Just a 2025 snippet. Hope you enjoyed it! 

Story: After Midnight

Character: Midnight

2025

Being in love with Lucas Wong has had its up and downs. Being in love with someone like him meant that there were habits we hated about each other, but every night, I would still find myself back in his arms. Lucas was an angel, heaven in the form of a person and I did not want anybody else.

We were two strong people who were able to love each other through thick and thin and it was now 2025. They once told me that when you get into a relationship, everything about your life would have to go on an upward spiral. You would get new friends, be in your comfort zone and step out of it and you’d feel like you were safe on days when things would get a little bit too much.

Lucas gave that to me.

We fought, we kissed and made up after every fight.

On some days, he let me win. On some days, I let him.

He would be the one person who I’d spend the rest of my life with and that was one thing I was sure of. These days, however, something had changed. Lucas was coming home a little bit later and he left early morning—around three to four am and he would tell me that he had work to do. Lucas was always good at his work but he was hardly a workaholic. He did not believe in overtime unless he needed it.

I was the type to trust him and to never demand answers. In the end, we’ve been through so much together.

I felt his hands wrap around my waist, Lucas kissing my shoulder softly. It was a Sunday and I turned to the side to see that he had a few scratches on his arm. I let out a exhale, turning to cup his face in my hands before raising an eyebrow.

“Are you cheating on me?” I asked, Lucas staring at me.

“Happy Sunday to you too, the love of my life,” he said back, letting out a chuckle before leaning down to press his lips against mine. “Definitely cheating on you. Cheating on you with eleventh of Penthouse episode of right there.”

I groaned, Lucas’ lips dragging down to my neck and before I knew it, I was pinned against cupboard, Lucas’ hands already hastily trying to undo my jeans. I slapped his hand and he pouted at me, his big brown eyes almost pleading and I raised an eyebrow before pointing at the marks on his arm.

“What is that? I don’t recall giving that to you.”

“Of course, you didn’t. You’ve been pretty vanilla these days,” he told me and I smacked his arm, my boyfriend giving out a howl. “What? You don’t even give me a show like you used to do back in university. Now, you just lounge around in your pajamas and open your legs for missionary.”

I glared at Lucas, the male scrunching his nose up at me.

“Well, is it not good missionary, though?” I asked and he laughed.

“The best missionary in the world,” he whispered, engulfing me in a hug before grabbing me. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he carried me to the couch, dropping me down softly before his kisses traveled to my chest and he looked up for permission.

“I still say no.”

“Midnight, if you say that, you know I won’t proceed,” he snipped and I rolled to the side, yawning. “Oh, c’mon! Fine. I guess Penthouse will have to do.”

A mischievous grin traveled my face and I winked at him, Lucas looking excited when he saw my expression. He knew me like the back of my hand and he attacked me.

“How about Penthouse and ?” I asked him, a hand going to palm him when he groaned.

“Amazing. Does that mean we’re not doing missionary today?” he asked, his body heat burning my skin from behind as his hands worked their way down my jeans. I slid them off.

“Focus on the show, Lucas,” I told him and he grunted, burying his face against my neck.

“Do I have to?” he whined, his palms laying flat against my and I clicked my tongue, my very obedient boyfriend slowing down. I chuckled, Lucas reaching up to squeeze my . “Just give me the green light and I’m entering.”

“Why are you making it sound like an airport?” I snapped before I felt a surge of pleasure tingle through my lower body.

“I passed the immigration,” he added and I squealed, trying to smack him with the position I was when he did not hold back.

And that was just another day with Lucas Wong.

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“Lucas!” I called over to Lucas who was on the playstation. “I told you we have to go to HomeDepot, didn’t I? Why aren’t you changed?”

“Because I’m waiting for you to get changed,” he said absentmindedly, his hands fiddling with the console. “All I have to do is put on a shirt.”

I glared at him, stalking over to him and plopping on his lap, Lucas used to my antics for attention. He opened his arms, his eyes strained on the screen.

“Lucas, we have so many things to buy. My cabinet broke. The lights are dim,” I snapped my fingers in front of his face and he nodded. “Honey.”

