Annie’s POV

“Okay, Annie, it’s your turn now,” Tony Lung said, turning to me. “What is it going to be?”

The other two boys leaned forward from the circle we were sitting at, anticipating the moment when I would determine my fate. From the look on their faces, I have a feeling I know what they hoped I would say. Everyone always expected me to do the worst.

I did not fail them.

“Dare.”

Tony rubbed his palms together. “This is going to be so good!” he remarked gleefully. “Anyone have a good dare?”

 “I don’t have any in mind. Whoever gives her the dare, please make sure it’s a really good dare!” Jerome Wong said impatiently.

I could only laugh.

“I dare you to kiss me on the lips,” Lee Woo Chul, who was sitting right next to me, said with an evil smirk playing on his lips.

I raised my eyebrows. “That’s it?” I scoffed. “Pucker up.” I leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips.

“Woo Chul, why did you ask er that? You wasted the dare!” Tony whined.

Woo Chul shrugged. “Oh well. At least I got a kiss.” He smirked. He laughed. “Yah!” he pouted all of a sudden, rubbing his head.

I had smacked him on the head before I smiled at him. “Woo Chul, you’re next,” I said to him as I sat back on my cushion.

He gulped good-naturedly.

The four of us were playing Truth or Dare at Woo Chul’s house on Friday night. It was common for all of us to play that silly game. We loved it even though it was sort of cliché to play that game at sleepovers. Even though I was the only girl, it was still fun playing with the guys.

This is something we do every Friday night. The four of us would go to someone’s house and just have a sleepover. Our parents trust us not to do anything since I’m a girl and we didn’t find it weird that I was the only girl who hung out with them.

That’s how close the four of us really are.

I grew up living with Woo Chul, my trustworthy Korean friend. Tony and Jerome came later and they always make fun of his nationality not in the racist way but because they were envious of him.

Heck, I would be envious too but I knew how to speak Korean.

I am half Korean. My dad is Korean while my mom is Chinese. But my mom taught me how to speak in Korean since I was young so I was fluent in it. There are many times when Woo Chul and I would converse in Korean because we didn’t want the other two to guess what we’re talking about.

I live in China because my mom wanted to live closer to her family. I hardly saw my dad because he’s a big-shot in Korea so he was often away. That was fine. I didn’t really like my dad anyway.

It was fun. We are the only people in our school who knew how to actually speak and understand the foreign language. The girls who are interested in all those K-pop songs and dramas, knew certain words but their vocabulary was not enough to actually produce a sentence in Korean.

Anyway, back to the present time, where Woo Chul was about to choose between Truth or Dare, even though it was obvious he’d choose Dare. He always chooses Dare.

“I choose Truth!” Woo Chul said without thinking twice about the consequences.

We gaped at him. Did he not realize what he had gotten himself into?

“Idiot,” Jerome muttered.

“Yeaaa! You have to spill the truth: who do you like?” Tony asked.

He groaned, realizing his mistake. “Can I change to dare?”

“No!” we all cried.

“You cannot make me say it!” he whined.

The thing is, we can never get Woo Chul to confess to us who he has a crush on. We knew there was someone he liked but we just didn’t know who. And now, he had to tell the truth or else he would have to do the deadly punishment Jerome had prepared: drink a cup of water with the number rotten eggs he’d choose by throwing a dice to determine the number.

“Fine, then I’ll take the punishment!”

“Punishment denied for this question!” Tony quickly said.

I lightly punched Woo Chul on the shoulders. “Oh, come on,” I urged. “Why can’t you tell us? We’re your friends, right? Don’t you trust us?”

He looked at me. He then looked back at the other two. “I’ll only tell Annie about it.”

I wasn’t surprised. I was the closest to him because we grew up together. We were practically like brothers and sisters.

Obviously, there was an uproar of protests from the other two idiots. “What, how can you do that? No way! We’re your friends too! Why do you trust her more than us? Not fair!” they both complained.

“Aish, shut up! So noisy!” I gave them a Look and they immediately shut up. “If he wants to tell only me, let him.”

He stood up and took my hand. “Let’s go to the kitchen where they won’t hear us.” He pulled me up and we walked to the kitchen.

“So, who is it?” I asked, tilting my head.

He opened his mouth — just as the kitchen door burst open and Tony and Jerome came in with big smiles on their faces. “Happy Birthday to you!” they sang. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Annnnnnnnniiiiieeeeeeeeeee!” They prolonged the key. “Happy birthday to you!”

Next to me Woo Chul sigh turned to me and hugged me but when I looked up to him, he was smiling. He kissed my forehead. “Happy birthday, you annoying person,” he said teasingly.

“Finally you’re sixteen!” Tony cried. “Happy sweet sixteen!”

Who Woo Chul’s crush was became forgotten as the boys took out a chocolate cake from the fridge and lighted the candles on. They sang the birthday song again and I blew out the candles after making my wish.

“Thanks, you guys! I really didn’t expect this,” I said sincerely.

