"I'VE HEARD SOME interesting things about you," I drawled out, staring at Cami as she adjusted the stack of books on her dining table. She'd kept a mass majority of Livia's furniture, only moving a shelf here and there, and so far she'd done a good job of keeping the room neat. She usually struggled with that, especially during our years at boarding school. I liked to think that me screaming at her every time I walked into her old dorm room and seeing the piles upon piles of random stuff on the floor helped with that.

"You'll have to elaborate," Cami answered, turning her head to glance at me. "What specifically?"

"Dean Hui?"

"Oh Christ."

"I seem to have severely misunderstood the situation. Sort of reversed the roles you two had in your... conflict."

"What, you thought I'd fallen for him?" There was a wry little smile on her face as she shoved the books to the side, turning around, both hands perched on the table as she stared at me. "You know what kind of person I am."

"I'd also heard a lot about Dean's reputation."

"He's not as cold and mean about that kind of thing as you might think. He's not actually allergic to dating. Quite obviously."

"You said no?"

She shrugged. "Kind of, yeah."

"You're not into him?"

"He's cute."

"That's not an answer."

"No, Salome, I don't want to date him."

"He wants to date you?"

"That's what he said."

"And now he's angry?"

Cami bit her lips. "I seem to have accidentally led him on."

I groaned. Loudly. "This is what I told you not to do, Cami."

"I think you were more worried about him breaking my heart than the other way around."

"I mean, I don't know him, but I know you, and you're my friend. Of course I'm worried about you getting hurt."

"Yeah, well, I can handle myself." She wrinkled her nose. "I don't know about him, though."

"You guys..."

"Fucked? Yeah." She rolled her eyes. "Don't be a prude, Salome, I'm eighteen."

"No, no, I'm not judging, just... wow. How was it?"

Now she narrowed her eyes as she stared at me. "Now you're a bit too open, Salome."

"So am I too prude or too open? Make up your mind."

"A bit of both right now." She shook her head, strolling over and plopping herself onto the sofa next to me. "I'm not answering that, Salome. Not unless you tell me what it feels like to make out with Orion Ip."

"I did not make out with him."

"You kissed him though."

"Like once," I huffed. "Hardly worth mentioning."

"Hardly worth mentioning? Seriously, Salome? Was it that bad?"

"No, that's not what I meant, it's just—oh, for fuck's sake, Cami!"

She grinned, patting me on the back. "Now you know what I felt just now when you asked me that. Deal with it, suck it up."

I glared at her as she grabbed her iPad from the table, flicking the cover open. I turned back to my phone, letting my head lay on her shoulders, her hands wrapping around mine.

I still had questions. A lot of questions. But when Cami was like this, I couldn't bring myself to ask. She was Cami. My best friend, someone who'd stuck by me all these years.

"I'm so tired these days," I muttered, staring intently at the ceiling even though I knew there was nothing interesting about it. "All the life just drains out of me."

"That's me every day," Cami sighed. "Get used to it. It's called university for a reason."

"I don't think it's university, I think it's just life."

"Oh, don't get all depressed on me now," she huffed, giving me a slight shove. "We're already luckier than a mass majority of people. And if the only reason you're upset is over a boy, then you're a sadder person than I ever thought you were, Salome Lam."

"I'm not sad over a boy. Well, I'm not only sad about a boy."

"What else are you sad about?"

"I miss Hong Kong food."

"We literally only got back a couple weeks ago."

"But I'm already missing it."

"You cook every night?"

"But it gets repetitive, you know? There's just not as much stuff you can get here as you might in Hong Kong, or it's like three times as expensive and even though I could buy it, I don't want to buy it."

"How depressing. Sounds like a you problem."

I shot her a glare. "You're not helping, Camille Tsang Hoi-ning."

She glanced at me and shrugged. "I don't think it's as much of a problem as you think it is. Like, technically speaking, we could both solve our issues right now if we just went and talked to either of them, but we're both angry and thus being irrational, so we're going to drag this on instead. I mean, I know what I'm doing so I'm not that affected by it, but you don't seem to realise it."

"I..." My voice trailed off. It was a bit disconcerting, being called irrational by Cami, who I'd seen as my irrational counterpart for all these years. And now here she was, performing a role that I usually did in this friendship. And she was right about it. I knew she was. She was very correct in the fact that I was being illogical with this. Logically speaking I'd have accepted Orion's pursuits a long time ago and prepared for the way it might end, rather than try to stay away from it when I knew that wouldn't help me get over it in any way.

But just because it was logical didn't mean it felt right.

She cast a pointed look at me. "You know I'm right."

"You are," I admitted begrudgingly.

