Chereads / FALLACY / Chapter 4 - O N E : the morning after.

Chapter 4 - O N E : the morning after.

"Never. I repeat, never let me party this hard." Max stumbled upon the debris of red cups with droplets of alcohol still leaking from it. Rubbing her ankles, she groaned frustratedly looking at the mess in their penthouse.

"You say that every weekend, Max." Mia chuckled struggling to pick up a glass of water herself. "Do you guys know where the last packet of aspirin is?"

"Uh-the shelf next to the mugs." Eliza clutched her head as the pain intensified a thousand times due to the gut-wrenching sound of the doorbell and someone knocking on their door. Max rubbed her eyes, trying to find the energy to rouse herself and go investigate. She failed spectacularly, deciding that neither one of them gave a fuck. It must've been a mailman or someone from the party they threw last night. She laid back down and hoped that the knocking would stop.

Unfortunately, it didn't. Instead, it got louder and more insistent.

"It's not here," Mia whined, the glass filled with water wobbling out of her hand resulting in spillage of the liquid.

"The guy who crashed our party took it." Max rubbed her eyes furiously, her black cloud of hair messed up in all directions.

"Took all of it?" Eliza's nose wrinkled in disgust, mentally noting to buy a packet of aspirin on their next visit to the pharmacy.

"Yeah, he thought it'd be funny or something."

"To steal medicine?" Max propped up her eyebrow.

"Apparently, yeah."

"How the hell am I supposed to get rid of this headache then?" Mia complained, slamming the glass on the counter a little too roughly. The liquid spilled out of the glass completely and onto the counter dripping its way on the ground. Great, another cleaning spot was now added to their infinite list.

Eliza groaned, covering her head with a pillow in a fruitless attempt to block out the persistent loud knocks. When that didn't work, either, she yanked back the covers and threw one of the pillows at Max urging her to go get the door.

Max groaned getting frustrated with her sister. "Argh, shut up Mia. I swear to god if you whine or yell one more time, I will throw you out of the fucking window, you-what are you doing?"

"Checking how high the drop is to see if it's worth it." Mia ducked back into the room and shut the window with a slight thud.

Max cursed under her breath but chose to ignore her twin as she took the support of the chair to stand up straight. She ripped open her bedroom door against a tide of objects that littered the floor on both sides of the room, trailing its way to the living room.

The penthouse wasn't just a mess but it was a disaster zone. It looked like a drunken cyclone had erupted strewing everything on its way. No one could even spot a square centimeter of Max's room carpet. Eliza could only imagine how her room looked like. Max picked her way across the room on her toes trying not to squash or crumple any of the litter.

They heard the sound of the door unlatch and then a very hurtful, screech-enriched gasp. Mia and Eliza waded through the litter of discarded wrappings, broken glass, and what looked like underwear, to find Mia and the screecher.

Eliza's mouth widened in astonishment and Mia lowered her head in shame. They knew what was bound to come. A whirlwind of curses and lectures on being utter disappointments.

"What is this?" Mrs. Kim widened her eyes in anger. What seemed like a rhetorical question was in fact one which she expected an answer to.

"Mom-" Mia began but was soon interrupted by her mother's big hazel brown eyes which looked like they could pop off any second if she widened them any harder.

"This is the seventh time I'm coming into your apartment which is completely trashed. What did I tell you about throwing parties here or throwing parties anywhere?" She stomped her foot, her fists clenching into a tight ball.

"We just wanted to blow off some steam before the start of our last semester." Max tried to reason but only received an icy cold glare from her mother.

"Mrs. Kim-" Eliza took a step towards her in attempts of reasoning but Kim MinJu halted her before she could say her piece.

"I didn't expect this from you. I know my daughters are ill-mannered, reckless, shameless, and irresponsible but I thought you'd be the sensible one." She scoffed as she let herself in, pushing the door hard enough that it banged on its way to the latch.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Kim." Defending themselves would only rile her even more and god forbid none of them wanted that so Eliza lowered her head, glancing between Max and Mia. It was uncanny how similar they looked. It was quite evident that they were identical twins. Although their faces might be similar their personalities, characteristics, and virtues and morals were as adjacent as sky and ground.

"That's it." Kim MinJu slammed her hand on the coffee table seemingly making her mind up about something which wouldn't sit well with either one of them.

