As I slowly emerge from my slumber, my senses are suddenly alerted by some scrambling noises emanating from my room. My eyelids begin to flutter open and I let out a long, open-mouthed yawn which escapes my lips before I can cover them. The morning light streaming in through the open curtains takes a few moments to adjust to, but as my eyes adjust I realise that my mum must have taken the liberty to draw them open. Despite the unpleasantness of being woken up in such a manner, I cannot help but appreciate the beauty of the sunlight filtering through the window.
Once I have fully gotten accustomed to the shine by pinching my eyes open and shut and rubbing my fingers into my eye sockets, I raise my head and catch my sister in my room.
She seems to be desperately going through my drawers, looking for something. Probably my lipbalm or the concealers I keep for that one day I get a red, very much visible spot on my nose. It's always on the nose. I don't know why, but my spots are attention seekers and they like being in the spotlight. It's almost like losing my popularity has given them the platform to come out and be in the forefront. They want to be seen by everyone and praised for staining my face with their visible selves.
"Looking for something?" I mutter.
Chu Hua yelps in shock and turns around to face me, replacing her shock with an innocent look.
I secretly love the low grit in my tone. I do not have a boyfriend to wake up next to so I enjoy this moment. Not that I would have the balls to sneak any guy into Amma's house. She actually knows judo and karate like the stereotypical Asian Franklin teases her to be, so sneaking boys into her house and up into my room is just plain disrespectful and begging for a hiding. She has always said that we are never too old to feel the sting of Franklin's leather belt licking the skin of our arses.
"What? No. I was just—"
"Looking for my lipbalm?" I finish her sentence with a deadpan, knowing very well that she was going to lie to me.
"Of course not," she exclaims, letting a nervous laughter accompany her words of denial.
Almost, unconsciously my eyes narrow into a dry look. "I hid it, for your information. It's in a better place now, a place you can never get to, a place where it won't be bitten out of anger."
"I never bit anything," she screams loudly and I recoil into my skin with a hiss of irritation at her piercing voice. I'm surprised my ears did not immediately start bleeding at how high pitch that was before she takes off running out of my room altogether. "Amma, Seong Jin won't lend me his lipbalm."
Shaking my head in a defeated manner, I let my head sink back into the hard pillow with a soft thud. A tired sigh leaves my parted lips and I blow a strand of hair out of my eye. I'm obviously staying in today because I have nothing better to do. Other than homework and assignments, not that that's something better to do. Maybe I will finish reading the book that has been neglected over the past couple of days or maybe I will just be lazy and bingewatch the rest of the episodes of Bridgerton.
Maybe...
Before I can close my eyes to get a few more minutes of sleep, my door slams open again and I watch the disgruntled mess that is my mother. Kimiko Lee.
"Seong Jin, you need to get up. Your father is not around so I need you to help me around the house. You need to go and give the twins a bath. Chu Hua is going over to Kayla's house and Ji Ho is going over to Cameron's for a play date."
I look over at her through hooded, sleepy eyes and I don't fail to miss the impatience running through her gaze.
"Lee Seong Jin, dangsin-ege malhago iss-eoyo."
"Ne, Amma." I drawl out slowly, trying not to let my irritation show on my expression. I yawn again tiredly, this time covering my mouth and blinking the tears away as I smack my tongue against the roof of my mouth. That does not taste nice at all. I need to brush my teeth or chew on a mint. The latter seems easier and indulges my lazy tendencies "I'll be there in a few. Just need to freshen up first."
"Arasseo, seodulleo," she says hurriedly.
"What time is Franklin coming back home?" I enquire, sitting up in my bed and slipping my goat, fluffy slippers on.
"He just went to open up the diner. He's coming back immediately after that," she answers in a rushed manner. "I think the bacon is burning downstairs. Get the twins ready, don't even think about skipping brushing your teeth and clean your room. I can practically taste the bacteria lingering around in the air."
Of course.
I roll my eyes as she hurries away and head into the bathroom, after stretching my muscles in place and scratching the itch on my lower back quite vigorously. It's the mole. Doing the usual light brushing of my teeth in front of the mirror and splashing water on my face to slightly wake myself up, I again glance at my reflection once feeling completely refreshed. This is the moment when I normally lay my head on my shoulder and compliment one thing about myself. In the beginning, it was something I could identify with my senses. How I look or how I smell. Now, it does not have to be anything physical. It can be, but it doesn't have to be.
