It seems as if all my life people have been giving me a hard time about my looks. Just when I begin to believe I've finally escaped, the rudeness and verbal abuse started all over again. My hair is decent, I'm not too skinny nor too fat, I'm medium height. Everything about me seems to be what any man would want their woman to be like...until you've seen my face, that is. I've struggled with vitiligo for almost 5 years. People would call me a cow because of the white patches on my face. I'm tempted to bleach my skin to even my complexion out, but I won't want to risk damaging my skin.

Now, about that rudeness I was talking about. Earlier this week, I was hired to be a secretary for a lawyer, Kevin

, of a successful firm. He was nothing but kind and welcoming to me. If only I could say the same about everybody. I mean, not everyone was a complete jerk to me. The women were nice to me, but it was mainly the men who would give me hell and throw shade at me most of the time. She'd be pretty if it weren't for those patches on her face, I knew they're thinking.

For example, Kevin's friend, K.C., was talking to Kevin about me behind my back while I was in my office. During the first (and last) day, I heard him say to Kevin, "I thought you said you were going to hire a knockout, Kevin. She's so sore to my eyes that it knocks me out."

I was getting ready to stomp out there and tell him off, but Kevin already beat me to the punch when he said, "Well, I grew up, K.C., and so should you. I realized the error of my ways of my ways of trying to find eye candy to work here just for you to get shot down by as usual. I needed someone efficient and well-organized, and Mika fits that description. We all have our flaws, K.C. I mean, you have rabbit's teeth, so I don't know why you're making a fuss over her."

I couldn't help but chuckle behind my hand I used to veil my mouth. I guess he must have heard me anyway because K.C. burst through my door with a scowl on his face.

"Oh, I know you're not laughing, Ms. I-Look-Like-A-Cow-with-Those-Specks-on-My-Face."

I challenged, "I've been traveling the world all my life, so there's nothing you can say about my face I haven't heard in at least 10 different languages."

"Don't pay attention to K.C.," Kevin told me as he entered my office. "He just doesn't know how to treat a woman."

"Obviously."

"Come on, K.C., and let Mika do her work." 

K.C. trailed close behind Kevin, but he stood in my doorway threatening, "This isn't over." Then he slammed the door behind him.

"Why do people treat me like this?" I asked myself, on the verge of tears. I obliviously pulled out a mirror from my purse and saw the answer in my reflection. I saw white, pale specks on my cheeks and a smear of white around my mouth.

"One day, the spot will spread out and even your complexion," my doctor told me. "It can take a while, but it'll happen, unless if you want to speed up the process with some skin-bleaching lotion. There are risked involved such as making you more sensitive to the sun, though."

I realized the risks, but more and more I'm tempted to bleach my skin. When I traveled to Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, and many other Asian countries, I couldn't find any lotion that didn't have any skin-bleaching agents, The people gawking at my face only made me think about it even more.

As if he were reading my mind, I heard Takuya's soft voice telling me, "You're perfect just the way you are. You don't need to bleach anything."

Putting the mirror back into my purse in order to trade it out for a framed picture of Takuya, I smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you, Takuya."

Someone knocked on my door.

"Come in."

When the door opened, the last person I wanted to see walked in. "Who's Takuya?"

"What do you want, K.C.?" I tucked Takuya's framed picture back in my purse.

"I just came in here to apologize to you for what I've done earlier. So I came here to give you something." K.C.  walked over to me and gave me his tablet. The screen showed his Pinterest page. He clicked on a pin I didn't get a chance to get a good look at until it popped up on the screen. The pin showed a woman who's face was split down the middle; one side of her face was tanned while the other side was lily white.

I scrolled down only to realize it was an article from StyleCraze on how to naturally lighten your face.

A low, cruel chuckle escaped K.C.'s lips as he looked at the scowl on my face. "I don't know what you're so mad for. You should me thanking me for trying to make your life easier. You know, my sister used these remedies for some dark spots and blemishes on her face, and she's loving the results. Imagine what this can do for your skin. I bet you've never had a man before because of your skin, have you? Probably not. I wouldn't blame them."

Even though I know better, I've decided I've had enough of K.C.'s taunts, so I slapped him so hard with his own tablet it broke against his face. I jumped out of my chair and repeatedly banged his head against my hard metal desk until Kevin rushed in and pulled me away from him. Before K.C. could get away from me well, I kicked him in his bunny teeth, making them fly out of his mouth with streaks of blood on them. He howled in pain.

"What's going on in here?" Kevin shrieked.

"This crazy attacked me!" K.C. hollered. "And I will be pressing charged, Mika, so you'll be hearing from my lawyers!"

"I'm sorry, Mika, but I have to fire you."

When Kevin finally let go of me, I said to him, "I already quit."

I left the firm, knowing that I'll never see the two of them again after the court case.