"Mom-" Mia took a shot at it considering Mrs. Kim always favored her over Max. So if anyone could melt her, it would be Kim MinJu's favorite daughter- Mia.

"No." Her stare was colder than the glacier. "All of you are moving into student accommodation immediately."

"But mom, we don't go to the same college. Why do you want to separate us?!" Max argued. Eliza pinched her finger as a warning to avoid engaging in a bashful conversation when Mrs. Kim was that aggravated. But Max jerked her hand off and resumed probing her already indignant mother even more.

"The lease is on my name. I can evict you anytime I want." Dusting the couch, which resulted in the cans rolling onto the ground, she took a seat. Her eyes were wide enough to convey the entirety of her side of the argument-which meant there was no room for discussion or whining.

"It was one party mom. Don't be so uptight." Max grabbed her phone and Eliza anticipated what would happen next.

The next step into the brawl would be Max sprinting to their dad. Then the script of the Kim-Family drama would move on to stage two, which would be Kim WooBin-the KWB Energy's mighty and haughty CEO- stepping in to console his wife into letting their kids be, and the twins would get their way.

Daddy's little girls, both of them.

"Don't even think about calling your father." MinJu snatched Max's phone from her hand before she even had the opportunity to dial. "Your father and I had already discussed that any further violation of our rules would result in immediate eviction."

"Mom-" Mia whined.

"We gifted you this penthouse so you could study better. I've only caught you seven times. Who knows how many parties you've thrown in this apartment or how many boys you've run around with, behind my back." She glared at each one of them. Clearly acknowledging that the number was higher than mentioned for obvious reasons.

"But you don't deserve it. Neither are your grades improving nor are your habits." This time her eyes didn't avert to Eliza because she knew Eliza was a career-oriented student and that her grades never slipped. With all that Eliza's been through in the last ten years, her grades were her grounding point which prevented her from slipping back into PTSD.

"You refuse to attend family dinners, you skip out on bible readings, you party like there's no tomorrow, you don't study and god knows how many boys you've been with." Mrs. Kim scoffed. She expected her daughters to be the perfect Korean kids who obeyed every instruction by their parents, never argued, aced all tests, were well-behaved and would marry rich Chaebol heirs after a few years, in short, be the ideal child every Korean parent dreamt of.

But she was unbeknownst to the fact or she simply denied accepting it that Max and Mia were more American than Korean.

There was a pin drop silence for a few seconds before Mrs. Kim's phone rang breaking the hostile quietude. She awarded them with one last stinky glare before attending it and exiting their apartment.

Gone for good.

"The alcohol and sex I had last night were not worth this." Max groaned plopping down on the massage chair which was littered with red cups.

"She can't just pop by anytime she likes," Mia complained, taking a seat on the ground but her eyes soon narrowed and landed on her twin.

"It's your fault, Max. You should've seen who it was from the bloody peephole. We wouldn't have opened the door, she would've left thinking we weren't home and we wouldn't have to move into that stupid student accommodation." Mia threw a piece of crumpled paper at Max, receiving a glare in exchange from her twin.

Max knew that Mia was right for once, hence retracted arguing further. She should've checked through the peephole.

"You really think she'd do that to us?" Eliza rubbed the back of her neck, unsure if Mrs. Kim was serious at all.

"If dad's in on this, we're moving into that accommodation next week." Mia groaned, shutting her eyes close somehow hoping to wake up from this nightmare.

"A few more months and we'd be free from her clutches." Max sprung on the other couch from the massage chair, squelching all the cups on her way. "After graduation, we'll all rent our own apartment and throw as many parties as we want. No one can fucking evict us then."

"I think the landlord could." Eliza angled her eyebrow stating the possibilities.

It was the truth, this apartment belonged to Mrs. Kim and she can't possibly evict her own daughters mercilessly or better yet without giving notice. But if this were an apartment they were renting and taking into consideration the way they partied, the landlord wouldn't even care about the time of the day before telling them to pack their shit and get the hell out of there.

"Whose side are you on?" Max pointed as Eliza grinned slyly.

"Nonetheless. Brace yourselves for the most boring last semester of university." Mia threw her arms on the hand-rest bobbing her head upwards.

"We'll think about that later. Anyone wants to go get some coffee before we start cleaning this mess?" Eliza stood up on the verge of heading over into her room and bracing for the tornado of debris as a resultant from last night.