She smirked. "I know I am too. What are you going to do about it? You don't need to be rational over it, by the way, kind of unnecessary. Love and crushes and shit like this is meant to be irrational. I don't think you ever quite got that."

"I got it more than you might think. My crush on Orion is a wholly irrational phenomenon in the first place."

"Yes, but that's basically it. Even the way you treated him despite that crush was scarily irrational. Another person might think you were cold as ice."

"Maybe I am."

"No you're not," Cami laughed. "You've got the warmest heart out of anyone I know. At least to the people you care about anyways, you can be cold to the people outside your circle, so I do know where those assumptions might come from." She let out a sigh. "Everything is going to be okay. We'll eventually decide to solve all this with a proper conversation and thus we can live happily ever after."

"Until it all crashes and burns."

"Ah, there you go again."

I groaned. "I don't like this, Cami."

"What, me being the person telling you what you should do for once in your life?" She patted me on the head, sighing. "I know, I hate it too. I should be the irresponsible one in this relationship. I don't want to be doing this anymore than you want me to be doing it."

"Then stop," I whined.

She tilted her head before slowly getting up from the sofa. "I don't think I will, actually. At least one of us has to step up and take the responsibility, and you don't seem like you're in the state for it right now."

"Ouch, Cami."

"It's true." She brushed a finger through her long locks. She hadn't cut them over the holidays, though she did seem to have recurled them. Cami's hair was long, almost waist-length, and she'd been growing it out for years, to her parents' dismay. "Right. I need to continue cleaning my apartment up, you can either continue staying here and watch me do that or head back to yours. I don't really mind."

"I think I'm heading back to mine," I told her with a yawn. "I need to start cooking dinner soon."

"Ah, of course. The cooking. What's for dinner tonight, sweet Salome?"

I let out a choked laugh at the nickname. "Sweet Salome?"

"It sounds nice, does it not?" she retorted with a grin.

"To answer your question, oh charming Cami, salmon tonight. And spinach. I'm too lazy to cook much else."

"So why the hell do you need to start cooking now? That takes like... five minutes."

"I need to wash and cook rice," I pointed out. "And I need to rub salt on the salmon. Should have done it yesterday, but I kind of forgot."

She rolled her eyes. "And here I was, thinking you were so much better prepared for everything compared to me."

I raised one brow. "I am, though. At least I'm cooking."

"Hey, I'm cooking tonight too!"

"Microwaving the carbonara you brought from Mark's and Spencer's along with some salad is not cooking, babe."

"I'm also making miso soup."

"Putting the miso soup paste into hot water also is not cooking."

"Stop ruining my vibe!"

I let out a scoff as I got onto my feet. "Yeah, sure, keep being delusional, babe."

It was among her numerous insistence that she wasn't delusional that I left her apartment, letting the door shut behind me as I headed to the elevator to head back to my floor, shaking my head with a laugh.

Oh, Cami, Cami, Cami.

But her problems were the least of mine right now, and it seemed like she could handle it all fairly well. She was handling it better than me, at any rate. I didn't need to worry about her, not now.

Not when I had so many of my own problems that required attention.

—

IT WAS VALENTINE'S Day and he stood outside my door, flowers in hand.

I stared at him for a moment, blinking, trying to tell if I was hallucinating if this was actually real. Orion Ip, dressed in a black turtleneck sweater, with trousers, a bunch of blooming flowers in hand, his mouth slightly curved upwards as he regarded my shocked state.

"Surprised?"

"What are you doing?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"Did you literally just wake up?" he asked, amused.

"I was just making breakfast," I explained slowly, glancing at my kitchen where my bread remained in the toaster. "Why are you here?"

"Giving you flowers."

"Why?"

"It's Valentine's Day."

"We're not dating."

"But we could be."

"I hadn't realised you were so shameless, Ip Tsun-kit."

"This isn't shameless, it's called seeing an opportunity and taking it."

"An opportunity for what?"

"An opportunity to give you a nice present. Take these." And for some reason, I did, holding the flowers before my chest and taking a little sniff. He grinned, as if that movement signalled something. It didn't. And then he dug into his pocket and took something out. A small box. A jewellery box.

"Orion, I—" he cut off my protests midway, flipping the box open.

"I wasn't sure what you liked, but I remember you praising Savannah's necklace over Christmas, the blue one? And, uh, I got you this."

A silver necklace with a single blue sapphire in the middle in the shape of a raindrop, hanging down. I shook my head, taking a step back when he motioned for me to take it. "Orion, I can't."

"Hey, even if you don't want to take it as a romantic gesture, we've been friends for long enough, and considering our parents' friendship... you can pretend they gifted you this instead."

"Orion."

"I'm trying to tell you, Salome, that I really, really do like you. It's not pity or whatever the hell else you think it is, I actually do like you. And I think if you give this a chance it might just work out. So why don't you?"

