, yeah, I’m Korean,” she said, coyly, similar to how Yebin sometimes treated people who had annoyed her. 

She pressed and inquired about him, very condescendingly. Michael felt that it was a vibe check and kept his cool. He found her to be rather humorous than condescending if anything. And with his intuition and with his “spiritual awakening” as Suri had called it, he sensed that it was leading to something better than him sitting alone with his head down, feeling like nobody interesting existed in the world. 

He engaged in the conversation fully, teasing and jabbing her back. She loved it, laughed in full earnest. 

“Okay, Michael. You’re okay—and mind you, just okay, so I’m going to set you up with my cousins in New York. They’re like really eccentric though, so just be forewarned,” she said with a smile and a wink as she pat his shoulder and got up to find her group. 

He couldn’t believe his luck when she had texted him Yebin’s address to her party where, randomly, some k-pop stars were hanging out, and he just showed up brazenly. She smiled at him funnily, and seemed to admire his boldness and audacity. 

“Oh, what?! MY COUSIN GAVE YOU MY FUCKING ADDRESS IS SHE FUCKING OUT OF HER DAMN MIND, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA,” but seeing that she had even called the lobby staff beforehand to make sure that Michael would be let up, Yebin let him into the party out of courtesy to her cousin, who texted her telling her that she had sent a surprise gift for her. 

“Nuna, bro. Is he a paid prostitute or how could this be a gift.” Her brother said, laughing at Michael who was so politely eager to meet the eccentric, genius pair—as Suri had described them. 

Part 2 What If: 

Michael sat with the siblings at their dining table. Yebin and Felix always cooked together and made food together, and Michael only had to sit back and enjoy the food. He never even had to help with the clean-up, which he felt guilty about. But, the siblings were almost the oddest people that he’d ever encountered, and he had met them through their cousin at some weird Oxford party that he happened upon. So, he never felt comfortable enough to break up their routine and interject himself. 

Tonight’s menu was not rotisserie chicken to Michael’s surprise, but also, not to his surprise. He recognized that they were riche, and he respected their space, considering their OCD like behavior. 

Tonight’s menu was something even more bizarre. They opened up their terrace rooftop and had an outdoor wood barbeque going from a Korean clay pot that was used for Kimchi and Soybean paste and stuff. Michael wasn’t sure whether or not to be impressed or weirded out. 

“Woah… are- are we having company today? Or, is this all for the three of us?” he asked. 

Yebin looked at her brother awkwardly, not sure if they were being embarrassing in front of this normal boy that she was trying to lock down. He shrugged shamelessly. “Who cares, nuna. This is how we eat. He needs to get used to it,” he said, giving Michael a look, wondering if he was judging them. 

Michael laughed to himself, smiling. “Wow, you two are like legitimate connoisseurs. Wow, no, I’m so impressed… Thank you so much guys…” Michael told them with wide eyes. He leaned over to Yebin and kissed her forehead. “Cutie.” He said, attempting to hide his little smirk at her. Michael couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable every time that he went over to their house, but they never made an issue about anything to him. It only made him even more out of place and awkward, but they never seemed to catch on—or perhaps, they were used to people feeling that way at first and figured that they would adjust or get out.  

Ah, Yebin felt like she took a deep breath out. Her previous boyfriend had tried to make her feel like she was “doing too much” and that her and her brother tried “so hard to make other people know that they were chaebols,” but Michael seemed to be impressed and grateful. She looked at her brother shyly and happily, as she rushed to really put on the greatest dinner for Michael to impress him even further. 

Felix was fanning the fire below him. As the smoke came up, “Ah, NUNA 빨리! 빨리 고기 올려!” he hollered out to Yebin who was running in with tongs, placing the intricately marbled beef onto the grill as Felix shut a lid over it, and let it smoke. 

“Hell ya bitch!” the siblings high fived. 

It should have been a comedy show. But Michael awkwardly stared at them intensely. He didn’t know how he would ever be able to fit in here. His eyes cast downward as he thought about how he was wearing a light blue “suns out!” t-shirt that Yebin had gotten him in Cape Cod while she was there with Felix and thought of Michael—but didn’t invite him; in fact, he hadn’t realized that she was out of town, nor did she bother to notify him. He cast his eyes down thinking about how he never saw any maid or housekeeper at their house, but he had thought of himself as “made it!” when he could afford to hire someone to clean his apartment regularly. He cast his eyes down as he thought of how proud he was to have attended a fancy school such as Princeton, grad school at Oxford, even attended an elite prep school such as Hotchkiss, and still, when he tried to overlap their backgrounds, the siblings laughed in his face, and then politely inquired more about him. He blinked back tears, thinking himself foolish, wondered if they were secretly gossiping about him behind his back. But he looked at Yebin’s angelic smile… “No way,” he thought to himself. His shoulders relaxed and he went over with his smile to help them out. 

“Yebin, do you need help? I can grill and—” 

“Oh, oh, bro. My sister doesn’t like to be bothered when she’s grilling this. Bro, she’ll freak out and start crying. Move, move. Seriously, I’m trying to help,” her brother told him as he ushered Michael out of the way, brought him into the kitchen to bring out the rest of the side dishes that—

“Oh wow, um… when, did you guys make all this?” Michael asked him, dumbstruck by their inconspicuous dexterity.

“Before you came bro. That’s why Yebin was all fucking twisted up her ass about the rotisserie chicken.” Felix spoke matter of factly, pushed past Michael, and brought out a tray full of Korean side dishes to the outdoor terrace dining table. 

Michael gulped and looked down. He shut his eyes close tightly, getting intense flashbacks to his ex-girlfriend who worshipped him for how wealthy and poised he was. And he felt comfortable to be fed Kimchi porridge and handfed ponytail radish kimchi by her, as he felt like he was on top of the world, and would burp a grotesque, kimchi filled hazy burp that Yebin might literally puke up her intestines from if she knew how he had acted. 

He looked up. Yebin was feeding Felix a charred piece, asking her brother to bring over the sesame oil that smelled incredibly fragrant. The more time Michael spent with the siblings, the more he felt completely disoriented by his world. 

But he heard an angel’s laughter and blinked twice to make sure that he was living his real life and not in a dream state. Michael scrunched his face as he saw Yebin pecking her younger brother on the mouth a couple times as they marveled at the marbled barbeque grilling into Yebin’s version of perfection. “맛잇지?” she asked almost like a little yellow duckling. He blinked again. “Oh yes, this is why I followed her scent like I was smelling a fucking pie like a cartoon,” he thought, trying to clear his head. 

Alas, he woke up from his frenzy and brought out the drinks that were set on the countertop, wanting to be helpful in any way. 

Felix smiled a little as they all sat down, his sister still crouching over the grill, making sure the next round of meat would still be perfect by the time this first round was eaten. He looked at Michael who was sitting down, seeming more comfortable than guests previous. Felix looked down as he looked at him directly, looking slightly more irritated than Michael would have ever expected.  “Shit, they fuck,” Michael thought. “I fucking thought they did, but they really fuck,” he thought. Michael looked away as he felt riled up for no reason, he thought. But when he looked back at Felix, he looked him straight in the eyes, back. Felix laughed, unamused.  “Oh, 그럼 아네 형. 눈으로 똑바로 보는 사람이구나? ㅎ.” Felix laughed out, reaching over to pour the trio Yebin’s fizzy prosecco drinks. 

