Veronica sighed and pushed past HR, deliberately bumping him and mumbling under her breath, “Lame ass…” Mai Fan took off as well, seemingly after Lai Chan. With nothing better to do, HR went to sit in a free chair and ignore their unfinished breakfasts on the table.
Before he could, however, alarm bells rang in his head and every hair on his body stood up. He took a reactionary step forward and spun on his heel, taking up a fighting stance. Just behind where he stood was Ai, disappointed that he moved out of the way. When the fuck did she get there? He didn’t even hear her enter the room. She looked disappointed that she couldn’t sneak up on him.
She casually looked at his stance while he quickly relaxed. “Am I really that scary? Anyway, what’s this I hear about a date?” She wasn’t even here, how does she even know about-
While the adrenaline still ran through his veins, he realized what had caused his fight or flight instincts to kick in. It was an all too familiar feeling. The same one he got moments before Jazmin or Allison appeared to bully him, only one hundred times worse, for some reason. He needed to be careful around her.
His processing must have come off as hesitation as Ai continued, “No matter. I’ll go see to it that she wears something appropriate for a date, for both of your sakes. Make sure to thank me later.” She went to the door and turned her head back towards him. “Oh, and Hilbane. I realized something after you left last night.” His blood ran cold at the look she gave him. Equal parts salacious and threatening.
“You said that ‘she’ wouldn’t appreciate us fraternizing. You aren’t out of the woods yet.” With that, she winked and disappeared off in the direction he assumed Lai Chan’s room was.
Now alone in the room full of half eaten breakfasts, he sat down and waited. Occasionally he would pick something off one of the forgotten plates and marvel about how good it tasted and the fact that they got to eat food of this quality every day.
Forty-five minutes later they re-entered the room. ‘They’ being Lai Chan, Veronica, Ai and Mai Fan. Though HR barely noticed the rest, focusing entirely on his girlfriend.
Lai Chan wore her patented smile, but that wasn’t all. As he gave her the once over, her family flanked her and spoke as if they were fashionistas, clearly proud of their work. Though HR mostly tuned them out, to the point where he just assumed their voices were some inner monologue.
“I think the dress’s design is a bit obvious. But sometimes simplicity is best.” Ai gestured to Lai Chan’s main article of clothing. Her sundress was a single shade darker than her skin, a radiant blue as if one was looking at the summer sky. To complete the looks, different sized clouds of white peppered the dress, each flowing and unique in their composition.
“Give us a twirl, please,” Veronica commanded her elder sister. When Lai Chan complied HR had to agree with Ai. The dress flowed so smoothly that the clouds seemed to be moving as if they were a timelapse of the sky instead of attached to a person. And with the color being so close to her skin tone, it was sometimes hard to tell where the dress and clouds ended and where Lai Chan began. He could have sworn he saw birds flying in that sky.
“Now if you’d look up here.” On her neck was a white choker that Lai Chan absentmindedly pulled at every few seconds.
“And around here…” One of them turned her around to reveal her cloudlike hair to be in a sort of braid. Though it mostly just looked like one long cloud. Woven into her hair were several jeweled birds of different materials. So he hadn’t gone crazy earlier. The imitations were as brightly colored as the originals they copied. Vibrant colors of songbirds to break up the white and blue of the main pieces while contributing to the theme.
“And last but not least, as I’m sure you’re wondering…” Much to our hero’s surprise, Ai grabbed the hem of the dress, and with a swift upward motion, exposed her sister’s undergarments for all to see.
HR’s mind raced. What could she be wearing underneath? Maybe something to go along with the theme? Perhaps something white and lacey, maybe silken. Or maybe it would go against the theme? Black and bold. Could it be that it would match the dress and match the color of her skin, making it seem as if there was nothing there? Or perhaps most tantalizing of all, combining Ai’s influence and Lai Chan’s utmost confidence, absolutely nothing. Possibilities continued to race through his mind as his eyes focused.
Lai Chan stood proud and unabashed in her incredibly scandalous… compression shorts? Oh.
“I’m sure you aren’t too pleased about this last bit, but neither am I. We tried to get her to wear something a bit more exciting, but she refused.” Ai shrugged.
