Lia

I am so tired.

My first night at the new apartment was terrible. Yeju was terrible—Yuna texted me to apologize for her and that’s how I find out about her name. Not from Yeju introducing herself to me like a normal person.

For the entire day, Yeju blasted the rowdiest music as I unpacked. That stopped during dinner, thankfully, because she invited a guest over. The two of them proceeded to take up the entire kitchen and dining area as they cooked, talked, laughed, and made out everywhere. I had to resort to eating takeout in my room.

Just when things were settling down and the night was becoming peaceful, the loudest sex noise I have ever heard through my bedroom wall jolted me awake—and I lived in the freshmen dorms for a year! The sounds lasted what felt like forever. For. Ever.

Heat crawls up my neck. I shake my head, letting out an annoyed huff as I unload my groceries. At least Yeju is a late riser, so I can get the entire morning to myself.

When all my items are on the kitchen counter, I take out the thickest Sharpie I have and write my name on their packaging. Milk, pancake mix, eggs, veggies, meat—I make sure to label everything. I have a suspicion that Yeju is the type that will take anything placed in the common area.

There does not seem to be an organization in the pantry or the fridge, so I move things around to create a little space for my stuff. After that, I clean up the mess that Yeju and her guest made in the kitchen before making some pancakes. My night was terrible, but I can make sure my day starts well.

After all, this semester will be good. I picked out the classes with all my favorite topics, and I scheduled to meet with the coolest professor to talk about joining her lab for undergraduate research. I have this semester all planned out, and I will not let a bad apartment mate ruin this day.

My focus will be on school, not whatever petty shit Yeju is doing.

Her door swings open, and Yeju’s ‘friend’ hops out, one hand clutching her purse, the other buttoning up the top half of her blouse. She gives me an awkward smile of acknowledgment before rushing out of the apartment.

Dang, she’s pretty. 

I wait for Yeju to follow suit, but there is no further movement. Good, more morning peace to myself. I return my attention to the pancakes. When they are done, I sit down at the dining table and check my phone.

There are a bunch of notifications from my family chat. I muted the chat a while ago, but I can still see the red “17” number on the chat icon screaming at me. I click on it. As usual, it’s all my mother’s with her messages about Romeo. 

Frustration boils inside me. I bite off a huge chunk of pancake and dial RJ on my video call app.

“Hey Lia, what’s up?” RJ appears on my screen, her camera angled from the bottom up. Her short hair rustles about as she glances at me and then back at whatever she was focusing on.

A pang of familiarity hits me. You never know how good you have it until it disappears. And I never knew how RJ is the best roommate ever in the world.

“Hey, RJ…” I find myself whining to her immediately. “Argh, I shouldn’t have moved here.”

That gets RJ to stop what she’s doing, pick her phone up, and look straight at me. “Why? What happened? How’s the apartment?”

“The apartment is awesome, but the apartment mate is not. She is loud and inconsiderate and annoying. I didn’t sleep much last night because of her.”

“Ah, some people are just horrible to live with. The roommate I had before you was shitty too.” She winks at me. “Not everyone is as perfect as us.”

I chuckle. “Okay, but you won’t believe this, RJ. My new apartment mate—get ready for this—she is Chloe’s dad’s other daughter.”

RJ freezes. “What?”

“Yeah, we sort of met her during that day,” I continue while stuffing my mouth with food. “She was standing at the side and didn’t say a word, so I don’t know if you remember her.”

“Of course I do! Oh my god, Lia. She’s your new apartment mate?” She chews on her lips, brows furrowed in thought. “Wait, do you think she’s a spy?”

“A spy? For who?”

“For that cheating bastard lah!” RJ’s Singaporean accent slips out more when she’s agitated. “Maybe he sent her to live with you so he can check up on Chloe through you!”

“Uh, I don’t think so. Neither of us knew we were gonna live with each other. She was so mad about it, it was kinda crazy. I have no idea how she can be related to Chloe. Chloe is like the sweetest person ever, but Yeju? She’s so mean. She screamed at me to move out.”

“Then move out lah! Live with us! We have a two-bedroom, you know that.”

RJ has offered that to me before, but they are living in Downtown Los Angeles for Chloe’s job, which is a long way away from the UCLA campus. I cannot imagine commuting in the L.A. traffic, even if RJ volunteers to drive me.