"Orion..."

"Let me put it on for you," he insisted, turning the box to himself and carefully taking the necklace out. "It doesn't look like you have plans for today anyways if you're waking up this late."

"I wanted to treat myself," I admitted. "I've been sleeping way too late the past few days. Wanted to take a break today."

"I can take it with you."

"Orion?"

He took a step inwards and I let him. The door shut behind us. He placed the box down on the nearest counter, opening the clasp and approaching me slowly. Again, I let him. He went behind me, wrapping the necklace around my neck and brushed my hair to the side, carefully clasping it.

I could practically feel his breath on my neck. My heart was pounding within my chest as I resisted the urge to just turn around and kiss him, because dear god I wanted to, but I clamped it back down. No. No. No. No.

Why not?

Because it would ruin everything.

Isn't everything already ruined?

"Salome?"

I didn't reply, instead squeezing my eyes shut and letting out a sigh.

"You good?" he asked again, waving his hand in front of my face.

Grumbling, I said, "You have got to stop being so nice."

That smiled a crack on his face. "What, is it working?"

"No."

"Didn't know you had such an immature side."

"Then you don't know me at all, then." But compared to the usual way I threw those words at him, full of spite and anger and bitterness, this time it was a lot lighter. Because he did know me. Perhaps not all of me, and not as much as someone like Camille, but he did know me. And it would be wrong to tell him he didn't.

"On the contrary, I think I have a much better grasp of you as a person now." He strolled across the room, sitting down on my sofa, leaning back, making himself at home. "Did you know, I ran into someone yesterday?"

"Oh?" I asked, one brow raised. "Who?"

"Jeremiah Park. And he had a few words for me."

My eyes narrowed. That couldn't be good.

"Seems like you broke his heart a bit, though he didn't seem all that upset."

"He wasn't that into it."

"I know, I could tell," he said with a shrug. "His loss. But I suppose it's my win, since that's one less person to fight me for you."

"Seriously?" I crossed the room, pulling my curtains open, allowing a blast of sunlight to enter my living room, squinting as I turned away. "I didn't know you were so immature."

"You still like me," he said, and I didn't need to look at him to know there was a massive grin on his face. "You told him as much."

"I could have been lying to reject him," I pointed out.

"But I don't think you were. Am I right?"

I bit my lip, not looking at him. "No."

"I promise you, Salome, it won't end badly. You've known me all your life. You've loved me when I didn't even know what love was, Salome. I won't let you down. I promise. I promise you I'll do my best, I won't let you down. I won't let it crash into pieces like how you're scared it would."

"Promises mean little in things like these," I pointed out. "Feelings are fickle, they change on a whim. Promises regarding relationships and feelings are as unreliable as they can get."

"Stop thinking so much. You're going to push everyone away if you always think so much like that."

"You can't blame me for thinking too much," I grumbled. "I like to consider all the consequences before I get into anything."

"And you're letting it stop you from making you happy."

"I'm letting it stop me from making decisions I might regret eventually," I said softly. "Orion, if this really ends badly, our parents..."

"I think our parents are adult enough and mature enough to handle that if it ends up in that kind of situation, but I don't think it will. I really, really like you, Salome. I love you, Salome."

My eyes fluttered shut. "Do you actually mean it, though?"

"I don't say things I don't mean, Lam Yam-yuet. At least give me a chance, if not anything else. A single chance."

"What do you have in mind?" I asked, turning my head to glance at him.

He held up one finger. "One date. Let me take you on a date today, yeah? I promise I'll make it worth your time."

"On Valentine's Day?" I asked with a giggle. "Did you have this planned out beforehand?"

"I thought I might try something today," he admitted. "I'm not just going to give up, Salome. You didn't give up on me for thirteen years, for fuck's sake. I'm not going to give up in two months."

"It's been less than that."

"Exactly. I'm not giving up just yet. Might as well do something about it rather than sit around waiting for you to think it through."

"Damn, Orion. You already have something planned, then?"

His eyes were practically twinkling when he looked at me, a smile glued on his face. "Is that a yes?"

"It's a maybe."

"It's a yes," he laughed, throwing his head back. "Of course I have something planned. Get dressed up. I'll pick you up in fifteen minutes."

"Make it half an hour," I told him. "I need time to do my makeup. And my breakfast... oh fuck, my bread is probably burnt."

"Throw it away. I'll take you out for brunch. And fine. Half an hour. But really, you don't need makeup, you look perfectly lovely the way you do right now, it's just unnecessary."

"I want to, Orion Ip."

"Fine." His stupid hadn't gone away. "Fine. I'll come fetch you in half an hour!"

And when he walked out of that door, I was grinning like a fucking idiot too.