“Cheers, bro,” Felix said again, “NUNA. 빨리 먹자! 음?” 

Inside of Michael’s mind, he quickly did some calculations. If her brother was there for everything and was clearly and very obviously her best friend, if he didn’t pass the vibe check with her brother, he’d undoubtedly be tossed out. It seemed like her brother came out and intimidated and vibe checked people before himself. He looked again at the angel rushing over to bring as many pieces of beef she could before she would go and labor more for their dinner. 

“So Felix,” Michael didn’t back down, “where did you guys like attend college and stuff?” He asked mostly out of curiosity, but completely innocently, showing Felix that he knew his place was outside of their world.  

To his surprise, Yebin and Felix burst out laughing. “Oh Michael, you don’t see that we’re the family fuck ups?! We both went to the University of Miami, babe.” 

Then Yebin looked at her brother with a funny smile. “Well, actually no… my family tried to force me to go to Columbia, which I did at first because I was scared that they’d come into our place again with the FUCKING YAKUZA, so I just attended for a year before Felix started to attend the U. And then I just pretty much… dropped out, started living with him in Coral Gables, and finally, our grandparents sent some people over to beat the shit out of both of us, so I was finally able to attend UMiami with my brother. And so funny, we paid out the sorority there and they fucking let me join in, hahahahahaha.” 

What If: What If Felix and I could have continued to live together from Hotchkiss to NYC to Now?

“Oh baby,” Michael said, giving his girl a kiss as he entered her apartment that she shared with her younger brother since they were only 12 and 14 years old. 

“NUNA!” His girlfriend’s younger brother screamed out from inside of the kitchen, “YOU THINK YOU’RE SO FUCKING CUTE HUH?!” 

Yebin rushed to quickly get inside of her boyfriend’s arm, thinking he would shield her from her younger brother’s verbal abuse. But her boyfriend seemed to quickly catch onto the situation as he looked her bony waists with her new baggy jeans hanging off of her square hips. He tried to hide his smile at her brother who came charging at her. 

“Oh hey Mike. Sorry that I’m yelling this way, but seriously my FUCKING SISTER is so FUCKING RETARDED. I can’t stand her.” Felix said, having run over to the door with a spatula from the kitchen in his hand. 

Michael wanted to pretend to be serious, but he couldn’t help but laugh. He thought these pair of siblings were the most comedic duo that he had ever encountered. And, although her younger brother was younger than his girl, he thought that he was rather sensible, considering that these two had lived together without any adults since they were young teens. 

Again, Michael let out a little laugh, “Why, what’s up? Why are you carrying around a spatula, Fe?”

Furrowing his eyebrows, Felix snorted. “You don’t see my sister parading around in her FUCKING panties, thinking she’s so FUCKING skinny?” He opened his eyes wider in disbelief as he started laughing. Michael bursted out laughing, giving Yebin who was leaning against his chest kisses. His chest heaved up and down as he and her brother started to crack up laughing, holding their stomachs. 

“Bro, she’s the MOST fucking ridiculous person that I’ve EVER met. You’re NOT A MODEL NUNA. WAKE THE FUCK UP. LOOK IN THE MIRROR WITH YOUR UGLY ASS,” her brother spat out cruelly, laughing, not understanding the body image issues that his sister was grappling with. 

Michael’s laughter slowed. He grabbed her ass cheek like it was a little Johnny Smith apple, and bit her nose lightly with his teeth, chuckling again. 

Yebin finally responded, finally realizing that they actually thought she was ridiculous. “Felix… Don’t embarrass me… I look really good now. I look like YOU KNOW WHO. Don’t make me say it.” She gave him the eyes. The look that said: don’t FUCKING tell anyone what I said at home.

Michael tried to close his mouth to stifle his laughter. “Babe… please, don’t tell me that you were fucking starving yourself, waiting for me to come back to New York.” 

But Felix spoke for her, “oh NO! NO! NOT STARVING HERSELF! Just literally only wearing her FUCKING PANTIES thinking she’s FUCKING BELLA HADID. I can’t fucking stand her.” He spoke with his teeth out, mocking her like they did when they were younger. 

Michael covered his mouth with one hand, turning his head to the left side, laughing, still having his other arm around his girl. He took his arm off of her and smacked her—now-- very skinny little ass. He leaned in again for a smooch. 

“Ow…” she said like a mouse. She scrunched her nose at Michael and pouted angrily at Felix. 

But Michael grabbed her butt, leaned her over as he kissed her deeper. She let out a tiny little moan, having missed him while he was away on business. He kept kissing her as they walked into the apartment, heading for her room. 

Felix rolled his eyes. “Wait, hyung. Here, take this,” and he handed Michael the spatula that he had brought to hit his sister with because “she’s SOOOOOOOO smol,” he thought to himself. 

Michael laughed again, reaching with one hand as Felix passed off the spatula. 

Michael kept kissing her all the way to her room, and he shut the door behind him as he laid his girl on her little too tall bed. He licked his lips, still feeling her on him, as he breathed in his girl and tasted her on his lip. Ah, he sighed in bliss. 

“Baby,” he said, sitting down on her bed next to her, “What are you doing? Just literally starving yourself or what?” 

“Mmm, baby, you don’t have to know,” she said, reaching under his shirt to take off of him and putting her lips on his nipple to suck on. She wasn’t done yet, and would rather talk after, she thought. 

“Mmm, no, I want to know before we have sex, babe,” Michael said, using both of his hands to take her face off of him, and to look directly into her eyes. 

“Ahhhh! Fine, you know Nicola Peltz?” Yebin said in a hurry.

“Mhm,” Michael responded starting to look more concerned as he realized what she was up to while he was gone. 

“Well, I saw her in this exact outfit and I liked the fit on her, okay? Literally that’s it. My brother is overreacting cus he bought a whole rotisserie chicken for me and I said I’d eat it AFTER we had sex so that you could see me looking like a little tiny skinny minnie, just like her.” Yebin flashed her eyes in annoyance, assuming that her sweet, sweet boyfriend who did anything that she ever wanted would naturally agree with her.

But Michael looked her up and down to her upmost surprise. He moved his upper body off of her a little and gave her a surprised look. 

“Wait, no, but Yebin… you actually do look way skinnier. So just tell me the truth. Did you not eat this week just to like… do this? Wear this outfit when I came back so that you’d look.. Um… what did you think, Yebin?” He said, kind of sternly, Yebin thought. She was startled and started to look away, looking flustered. 

He caught her face with both hands again, lightly and turned her head to look at him in the eyes.  “Baby,” he smiled to lighten the mood, “Baby, I know you’re used to doing anything and everything you’ve ever wanted, but, you know that you’re an adult who needs to take care of her body, and that you’re a human being who needs to eat 3 meals every day, right?” 

She moved her head out of his hands and looked up, blinking, kind of swept away by his sudden seriousness, and scrunched her nose to smile to herself. 

Michael started to laugh again, “babe, look at me when we’re talking, okay?” He was speaking in such a charming manner; she felt swept away by his manner of speaking. She loved the way that he was self-accomplished, and this hardworking and honest guy in a city full of douchebags and the most annoying nepo daddy’s boys that she had ever encountered. In comparison, he felt like the prince charming that she had always dreamed of meeting. Finally, he came into her life like magic. 

