"JUST TWO SUITCASES?" Orion was fumbling with his own suitcase in the corridor as I opened my door, dragging out the smaller suitcase first. When I got to the second, the larger one, he moved over to help me pull it out.

"Just two." I glanced over. He only had one, with a backpack placed on it. "There's enough space for the taxi, yeah? If not, I can just put the smaller one in the passenger area."

He nodded. "More than enough. Come on, let's get to the lift."

Orion had ended up being the best person to get a taxi with. He was on my flight, lifted right across me, and after we'd arrived in Hong Kong, we technically had to head back to the same place anyways. Neither of our parents were bothering to pick us up, they'd announced. We'd grown up, and thus, we were to take the bus back together after we'd arrived back in Hong Kong.

Our parents were getting lazy.

It was early December and winter break had started the day before. Camille had left the day before, being on the same flight as Dean, and Eileen two nights ago, immediately after lessons had been over. It was starting to get awfully cold in England now, and I was starting to crave the warmer climates of Hong Kong. Just in time, I suppose.

We got to the first floor, and we pushed our luggage out, we spotted Livia in the corner of the apartment. I'd thought she'd have already moved out, but turns out she wasn't going to until the holidays itself, since she wasn't heading back this Christmas. And from what Camille told me, she was already more or less set to move into Livia's apartment after that.

"Hey, leaving now?" Livia asked, grinning.

"Yeah, you too?" Orion asked, noting the suitcase besides her feet.

"Amphion's picking me up. We're heading over to Briarville for a few days before I set off for the airport. Visit my grandmother and his family."

"Does he live in Briarville?" I asked in surprise. "I thought he's from London."

"He lives in London most of the year, but his family keeps a holiday house besides mine in Briarville. We usually go during the summer, but we're changing it up now that we're all in university and stuff. My cousin's going to Briarville too, so I'm just meeting up with her."

"Fair enough." Orion gave a mock salute. "Have fun vacaying, Livia Wong."

"Thanks." She flashed a smile. "Have fun in Hong Kong. Pity I can't go back, but I need to move out and I don't have time for that during school."

Orion nodded. "I'd stay and talk, but our taxi's probably already here. See you, Liv."

"Bye Orion! Bye Salome!"

Livia was still waving inside when we started putting our luggage onto the taxi. At the sight of me struggling with my larger suitcase, Orion quickly lended me a hand, wincing as he did so. "Jesus, this is heavy."

"I have a lot of stuff," I deadpanned.

"Fair enough. Come on, let's get inside."

We sat at the backseat together and the driver set off. Two hours. It was a two hour drive to the airport, which was fair enough. We'd arrive at around eleven, and our plane left at three. I could shop my ass off in the Duty Free—the cosmetics and makeup were so cheap there it was actually ridiculous. My mum and some of my Hong Kong friends had already sent me a full list of what they wanted me to grab for them. I had things to do at the airport.

"My ma says our families are going out together for dinner when we get back," he murmured to me. "Anywhere you especially want to go?"

"That Chaozhou restaurant at the mall beneath our apartment, maybe?"

He flashed a smile. "I was hoping you'd say that one. I've been craving their food for a while now. I'll tell her, see if they need to book seats or anything."

"Alright, alright." I fished out my own phone and grabbed my earphones from my bag, putting them into my ears and staring out of the window. Besides me, he did the same.

Now that I thought about it, I didn't even know his musical taste. What he listened to. What artists he liked. I'd never asked and it seemed strange to. All these years I've known him and we were never that type of friends.

But things were improving. Or at least, they were changing. I wasn't sure what I even wanted anymore, so I wasn't sure if it could be considered improvement at all. It was all conflicting. A part of my brain said, hey. This is your best chance. Your last chance. But the other said that it was never going to happen at all. That if it was ever going to happen, it would have years ago.

These days, I usually just did my best to push the thoughts out of my head. But they still emerged at the dead of the night, on those nights when I couldn't fall asleep and rolled around in my bed, too many thoughts firing in my head for it to calm down.

But then, he asked me, "What are you listening to?"

My eyes snapped to him and I pulled one earbud out. "Umm. Sorry?"

He looked amused. "What are you listening to? Just realised that I didn't even know what music you listen to anymore. I remember you had a huge Taylor Swift phase when you were younger."

"Well, uh, I've kind of grown out of that. Like, I still love her, but nowhere as obsessively." I rubbed my neck. "I'm really into All That is Gold right now." They were a multi-national girl group that had debuted a few years ago, and I was obsessed. It was right around the time I had gotten really into Kpop and girl bands, so a western band with a similar vibe and songs that I actually understood was exactly what I had needed.

His smile widened. "Like, Madi Tahiri and stuff?"