“Honey,” he emphasized. “I know what you need. You mentioned it at least seven times yesterday.”

“Then why aren’t you rushing?” I asked, Lucas frowning.

“Okay, okay. But the moment I put my shirt on, we are leaving the apartment for HomeDepot and you’re not going to spend another minute to “freshen your make up”.” He wagged a finger in front of my face and I glared at him before I kissed his cheek and rushed to freshen my make up before he could complain.

That was how we ended up at HomeDepot, Lucas beside on his phone, when I finally got all the things I needed. As we checked out, I noticed the female glancing at Lucas from time to time. My boyfriend swiped his card and she gave him the receipt to sign when she spoke.

“Weren’t you just here yesterday, sir?” she asked and Lucas blinked, flashing her a smile and signing it before handing it back to her.

“No idea, was I?” he asked back, the female giggling when she noticed my glare. I frowned when I remembered that Lucas had went out of the apartment around lunch time and came back around 8 pm. He then left again around 3 am in the morning, telling me he wanted to work out.

This wasn’t not normal. Lucas loved to work out. Morning jogs, going to the 24-hour gym… You name it, Lucas loved it. My boyfriend was a sweat-junkie and I knew it was good for his health, considering he had been trying to quit smoking.

“You know, babe. It’s just the lack of nicotine,” he told me one day and I nodded. I easily stopped smoking but Lucas did not know that I sometimes second hand smoked when Johnny was around, a cigarette in his hand. Lucas, however, had been smoking since he was sixteen and it proved harder to quit because he was so dependent on it.

Don’t smoke, kids.

Bad for your lungs.

But HomeDepot and not telling me? Red flag number one.

“Are you back in The Fight Club?” I asked Lucas, my lover looking at me like I was crazy. “Are you? Because I swear to god—”

“Why Fight Club?” Lucas seemed amused at my question, chuckling as he entered the car. “What about me makes you think I’m back in The Fight Club?”

“The scratches,” I told him and he frowned, looking down at his arms. “And she said you came to Home Depot. Maybe you wanted to buy a machete or something.”

“You think that we use machetes at The Fight Club?” he asked, his eyes twinkling as he told me to put on the seatbelt. “Honey, your imagination is beyond me.”

“Well… Why did you come to HomeDepot? You didn’t bring anything back.”

“Mhm, came for a few things.”

“I stand my case. You did not bring anything back.”

“Because I ate it,” Lucas told me, chuckling. “I go for my run and I end up at HomeDepot so I ask for ice cream from that small icecream shop. I eat it, I go home.”

“Oh.” I frowned. It made sense, I guess. “Alright. What are we eating for dinner?”

I then dropped the subject. That night, however, I had woken up to the bed creaking and Lucas getting out of bed. It was 1 am in the morning and he was speaking lowly. I bit my lip, Lucas seemingly fumbling with something.

“Oh no. That doesn’t sound good, I’ll… I’ll be right there. Yeah, she’s sleeping,” he whispered and my eyes flew open but I decided to pretend like I was asleep, laying incredibly still. “Don’t worry, I’ll come over and then head to work from there. See you.”

He hung up the phone and I felt him kiss my cheek. I thought he’d wake me up but like other days, he didn’t and he just left. I sat up; my eyes wide open as I replayed the memory in my head.

Something was off.

And I think Lucas was cheating on me.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tuesday was a half day for Lucas, or so he said so he stayed home and caught up on sleep while I headed over to the lab to see Gucci to handle a few backlog tasks.

“Lucas is not cheating on you,” Gucci told me as I chewed on a beef jerky. “That’s impossible. Lucas is the sweetest guy I know. Second to Hendery, of course.”

“Gucci, he said “Yeah, she’s sleeping.”. If that ain’t an indication of a lover cheating on his girlfriend so he can slip away to find someone else, then I don’t know what is. You know he went to HomeDepot and said he went to eat icecream? Who does that?”

“Hendery,” Gucci said and I snapped at her, my best friend smiling meekly. “They are best friends, Midnight. I can tell you straight up that most likely there are some days our boyfriends are sitting at HomeDepot with a cone of icecream in their hands while they talk about stupid things like robots taking over the world.”