“Mm!” She gave him a little whine, just to test out the waters. Truth be told, she was not the self-accomplished, hard-working aspiring start-up owner that she presented herself to be. It was just a front. She was a retired ballerina, and had intense body image issues, her family only let her use her trust fund under the condition that she would never enter the entertainment industry, she was very skilled and knowledgeable at trading stocks, so really, her and her brother had no need to be working so hard. They did a lot at home though. She didn’t want Michael to know that though. She thought she did a really good job continuing the front that she, just like him, had a respectable presence and didn’t want him to know exactly how frivolous she was. She and her brother were involved with fashion, and spent a lot of time bitch fighting over stupid stuff. 

But at her core, she was hurt, dealt with feelings of intense abandonment, and had immense imposter syndrome, as she was afraid that people would be able to see through her “strong girl” front and see her for how she felt inside: just a silly girl who was handed everything that she had and was abandoned by her parents who were not capable of taking care of her. In other ways, she and her brother thought deeply about their upbringing and felt that they were rather wise. Still, thus far, no one else had been able to understand them. So, it was just her and her brother. And they tried really hard to keep it all together. 

Michael smiled and kissed her nose. “You’re so cute, Yebin,” he said softly. 

She started to play with her hair, looking down. Michael took it as an opportunity to speak up about how he felt. “Baby, I know you and I come from different worlds, and I know that you thought I’d be happy to see how skinny you are, but I like it better when you eat… Because, I want to build a really good life with you, and I love seeing you be healthy and happy, babe,” he said softer, worried that he would hurt her feelings after she had thought that she was showing him a better version of herself. 

Yebin also spoke softly; sometimes, they reminded each other of little twins. 

“Okay… I feel so stupid now…” she said with a little embarrassed laugh, looking up at him, ashamed of how immature she was as an adult with no job. But, to her, even though she knew that she had no reason to justify herself to anyone, she felt embarrassed dating this boy who was accomplishing a career for himself and had a normal childhood and upbringing. Meanwhile, her and her brother were often drunk and naked in Majorca growing up. Now, she was a zen yogi, but she was afraid that Michael would see through her zen façade. 

After all, her and Felix still had the occasional joint on their rooftop, and threw parties at their house with their friends that occasionally ended up in an accidental orgy. 

“Okay, baby…” Michael said, softly to not scare his bunny. He pat his lap. “You know why I want to spank you, right, baby…?” He asked, genuinely, and waited to see her reaction to make sure that he wasn’t crossing any boundaries. 

She looked at him, considering what she should do. She looked apprehensive. Truth be told, she didn’t know how she felt about the whole spanking thing that Michael had going on. She felt incredibly naughty when he spanked her, and it always made her cry, thinking back to her teen years when she had no supervision, no consequences, and she and her brother got kicked out of multiple boarding schools. But it also made her feel so incredibly aroused—she couldn’t explain the feeling. 

Almost like he could read through her, he smiled at her, finding her to be so cute. “Baby, to be honest, I like to spank like this, okay?” He kept looking at her closely for her reaction.  “What is it?” She asked him like a mouse, kind of feeling like she was a teenager, but he was still an adult. It made her feel yucky and like she wanted to cry, truth be told. 

“I know you like it when I spank you and then we have sex… or at least, when I spank you and you get to cum, but baby… I think we need to differentiate a—” but Michael stopped when Yebin looked like she was stifling a cry. He reached over and hugged her, rubbing her back, while he continued. 

“Baby, why are you so upset, huh?” He asked. 

“I don’t know… Spanking makes me feel weird…!” she told him, cries getting larger, and tears spilling out, as she rushed to wipe them and tried her hardest to stop the cries. 

“It’s okay to cry, baby, it’s okay to cry…” he said, rubbing her back in circles. He kept patting her back and rubbing it soothingly. Eventually, her tears slowly dried up, and she started to feel better as she deep breathed outwards. 

Michael gulped back his own cry. He felt emotionally drawn and vulnerable with her. He kept rubbing her back as he spoke on his earlier point, “Baby—and if you don’t want to, you can tell me—but, I think these kinds of punishment spankings—” She gasped audibly and looked at him in complete shock. Her face said, punishment?! and she seemed completely adverse. 

Michael was rather taken aback. He didn’t realize that the word “punishment” was a trigger for her. 

“Um, you don’t like the word punishment, babe?” He wondered cautiously. 

But Yebin didn’t know what to say. Again, she didn’t want him to catch onto her silly ways and wanted him to think of her as a very strong, independent woman. 

She pursed her lips closed, felt that she had overreacted. “No, to be honest, I don’t but you can continue.” 

“Okay, okay. I was going to say punishment spankings don’t come with sex right after… But since you don’t like that, we can say serious spankings… if you want,” he said, looking her in the eyes, wanting to gage her reaction carefully. 

She breathed out. “Yes. Serious spankings. I like that much better, Mikey.” 

Ah, he sighed out audibly too, like he was holding his breath, wondering if she’d break up with him over such a difference in thought.

He waded the water carefully, “Okay, baby, do you want to continue?” He gave her his charming smile. He pat his lap, in question. 

Yebin was curious what kind of man would want to take responsibility over her even though she already had everything taken care of. Yebin was curious what kind of man felt like he already knew what she was experiencing deep inside and never pushed her boundaries. Yebin wondered what kind of man aimed to please her this deeply and always prioritized her, her pleasure, her happiness, her comfort, her sleep, even when she had offered to sacrifice her sleep, her time, her pleasure to please him instead. He had gotten upset and said no. He had introduced the idea of spanking for the first time, saying he realized she needed a spanking, with a wink. She was smitten deeply, and he had her coming in his very hands as he simply grabbed her there and told her that she can only come with his permission, after he was done spanking and lecturing her about her happiness.  She gaped her mouth open in surprise then. She didn’t usually like to gape her mouth open. Like a trout, she had thought. Like someone nefarious could put a dick in, she had thought. She told her brother immediately and he was immediately hooked. 

She went over his lap immediately, blindly trusting him immediately. 

Michael laughed to himself, chuckling about how naïve and innocent she appeared to be. He thought both her and her brother were too naïve for their own good. But he kept that thought to himself, and found them both to be so cute. He wondered if her brother liked to be spanked too, sometimes. They seemed to be similar. 

She gulped in anticipation and was smiling underneath, as she waited for him to spank her. But she had no idea what kind of spanking it was. She was in for a surprise, without knowing it. 

As Michael read her body language, he leaned over to check her little face. Just as he suspected. She had no idea what a serious spanking meant. He laughed to himself as he thought, Shit, I need to explain really well, or she’ll run away from me.

He rubbed her back. “Baby, I.. Baby, so a serious spanking, okay? It’s… going to hurt more than what I spanked you before. So you’re going to tell me why you’re being spanked…” he trailed off. 

“You mean right now?” She asked a little too earnestly, like she was a model student. 

“Well, I meant more while I was spanking you… So, I’m going to start spanking you, lightly at first, but then I’ll build it up a little and it’ll start to sting… Are you okay with that?” 

“Okay… I think so…” 

“Okay, it’s okay to cry and tell me that it hurts, but don’t reach back and I prefer if you don’t tell me to stop spanking you. But if it hurts too much and you want to stop, then you can always say red light and we’ll stop right away, okay?” Michael said quietly, thinking back to his previous girlfriend who he didn’t give any safe words with, kind of forcing her into getting spanked. He often regretted it, badly. 