Veronica finished up. “So what do you think? We designed this for her ages ago but never had an excuse to make her wear it.”
HR simply stated what was on his mind. “She’s perfect.” At the compliment Lai Chan left the side of her sisters in favor of jumping into his arms, kissing him deeply. Veronica scoffed.
“I was talking about the outfit, but yeah I guess.” Ai patted her on the shoulder before interrupting the two, seeing as Lai Chan’s hands had begun to roam a bit too close to below the belt.
“Alright. That’s enough from us, for now. Don’t you two have a date to go to?”
Lai Chan immediately removed herself from HR’s body, still gripping one of his hands.
“That’s right!” She dragged him along as she quickly left the room, taking a white handbag also bejeweled with birds from Mai Fan’s hands. They flew through the mansion and out the door, headed downtown.
—
The walk went by in a flash. Full of hand squeezes, smiles and giggles, it distracted him from all else in the world until she popped the question.
“So what do you want to do?” The honest question deserved an honest answer.
“I’m… not sure. Didn’t think I’d make it this far.” But he had to think of something. “Wanna find somewhere to sit and… talk?”
They found a small cafe and ordered drinks. A fruity bubble tea for Lai Chan and a more “mild” bubble tea for HR, after some insistence from his girlfriend. When sitting, HR was faced with a dilemma. Did he sit next to her, or across from her?
After a few seconds of deliberation, the choice was made for him when Lai Chan dragged him down into the chair beside her, then resumed their hand holding. With her other hand, she happily started gulping down the tea.
“So…” At his words, her attention turned from her drink to him, her plump lips still around the straw as her eyes stared inquisitively at him. Gods, she was hard to look at. In the best way possible.
Anything to get his mind off of taking her right back home and continuing with their ‘lessons’, he asked one of the first things that popped into his head. Unfortunately that happened to be one of his many insecurities.
“Have you given any more thought about your… attraction?” Lai Chan stopped picking at her choker and faced him fully.
“What?”
“You know. Like when I told you that ‘wanting to fight people’ was actually you being attracted to them. Have you any thoughts on that?” Her confusion was only rivaled by his embarrassment at what was to come. But he needed, or at least felt like he did, to know.
“No, not really. Was I supposed to?” She took another sip of the tea. Her other hand left his to scratch her neck again.
“Well I was just wondering if you’d… considered your options. Since you figured it out, that is.”
“Options?”
“You know, like other people?”
“I don’t follow.” HR took a breath.
He had hoped he wouldn’t have had to say this so directly. “What I mean is… you’ve obviously found other people attractive for a while now. And now you know what those feelings mean and how to, um… handle them. Have you considered seeking anyone… else to help you manage those feelings?” This time it was him who brought a hand up to his neck, to rub the back of it as his eyes trailed to the side.
“Why would I look for someone else when I have a boyfriend?” Ah. The other topic of discussion. A pang of guilt.
“I wanted to talk about that as well, actually. People tend to rush into things a bit too fast when things get emotional. I wanted to-” he stopped when he finally looked over and saw the fear and sadness in her eyes.
“Are you breaking up with me?”
“No! No, gods no. I would never. I was more wondering if you were having any second thoughts about us being together. Now that you’ve had some time to think about it.” Seeing the confusion start to come back, the words poured out of HR in a jumbled rush. “I mean to say that I didn’t want you to feel trapped, you know. Like you felt that we’d gotten ahead of ourselves in the heat of things and now that you’ve calmed down and had a moment to think, you might have felt like you made a mistake…”
“I didn’t make a mistake.” The assurance in her voice was real. A silence grew between them. Every passing second only added to the stockpile of anxiety, despite her words having just alleviated a good chunk of it. She seemed lost in thought, trying to piece together her feelings into words. Her hand began to move towards her neck again.
HR reached over and stopped her hand, freeing her from her thoughts as the unconscious motion was halted. He then leaned a bit closer, the distance between their faces shortening. A fact that she was acutely aware of. She then felt both of his hands go up to her neck, brushing her sensitive skin as they looped around. And then she felt release.
His hands and body moved away, and with them came the choker. He reached down a bit and slipped it into her bag, which hung from her chair. The only evidence of his closeness was her breath, ever so slightly heavier with anticipation.
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