Honey?

"..."

"Mika, I've seen how he looks at Michael."

"Are you sure he's the right person for you..?" She adds.

Mika takes a look at Liam once again, before she looks back to her sister, then suddenly starts to look serious as she says, "No."

"I don't know, Melody. But I love him either way. Even if it ends in tears.", she adds. Deep inside, she feels relief, knowing that her sister does not know everything yet. For a second, she thought she was going to be in trouble.

Meanwhile, the tall beautiful young woman looks at her younger sister standing in front of her in determination. She smiles in awe, she's very happy for her sister. She knows how her sister had been longing to experience love the way it is portrayed in the romantic novels they would read together. It was their favorite way to bond with each other, before Mikayla moved out of town on her own to live in a dormitory inside her university.

Meanwhile, as Michael and Liam play chess in the ground floor...

"Liam." They speak to each other as they continue moving pieces, waiting for the other to lose.

"Hm?" Liam responds as he puts his clenched wrist over his mouth, as if to think about his next move.

"You hear what they're talking about?" Michael looks at Mika and Melody talking on the second floor. "I can't hear it—you should be able to, since you're closer.", he added.

Liam looks at the two having a conversation before he looks back to the chess board and giggles, "I'm only a meter further away from you, Michael. They're still a storey away from us."

"Ah, I'm curious." Michael sighs.

"Nice to see you two getting along.", Mika utters as she walks down the stairs with her sister. "Good morning." Her sister Melody adds into the conversation, to which the two guys reply, "Morning."

That whole morning, the four have fun with each other, as they get to know Liam better. Of course, Liam is still playing Mika's boyfriend. Just like his friend, he wants things to work out as smoothly as possible. He wants to make everything believable, while Mikayla plans out the rest.

When they all had their breakfast, it was time for Liam to leave. They all felt excited for her and her boyfriend—Well, "boyfriend". Mika drove her "boyfriend" back to his home just before his shift at Kokoffi.

"Thank you, Liam. You helped me a lot, really." Mika speaks from inside the car while looking at Liam who is now standing outside of the car, in front of Mika. Liam bows down to see her closer. When he got close enough, he tilts his head and gazes at Mikayla with a slight smile. "You've always been a good friend to me, too, Mika. I'm just trying to pay you back."

Afterwards, Mikayla raises the car window shut as she watches Liam enter his house. She went to have a walk at the park by herself, went to a restaurant, and even went shopping before she went back home. Throughout that whole trip including the drive, however, she could not help but think about what Liam had said last night at the dinner table.

'If you would let me, I will do as I can to take care of her.' His words play like a broken music disc in Mikayla's head. Until now, she clearly doesn't understand what she felt at that time—She's never heard anyone say something like that before, nor had she expected anyone to say something like that about her at all.

It's just like when she reads her books—she feels butterflies in her stomach. Somehow, she's happy that she could at least feel this way even out of something fake.

Still thinking of the same thing over and over again, Mikayla lies flat in her bed once again. She is lost in her thoughts and has been so for hours. 'So this is what it's like', she thought.

"Mika, dear?" She hears a voice from outside of her door—it's her mother. She decides to snap out of her thoughts, and goes to open the door for her mother. "Can we talk?", Theresa asks, looking guilty. Mikayla leads her mother to sit on the bed with her before they start talking.

"I'm sorry about what happened yesterday, dear." Theresa stares into her daughter's eyes.

"I know it was wrong of me to make you marry another man when you're in a relationship with someone else—I'm sorry." She added.

Mikayla is starting to feel regret. This is not a good reason for her mother to apologize, she thought.

"No, Ma—I'm sorry. I'm sorry I shouted at you."

The two give each other a hug, before they decided that they want to go out together. They drive to a spa together while they have a conversation.

In the spa...

"You know, Mika dear, your father always used to take me out on dates. In fact, I think we would go out almost everyday. He would also give me flowers every time we would meet." She looks down and smiles, before she looks back up to her daughter sitting beside her and says, "Does Liam take you out a lot?"

Mikayla stares back at her mother in shock, although she manages to hide that face from her mother. "Yes, Ma. Of course."

They both continue enjoying the spa. They eat at their favorite fancy restaurant just a couple blocks away from the spa, and they went shopping together before they went home.