“Yes, okay. So it will hurt a little or a lot?” She asked boldly. 

Michael found her to be so funny. “It might hurt a little more than you expect though, babe…” 

“Okay, but not too painful okay, Michael? I still need to be able to sit and do my regular activities,” she said naively, and Michael realized exactly how little she knew about punishment and discipline. He gave her a look, feeling kind of sad, feeling her pain about her different childhood.

This time, Yebin felt him feeling pity for her. She looked up at him and spoke in a soft, husky voice. “Michael, you don’t have to feel bad for me. Everyone has pain, okay? I don’t resent my family. They try their hardest to be… there as much as possible. They grew up worse than I did, Mikey,” she said kindly. He rubbed her back, closing his eyes, taking in her kind heart, which he loved about her. She really was as wise and deep as her voice sometimes, he thought to himself. 

He finished rubbing her back. “Okay, then, I’m going to start lovie.” And he started to lightly pat her butt, not wanting to hurt someone like her. 

But she seemed to be okay. She seemed to be curious about this serious spanking. She seemed to not be hurting as badly as he had thought.  Okay, then, “I’m going to spank you a little harder now, Yebin…” He said, looking for her reaction. She nodded, “And now, you’re going to tell me why you’re being spanked, baby…” 

“Um… I kind of forgot Mikey,” she said, enjoying the feeling of being pat on her butt. 

He slapped both of her cheeks sharply. “OW!” She screeched in surprise. She turned her head over to look at him, thinking he made a mistake. 

Michael smiled at her, keeping his chuckle to himself. “No, baby, I didn’t do that on accident. Remember, this is a serious spanking… So, you want to be serious too. Remember why I wanted to spank you today? Do you know what I want with you?” 

She searched her head for answers, “Yeah, babe, you want a happy life with me, and that makes me so scared beyond what you could even imagine…” This time, Michael was more taken aback. He blinked trying to process what she was saying as he started to rub her back to think. 

“What, Yebin? You’re scared of a happy life with me…?” Michael asked. 

“Yes babe, I am… Cus you give me this feeling in my heart and my stomach and honestly, I’ve never once had an orgasm before that day when you spanked me and told me that you cared for my happiness and safety… And I cried when you left, Michael…” 

Shit, he thought to himself, now I just want to let her up and hug her.

He did just that. He couldn’t stand to spank her when she reminded him of Tinkerbell, Thumbelina, so many characters that were a little too innocent and a little too curious. He lifted her up, and brought her into his arms, squeezed her tightly.  This time she whined happily. “Hehehe, Mikey, how come you’re not spanking me anymore?” He looked at her little face. She pouted and closed her eyes for a kiss. Of course he smooched her right away. 

“Babe, I really can’t bring myself to hit you,” he said laughing again. “But I really mean business about eating, okay? I really don’t want you to starve yourself like your friend so you can… I don’t know… what you were doing to be honest, hahahaha” he laughed good naturedly. 

To their complete surprise, her brother was outside their door.  “Oh my sister? Yeah no, she really just thought that you’d be fucking impressed if she starved herself to look like her fucking pinterest, dude. Hahahahaha.”

Part 3. 

Amelia gave the Michael, who had his head down, feeling disappointed by their increasingly more obvious class difference, a little peck while looking at him with pure love and admiration. She looked like a little cherry to him with sparkly stars and fruits blooming out of her aura, he had once told her. She loved that about him. She loved and appreciated how much he saw her beyond any physical, financial, or societal gain. In fact, he paid for everything for her, and she would look at him curiously and shyly, secretly making a box of all the items, food, wrappers, receipts of everything that he had gotten her. Her younger brother had found it one day when he went to go visit his sister in her room and yelled at her, thinking that she would get in trouble if the school or their family found her box. 

But Amelia frowned at him as she yelled back. “WHY would the SCHOOL get mad Felix. And besides, I’ll just ask Mikey to hold this box for me during the break or I’ll hide it in a storage locker,” she responded smugly to her brother, whom she thought was much less intelligent than herself, the chosen Heir, the most wonderful prodigy. 

“Then why does she have such a low self-esteem and hit herself,” her brother often wondered to himself aloud, scowling to himself while his sister was organizing the box of “Michael gifts.” Felix sighed and left the room, shaking his head, and often worrying that his sister might just end up becoming a useless housewife at this rate. He secretly sided with his family, no matter how much he liked Michael. 

Michael grappled with that. Amelia, who appeared so perfect from the inside out, looked in the mirror, just to cry, looking at her own reflection with scorn, hatred, and disappointment. And himself, who always looked at himself in comparison to Amelia, wondering if he would be capable enough to go the distance with her. He wanted that. That’s all he wanted. That’s why he did everything in his power to dominate at Hotchkiss. He wanted to show her family who he was. But it never seemed to be enough when they flew down on their helicopter for Amelia’s recitals, politely smiled at him, politely greeted his mom, whom they clearly saw with scorn, almost like they could sense how his mom felt about Amelia, the perfect chosen Heir. But Amelia never stood up for him. She, too, politely greeted his mom, worried about what her family had warned her about with the Upper Middle Class—their greed and desire to move up into the Upper class without having earned their footing. To not allow Michael’s mom to see her kindness as weakness, lest she be wanked and taken advantage for her kindness, they warned. Amelia, perfect little Amelia, understood and heeded their warning, as she pulled away from Michael’s messed up family, and focused her efforts into a larger responsibility that they had chosen her to walk into. She knew that she was special, and she held her younger brother’s hand for support as she shook like a wet dog in fear of not being capable of living up to the person that they had thought her to be. 

Her brother often looked at her with worry and often sighed. He once told Michael that he was afraid that Amelia was secretly suicidal, or she wouldn’t have tried to jump off the roof of Hotchkiss, he said. Michael concurred, but pretended that she was alright when she woke up in the hospital, pretending that she had no idea why she was there. Her family bought it, because, they wanted to believe that she was okay, but Michael was there, secretly afraid that she wasn’t. 

He looked up from thought, smiling at her with his soft smile, his loving and piercing gaze. 

Amelia looked down as she closed her eyes to blink slowly. “What is it, Michael? Are you still thinking about that incident last year? Because I’m okay. I’m just worried that they want to move me to another school so that I don’t have to be reminded of what happened all the time. I humiliated myself and that was… scary.” Her expression said that she wanted to cry, but she blinked with her soulful, dark eyes, and when she looked up, she had a blank expression, smiling again.  “We can never accept a boy like Michael into this family,” Amelia’s thoughts rung throughout her head over and over and over like the Buddhist bell that had rung so loudly when she went to the temple over the summer with her entire family to pray for prosperity over Korea. 

All Michael did was let out a small, steady breath, patting her back, bringing her in for a hug. He was going to become the man for her, whether or not her family liked it. He prayed that they would like it though. 

First order of business, her younger brother had told him, become familiar with Buddhism, hyungah… We are the Koreans, not the Whites. 

Michael smirked a little smile. He cocked his head to the side, as he did in his Michael way before he did something devious.

"Baby, you wanna try spanking?" He asked her, looking straight into her eyes, wanting to know her genuine reaction, anticipating her shock and horror, even bracing for a slap in the face. 

She gasped in shock like he thought, and he laughed, still staring directly into her eyes, hoping she knew that he was being genuine. 

