Chris had been noticing strange vibes from Milk for some time now, and finally decided to be the nosy neighbour. She made sure to approach her sometimes-introverted pal when everyone else was out of earshot.

Initially Milk denied anything at all was out of sorts. But Chris gently prodded, "There's obviously something going on with you. I'm sure I'm not the only one who's noticed."

Chris had a side to her personality that was loud and chatty. She was sometimes oblivious to the human mechanism Milk liked to refer to as "Verbal Filter". Chris was cool because she spoke her mind, but sometimes she just needed to ZIP IT.

Fortunately, there was another side to Chris that was very sisterly; maybe even motherly. She took care of her friends and often came across older and wiser than her years. This part of her made Milk want to confide in her. She bit the bullet and decided to risk that Chris might blab after all was said and done: "Well...have you ever known someone who developed romantic feelings for a friend?"

"OMG you have the HOTS for ME!" Chris made an "O" face. Milk swatted the air right above the tips of Chris's hair, which made the tiny mom-girl jokingly duck as if choreographed.

"Be serious, doofus," Milk smirked.

"Okay, okay! So who do you have a crush on?" Chris demanded. Milk replied, "Argh! Nobody even said I have a crush on anyone!"

"But you do - so SPILL!" Chris insisted.

Milk pretended she hadn't heard that and continued, "So say you had feelings for your friend and she or he was clearly not into you. Would you say nothing and let it eat away at you forever, or would you risk making the friendship awkward by fessing up?"

"She or he? Have you fallen for..." Chris shuddered, "...a DUDE?!"

Milk abruptly stepped into Chris's personal space to forcibly cover her chattermouth with her large hand. Chris widened her eyes and arched her eyebrows. She was rattling Milk's nerves. If Miss Mouthy Jokesalot kept interrupting, Milk would lose her nerve to continue this discussion. She therefore blurted out, all in one shot, "Okay you need to pipe down, stop interrupting and just let me say this! Yes, I've fallen for someone I'm really close with. It doesn't matter who it is, but no, it's not you, and no, it's not a MAN! I need your advice. PLEASE - what would you do if you were me? I can't bear the secret any longer!"

Chris's eyes appeared to say that she would be obedient, so Milk removed her hand from her friend's lips. Chris caught her breath and explained that if it were her, she'd do one of two things.

"Swallow your pride and just tell her," she said, "or swallow your pride. And tell her."

Milk hadn't expected this one-dimensional response. She offered, "That's brave of you, but what do you get out of announcing it if she's not interested?"

"Satisfaction of having been brave. Knowing that love is not a selfish thing. If you have it, share it. Even if it turns out to be unrequited, I'd say it in hopes she'd be touched if only for a moment at knowing that someone loves her." Chris peered up at Milk with intensely serious eyes. She spoke like a wounded poet who can only express poignant words because he'd lived to tell the tale.

But Milk was still afraid to lose a friend. That was beyond the pretty notion of 'I care about you therefore I'm telling you this'. Also, if she came clean and the object of her affection accepted her advances, what would become of the friendship if the romance didn't pan out?

Sensing hesitation, Chris gripped Milk's forearm and gave her one last word of advice:

"Tell Chiao."

She smiled the kind of Chris-smile that Milk adored for its sincerity. Milk didn’t know how she’d guessed that the person in question was Chiao, but it didn’t even matter.