AMPHION CALVERT-EGERTON descended upon Livia's house at eleven o'clock the next day with no forewarning. Auntie Xu was the one who'd opened the door, so she was only alerted when a yell racketed through the house, calling for her.

She went down the stairs fully expecting the sight. Amphion talking to nai nai, a bright smile on his face.

Of course he'd come. Not too early that they might still be asleep, but not late enough that he might be interrupting lunch either.

"Livia!" He offered a grin as she approached. "I was just talking to your granny here."

Livia offered a nod in return. "You do that. I need to go to the bathroom quickly."

"Livia!" Nai nai scolded. "No way to treat your guest."

"He's been around enough times to know where to go," Livia said with a scoff. "I just need to go to the bathroom, I'll be right back."

She did actually need to go to the bathroom, which she was planning to do before he arrived anyways. So after quickly releasing herself, she went back out into the living room, where nai nai was trying to explain the convoluted plot of the Chinese show she was watching to Amphion.

"So, the female protagonist dies, but turns out she is actually the reincarnation of the primordial god whose memories are awakened, and she takes over the protagonist's body, yes?"

Amphion was furiously nodding, but Livia knew he didn't have a clue what nai nai was talking about. Chinese shows, especially xianxia and wuxia ones, were simply so difficult to explain to someone who didn't speak the language. There were too many technical terms that sounded ridiculous when translated.

"And so, the causes disruption in the three realms and this idiot of a male protagonist—"

Livia squinted at the screen. This wasn't some old show. This was recent. Very recent. "Nai nai," she began, "I didn't know you'd started watching recent xianxia shows. I must warn you, most aren't very good."

Nai nai casted her a glare. "I know, I know, but I'm bored and there's nothing else to watch. The female actress is very pretty, I must say. As pretty as Pamela, I think. Prettier than you."

"Ah, thank you."

Amphion frowned. "I think Livia looks perfectly fine."

"She looks fine," nai nai declared, "but the actress looks prettier. Which is expected, because she is an actress."

Amphion blinked, glancing at Livia, who shrugged from where she stood leaning against the wall. This was nai nai for him. This was most Asian parents, actually. Attacking their progeny's appearance was nothing out of the blue. It was pretty regular, all things considered. Livia learnt to stop caring around the time she was fourteen. It had been painful before that, especially since there was someone who lived up to all those beauty standards: Pamela.

Until she'd realised that they picked on her younger sister too. There was just less to criticise Pamela on, that was all. They still did it, and they called it love and care. Even if it never felt like it to the people on the receiving end.

But that was what every child of Asian heritage went through, Livia supposed, so she couldn't really complain all that much. It wasn't a good norm, but it was the usual thing. Nothing she could do about it. Livia didn't have a revolutionary bone in her body.

She was always a bit more of an Amy than a Jo March.

"Right." Livia offered a smile. "Anything else you wish to inform me about?"

"Oh, go, go," nai nai said, waving her hand in the air. "Go do whatever you kids do these days. Leave me alone, being the poor old woman I am."

"You are by no means poor in any of its many definitions," Livia said.

Nai nai narrowed her eyes, wagging her finger at Livia. "That's enough sass from you, young lady."

Livia raised one brow. "I am a ball of sass and sarcasm, nai nai, you should know me. You are the main factor in making me the way I am today."

Besides her, Amphion audibly choked.

"You..." Nai nai waved her fingers in the air, but no words left her mouth. "Go! Do not let me see you. Go to your room." The woman was obviously joking, so Livia didn't take it seriously. Still, she turned to Amphion and motioned for him to follow her upstairs.

"You actually came," she said to him once they were out of earshot of nai nai and any other eavesdropping busybodies.

"Why wouldn't I?" he asked with utmost innocence written on his expression. "I said I would."

Livia just let out a loud sigh in return, motioning for him to enter her room. She slammed her door behind her. It was probably wrong, for them to be alone like this, when both had recently admitted to feeling attracted to each other (even in the past), and since they weren't the little tweens they had been before, but in that moment, she couldn't care less.