"Uh yeah. My favourite is Aurora, though! Since she's Chinese. Aurora, Madi, Alanna, Mikayla and Diana." I wasn't surprised he'd heard of them—they were pretty big right now. They weren't like, Taylor Swift or Ariana Grande level, but most people had at least heard of their names, and they'd had a few pretty big hits. Their debut single, Artemisia had been a sleeper hit, and also the one that had brought me into their music. Their first full album Does Not Glitter had been ridiculously good, and the songs still lived rent-free in my head three years down the line.

Dead girls tell no tales and I can't survive, survive; you killed me for dead and I'm here like, why? Why? God, I loved that song. But I was just fangirling now.

"Fun fact." He shuffled backwards and leaned in as if about to dispense a secret. "Livia Wong is very good friends with Madi Tahiri."

"Wait, what?"

"You can go check Madi's Instagram account. She follows Livia and Amphion."

"What?"

"I think they all used to go to Briarville or something. That, and Livia's family is rich. So is Amphion's. So they know quite a lot of celebrity kids. Last year, one of their friends came over for a weekend. Lila Anderson. The daughter of Helena Anderson."

"Holy shit." My eyes had widened. I knew Livia was rich, but I didn't think it would imply that she knew so many celebrities.

Orion scratched his neck. "I must confess, the only real reason I know Helena Anderson is because she married Bruce Carmen. His daughter came down as well, Brie. I'm not into football all that much, but who doesn't know Bruce Carmen?"

"Even I've heard of him," I admitted. "Albeit the only reason I care is because he's married to Helena Anderson. So pretty. God, I have so many questions for Livia now."

"I'm sure she'll be happy to provide answers," he laughed. "Well, I hate to interrupt your music."

"What are you listening to?"

"A bit of rock. That's more my style. You into that?"

"I know a couple bands and I like some of their songs, but I'm not that into it."

He nodded. "Fair enough."

We both lapsed back into silence. I plugged my earbud back in, turning to stare out the window. I found my phone from inside my bag and clicked on Madi Tahiri's Instagram, and there it was: @livwhs and @c_e_amph. My god. How had I never noticed that? Though, to be fair, I wasn't precisely on the lookout either.

I had so many questions for Livia. And since she was a writer, the Livvy Wong, did that mean she knew lots of writers as well?

Oh, and her second book was released so soon. Modern Fairytale. She'd told me she'd give me a copy after Christmas.

My god, I was so glad Orion had introduced me to Livia. And just because I was curious, I clicked into Livia's follower list.

Jesus Christ. Mikayla McLean, Diana Andrews, Alanna Belcourt, Aurora Shan, Madi Tahiri. Right bloody there. Shaking my head in disbelief, I stuffed my phone back into my bag. Maybe I should ask if she could get me an autograph. But that also seemed slightly too much, especially considering how much she'd already helped me and my friends out. And I hadn't done anything to help her back.

Maybe I should invite her out to dinner sometime? Or get her a gift. Though considering how much money she had, I doubted there was anything I could get her that she didn't already have.

Bother. I'd think about it.

It wasn't long before I'd fallen asleep on the taxi. Usually I wouldn't dare, but there was Orion with me and I trusted him to keep me safe. Besides, I was tired. I'd probably stayed up a bit too late yesterday night and I hadn't particularly cared since I'd be getting plenty of sleep on the plane.

When I opened my eyes again we were halfway to the airport. As I glanced around, blinking tiredly, Orion let out a little snort. "Nice nap?"

"Very nice," I replied honestly with a yawn. "Extremely nice."

"I suppose it's my turn to catch some snooze now? Is that what we're doing? Taking turns."

I raised one brow. "Be my guest, Orion."

He blinked for a moment, and then shook his head. "Nah, I'm just messing with you. I'm not tired."

"Well, I'm a bit sleepy."

"You just woke up."

"Yes, but if you're not going to sleep, I'm going to continue taking a nap. We still have an hour, don't we?"

"More or less," he said with a nod. "Did you get no sleep yesterday or something?"

"Do you see these bags under my eyes?"

"Oh. Yeah. Now I see them. Fine. Sleep. I will stay awake and be a responsible adult."

I grinned. "Why do I need to be the adult when I have you around, Orion?"

"I won't always be here."

"And when that happens I'll be the responsible adult. Like when I'm alone with Camille."

"That girl is like wildfire. Absolutely unpredictable. You have no idea what she might do or say next."

"It's what I love about her."

"I used to recall her being a very reserved and quiet individual."

"Well, she changed."

"She's awfully close to Dean."

I paused, turning my head to meet his piercing gaze. "Are you suggesting something?"

"Just curious if you know anything."

I shook my head after giving it some thought. "They're pretty close, but she hasn't said anything that raises alarm."

"Alarm?"

"Anything that involves romance about Camille Tsang involves alarm."

"What? Why?"