Two days later, Mikayla was reading a new romance book in her sheets after she ate breakfast when her phone started vibrating beside her, waking her up from her fantasies as she read. It's Liam on the phone.

"Hello?"

"Mika, I need your help."

"With what?"

"I just had a conversation with Mike—he wants to have dinner with us and he's planning to-"

*Knock-knock*

"Hold that thought, Liam." Mika says as she looks at the door, as if to figure out if it's her door that the knock is coming from.

"Come in.", she says after she puts her phone on her chest, making sure Liam does not hear anything over the phone.

It's Theresa. No, her two siblings were also there.

Confused Mikayla watches the three as they enter the room, wondering about what they have to talk with her about. "Yes?"

"Is, um.. Is your boyfriend free tonight?" Melody asks as she stands behind her mother sitting on Mikayla's bed. Michael sits on the couch.

"I don't know.. Why?" Mika tilts her head in confusion.

"It's been days, dear. You've been sitting in your bed alone, and you haven't gone out with Liam. Is everything okay? He's supposed to make time for you." Theresa is worried for her daughter. Married to a loving man like Arthur Lin, she believes that the perfect man shall always do things for their woman such as taking her out on dates and movie nights almost all the time.

"I.. Guys, I don't think he's free today, at all, he's, um.. currently working overtime, so.." Mikayla replies, although she isn't quite sure of what she said. She doesn't know about her best friend's schedule.

"Liar! I texted him." Michael speaks up, looking excited as he looks at everyone while pointing at Mikayla, while everyone else is focused on him.

"I texted him—I said I wanted to go out with you two, and he said yes." He adds, and this leaves Mika in shock.

Mika is speechless. Is he being serious? Seriously, what is going on?

"And we're all coming." Melody adds into Michael's statement. Mikayla turns to Melody. She is nervous. What is she supposed to do? Should she say yes? Would Liam be okay with it?

"What..?", is all that could come out of Mika's mouth. Like when she had to go on a date with Andre, things are happening too quickly for her yet again. She doesn't know what to even think about—she doesn't know what excuses to make!

"Mika, dear. If he truly loves you, he'll make time for you and our family." Mika's mother joins back into the coversation. She holds her daughter's hand, then says: "Trust me."

After a while of silence with just Mika and her mother staring at each other, the three finally decided to leave the room. Mika had to think about it for a second. After a couple more minutes, she remembers she had to leave her best friend hanging on the phone, so she gets back to him right away. "Liam, you still there?"

"Welcome back."

"Thanks. No, sorry, I.. I was talking to my family, and, um.."

"Yes?"

"They want to have dinn-"

"They want to have dinner with me?" Liam cuts his best friend off.

"How'd you know?"

"That's what I was going to say, Mika. Actually, I didn't think they would tell you already, since I haven't replied to Mike's text—I wanted to know what you want to do before I responded." He answered.

"You call him Mike?"

He laughs. "Yes, we're also best friends now, Mikayla.", he jokingly says.

"Oh, don't call me that, Liamtrus Christian Wu." She jokes back, as the two corners of her lips curve up.

"Mika, who the heck names their kid Liamtrus?" He chuckles. "How did you even think of that?"

The two end up chatting for two hours. It was already 3:25 PM when they both decided to get ready. Once again, Mika picks her "boyfriend" up from the coffee shop he works from, and they both arrive at the restaurant at around 8 PM. They've picked out a private table, without forgetting about Mika's family, and they are just to wait for them now.

Not making the two wait long, the four guests arrive at the restaurant, and at their zone. They all greeted each other with hugs and small kisses before they went to take their seats around the rectangular table. They are seated the same way they were at the dinner table two nights ago.

The family have a little chat with each other from the time they wait for the menu, until their meals arrived. When their meals arrived, everybody started digging into their food quickly as they all enjoyed around the dinner table. Minutes later, Liam speaks up, looking at Mika.

"Honey? Can you pass the salt, please?"

"..."

Mikayla continues eating.

"Honey?" Liam tilts his head closer to Mikayla.

She turns at him, confused: "Y-you're talking to me?"

"Yes, honey. Please get the salt for me."