"Oh my... Are you being serious?!" She asked him earnestly, furrowing her brows, wanting to know why he would bring up such a vulgar topic to her. She frowned at him, thinking that he couldn't be serious, wanting him to know that a perfect one such as herself would never indulge in such debauchery. Besides, she was terrified to do anything that she thought her family would find absolutely humiliating, and sat on edge inside of her body all the time. 

Seeing her appall, Michael laughed a little bit, leaning in for a little kiss before he continued. 

"You might like it," he winked at her, head still cocked to the side. 

She suddenly felt red like the cherry he described her as. But she got up to save her own dignity and told him, "I need to talk to my brother about you!" 

Teenage Prep Kids Smut. 

Michael and Amelia were inseparable since the 1st grade when they met. Michael started to attend The Hotchkiss School since Pre-K and Amelia had transferred in from South Korea during her first year of elementary, where she was shipped off to with 2 brothers and 3 nannies. 

Michael befriended her right away. They were the only 2 Korean students in the entire first grade, at the time. Eventually, as they got older, more Korean students transferred in. 

“Hey baby!” Michael came striding in, swinging into the cafeteria seat right next to Amelia. Amelia leaned into her boyfriend for a kiss. They started dating in the 8th grade and it was bliss ever since. 

He leaned in for a little peck. But then grabbed her head and gave her a deeper kiss. She was smiling like she used to when they met when they were both 6 when he opened his eyes.  He ruffled her hair more. “Hehe, baby you’re soooooo cute when I kiss you.” “Um, I’m SOOO cute even when you don’t kiss me. It bothers me when you say things like that. When EYE kiss you.” 

Michael looked sad but he smiled. “Sorry..” 

But at the doorway was Amelia’s younger brother. He was glaring looking at the both of them, almost like a cartoon character. 

“YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE MAKING OUT AT SCHOOL. TOUCHING IS AGAINST THE RULES. I COULD TELL ON YOU AND YOU’LL BOTH BE IN TROUBLE,” he bellowed as he stomped over to them.

Amelia was drinking a morning hot matcha latte and had brought one for her brother. “Felix… can you PLEASE relax? I brought you this drink. Here.” 

He snatched it from her hand and drank it while sulking and putting his head down on the cafeteria table next to Amelia and Michael. 

Michael cocked his head over to Felix. “Felix. Do you have to like follow us around everywhere?” 

“I’m NOT following YOU around ANYWHERE.” 

“Felix, do you have to be in a bad mood everyday though…” Yebin said, rolling her eyes. 

Ever since their older brother got expelled for too many infractions such as late curfew, getting caught in girl’s dorms, dirty uniform with lipstick stains that he didn’t bother washing out… overall debaucherous behavior, Felix had been depressed and sought Amelia’s company for comfort. 

Amelia and Michael looked at Felix sympathetically. “Okay Felix, is this about Jae? I mean, I’m sorry that he got expelled but now he’s at La Rosey, which is even better than here. So seriously dude. You should be cursing him out, not all depressed and stuff,” Amelia explained.

Felix gave his sister an offensive look. “DUDE, not everything is about MONEY. What if I’m FUCKING DEPRESSED that EVERYONE I KNOW IS A FUCKING RAPIST!” Felix hollered.  Michael looked at Amelia in surprise. They were both being quiet to give the younger boy some space. “Oh… Well, Felix, quite honestly, we didn’t know that you were this deep.” 

Amelia laughed. She pinched at her nose as she was about to respond, but Felix hollered again first, “YEAH I KNOW. YOU TWO ARE THE TWO COOLEST KIDS AT THE SCHOOL, MAYBE ALL OF AMERICA, AND I’M JUST HER FUCKING LOSER FUCKING BROTHER–” 

Right then, one of the administrators came peeking her head into the cafeteria. 

“Okay, kids, I know you are having fun drinking your little smoothies every morning, but we’re going to have to close the cafeteria if you keep yelling this way.” 

Felix gasped as he put his hand over his mouth and looked as if he was going to cry. “Sorry…” he said quietly, putting his head down to cry.  Michael rolled his eyes. Amelia looked away as she pat her brother’s back. “Felix… come on… that’s why we’re at this school, okay? We have to start being grateful or our whole lives go to shit. Seriously…” 

Felix looked up as he sighed. “Okay, fine, but… I’m so lonely and depressed…” 

“Us two Felix.” Michael answered back. 

Part 2. 

Michael and Amelia– I want to change Amelia’s name back to Yebin… Thoughts? 

Michael and Amelia had all the same classes. They had planned from middle school to align all their classes together, spend every minute of the day together, bask in the glorious sunshine together, cuddle for warmth in the cold seasons together, share a set of earphones together, stare into the moon together, stare into each other’s souls together. So naturally, they shared all the same classes together, sat next to each other, ate at the cafeteria together, and they had music class together too. 

Music Class.

“Baby, I love your classical harp playing, classical piano, classical singing, but you know what I’m kind of more into lately?” Michael nudged at Yebin– I mean Amelia. 

Amelia took out her one earpiece. She frowned a little pout from her red stained lips. She always wore Vaseline’s cherry gloss, and it always stained her lips the perfect cherry red. She rolled her eyes. 

“What are you more into lately Michael?” she asked, feeling like she was already going to dislike the answer, as he chose the music every time. And although she thought it was fun for a couple songs, her mind and her heart already beat too quickly and felt overstimulated, overwhelmed from pressure, loneliness, the nonstop grating in her ear that she wasn’t good enough, the constant screech in her ear– rage with nowhere to go. 

She only had the space in her life for the classics right now. Michael said he only liked her harp playing and piano when she was playing it just for him. Not even in concert. They stopped talking for 2 weeks after that, and she had called her dad crying, but he did not answer. So the next best person to talk to about her feelings was her younger brother, who just sighed. “Yeah, Amelia, it’s because you’re high strung– no offense– and he’s… from California nuna. It will never work,” her brother had callously told her in her time of need. 

Michael pursed his lips a little while he played the next song. “My friend from home showed me this over the summer. You should have come visit me in California… It was seriously the best time..” he said, looking down, disappointed that Amelia wasn’t allowed to go see Michael. Amelia looked at Michael’s sweet face. He kind of looked like a puppy dog to her. The ones she loved so much. He had the facial expressions of someone who was warm and loyal, and that drew her in like a knight to the light of honor, she thought. But Michael’s eyebrows bent suspiciously as if he could see in her face what she was thinking of him. 

“Well, you know I wanted to… But at least we got to see each other in the Maldives! AND Barcelona! That was cool too, right?!” Amelia pleaded at Michael with her eyes. She wasn’t like the willy-nilly, stick her head of the window for the fresh air, baby! like  Michael was. Her family had made it clear from the start that they were writing Jae out of their family trust altogether, and he would have to fend for himself. As for Amelia, she was born absolutely perfect, they said. They groomed her in every aspect of self and society. 

Michael looked at her sadly, and kindly. “Yes, baby, way cool. Okay? Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. It was so much fun with you. And it was nice that it was just you… not even your weird brother, no offense. But your brother was fun in Barcelona, I’m not even going to lie, hahahaha.” 

Amelia looked down and blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to stop the flow of tears. Instead of pretending that he didn’t notice, Michael closed his eyes tightly and embraced her in a big hug. 