"Okay. Great. You've talked to nai nai. Now what do we do? You have to stay here for a while or it'll be strange."

"I'll stay here then," he said with a casual shrug. He motioned to the beanbag Livia had in the corner of her room, besides her wardrobe. "Mind if I sit?"

"Make yourself at home," she replied, raising her chin. "Can't stop you anyways."

"You make me sound so bad, Liv."

She shot him a look. "I'm not trying to."

"Of course not, of course not. You love me far too much for that."

Before last night, she might have shrugged that off as an innocent little comment. But now, it just felt like he was testing her. Testing her to see if she still had any of those feelings left, testing to see if any of that attraction lingered.

Livia chose to ignore that comment. She hoped that would allow her to pass the test. Whether that meant him thinking she had, or had not any feelings remaining, she was not sure.

It was funny, how she'd thought she'd had it all under control. That she could be perfectly rational about everything, and then one conversation with him had thrown all that out of the window again.

Damn, she hated this with every bit of her being. She liked having things under her own control. Things were not under control. None of it was under her control, and she hated it.

"You're being mean," he said.

"Didn't realise you were such a baby," Livia retorted, not looking at him as she sat down before her laptop.

"Are you writing?" he asked, sitting up straight. "Can I see?"

"No," she shot back. "You know I hate it when people ask me that."

She didn't need to turn to know he'd deflated in the beanbag chair. "Fine. Give me something to do then."

She raised one eyebrow. "You were the one who insisted on coming, you figure that out yourself."

"You don't want to set me loose in your house," he said with a smirk. "Livia, I suggest you give me something to do before I go downstairs and start chatting with nai nai again and tell her you're being mean."

Livia lobbed the nearest object at him, which just so happened to be a box of tissues. He caught it with one arm, being infuriating and an athlete. She turned around to see him carefully place it down beside him. "You're just being violent now."

"Not like it's going to hurt you."

"You're angry at me. Why are you angry at me?"

"Why can't I be angry at you? I was going to have a very productive morning. I had it all planned out. Now you've ruined all my plans. Am I meant to be thankful for that?"

He pouted. "I did give you a warning."

"I didn't think you'd go through with it."

He looked annoyed. "You know me better than that, Livia."

"I thought I didn't know any of you at all."

His grey eyes narrowed. Livia raised her chin. "You're twisting my words. You're really angry. Look, I'm sorry I showed up, then. I'll leave."

"Don't," Livia snapped.

Amphion froze in the middle of getting up.

"If you leave now," Livia said with a sigh, "nai nai will think something is wrong."

"Something is wrong."

"I don't like you when you're like this," Livia said. "I want normal Amphion, not purposely trying to be immature Amphion."

The boy sucked in a breath and then released it. Livia watched, one brow raised. Watched as he seemed to change into a new person altogether, into the Amphion she much preferred dealing with. Cocky, arrogant, loyal and tough.

"Right. You're trying to avoid me again, aren't you? Because of what I said yesterday?"

Livia spun back to face her laptop. "I mean, when you say something like that to someone, you can't really expect them to not want to avoid you. Brie and Zeth are perfect examples of that."

"What, that I had a crush on you two years ago?"

"In most circumstances, whatever. But you know I liked you last year. And you know I only recently got over the damage it caused to my friendships."

"You told Zeth it was the best idea to tell Brie how he felt. I was going off his advice."

"The situation is completely different."

"Then you shouldn't have raised them as an example in the first place."

Livia turned her head, meeting his eyes, her gaze hardening. Amphion raised one brow and leaned back on the beanbag chair.

She turned back to her laptop and started furiously typing away at her keyboard, as if that would drown out the rest of the world, as if that would make her forget the boy sitting in the corner, watching her with a gaze she didn't know what to make of.

Once again, she was out of control. She was always out of control around him. That was something enjoyable when they were younger, because despite being pushed out of her comfort zone, she knew she was safe. She knew she could trust him to go easy on her when she was getting too anxious.

But he didn't want to do that now. He seemed to want to do the opposite. He was trying to get some reaction out of her and he wasn't getting it, and it was annoying him as much as it was irritating her.

