“Kichi! Wake up!”

I growled and attempted to move my feet, only to find it impossible as the weight on me got heavier.

“Come on, wake up!”

Two hands clasped my shoulder blades and shook me. Still drunk with sleep and aggravated, I slapped the hands off me.

“Get out of my room, Tie!”

“Do we have to go through this routine every morning—where you act as if you don’t like my way of waking you up?”

Every morning since Tie started working for Papa, she had become a complete headache.

“You’re annoying me. Leave.”

“You have to see this. Open your eyes. If you don’t, I will kiss you until you’re breathless.”

“Don’t—you shameless girl! Why are your face and voice the first things I must see and hear every morning? I still don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

“Oh, you’re being so cute this early in the morning. Don’t tease me.”

Tie has always been like this with me, ever since we met. I didn’t get her personality at all. Even so, I found her easier to handle than most.

“You made the morning newspaper,” Tie told me.

“Eh?”

“Look.”

My eyes opened. The lamp on my night table illuminated the bedroom as the morning sun peeped from behind my silver-grey curtains.

“See? You’re in the celebrity section.”

“Get off me.” I hissed.

“But I like being on you. It fills me with many kinky ideas.” She grinned.

“Stop messing around.”

It surprised me how Tie and I had become close in such a short time. It was nice.

“Let me see what all the excitement is about.” I snatched the newspaper from her and sat upright. I rubbed my eyes before looking at the paper.

Yow!

The face of the girl sleeping on Ray’s shoulder was hidden. But the girl wore a dress identical to mine. Her frame, skin tone, and hair made it hard to deny this person wasn’t me.

“I don’t understand. How?” I looked at Tie as if she could explain.

“When we first met, you were looking at a magazine with this girl on the cover. I didn’t know you two were close. I thought you were an obsessed fan.”

I glared. “Die already! We are not close. I met her a year ago, but I didn’t know who she was. Then I saw her at my job interview yesterday, and… No way!”

“What?”

“Err…” my face heated. “I think she was on the train with me yesterday.”

“You think?”

“I can’t remember.”

“Seriously?”

“But if it wasn’t a dream—where is she now? Did she head back to Bridgeport?”

“Why would I know that?”

“Papa must know something, right?”

I could only remember pieces of yesterday, after boarding the train. Scenes came to me like jump cuts. Was I not dreaming? I couldn’t believe it was possible.

“I will ask Papa about it.” I attempted to move again and couldn’t. “Tie.”

She didn’t answer. Her thoughts seemed far away. I slapped her leg.

Tie blinked. “What?” Her voice was unexpectedly crude.

I ignored it.

“Get off of me.”

“Why?”

“You’re heavy.”

“Even if that was true, you don’t directly tell someone they’re heavy.”

“Why not?”

“As much as I like your naïve side and how you don’t mince words, others might find it offensive, you know.”

She leaned closer to me, confusing me.

What… what are you doing?

“Kichi, open your mouth.”

“No!” I shoved and slapped her, but Tie’s face remained close still.

Tie was like me. Someone who liked girls. She often kissed me on my lips. I thought nothing of it since she never mentioned liking me romantically and figured it was her way of teasing me. And Tie did a lot of that.

Yet, at the moment, Tie’s tongue was in my mouth. But why couldn’t I push her away?

I really let this girl have her way.

“You used your tongue,” I muttered when Tie broke our kiss. “That was too intimate for a friendly kiss. Let’s not do it again.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Let’s not.”

Her response surprised me. Honestly, I expected some insistence, but relieved there wasn’t any.

“I’ve never seen your expression this gentle before,” Tie acknowledged.

“It’s because I’m glad. I always thought if I told you not to kiss me anymore, you would stop being my friend. You’re my first friend, so I don’t know how this thing works.”

“Christ!” Tie pressed her palms against my cheeks, her mouth still close to mine. “This is why your naïve self is cute, Kichi.”

“Shut up! I am—” My bedroom door opened suddenly, startling me. I blinked.

“Kichi.”

Ray.

“So, it wasn’t a dream.”

“Dream?” Ray scoffed. “When will you stop confusing dreams with reality?” Her voice had an edge that made me recoil.

“Ray…?”

“Your father asked me to see if you were awake.”

“Oh!” It was all I could muster. The scene between Tie and I likely gave her the wrong impression.

Dropping her hold on me, Tie greeted Ray. “Hello, there, supermodel.”

She glared, and Tie looked smug. Something was happening between them.

Ray hissed under her breath and left without looking at me. The door slammed behind her. A breath left me in a rush. I seemed to lose the ability to move or even to look away from where Ray had stood moments ago.

What just happened?