Also, I did not want to be an eternal third wheel. 

I take another mouthful of food. “But the second bedroom is for your study room, RJ. You need a proper room to work in for all the internships from Silicon Valley you’re thinking of doing, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah, but I can set up my workstation in the living room instead.”

I sigh. As much as I love RJ and Chloe, they are both workaholics who need all the space they can get for themselves. Chloe is a full-time chef at a high-end restaurant and a part-time culinary school student. RJ studies computer science and does a lot of side gigs at night. I remember how she would stay up all night typing away at her computer. 

It’s a thousand times better than endless sex noises though, that’s for sure.

Before my cheeks flush, I clear my throat. “It’s okay, RJ. I think I’d rather be within a walking distance from campus. I’ll… I’ll look around for apartments to move into on my end,” I say, even though I don’t have high hopes. The semester has started and I’m sure all the apartments in the area have filled up. “Are you coming to campus today, by the way?”

“Nah, I’m skipping classes today. It’s the first day anyway, so I won’t be missing much. And there’s still so much to do for the apartment. We don’t have any utensils, tables, chairs… Heck, we don’t even have a bed. We slept on an air mattress yesterday. But Chloe has a day off, so we’ll have to do some shopping and building today.”

Ah, I am so glad this apartment come already furnished. “So, are you going to IKEA or something?”

“Yep. As soon as Chloe gets back from grocery shopping, we’ll make lunch and go.” RJ taps on her chin. “And I’ll have to tell her about your apartment mate too. I can’t believe it. That’s so crazy.”

“Yeah, it really is.” I wipe my mouth after finishing my breakfast.

“But hey, Lia, I mean it, whenever you want, just crash over at our place, okay?”

“Yeah, thanks, RJ…” I trail off when I see Yeju’s door open once again. “Wait, she’s awake, I’m gonna go.”

“Oh, good luck—“ 

I hang up on RJ before she finishes her sentence, because I cannot let her see the way my mouth drops wide open.

Yeju saunters out of her room, her long brown hair an unruly mess. She’s wearing sweatpants, which is an improvement from her pants-less state yesterday. But above that… she is wearing nothing. Nothing.

I can see the entirety of her flower tattoos winding down her arms and patterns I’ve never seen before on her midriff. I can see her shoulders, her collarbones, her lean abdomen… 

Thankfully, her hair is long enough to cover the parts I don’t want to see. Somewhat. I can’t tell if the lighter colors in between her dark hair are her blonde streaks or her nipples—and I don’t want to tell. I really don’t.

Can she ever wear a full set of clothes? Or even just… a bra?

My hands tremble, and I whirl around to clean my plate and frying pan. I can’t let Yeju know how much this affects me. I can’t give her this satisfaction.

And good god, Lia, why are you looking at her again?

Yeju walks next to me and opens the fridge door.

“G- Good morning,” I croak. Why isn’t my voice working?

She does not reply. Instead, she stares at the fridge for a strangely long time. Ah, I’ve rearranged everything in there and it must be weird to see that.

I clear my throat, praying my voice works better this time. “Oh, I, uh, I moved your things around so I can take up the bottom part of the fridge. Is that fine or should I—“

She reaches for the milk on the bottom shelf. It has my name in big block letters written on it.

“Oh, wait, that’s mine…“ The rest of the words get stuck in my throat when Yeju turns to me, her eyes locking with mine.

Without breaking eye contact, she uncaps the milk carton—my milk carton—and drinks it.

Straight from the carton!

I stare at her, frozen to the ground. I cannot even make a single sound of protest. This is too ridiculous. Who does this?

Her eyes never leave mine as she drinks. Her throat bops with every gulp, and drops of milk spill down her chin, down her neck, down to her… I try not to let my eyes wander that far.

When she is done, she slams the carton down on the kitchen counter and wipes her mouth with her hand. Her eyebrows raise as if challenging me to say something.

“You’re insane,” is the first thing I say the moment I find my ability to speak again.

She smirks. “What are you gonna do? Move out?”

Then, she burps and walks back to her room.

What. The. Fuck.

What the fuck is wrong with her?

Maybe I should take up RJ’s offer and move out of here. 

***

A/N: Intrigued by RJ? She has a whole book dedicated to her and her love story with Chloe. Check out ‘Cherry On Top’, a stand-alone prequel to this book, on my profile!