"Coffee? More like a red bull and dozens of aspirins. I might just OD on the aspirin today." Max followed behind her, her hand involuntarily clutching her messy straight hair.

"Do that. One less sibling in dad's inheritance." Mia smirked.

"I'm the only sibling you have." Max narrowed her eyes.

"Oh right, that means I'll get to keep everything. When are we going to get those aspirins?"

"Do me a favor, when we leave today, go straight to hell."

"I'll wait for you there." Mia chuckled before slamming the door to her room.

"That bitch." Max cursed, her gaze fleetingly landing on Eliza.

"Someday you're going to make Mia the richest women in her early twenties." Eliza chuckled gripping her door handle.

Max rolled her eyes, mentally noting to never OD on any kind of pills. "I don't know about her being the richest, but she's surely the dumbest woman in her early twenties."

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"Eliza, babe, I'll marry you if you vow to make me such an amazing coffee every day for the rest of my life." Mia sighed dramatically, her eyes shut as she inhaled the aroma of fresh coffee beans and the hot liquid in her hand.

Eliza grinned, bobbing her head in a chuckle, as a few tendrils of her hair fell onto her forehead. "Finish it quickly before my manager comes in. I'm not actually allowed to offer coffee or breakfast to anyone before we open. Specially free of cost."

"You're the best, bro." Max slurped on her latte, smacking her lips after a short interval of gulping the liquid down.

The door chimed as their heads turned towards the entrance. It was Anika; Eliza's manager. She wasn't supposed to be in until later, Eliza threw a quick glance at the clock as she panicked and ducked down in frivolous attempts to scape a hideout.

"I can see you, Eliza. No point in hiding." Anika addressed making her way over to the counter.

Eliza stood up, shamefully as her eyes danced over from Max and Mia and then to Anika. She rubbed the back of her head awkwardly as she thought of reasons to explain her presence.

"You might be wondering what I'm doing here serving coffees to complete strangers." Eliza chuckled nervously, untying her apron and placing it back onto the counter.

"That's exactly what I'm wondering." Anika placed a hand on her hip, looking at her employee intently.

"Well, I had some free time on my hand so I thought that my friend Anika opens the cafe every day. Why not be helpful and do it on my own? You know, to surprise you. And these...these people here are our first customers."

Max closed her eyes tightly, nodding her head from left to right indicating that Eliza did not sound convincing at all. Mia gestured her hand horizontally sliding over her neck rapidly, signaling that Eliza should cut it out.

"That would've been much more convincing if the sign didn't read closed outside." Anika rolled her eyes with a noncommittal grunt. "And since when am I your friend? Do you even know my last name?"

"Smith?" Eliza narrowed her eyebrows hoping that her guess had hit the bull's eye but apparently not.

"That's the whitest surname I've ever heard. You know that I'm Indian, right?" Anika rolled her eyes before getting behind the counter and strapping the apron around her waist.

"Khan? Singh? Chopra? It's gotta be one of those." Eliza scratched her temple, biting her lip in anticipation.

Anika awarded her with an evasive glare. "Anyways, I thought today was your day off." Putting the coffee beans in the grinder, she glanced between the three of them.

"Day off?" The pitch of Eliza's voice rose for just a tiny moment before she regained composure maintaining her charade. "Oh right, yes. Today is my day off. Must've slipped my mind, silly me." She smacked herself on the head lightly only to end up accidentally hitting herself hard enough that a wince escaped her mouth.

"Sure." Anika gave her an equivocal look before heating a cinnamon roll for herself.

"Well, I-I should get going." Eliza laughed nervously hoping to every deity up there to save her from being fired. It wasn't like she needed this job for paying tuition fees or living expenses. No, in fact, she could just as easily buy the cafe with her one month allowance and she'd still have millions left.

She needed this job because it was an escape. She needed to keep busy so as to avoid her mind from sinking into the deep void of trauma. Every spare minute she had, her brain railed back to the events which made her relocate to Australia and Eliza would much rather have no free time than to slip back into PTSD.

"Us too. Thank you, random barista for that wonderful cup of coffee." Max addressed, still trying to sell the customer story in quite a miserable way.

"Of course. Anything for our customers. Am I right?" Eliza winked at Anika to which she gaped at her uncertainly only to make Eliza feel like a complete idiot. She took her employee card out before leaving it on the chair and following the twins to the exit.