“Baby, please… What is it? Why are you so sad these days…?” Michael asked her softly as he pat her back very softly as to not scare his little bunny. He had literally started to raise a little baby rabbit at his house and begged his parents to take care of the rabbit while he was away at school. He missed Amelia beyond any words and any fathom when they were apart from each other, and just the thought of Amelia being away from him made him sob until there was no more water in California. 

“I don’t know Mikey…” She said like a baby. 

Michael looked down. “What happened in Korea,” he asked and demanded as he looked up into her eyes, worry spreading all throughout his face. 

Amelia sighed too. “Not much, Mikey. Everyone was yelling and angry the whole summer. That’s why they sent me to the Maldives. And they screamed at my brother for his grades… which I feel bad for him… and…”

“Finally,” Michael thought. The other stuff, although very embarrassing for Amelia to bring up to share, was pretty normal and he often heard the update from her that her family had kicked Jae out of the house, that her older brother would be homeless now, that they whipped her because she spilled her drink while sleeping on the couch, crazy bullshit like that. 

Her family was getting increasingly dissatisfied with the Hotchkiss education, as it was rather nouveau and forward thinking. At first they liked that, but they thought that Amelia and Felix had gone hostile and petulant from being spoiled at a school such as Hotchkiss, which their good for nothing, absolute disappointment son had put his kids into. 

She had the feeling that they would be transferring the both of them out of Hotchkiss in the first semester. Every day, she was on edge, thinking about how to enjoy each day, when she was afraid to be sent into a worse dungeon than this. 

“Mikey… where would you go if you didn’t go to Hotchkiss?” Amelia asked. 

“Baby, what? Is that why you’re upset? You have to move?” Michael asked seriously, looking deeper into her face, trying to read her closer. 

“Well, they said that… I can stay if I… Well, to be honest, they didn’t really say anything. That’s why I was in the Maldives for so long. I was scared and they didn’t even call me to come back home.” 

Part 3... (part 6 on the fanfic version hehe)

Michael waited for the younger boy who didn’t bother to introduce himself to go upstairs. 

“Who was that?” He asked shyly. 

“Hahahaha, I know, he’s so rude. That’s my brother. Just ignore him,” Yebin said. 

Michael smiled. “Um, I was actually looking for you. I wanted to tell you thank you so much for your note and for checking up on me.” 

Yebin smiled back and started feeling shy. “Yeah, I hope you didn’t mind that I went into your apartment, and I hope you’re feeling better.” 

Michael closed his mouth shut and smiled a little. He had an obscure looking mouth, Yebin had always thought. She couldn’t tell if his mouth was sinister as a fox or if he just kept his secrets to himself. 

She smiled back at him, this time, kind of feeling weary and wanting to keep a distance. She felt awkward suddenly.  “Um, okay, well, I hope you come to the hangout mixer or not tonight. My brother’s waiting for me. Bye!” She tried to run upstairs but to her upmost surprise, Michael grabbed her arm. She fucking gasped. 

She turned her head slowly to look at the man who had nearly—well, could have nearly—tripped her. Her mood snapped into shock and anger immediately. “Bro. Let go of my arm or we’ll have problems.” 

This time, Michael gasped. He dropped his hold immediately, and silently blinked to himself, having surprised himself as well. “I’m sorry Yebin. I don’t know what came over me. I’m sorry…” He said, looking at her, not blinking even once, in complete shock. “I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” 

Yebin just looked at him, and ran up to her apartment where her brother was waiting. 

She ran in and her brother seemed surprised.  “Oh… yo… what the hell…” her evil twig brother said to her. “You okay…? Or… why are you like sweating…” 

Yebin looked at him directly in the eyes seriously. “Felix. Michael knows who I am.” She said to him. 

“Shit,” Felix thought to himself. “Okay so what are you going to do about it.” 

Yebin looked at her brother. He was being unhelpful as always. Ever since he had gone to Uni and she had moved out, he was unrelentlessly jealous. 

“Nothing, Felix. I’m not going to do anything.” 

Michael pressed his ear on her door. He knocked. 

Felix opened the door, and Michael, to Yebin’s surprise, seemed unmoved.  “Can I come in?” He asked casually. 

Felix looked over his shoulder to get the signal from his sister.  “No, you can’t. Say what you have to say here,” Felix said before Yebin could say anything. 

Michael twisted his mouth shut. And looked to the side like he was spitting, but he didn’t. 

“I’m sorry I grabbed you like that Yebin. Clearly that was inappropriate and I shouldn’t have touched you without your permission,” Michael said directly, over Felix’s shoulder to where Yebin was silently standing, looking kind of spooked. 

Her brother visibly relaxed his shoulders a little. “Okay, so what do you want. You want to—what?” 

“I don’t want anything, Felix.” 

“Why… do you say his name like that...” Yebin asked him slowly, drawing out her words as if Michael was a ghost who had appeared in front of them. 

He looked down again. She couldn’t tell if he was ashamed or contemplative. She often watched his mannerisms trying to figure him out. 

Part 2

Michael suddenly looked up. “Why do you guys keep calling me Mikey? Nobody has ever called me that…” 

“Oh… Um, that’s what she calls you on her blog.” They all burst out laughing. 

“WHAT? Hahahahahahaha…” he started to laugh but started getting a splitting headache. 

The group looked at him grabbing his head like it was splitting. 

“You good Mikey…?” They asked. The curly haired boy reached over to pat his back.

“Yo, lay down a little and wait until she starts singing. It might make you feel better.” 

“It will heal your soul Michael,” a voice said in his ear. He jumped up. 

“Who was that,” he said, getting white and feeling sick. 

Again, the group looked at each other. “Who was what, Michael.” 

“Oh,” he said, laying down again. “I guess it was that voice again,” he thought to himself. He was getting queasy and the voices in his ear were seemingly physically attacking him. He wanted to pass out. He held his stomach. He had to fucking shit himself. 

“Great, I’m like the most disgusting person in the universe. And I’m literally like the guys she writes about that she HATES,” he thought to himself, recalling back on her blog entry about boys who made her physically puke just by the smell of them. 

He reached his hand up for help. 

Even though they seemed to be a little disgusted and weirded out, Kendall nudged Kylie. She looked towards the water jug. 

To their surprise, Kylie shrugged. She shook her head no, gave his head a little rub, and seemed to just ignore him and enjoy the performance put on in front of her. Kendall gave her an “o” look. “Oh…” and Kylie laughed a little. 

Finally, after what seemed like a damn eternity, the singing started. It was as if angels had come down and personally started to sing a light, beautiful vibration in his ear. His whole body vibrated, and suddenly he felt his soul lifting out of his body. 

“Oh shoot, am I dying?” he wondered. 

But he opened his eyes and down below was Yebin; she reared 5 heads, then in the next second 5000 heads, then back to 1. She was smiling at him. She looked angelic. She used to be my friend. 

“We’ve always been more than that, sweet love,” he heard her sing as he got transported back into his physical body. 

He stood up. “Woah, what?” he asked. It was as if Yebin was looking him straight in the eyes and singing.  “When the air became more than sky…

Our lives intertwined…

We were souls…

And not just clouds…

Floating, floating…” 

To the group’s surprise again, Michael fell to his knees and started bawling. “Yebin, STOP, STOP, PLEASE STOP, I CAN’T HANDLE A LIFE WITHOUT YOU, YEBIN DON’T DISAPPEAR AGAIN, PLEASE!” He yelled out in the middle of the performance. He felt himself losing consciousness and going inside of a black abyss. 