Yeah, I have run out of those kinds of compliments.
"You have… great socks," I say to the boy in the mirror who smiles back at me in appreciation.
From in here, I hear my ringtone playing, alerting me of a call. I grab one of my towels and wipe my face while rushing back into my room, answering the call without even looking at the caller identification. If it's one of those random callers who ring the wrong number, I'll just play along and answer as the person they were hoping to hear from. Yes, that is how boring my life has become. It has come to the point where I find humour in playing games with unknown callers.
"Hello?" I murmur into the phone, still wiping myself dry.
"Let's do it," the person on the other end instantly says, causing me to stop in my motions.
I furrow my brows and almost immediately my face scrunches up in revolt. I move the device away from my ear to check who is calling me about "doing it", but it merely says private number, so I have no idea who it is. Yeah, I don't really feel like indulging in whatever this is obviously leading up to. Sex talk with unknown people over the phone is really not my kind of thing. I'd rather stick to the harmless conversation which remains friendly and platonic.
Like inviting people over to Chipotle and duping them into meeting me when I'm really never going to show up. That kind of harmless fun.
"Um… yeah sorry, mate. I'm not into that kind of thing." I'm about to hang up.
"It's me, you moron," the person on the other end of the device grumbles in irritation.
My eyebrows flick up. "The neek from school who stole my sketchbook and makes it his life mission to make my life miserable?"
"Yeah, that's the one," he replies, not even sounding offended over my words. I can already imagine him just staring into an abyss with a look that screams indifference. "To save time, I just go by Dominic, by the way."
"Where did you get my number from?" I muse curiously, throwing the towel on my bed and sitting at the edge. I jump back and sit cross-legged. "I don't remember giving it to you."
"I have my sources."
"That sounds like you work as a technician for the mafia," I reply, pushing some hair away from my face and flipping it away from my face. "Do you work as a technician for the mafia, Domi?"
"Don't call me that," he grumbles in irritation.
"What, Domi?"
"Yes, that. Stop it."
I roll my eyes upwards but settle for silence since I don't particularly feel like arguing today. Today is a stay-in Saturday where Seong Jin doesn't lose his cool. It's a day where I don't start shouting over the phone at the dickhead who doesn't even let himself get affected by my words.
Seriously though, how does he do that? It's like he doesn't care at all. The world could implode at any given moment and the human population would enter heaven crying over the fact that some of their friends look like they haven't made it. Dominic would lift his shoulders up nonchalantly and let the flames blaze his skin without even flinching in pain.
Remembering his first statement, I arch my brows up in curiosity. "So… let's do what?"
"The plan you've been talking about. Let's do it."
The enlargement of my eyes confirms my shock and I almost pinch myself to see if I'm still dreaming, but then I remember that I don't dream about Dominic calling me. It's normally me calling him. Well, was me calling him. Now that I'm not head over heels for him, I don't see any reason to fantasise about him shoving me roughly into the lockers which would rattle under his strong grip and then pressing his lips onto mine while my hands tangle into his locks underneath his hoodie.
"Oh, my gosh." A smug smile traces my lips. "You finally grew those balls, didn't you?"
A sigh of exasperation is heard from his end and I can imagine him rolling his eyes as per usual. "Yes, Starr. I grew my balls. Are we doing this or not?"
"Of course, we're doing this," I say as if that is out of the question. "I have the perfect plan set up. A plan which accommodates you as well as Jodie and it'll make you both compatible for each other. I'm telling you, man. Those rock-hard abs won't even matter, because this plan is full-proof."
"Okay?"
"Okay," I murmur after him, nodding. "Don't worry. I'll let you in on everything. We'll talk about this on Monday properly."
"I'd rather talk today so that I'm extra prepared for this… full-proof plan."
I grimace at the idea. "Ooh, um… you see, I was planning on having a lazy Saturday so I'm not actually available today."
"I'm gonna come and pick you up either way," he decides.
"No, I don't think that's a good idea," I exclaim before he can hang up. "You see, my mum is batshit crazy and she doesn't want to see me around boys who aren't Damien or Edward. Also, she knows martial arts so I fear she might do something to you…"
He sighs and there's a pause before he finally suggests, "Then let's meet at the park so you can help me."
"The park?" I frown at the idea and my nose wrinkles indignantly at his persistence.