"Wait," Anika called out. Eliza sighed, bracing herself to get fired. Her brain had started exploring other opportunities or part-time jobs to keep busy.

"You and your friends can grab breakfast before you leave," Anika said nonchalantly as she resumed mixing her coffee. Sometimes it felt as if Anika was secretly a robot hiding amidst the human population with her lack of expressing emotions but that theory was scratched when she growled and cursed at the spillage of coffee on her apron.

She was definitely human. A very frustrated one, as a matter of fact.

"Friends? We don't-" Eliza tried another failed attempt and received a knowing look from her employer. "Yeah, the cat's outta the bag anyways. Fuck it."

"And it's Oberoi."

"What?"

"My surname. It's Anika Oberoi."

"Right." Eliza mentally noted to remember it for the next time in order to avoid any awkward mind-numbing, soul-defeating conversations which would possibly result in her getting fired.

They sat down placing their orders at the counters. Anika grunted as she served them their breakfasts and the second round of coffee. No one spoke for a very long time, the only noises heard were of

their simultaneous chewing and the text dings from their phones.

Eliza took a moment to scrutinize the little cafe she'd managed to land a job at. By day, The Roasted Bean was the color of supermarket oranges, it had that shiny look, and the jazz poured out of the open doors along with the aroma of freshly baked goods.

The trio glanced up as the door swung open, heralded by a blast of cold wind and a group of boys which seemed like college-freshman. Unlike the outside, the interior of the cafe was warm and cheery, with bright lights and colorful walls.

"You know-" Mia cut a piece of her omelet before putting it in her mouth. "Our mom might be a bit of a bitch-"

"A bit? She's a complete stereotype of an unsatisfied bitchy Korean parent." Max intervened. "I wonder if the rest of South Korea is like that?"

"Come on, she's not that bad." Eliza defended, slurping a gulp of her black coffee fully aware that Kim MinJu was exactly like that.

"Not that bad? If satan had a baby, that would be the infamous Kim MinJu." Max huffed suppressing a smile.

"That's a bit of a stretch." Eliza chuckled, cutting her waffles and savoring their taste. Nothing screams tranquility than a hot cup of black coffee and sugary breakfast right after a massive party which caused a killer migraine.

"Like I was saying," Mia remarked, sharply. If there's one thing Mia hated, it's being interrupted and Max and Eliza made sure to do it every time. "Our mom can be a bit of a bitch but what she said about our grades wasn't false." Her eyes shifted over to Max's for validation.

"You're right." Max pushed her food around in her plate suddenly going into self-analysis. "We barely passed this year. If we want to work at any of the top law firms, we have to do better."

"Starting now, we'll cover up all backlogs and do better at the mock trials." Mia's voice was determined and Eliza knew that she'd stick to her word. It wasn't that they were dumb, no, they were incredibly smart just a tad lazy.

"Let me know if you need help." Eliza nodded with a serene smile.

"How do you party like us and still manage to pass at top of your class every year?" Max placed her elbow on the table, focusing her undivided attention on her erudite friend for some major studying wisdom.

"To put it in simpler words, Darius won't give me another chance. It took a great amount of crying, whining, and threatening to run away for him to let me come here." Eliza shrugged reminiscing the countless arguments she'd had with her step-father during her summer break before coming to New York for freshman year at college.

"Besides, my dad was against me moving to New York in the first place. He wanted me to major in business there and take over his multimillion-dollar empire and we all know that I want no part of Knight Inc."

"So if I fail, he'll fly me back to Australia and make me finish my degree in one of the top universities there." Eliza shrugged, deep down she still missed Darius and she made a mental note to call him in a few days.

"Yeah, we know but why was Darius rigidly against your migration to New York?" Max raised an eyebrow taking a quick gulp of her beverage before she glued her eyes back onto her friend.

"Dad didn't want me to relapse into the trauma which caused Jade, me and him to move to Australia in the first place." Biting her bottom lip, Eliza avoided meeting their gazes. This topic wasn't peculiarly comfortable for her she'd rather do anything but talk about it.

"Yes, but that man in prison now. He can't hurt you anymore. You don't have to worry." Mia placed her hand on Eliza's shoulder offering comfort. Although the gesture was nice, it didn't help much as by talking about it, she'd already dug an old wound which would keep her awake for nights before she could close it again.