"You can ask that to the trail of broken hearts she left behind in Arrington. And she didn't even do it on purpose."

"Is she going to break Dean's heart?"

"That depends. Is he into her?"

He tore his gaze away first. "Not sure. Don't know."

I let out a little "hmph". He definitely knew more than what he was revealing, but I wouldn't press him on it. Not right now. Camille and Dean? I mean, it didn't seem impossible, but still...

It seemed strange.

But then again, Camille seemed to have been friends with Dean since Arrington. They didn't seem like besties by any means, but they were definitely close enough that they were able to talk to each other without awkwardness. That, or Camille was just that extroverted. Also a high possibility.

Camille could be very extroverted when she wanted to be. But on some days, she just shut down as well. It was rather curious, but I'd known her long enough to know how to deal with that. Other people tended to be disconcerted by the way she seemed to make friends so fast. She put people at ease.

Camille Tsang Hoi-ning was far more complicated a girl than most people saw at first glance. That was all I could say, having known her for more than a decade.

To my surprise, it hadn't taken a single word from me for him to continue speaking. "They're always texting each other."

"What?"

"Camille and Dean. Even when Dean's hanging out at my apartment and stuff, he's just on the phone grinning like an idiot. And I know it's Camille."

"She's a funny girl."

"Really? You're not that naive, Salome."

"She hasn't said anything much about him," I told him with a shrug. "If she has something to tell me, she will when it's time."

"You trust her a lot."

"I've known her for most of my life. I know how she works."

"You've known me for most of your life, and I doubt you know how I work."

"That's different," I argued. "She's the same age as me. We did most things in our lives bound by the hips. You, I'm always a few steps behind. We're not that close, if you think about it. It was always just the proximity and pure coincidence."

"You keep discounting our friendship."

"I'm not discounting anything, it's the truth."

"Have all those tuition sessions gone down the drain? Do we not acknowledge those?"

"I can probably count the amount of times you properly tutored me with my fingers, Orion."

"You might need to use your toes too. But fine. But you spent basically every weekday afternoon at my house for at least a couple years."

"I was in the living room while you were in your study. Half the time we didn't share a single word except hi and bye."

"I've really been ignoring you all these years, huh?"

I froze for a moment, but then quickly recovered and said, "I mean, it's not really ignoring. We didn't have much to say anything. Like, at Arrington, we basically had nothing in common."

"I probably should have still spent some time chatting with you back then," he rubbed his forehead, "feels like we've grown apart."

Was there even anything for us to grow apart from? But I didn't voice that out loud, instead shrugging. "I think we're the same as before."

"I don't remember much of you in primary school. Or secondary. Or Arrington, for the matter."

"I doubt a primary three student has anything to say to a primary one student. And you left after my first year at secondary too."

"Arrington?"

"Again, completely different friend groups. You're two bloody years older than me, Orion," I told him with a gentle laugh. "I could never quite catch up."

"Did you want to? Catch up?"

"Every kid wants to grow up faster until they become an adult."

"Maybe I should have waited once or twice. Looked back. Said hi."

"Wholly unnecessary, I assure you," I told him when all my heart was screaming was, why didn't you? A single smile would have made my entire day. Week. Month. But: nothing. I didn't even get crumbs. That was how pathetic I'd been. Chasing after someone who hadn't a single clue. That was how much of a failure I'd been.

"Would have been nice of me."

"But unnecessary." I rolled my eyes. "Stop living in the past, Orion. Stop being sentimenal. You're one year away from leaving university altogether. And the UK."

"Actually, I'm staying for my master's degree."

Well, shit. That was another two years of him being my neighbour, unless he moved away. Which was basically my entire university life, if I didn't do my master's.

Abso-fucking-lutely unbearable.

"You good?"

"Just surprised. I thought you were going to leave the UK as soon as possible."

"Nah, that's Dean. He's the one who wants to escape the moment he can. But he might be facing some complications."

"Oh?"

"His parents want him to do master's too."

"I mean, he can do it elsewhere."

"Second problem. Redchester is his parents' alta mater and also where they met. If Dean tries to go elsewhere, they'll rip him from limb to limb."

"Oh geez. Good luck to him, then." It was difficult to think of Dean, with his buzzcut and tough looks and how easily he'd look like a total bad boy if he got a single tattoo getting destroyed by his parents.

But we were Asians, so it was always possible. Asian parents always fought a way. Camille was a fucking Mathematics and Statistics major, for hell's sake, and her parents still acted disappointed in her.

Ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous.

But that was just how life worked. Our job was to just take it all and somehow make it through without being mentally wrecked.

"He'll figure it out," Orion sighed. "Would it be selfish if I said I want him to stay? Honestly can't even imagine university and being at Redchester without him anymore."

"It's not selfish. It's just human."