The judge went easy on me since this was my first offense. He charged me with assault and battery and sentenced me to 2 months of house arrest. I was right about not seeing the two lawyers again...at least with K.C., and I'm glad about it.

When the case was dismissed, K.C. came up to me in the parking lot with a smug smirk. "You really messed yourself up this time, Mika."

I got in my car, leaving the door open, and told K.C., "I don't know what you told Kevin, but I know the truth, and I know you do, too. I haven't done anything to you that you didn't deserve, and one day this will come back to catch up with you sooner than you think. Mark my words: You will bring about your own destruction." I closed my door, not waiting for him to respond, and drove all the way home.

Meanwhile, Kevin was waiting for me on my porch with numerous bags of groceries inside. He helps me with errands for things like this since I can't leave my house. He apologized for what K.C. did and revealed that he fired him for providing a hostile environment in the firm, thus ending their eight-year friendship.

"He wasn't a good friend to me anyway," Kevin revealed. "He lied to my face too many times, which killed my trust for him."

"I'm sorry," I apologized.

"It's all right. It was either now or never for me to break off our friendship. You need me to run any more errands for you?"

"No, I'm all right. Thanks, Kevin."

"You're welcome. Good night." Kevin got in his car and drove off into the night after helping me bring the groceries in the house.

"I thought he'd never leave," Takuya griped. "Kevin talks too much."

Shocked, I pulled out Takuya's picture and scolded, "Takuya, that's so mean. He's my friend."

Takuya Terada is a beautiful Japanese man who keeps me company. Despite a three-year age difference, he still loves me nonetheless. Takuya also has a jealous side to him, as you can see. He gets angry whenever he sees me talking to other men. I assure him he's the only man I'll ever love, but he still gets angry at me sometimes.

"Go upstairs and put on the dress you bought for your sister's wedding," he tells me.

I ran upstairs, fished through my closet until I found the blue fit and flare dress Takuya loves. I immediately ran downstairs to see Takuya with his shiny, jet black hair slicked back to reveal his flawless white face and wearing a white suit. His slender hand was outstretched, asking me to dance with him. Eagerly, I place my hand into his and let the sound of Kool & the Gang's Summer Madness control our rhythm. He spun me around, picked a white rose from the vase and put it in my wavy, black hair.

"Beautiful," he breathed,

"No, I'm not," I argued. "Look at my face, Takuya. I have patches all over my face. My skin was so smooth and brown. No look at it. People even call me a cow."

Slightly irritated with my insecurity, Takuya made me face the mirror and huffed, "You want to know what I see?"

I covered my face with my hands, not wanting to see the person looking back at me. "What?"

"Put your hands down, Mika, so I can see you."

Slowly and hesitantly, I put my hands to my side.

"You know what I see? I see a beautiful woman with unmatched beauty. Not even a harem of geishas can compete with your beauty."

"But--"

"And since you're on house arrest, you get to spend more time with me. As long as you're here, I refused to let people call you that word I hate."

"A cow."

"That's right, Mika, and I don't want to hear you call yourself that ever again. You don't have to fit in to society's standards of beauty to be accepted. The K.C. baka doesn't know a real woman when he sees one. He's just like the rest of those men out there who don't know a real woman when he sees one. That's all."

"But, Takuya--"

The next thing I knew, Takuya spun me around to face him and captured my mouth with his soft, pink lips. He held me close in his warm embrace, entagling his fingers into my beautiful hair, and I immediately melted. "You mean the world to me, Mika. Never belittle yourself again. It breaks my heart."

We slowly went back to dancing to Summer Madness, and Takuya looked at me with eyes of love while he held me close. If this is a dream, let me never wake. If it's real life, let me never sleep. I never want this moment to end.

_________________________________________________________

Thanks for reading, guys!! And thanks to all new subscribers who read this collection, too. I promise you'll never regret it. 

The model used in the story is Chantelle Brown Young. I remeber seeing her on America's Next Top Model, and she was such an inspiration to me that I had to write this story. I also read a story in Sharon Draper's Who Am I Without Him called The Ugly One around the same time, so here is this story.

I hope you've enjoyed this collection so far and please follow me until the end. I will even sometimes do requests. A Mother's Letter to her Estranged Daughter was a request, and I loved it and enjoyed writing it. If you have any requests on an Asian man I should include, please don't hesitate. However, I've felt like I've been mainly giving Korean men the spotlight in this collection even though it's about Asian men in general, so I'll most likely do an non-Korean suggestion if you have any.

I'm also thinking about making one of these into a full version, so which one do you think I should do?

Please check out 8 Weeks if you haven't already. I'm still working on the next chapter's rough draft, so it could take a while :/

Thanks so much, you guys!!!! ♫♪♫♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♫♪♫