"Yeah." Eliza nodded averting the topic onto her mother. "And I'm not particularly a huge fan of my mother and neither is Darius, so that's probably one of the reasons he didn't want me moving back here. Because she's here." She stated before pushing a strawberry into her mouth.

"Yeah, we understand." Max patted her back, sympathetically to which Eliza chuckled.

"If y'all are finished, what do you say? Shall we get back to fixing the penthouse?" Mia stood up, wiping her mouth with a tissue before tossing it on the table.

"Argh, do we have to? Let's just call a cleaning company." Max groaned, refusing to get up from her seat.

"The last time we did that, we ended up getting robbed. Twice." Eliza dusted her hands before grabbing her Louis Vuitton purse not leaving any more room for discussion. "Get up, Max."

"I need another aspirin before you make me clean." She remarked, sliding out her car keys as they made their way to Eliza's posh matte-black Mercedes.

"The path to being the sole heir of KWB Energy becomes clearer with every aspirin you take." Mia teased.

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"I'm never ever ever ever mixing vodka with whiskey." Max groaned from inside the toilet. She'd been throwing up ever since they finished cleaning the penthouse. Mia switched the T.V channels monotonously for the fifth time ignoring her twin's complaints and the sound of vomit hitting the basin. Mia's eyes were droopy and she yawned after every ten minutes.

"Come out and take the medicine, Max. The longer you stay there, the more you'll want to puke." Eliza yelled from the living room.

"Come out, sis. We'll go to the doctor if you want." Mia yawned amidst her sentence. Although she had said that, she was not getting up from that comfortable position unless there's was a hurricane or an apocalypse.

"If you're sleepy, why don't you go to sleep?" Eliza nudged her elbow. Mia's eyes lazily gaped at her before averting back to the T.V. Her monosyllabic murmur was interrupted by yet another yawn.

"It's only 4 pm." She sighed.

The OxiClean commercial was muted when one of their phones rang. Eliza rummaged around the room to find the phone and it was Max's with Mrs. Kim calling on it.

"Max!" She yelled. "It's your mother."

"NO. Not now, satan." Max groaned frustratedly before they heard yet another sound of vomit hitting and splashing against the toilet water. "Tell her to buzz off."

"Mia, pick it up." Eliza probed to Max's twin next, nudging her shoulder as Mia pretended to sleep with her eyes shut tightly.

"We both know you're not sleeping. Wake up." Eliza kicked her but to no avail. Groaning, she hit the answer button but not before she cursed under her breath and braced herself for another encounter with the terrifying Mrs. Kim.

The guns were fired immediately after Eliza hit the answer button. "Max, why does it take such a long time to answer your phone? Usually, you're stuck to it like a parasite. I know you do this on purp-"

"Mrs. Kim." She interjected. "It's me, Eliza."

"Oh, Eliza. Honey, where's Max?" Eliza could sense the embarrassment in her voice.

"She's sick. She's been vomiting continuously."

"No wonder. If you party that hard, it's bound to happen. I've told her a million times to-"

"Is something wrong, Mrs. Kim?" Eliza intervened yet again into her rant. She neither had the energy nor the patience to enter a gossiping session about her best friends with their mother.

"Nothing's wrong dear. Is Mia around?"

"She's fast asleep." Eliza kicked her friend again only to see Mia smirking with her eyes still closed.

"I knew it," Eliza whispered to the younger sister-amid the Kim twins and Mia opened her eyes immediately.

"Oh, dear. Well, could you do me a favor?" Kim MinJu asked.

"Sure," Eliza said as saying no was not a viable option to the woman who had practically raised her in the absence of her biological mother. Eliza felt obligated to the Kim family and she would never do anything which would make Kim MinJu - the only mother figure she had in her life - deeply disappointed or disrespected. So she gulped hard sensing that whatever she was about to ask Eliza was definitely something she wouldn't want to do.

"There's this person you have to meet for that student accommodation- I mentioned earlier this morning." So she was serious about them moving out.

"...and I have booked two separate dorms for Max and Mia and I'm afraid we had to book one in your university for you, so you can study peacefully." She chuckled nervously yet confidently. It must be fun to be a mother and boss your kids around, Mrs. Kim certainly took merriment in it.

Kim MinJu knew that they wanted to live together and this news wouldn't sit well with her daughters. To be honest, it was hardly fair. All they did was throw an amazing party and crashed their apartment. "You need to confirm the booking, sign their documents, and collect the keys."