"Yes."
"Okay look, Dominic, I'm gonna be completely honest with you. I actually had a terrible week; it was really awful and overbearing and tiring and just, all-in-all, horrible. I merely need the day to recuperate from the unpleasant pleasure I had of spending time with you and seeing you in your true, demonic form is just going to dampen my mood."
"Wow, thank you so much for the honesty. I really appreciate it, Starr," he mutters in a tone that isn't lacking in snarky sarcasm and before I can add an apology to my statement, he hangs up on me.
I glance down at the device unblinking and I'm not even the slightest bit astounded that he'd do something like that. It's Dominic.
"Great," I whisper sardonically.
"Seong Jin, I thought I said that you should give the twins a bath," Amma yells at me from downstairs which jump starts my engine and gives me the boost to dash out of the room to bathe my younger siblings. Hopefully Chu Hua doesn't run around naked when I need to get her dressed.
After I've helped her out of the bathtub, I ruffle a towel into Chu Hua's hair into, and she moves her hips from side to side as we listen to my songs through the speaker that Yang Jin doesn't know I took from him four months ago at the beginning of the summer holidays. All the songs from an upbeat album play back to back. To prevent her from running around naked, I just play her songs that she can jam to on the spot instead of trying to have fun by playing tag with me while she's naked.
"Seong Jin?" Chu Hua calls for my attention and I arch an eyebrow at her, encouraging her to say what she wants to say to me.
"You better not ask for my lip balm, Chu Hua. You know Kayla's mum banned you from bringing things like that over since she reacted badly to the last thing you brought over to her house."
"Her face was swollen for the entire week," Chu Hua agrees with an amused smile on her face. Then she laughs at her own joke. "She looked like a stuffed pig."
Even if I don't want to, my lips twitch into a humoured grin. Shaking my head, I reprimand her only halfheartedly, "That's not funny, Chu Hua. She had an allergic reaction. You don't laugh at your friends for that."
She pouts. "But she did look like a stuffed pig."
"Yeah, she did."
We both chuckle before I lead her to her room after she's wiped dry and she tugs up the towel that I lent to her. Ever since she turned ten years old just recently, Chu Hua doesn't want to use or wear her old baby stuff, like her old Barbie towel or the new Spider-Gwen shirt that Franklin got for her. Now, she sneaks into my room and steals my shirts which don't even fit her. Amma promised to get me a key for my room by next week so that's good news.
"Seong Jin?"
"Hmm?"
"When are you gonna start vlogging again?"
What?
I look over at her, clutching her shirt in my hands. "How do you know about my vlogs, Chu Hua? Have you been snooping through my stuff again?"
"No," she exclaims, but the guilty expression on her face says otherwise.
I glare at her warningly, forcing the truth out of her.
"Okay, yes, but only because I was going to take a picture of my new doll collection. Dad bought Poppy a new vintage outfit and I needed to capture the moment, but then I saw one of your videos."
"Chu Hua!" I scold her, angrily.
"I'm sorry. I swear, I didn't tell anyone that you're in love with Eddie."
Whilst desperately hushing her, I rush over to her, narrowing my gaze onto her. Throwing my head over my shoulder, I'm relieved to see that no-one is peeping in on our conversation. Someone like Yang Jin who has the biggest mouth of all the people I know. "I am not in love with Edward. I just… like him."
"What's the difference?"
"Love is like… what Amma and Dad have," I explain and then tap on her arms so that I can put her shirt.
She raises them and after fitting the t-shirt over her head, she pokes her arms into the crevices. Once she has emerged, I stare at her earnestly.
"You can never tell anyone about this, Chu Hua."
"I won't, I pinkie promise. I'm not a nark, okay? That's Yang Jin's job."
I grin, sated by her response. Mainly, because she threw our older brother under the bus. Yes, the less cool sibling between the four of us is the snitch, shocker. After pulling her yellow shorts on, I head over to her closet again to look for her black belt which will match the outfit perfectly.
"Seong Jin?"
"I'm not giving you my lip balm, Chu Hua."
"Can I just borrow it for now. I promise to give it back. I just want to keep my lips moisturised."
With a sigh of defeat, my resolve breaks and I turn around to watch her as earnestly as I was when I was addressing her about my feelings for Edward. "Okay, fine, but you cannot under any circumstances lose it, okay?"
"Yes. I pinkie promise."