I groaned. “Why do I feel like there is something more, then?”

“You’re just paranoid. You get into a relationship long enough, you think it’s too good to be true and then you get scared so you want to run away and find everything wrong with him when there isn’t—Hey, Hendery,” Gucci said suddenly and I saw that she was on the phone. “I got to go but keep me updated. Just ask him straight up!”

“I did. We had ,” I snapped, Hendery’s voice ringing out from the phone with a small ‘Ew, I heard that!’. I sighed, deciding that maybe… just maybe I was overthinking it.

But I wasn’t overthinking it and the moment I went home; I saw Lucas asleep on the couch. His work blazer was on the table and I noticed that it had a small white spot smeared over the fabric. I frowned, walking over to it and decided that I should laundry it when I finally brought it to the laundry room.

I felt the pockets when my finger touched paper and I saw that it was a receipt from HomeDepot. He went again? I glanced at it and saw that it was literally just today. Tuesday morning.

Flowers and bird food.

Why was he buying bird food? I narrowed my eyes at the receipt, my mind reeling. Why flowers? Where were the flowers? If he bought flowers, why did I not see flowers sitting around in my apartment?

And bird food? We didn’t have a pet bird!

“Midnight?” he called suddenly and I shoved the receipt into my pants, putting his blazer into the washing machine when he popped his head into the room and smiled. “I had such a good sleep.”

“Yeah?” I asked, coughing to mask my sudden nervousness since I was snooping around. “Nice.”

“Are you okay? Why do you sound weird?”

“I don’t sound weird, Lucas. Why do you sound weird?” I asked back haughtily, Lucas frowning at me.

“How do I sound weird?”

“You sound happy?” My voice rose and even that sounded strange coming out from my mouth.

“Uh… because life is good and I have a beautiful girlfriend and money in my bank account?” Lucas asked, leaning against the door frame, tilting his head at me. “Is something wrong?”

“No?” I asked, Lucas frowning.

“Okay then. I’m heading to the office in an hour. Will be working late so don’t wait up for me,” he told me, smiling as he planted a kiss on my cheek. He rubbed his lips against my skin over and over again before he moved to kiss my forehead. “I love you.”

And with that, he retreated and left to shower, leaving me in the laundry room as I took the receipt out and stared at it with one question I knew I would obsess over. Where in the world are the flowers and the bird food he bought?

I gritted my teeth knowing that there is only one explanation for it and that it meant the girl he was seeing had a pet bird. But before I could act on impulse, I whipped my phone out to message the girls.

We don’t know each other (But our boyfriends are friends)

Midnight: I need to get drunk
Gucci: Okay
Muffin: Okay
Yahoo: I know this is an SOS call but I can’t make it.
Yahoo: Get drunk for me?
Muffin: We know you won’t drink anyway, Yahoo.
Bunny: Count me innnnnnnnnnnnnn
KBS: I have work but fill me in
KBS: Jisung says hi
Midnight: same restaurant?
Muffin: Sure

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sitting with Gucci and Muffin brought back some memories. I was very well acquainted with the girlfriends of the boys after we went to Thailand for Nakamoto Yuta’s wedding back in 2024. It was an adventure to say the least and I knew a lot happened on that island. Needless to say, it was the first thing that we talked about the moment Muffin sat down because she noticed I was wearing a “I love Thailand” shirt that I bought from a year ago.

“Ugh, that shirt gives me bad memories,” Muffin complained and Gucci chuckled, sipping her tea. I stirred the margarita, the second drink that I had ordered since I sat down as I chewed on my bottom lip. “I know Jungwoo had the time of his life with some back-packer but Mark came back with no hair. Still gives me nightmares.”

“I mean, in all of Yuta’s wedding photos, he was wearing a bright red beanie.” Gucci shrugged. “And the theme was red and white, so I guess it fit the theme?”

“Well, he was bald,” Muffin snapped at the memory. “I’m still mad about it.”

“Sure, cake batter—” I began, earning a glare from the younger woman. My phone rang and I saw Kim Bunny’s text message come up and I frowned. “Who invited Kim Bunny? I thought only adults.”