“YEBIN, YEBIN, YEBIN, I KNOW YOU’RE HERE. YEBIN, YEBIN, I ALREADY KNOW WHO YOU ARE COME OUT!” I screamed on the top of my lungs, and still, there was no answer. Just me. I’m Michael, I hurt you, Yebin. I won’t ask you to forgive me. Just know that I love you, Michael said, as he lost consciousness again and woke up in his physical body. 

He woke up and as if he were surrounded by his prison guards, tasked to punish him, they all turned their heads at him at the exact same time: 

“But weren’t you the one who did that to her and laughed? This is for all eternity Michael. So that you never forget what you did to hurt Yahweh.” A cold musty air flew into his body, and he was white with sickness. All the blood drained out of his head. 

He was still on his knees and he laid down backwards, passed out. 

The next morning, Michael woke up. There was a note on his bedside table. 

“Hiya neighbor! My friends told me that you got sick in the middle of last night and they called a medic for you to go home. They gave you electrolytes and everything, so you should be all good! P.S. Cute apartment! Xo, Yebin.” 

Michael gasped out loud. “What the fuck. Yebin was here?!?!” He said aloud to himself. He scrambled to get up. “Shoot, okay, should I get her flowers or something as a thank you and make up an excuse to see her?!” He wondered aloud again. 

Then suddenly, he got hit with a wave of nausea. “Fuck… it’s that fucking curse again,” he whispered to himself, as he laid down. Even through his illness, he wondered what Yebin’s apartment looked like. He always wondered what she was doing in there because the energy of that apartment felt busy. He wanted to make any reason to go see her. He got up groaning. “I want to see her,” he said quietly as he started sobbing into his hands, passing out again on his blanket.  An hour later, he decided to just knock on her door and get her the flowers another time. It only meant another excuse to go see her. 

He brushed his hair back with his fingers and changed out of his pajamas, brushed his teeth quickly and gave his face a little pat pat. But, when he knocked on her door, she wasn’t even there. 

He looked down. “Shoot, she’s obviously at her rehearsal again,” he thought to himself. The festival that Yebin had put on was all weekend long, but unknown to Michael (although he could have just checked the fliers hung up all around the apartment building bulletins), tonight was a hangout mixer night. There were open mics, poetry readings, even love card readings, the flier said. 

He hurried down the stairs to check the bulletin. “FUCK! Tonight’s a hangout mixer?! Then where did she goooooooOo!?!?!?!?” He yelled out. 

Right at that moment, Yebin came up the stairs. 

“Fuck my life.” He thought to himself, and he looked at Yebin with wide eyes, hoping and praying that she didn’t know that he was looking all over for her like a crazy person. 

She looked at him with wide eyes and smiled. “Hi Michael, are you feeling better?” she asked sweetly. 

The boy next to her scoffed. “Wow…” he looked away. 

Michael gave the younger boy next to her a curious look. He started to squint and frown at him slightly, but didn’t want Yebin to catch on. 

“Hi Yebin! Yeah, no, I feel a lot better.. Thank you so much for leaving me that sw– note,” he said.

She smiled at him and licked her lips in a circular motion. “Are you going to the hangout mixer tonight? I know you’re not feeling well… so you should rest if you’re sick,” she said again, in a sweet tone, sweet melody, sweet honey, he thought. 

“Yebin, do you still love me? Please, just tell me..” 

“Michael… It’s over between us. We’re just as different as you said. I’m sorry.” 

One Day, Maybe

Part 1

The most beautiful girl in all of the land lived right next to mel, Michael thought to himself as he stepped out to the black iron twisted decorative balcony where he sometimes would run into Yebin as she stepped out into her balcony every morning to yell onto the streets, “GOOD MORNINNGGGGGGGGG ANDROMEDA!” 

He always looked forward to it every morning as he would chuckle and giggle to himself as he waited for her to wake up every morning. He would watch her from his soft green sofa, as he had some pastries and coffee while she had just woken up for her day. Or, sometimes, she would wake up later and be dressed up for the day as she yelled “GOOOD MORRRRNNNINNGGGGGGG ANDROMEDA!” But that was a special treat that he only got on the weekends, as he had his job to attend. As for her, although they had attended the same school periodically throughout their lives, she came from a completely different background. He wasn’t sure if she made any money at all, although he had heard that she would often go into the town square and sing beautiful tunes throughout the morning and afternoon. He would rush over into the town square, hoping that she would be singing while he ate his lunch, enjoying the sea breeze, and the town chatter. 

He never approached her, no matter how much he liked her, but she always seemed to smile extra kindly at him. But she smiled at everyone that way, he thought. She was the most popular person in their whole building. Everyone loved her. And in fact, Michael started to suspect that she was the owner of the apartments that they lived in.  Before she had moved in, he hadn’t noticed that many renovations, seasonal building paint changes, new gardens and vines blossoming under careful management. After she had moved in, like magic, everything changed overnight. Everyone seemed happier. He looked at her with longing eyes and then shook his head awake. A girl like her deserves the world. What can I give her right now? He kept his head down as he gulfed down the rest of his pastries as the feeling in his chest rose again. Time for work, time to stop obsessing over her, time to move on from the ONE time in grade school when she had chosen him to be her partner in school. They had different schedules and often didn’t even run into each other, despite living in the same building, despite being next door neighbors. He sighed. So he cherished these mornings and felt like if she had ever moved, the seed that had been planted in his heart to have good mornings, every morning, might wither and die. He sighed again. She didn’t need a debby downer like him to bring down her sunshine. 

He got up to head to work. 

As he stepped out, she came out her door, smiling, in a large brimmed sunhat. 

“Oh hi neighbor! Michael, right?” She smiled at him with beaming light. He looked away slightly, afraid that the light shining out of her teeth would blind him. 

“Hi, Yebin. Yeah, it’s Michael,” he said, smiling a very soft smile, feeling embarrassed that he didn’t have more to say, but every time they ran into each other, she seemed to want to know more about him. 

“Well, are you headed to work? Maybe I can walk with you if we’re going the same way! I’m riding the Trolley to the main beach and setting up some singing and this time, dancing as well,” she said, anticipating his response, as she saw him every time she went to sing in the town square. 

He didn’t answer at first. He said, “You’re up so early today…” then he let out a small gasp. He didn’t want her to know that he saw her every morning on her balcony, in her pajamas, in her sunglasses, in her bathing suits. He went red; he felt like a pervert; he wanted to wet himself. He was in love with her, and she didn’t even know his last name. 

She didn’t seem to catch on. “Yeah! Well, we have to rehearse today before we perform so I’m meeting up with some people early on.” She smiled and laughed. “Mikey, you’re so shy now. In school, you always were so…” she trailed off. “Anyway, I hope you have a great day Michael. And it was nice running into you.” She leaned in for a hug, and she went leaping down the stairs. Truth be told, she wanted to run into him this morning. She hoped he would show up to her beach performance. 

Yebin hopped off the Trolley after thinking deeply about why she didn’t invite Michael to tonight’s performance at the beach. Perhaps she felt… too much longing when she saw him and that always scared her. She was a strong young woman, and she made a commitment to be strong. Besides, maybe he was already dating someone– or perhaps gay? She wondered. 