"Separate?" Eliza questioned which caught Mia's attention. Even the twins weren't allowed to live together? This was just merciless. 

"What's she saying?" Mia mouthed. Eliza whispered her to wait, focusing her attention back to the call.

"It's your final year and as your culminating exams are nearing, it's important that all of you focus more on studying. We thought it would be best for Max and Mia to live separately too. I hope you understand." She chuckled. Eliza may understand Mrs. Kim but the twins certainly wouldn't. "And for the hangovers, I've left the recipe for Haejung-guk on a sticky note on the refrigerator. Make sure all of you drink it."

Eliza ripped the phone away from her ear, standing up from the couch and making her way over to the kitchen. Pulling the sticky note off from the surface of the refrigerator, she started reading it intently.

Mia followed her and soon Max propped herself onto the kitchen chair, exhausted from the puking.

"What'd she say?" Mia sat up on the counter, legs crossed on top of one another.

"What're you making? Honestly, I don't feel like eating anything." Max rubbed her stomach, exhaustedly amidst small sips of water.

"Haejung-guk." Eliza looked at them before reading the ingredient's list. There was a freshly bought bag from the supermarket with essentials and vegetables. When did they buy this stuff? Were they drunk-grocery-shopping?

"How do you know how to make a Korean hangover soup?" Max took another sip from her glass, closing her eyes for a fleeting moment before opening them back up.

Eliza waved the note in front of them before placing it back on the counter. "Your mom left it for us."

"Did she break into our house?" Mia narrowed her eyes. Mrs. Kim knew the code to their apartment and there was a huge chance that she slipped into the penthouse after they left for breakfast. None of them knew why, but at least she left them the recipe for a hangover soup. And looking at the bag packed with groceries, that was her doing as well.

"What do you know? She's not a complete devil." Max remarked still unaware of the merciless separation.

"What did she say?" Mia repeated her question. Eliza had heard her the first time, she just wasn't ready for another screaming and cursing session by the Kim twins.

"Something about student accommodation." Eliza pulled out the green onions and began dicing them.

"What about it?" Mia jumped down from the counter and filled the pan with required ounces of water.

"Your parents booked you two separate rooms for the next semester. And I have to move into my student accommodation in Columbia." She bit her lip, bracing herself for the curses to come. Eliza was equally frustrated with Mrs. Kim's decision but calming the twins was an integral part of their friendship which she didn't mind stepping up to. That also meant keeping her own emotions in check in order to help them ease theirs.

"Separate? And you won't be with us? You better be kidding." Mia looked at Eliza, astonished.

"I take it back. She will always be the devil." Max gritted her teeth, chugging the water faster now.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Mia slammed the pan on the counter loud enough that it startled Max causing the spillage of water. Mia's not the one to curse that easily. She usually watches her mouth every time in opposition to Max. It takes a lot to aggravate Mia and force curses out of her mouth.

"They thought that since it's our final year, we should focus more on studying than partying." Eliza chopped shiitake mushrooms next, followed by garlic and red peppers. She didn't dare look at the twins.

"We can do that whilst living together." Max stormed into the living room probably searching for her phone. Back to stage two of the Kim-family drama.

"Let me get this clear." Mia laughed sarcastically. "We're stuck in a girl's dormitory that means no sex and alcohol and now they want us to live like hermits? In isolation? Away from each other? And they had the audacity to separate us?"

"Well, I don't think Hermit is the right word for it. We can still sleep-over in each other's dorms without them finding out." Eliza offered an olive branch for her to calm down but she ended up giving her a death glare.

"Great. Neither of them is picking up." Max stormed back into the kitchen, tossing her phone onto the counter. It made a crackling noise, they can only hope that it wasn't damaged.

"I'm so close to erupting like a volcano." Mia clutched the edges of the pan.

"Just when I thought that woman couldn't get any more frustrating. She's torturing us." Max plopped back down into the chair, throwing her arms behind her head.

"Hey, it's alright. It's just a few more months before we rent our own apartment." The water bubbled with ferocity as Eliza added the vegetables and bean paste into it.

"The next time she meets us, she's gonna get an earful from me." Mia crossed her arms against her chest seeming hostilely determined.

"Let's not do that," Eliza suggested. "Remember, you don't want to be cut off, now do you?"

"This is officially the worst day of my life." Max groaned.