“Kim Bunny is an adult,” Gucci told me. “She has two babies. What do you have?”

“A cheating boyfriend!” I found myself crying out, slamming the fork down onto the table. Muffin gave me an empathetic look and I hissed through my teeth. “He bought flowers and bird food, Gucci. Where are the flowers and bird food! And he has been leaving the house like… after midnight and he goes straight to work. I have no idea where he has been!”

“Okay, calm down.” Gucci pried the fork from my fingers and placed it on the table, a figure coming up behind her and engulfing her into a hug. Bunny beamed, sliding into a seat as he cupped her face in her hands. “Hey, Bunny. Good to see you here.”

“Good to be here. Another minute with Jeno and I’d file for a divorce,” she said a bit too casually, winking at me. “So, what’s the tea?”

“Midnight thinks Lucas is cheating on her.” Muffin jerked her head towards me and Bunny gasped.

“Nooo! And he’s still alive?” she asked me and I glowered at her. “Why can’t you ask Lucas?”

“I can’t,” I shook my head. “Lucas knows how to lie, okay? He’s a salesman! He lies for a living.”

“Well, what does he sell?” Bunny asked, raising a hand to order something. With a smile, the waitress left and she turned her full attention to me.

“Insurance,” I told her and she made a face.

“Ooooh. That’s a scam,” she told me and I rolled my eyes. “Jeno told me that.”

“He’s been promoted to head sales so apparently, he’s a very good liar,” I told the girls and Muffin blinked. “You know what? I’ve been with him for years yet I have never seen his bank account. He never shows it to me.”

“No joint account for you and Lucas?” Gucci asked, frowning. “Hendery is all for joint accounts.”

“That’s Hendery, though,” Muffin pointed out and Gucci gave a nod. Hendery wasn’t like the rest. “That is weird, I must have to add, in case you need my opinion. I mean, even Mark wants to hyphenate his name and mine. Our first child will be named Jung-Lee Marly. Can you believe that?”

“Jung-Lee Marly is a nice name.” Bunny pressed her lips together. “Sometimes, I forget you’re Jaehyun Oppa’s sister.”

“What do you not forget, Bunny?” Muffin asked, leaning back. “What I’m saying is that different couples are different, don’t you think?”

“I mean, I haven’t thought it was weird before because we both are not made for money, you know?” I sighed. “It didn’t matter if we were saving money together or not. It was natural to use whoever whipped out their wallet first and since I was always adamant to pay because—”

“Strong, independent girl concept; you did.” Gucci smiled because she knew me well.

“Or he’s hiding something,” Muffin said, playing with her food. “Think of it this way… if you’re saving up to have a life together, wouldn’t you have a joint account? Wouldn’t you save together?”

“Can’t relate. I don’t even see a penny of my money. Jeno holds all responsibility for that,” Bunny popped an ice cube into and I saw that she had finished the drink and was now munching on ice. “Are you even thinking of marrying Lucas?”

“I am,” I admitted, sipping the straw. “I can’t imagine my life with someone else.”

“What makes you think he’s cheating, though?” Bunny asked and I told her about the flowers and the bird food. “Bird food? What kind?”

“Bird pellet, I think that was what it was called.”

Bunny made a face when I said the brand. I forgot she was a vet. She then told us that it was one fo the cheapest bird food out there.

“But there is no bird, Bunny!”

“Well then, maybe he has bird food at his office! I know that Jeno always wanted a bird in his clinic so he didn’t drive himself insane talking to himself!” Bunny paused. “We go to his office and we see if there is a bird. Maybe he put the flowers on his desk. He’s a salesman. Clients come up to see him and maybe it looks better. More approachable.”

“Kim Bunny. I have never heard you make sense as much as you do now,” Gucci said, glancing at me. “You did say that he told you that he has a late office night today.”

“He did say that.”

“So, we stake out,” Muffin shrugged. “Life with Mark is boring. All I ever hear of is ice cream and flying hats. Allow me to live the adventure with you guys.”

“Ooooh, fun!” Bunny chirped, beaming