“Hey babe, you’re here! Let’s get the rehearsal on the road,” her friends said, waving her over. 

Evening came. Michael knew the performance she had mentioned was all weekend long and thought all day at work if he should go tonight. He didn’t really feel like socializing as of late. He wasn’t sure if he liked his job at the mayor’s office or if he just worked there just because. He thought of going… and maybe he could just drop by for like 10 minutes or so, have a sangria or two. Maybe some people from school would be there; well, they’d most definitely be there. Probably hugging on Yebin, cheering her on, wanting her to grab dinner with them, which she often took them up on. 

He felt… a strange feeling of disgust and sadness.  “I don’t think I want to go tonight," he said to himself aloud as he turned on his TV to watch a show or two or maybe he could turn on some music and strum his guitar. But the longing in his heart called. “Well, if I don’t like it, I could always go back home,” he said to himself again. 

He put on some linens. He wore his favorite sun and moon button up, and matching tide pants. He wondered what she’d be wearing. He saw her wearing cute embroidery that she would be working on in the balcony sometimes. He found her to be so endearing and cute. He chuckled as he started to look forward to seeing her dancing. “Well, yeah, of course she would be popular with the crowd, and I’ve never asked her to grab a meal with me, so I shouldn’t be like that,” he thought to himself quietly. 

As he hopped off the Trolley, he saw the performance starting. It was larger than he had expected. There was fire breathing and drums to begin the festival. And in the middle of the ceremony was Yebin, balancing water on her head as she spat out the largest water heart that he had seen. 

“Supernatural,” he said, laughing to himself. The person next to him giggled. “Yeah, it amazes me how she could hold in so much water just to do that!” she said. She smiled at him. He smiled back politely. 

As he watched, he wondered why he didn’t just ask her to jam more often. Just invite her to play guitar and sing together, he wondered to himself. The person next to him smiled again. “Do you like the arts?” she asked. 

“Yeah, I watch her like every afternoon,” he told the stranger who was so kind to him. 

“Oh? Hahaha, big fan?” she asked. 

“Kind of… she’s my neighbor and she sings in the town square where I work, so I kind of just bumped into her by coincidence, but her voice always draws me in,” he said thoughtfully. 

Yebin was in white linens. She was draped in crystals of all colors. She was radiating sunshine even as the sun went down, to see the moon rise up. He smiled softly in an awe.  “I love you Yebin. I don’t even know you that well, but I have so much love for you,” he thought to himself. He didn’t know whether to sit down and enjoy her performance or to leave. 

The feeling rose up like the evening tide under the night’s moonlight. Michael turned to head to the Trolley. 

Kylie saw him hang his head and turn. “Michael, are you leaving?” she called to him from where she was sitting, woven cushions and blankets sprawled out all over the beach. 

Michael looked at her in complete surprise. “Huh?” 

“I asked if you're leaving!” Kylie called to him, louder this time. 

“Oh… uh… how do you know my name…” he asked her. He looked at her in bewilderment and a lot of surprise. She was radiant. She was tall and dressed with wind blowing through her, her hair flowed like the waves themselves, and she seemed to know Yebin. 

Kylie laughed awkwardly. “Um…! I’m Yebin’s former school roommate! She mentioned that you were her neighbor,” she called back laughing to herself. “Come on! Sit with us here! Don’t leave!” she said in a friendly, warm tone that Michael felt awkward by. 

He looked at her with a shy and awkward smile as he walked over, blinking to himself in surprise. 

“Um… Has Yebin mentioned me…?” He asked Kylie.

Kylie laughed uncomfortably. “I’m Kyles by the way… and um… she told me about her neighbor……. I figured you could be him,” she lied. 

Someone who looked just like Kylie, but had a different more mountain-esque vibe leaned in, laughing. “Oh, Yebin secretly took a photo of you. She has the most massive crush on you, Mikey.” 

“Oh….” he said quietly. He went completely red. 

Kylie and her sister looked at each other. Kylie bit her lip and started to contemplate. Michael looked up from thinking. He figured this was his only chance to ask about Yebin. 

“So, how exactly do you know her?” he asked casually, but he gave Kylie an intense stare– one that said “please, I need to know more.” Kylie gave him sort of a sideways smile, and blinked sympathetically. Even Kylie’s sister seemed sympathetic and looked like she didn’t know what to say. She gave her sister the same look that Kylie gave Michael and blinked once. 

Michael always wanted to know more about what Yebin was up to in her life but she was unusually aloof and private for someone who was so friendly and bright. 

Kylie smiled warmly. “Okay, well, we went to the same Trade Universitaire, and–” 

Michael looked up. “Which..?” He asked. 

“Um, we went to Pixie Fieries Uni…” Kylie replied. She looked at him with her big eyes. 

“Michael,” she started with a smile. This time, the smile was more playful. “Do you know that she has this massive blog? She details a lot of her experiences there.” Kylie told him. 

Michael sighed. He looked down. “Yeah, I heard about her blog…” he said. “But honestly, I mean, I’ll just be honest with you guys, but I started to like get this crazy parasocial relationship because I was so immersed into her writing… So I stopped reading it back in grade school.” 

“Mmm,” the sisters said. 

Michael hung his head down in shame again. 

“Aww, no, it’s okay Mikey. Don’t be like that. I know a lot of people like that and we get it,” Kylie said looking sympathetic, leaning over to rub his shoulder a bit. She gave him a little pat and looked at her sister. 

Michael looked up again. 

“Um, I think I remember seeing you guys on her blog. Kylie and Kendall, right?” He said honestly. 

“Yeah, Mike. You’re on her blog too my man,” a guy said looking over his shoulder, having overheard their conversation. 

“She actually posts about you pretty frequently; I’m so embarrassed for her but she doesn’t care, dude. I can’t believe you don’t read her blog,” Kendall said, after pretending that she didn’t know that much. 

Michael gave them a look of surprise and started to laugh. “Sorry, what?!?” 

Kylie nodded, “well, guess you REALLY don’t read her blog then huh?” 

Michael had a frozen expression of amusement, and he laughed. “Sorry, but YEBIN– like HER–” he nodded his head towards the girl dancing with fire, “is POSTING BLOG ENTRIES about ME?!?! Mind you, I’m an office worker, the Mayor’s bitch, and he doesn’t even know my name.” 

They burst out laughing. 

“Mikey, my dude. She posts all sort of fucking crazy fantasies about her neighbor who she thinks is singing praises and sending gifts up to the moon…” another guy said. 

Michael gave out a small laughter, his heart suddenly lit up with warmth. “Woah, really?” He started to wonder what in the hell someone like her could see in a guy like him. 

The group seemed to give each other a sympathetic and knowing look.  “Look man… a lot of guys before you fell in love with her too. But honestly, it’s really hard to get to know her. She seems like an open book dude, but she’s a very… how do I describe her…” he asked them. 

“I mean, she… she’s…” Kylie started.

“Well, she’s more special than what you see in front of you man. She does more than just take care of her apartment building, make food, dance, spit water and fire, sing in the town square. She’s really special man.” 

Michael looked down again. “I know guys. I’ve read her poetry. I’ve never even imagined coming across someone like her in my wildest imagination. And here we have her, in Andromeda Period 666.”

“Well, I’m from Period 4, but yeah.” 

“What..? How…?” He asked.