"Yes, I'm trying to avoid you. Which is why I don't want you to be here right now."

"You don't need to avoid me, we can talk it out. I think we've both learnt a lesson about trying to avoid each other, and it's that it doesn't work out."

Livia pinched her nose. "Amphion, for the love of god."

"Look at me." Somehow, during that conversation, he'd moved behind her without her noticing. He pulled at her chair so that it spun around, and he caught it so that Livia was forced to look at him. "I thought we both agreed talking was the best option, not remaining silent."

Livia stayed quiet, feeling her chest heave. She wanted to punch him. Hard. But at the same time, she just wanted him to hug her like he would when they were little kids, and she wanted to cry in his arms.

Why did growing up have to make everything so complicated? Why couldn't they stay ten, innocently blissful, without any feelings to make everything so difficult to deal with? With no bad history or lost friends or broken hearts left on the pathways to be stepped on?

"Livia, come on," he said softly, "we both know how this is going to end."

She rolled her eyes. "It's easy for you. It's far more difficult for me."

"You think it didn't hurt? The entire last year? And last month? Thinking that everything really was over, that there was no more chance for things to be fixed?"

"You pushed me away."

"And so did you," he said with a humourless laugh. "You know what's the problem with us? We're both too fucking stubborn. You walked into my house that night last month and didn't even look at me or Zeth. When you did, you looked like you saw a ghost. Before that, I thought we might have been able to act like last summer never happened. But that moment..."

"You didn't look at me either."

"And how do you know that?" he asked, tilting his head. "I was staring at you since the moment you stepped into the house. Hoping, praying that you'd just give me a sign that last year was last year and that we could start anew."

"There was no starting anew," Livia shot back, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear. "Even now. I haven't forgotten last year, I've just learnt to deal with it."

He was towering over her, standing before her chair, and she didn't like it at all. She stood up, pushing past him, and paced towards the balcony, not stepping out but starting at the view from the glass pane.

"I wish you never stumbled in onto that conversation. I didn't mean a word I said."

"It came out of your own mouth," Livia said. "You meant it very much in that moment."

"I was angry and annoyed, and I couldn't figure out why you were being so weird and hostile towards Veronica. And sometimes towards me."

"I was jealous. It happens."

"I realise that now. I didn't then. I spent that entire August wondering what on earth had happened to you. You suddenly became so much more docile, but once in a while you'd lose your shit and get really annoyed. I thought about it afterwards. It's always because you saw me and Veronica talking."

"You kept flirting with her."

"Well, at that point I'd convinced myself you had no feelings for me whatsoever and thrown the crush behind me, so I thought I might try my other options rather than die on your tree."

"Which I don't blame you for at all. Or hold against you. It's your right. But it annoyed me last year."

"You should have told me," he said quietly. "I would have told you I liked you too. I still had feelings for you by then, even if I'd tried to set it aside."

"I would have hated that even more than if you'd rejected me," Livia said with a scoff.

"Why? Because you think we'd have broken up immediately?"

She nodded. "If that had happened, we wouldn't be standing here right now. I'd probably have found a way to avoid Briarville altogether this summer."

"I'm glad that didn't happen, then." He was standing next to her again, shoulder to shoulder. She inched away.

Being around him was bringing back feelings she didn't want to. Being in such close proximity was reminding her of all her mistakes from last year, and how desperately she wanted to give into them again.

She wasn't over him, then. She'd thought she was, but she wasn't. Perhaps that was the power of the white moonlight, the bai yue guang. He could just stand there, and her heart would beat for him again. No matter how hard she'd tried to forget, how much she thought she'd put it all behind her, the moment they're standing face to face without the layers in between them, she was gone all over again.

She had to be rational. She couldn't led her heart take over her head. There were many reasons why this conversation was a bad idea. Many reasons why being in the same room as Amphion Calvert-Egerton was a bad idea.

But in that moment, in that moment when she was eighteen and at Briarville, standing in her own bedroom besides the boy she'd love even when she didn't want to, she couldn't think of a single one.

She wondered if he saw it, if he saw all the tumultuous thoughts running through her head, colliding off each other and changing directions and making her head hurt and her heart ache.

"I think I still have feelings for you." His face was serious, matter-of-factly. She saw in the reflection of the glass.

"Don't say that."

"You're not obliged to respond with anything. Or answer me anything. You can choose not to utter a word if you don't want to. But please listen to me. I think I still like you. Actually, no, that's the wrong way of putting it. I had a crush on you when I was sixteen. I still had some of those feelings left when I was seventeen, last summer, but by the end of August I'd convinced myself I was wholly over it and I think I was. And then I saw you again this July and I remembered all the reasons I'd been smitten two years ago. Then we talked and I was convinced you hated me, so I put that all aside again. But yesterday night..."

Softly, she said, "You shouldn't have come yesterday night."

"But I did. I saw you from the balcony and I thought I was going to die if I didn't join you."

"Amphion."

"I think I fell in love with you again. I looked at girls all throughout the year, you know, tried to fall in love with someone. Have a crush on them. I couldn't do it. I kissed a couple girls at parties and then my thoughts would randomly jump to you, even when they weren't romantic, and I just couldn't do it anymore."

"You shouldn't say things like that." You're making me think of things I shouldn't, things I shouldn't wish for.

"I'd look at your posts on social media for hours sometimes, wondering if you thought about me too, even in passing. Wondering what would happen when we met again."

"Well, now you know." Livia raised her chin stubbornly. "The past is in the past. We should move on."

"I can't. Yesterday night I was lying in bed after our swim and thinking, oh god, this must be what Zeth felt like every night for years. I wasn't this down bad even when I was sixteen."

"What do you even like about me?" Livia growled. "I thought you thought I was annoying. And bossy. And too stubborn."

"I think that's why," he said earnestly, so earnestly she wanted to kick him. "I think we're two sides of the exact same coin. I think we do know each other too well. But like I said, you're not obliged to do anything. Or say anything."

She turned to him. He turned to face her too. Their eyes met, and something in Livia was breaking. I wish I'd heard these words last year. I wish we'd both been mature enough to say everything last year. So that we could have avoided these twelve months of pain and pining and trying to move on.

"This is just going to end disastrously," she told him.

"I don't mind. It's the process that matters, not the end." His voice was hoarse, and his expression was so desolate. He'd ripped himself apart and bared his insides for her to see, and now he looked so empty. He'd made a choice before coming here, and now he was regretting it.

Livia could see it all in his face.

She did know him too well.

And he knew her too.

But it still surprised him when she went on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his. This means nothing, she told herself. This means nothing. This is me giving into the attraction, this is me showing him that once we get what we want, it doesn't mean anything anymore.

His lips were warm. His body went stiff at first with surprise, but then he started kissing back. Neither of them were inexperienced, both of them had kissed their fair share of people and enjoyed some of it. His arms went around her waist and he pulled her closer towards him, as if she was the only thing that mattered in the world. She wrapped her own arms around his neck to pull him downwards.

She'd dreamt of this. Last year, when she saw him sometimes, she thought about what it would feel like to kiss him. What it would feel like to kiss boys who looked like teenage sun gods, who could smile like he ruled the world and made you feel so special every time he looked at you. Last year it had embarrassed her, that she was thinking about these things when Amphion was her best friend. When she was so sure he saw her as nothing more than a sister.

There was nothing sibling-like about this as his hands crept to her bottom and she moaned into his mouth. Their tongues touched, and Livia could swear there were electric shocks. She could swear that in that moment, she felt like one of the protagonists in her stories. That everything was just perfect in the world, that she was in the arms of her lover and nothing was going to crumble into ashes the moment they pulled away and regained their senses.

She pulled away first. "This means nothing." She'd been repeating that in her head for the past little while, but it was still rough to say out loud. Both of them were breathing heavily. He was staring at her a bit too intently, and she tore her gaze away.

"If that's what you want to believe," he said with a little laugh. "This means everything, Livia Wong Heisan."

And then he'd leaned back down to kiss her again, and Livia could do nothing but kiss right back.

it'S HAPPENING