Woo Chul squeezed my hand and kissed my cheeks. “Well, sis, that’s the point,” he told me lightly. “You’re not supposed to know.”

I jabbed him in the ribs and he pretended to be hurt but he was laughing anyway. Tony and Jerome looked at us and smiled, shaking their heads.

“Cut the cake!” they chanted, handing the knife to me. “Cut the cake! Cut the cake!”

I raised the knife above the cake and they all paused dramatically. I brought it down, cutting the cake and the cheers went off again. I covered my ears, laughing. “I think I’m going to be deaf by the end of tonight,” I told them jokingly.

We each got a slice of cake and began eating even though it was passed twelve in the night. We ate until the cake was gone (it wasn’t very big). We joked about and played video games until it was about five o’clock when we decided it was time to sleep. We laid out the sofa bed. It was big enough for three people so the boys took the bed while I took the hammock in the living room. I smiled in the darkness as I heard the boys’ light snores.

“Annie, are you awake?” Woo Chul whispered into the darkness.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s go up to my room.”

“Okay.”

We quietly snuck out of the living room to his room. He the lights while I jumped on the bed. He came and joined me and we both got under the covers. He snuggled up to me as I turned to face him.

He kissed my head softly. “That was close, just now, downstairs,” he whispered.

I nodded. “I know,” I replied. “But we’re lucky they didn’t suspect anything.” I smiled as I ran my fingers through his hair. “But can I ask you why you refuse to tell them?”

He pulled me closer, kissing my jaw line and I emitted a soft sigh of contentment. “I can’t tell them that we’re dating,” he murmured quietly under his breath. “They both have a crush on you.”

I pulled back, surprised by the news. “Really?”

He nodded, face a little grim. “They both told me separately because they wanted to know who you liked. I told them that you didn’t like anyone.”

It all mae sense now of why he wouldn’t tell them about us. He was doing this to spare their feeling, even though I felt terrible. They were our friends, after all; they had the right to know.

I looked at him and smiled fondly. Woo Chul had always been my best friend but recently I started seeing him as something more. It turned out that he felt the same so we decided to try it out and we were perfectly happy. We weren’t officially together, but we were dating and were off-limits to others. And I think I was falling more in love with him.

It was okay to hold hands and for him to kiss me on the cheeks and forehead because we used to do that in front of the others even before we realized that we had feelings for one another so they didn’t suspect a thing. We had to sneak around a lot, lie a bit here and there.

He hugged me and I buried my head in his chest. He then got up and took out his closet. When he came out, he was holding a huge teddy bear. “For you,” he said and gave it to me.

I hugged it. “Thank you!”

He smiled. “I’m glad you love it.”

I kissed him. “I honestly do.”

“Let’s go to sleep,” he said, bringing the teddy bear back to me. I snuggled up with the bear (it smells like him) and Woo Chul wrapped his arms from behind and we fell asleep like that.

The next morning before the other two woke up we went back downstairs so they wouldn’t suspect there was anything going on between us. We packed our stuff as we waited for our parents to come pick us up. Tony and Jerome went home first. I stayed behind for awhile with my boyfriend before he finally laughed and said, “You should go back and celebrate your birthday with your family.” He kissed my forehead softly and I closed my eyes, my heart beating rapidly. “I’ll see you soon. Bye, Annie.”

I kissed him on the cheeks in a tender manner. “See you. And I really love the teddy bear.” I hugged him before walking out. At that same time, my mom came.

I got in the car and she drove me home. When we pulled up in the curb, I saw another car parked in the driveway. “Oh, who’s here?”

“Your dad is home.”

“Why is he here?” I asked bitterly. I don’t hate my dad, but after being gone for almost two years, I don’t think it’s right for him to suddenly show up on our doorsteps and expect us to continue living our lives as if he never disappeared.

My mom frowned at me. “Be nice,” she muttered.

We went up to my house, me trudging my bag. As soon as I opened the front door, I could hear my dad laughing from in the living room. But he wasn’t alone. Who else was he with?

We walked to the living room and I saw my dad with a guy slightly older than me. Like, maybe he was five years older? He was cute (and really good-looking, I have to admit) with his shaggy long, light brown hair and his winning smile. Oh, and his muscular biceps . . .

But who is he?

My dad stood up when he saw me. “Ah, you have grown so much, Yuri yah.”

I frowned. Yuri?

“I haven’t told her that part yet,” my mom said to him from beside me. “I was hoping we could tell her together.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I see.” He turned back to me and spread his arms, smiling brightly at me. “Come to Appa,” he said. “I want to give you a birthday hug.”

I hesitantly hugged my dad. I could smell the musky scent of palm tree scented cologne my mom always buys for him as it was his favorite. At least my parents were still much in love with each other, despite him being gone for two years. “Annyeonghaseyo, Appa,” I said timidly.

I was scared of my dad. However much I dislike him, you never disrespect my dad. He doesn’t have a temper but he will make sure you feel sorry. And seeing how Asians are quite gungho about being filial, my dad definitely lived by that rule.

I looked at the guy who had stood up as well. In a polite nod, I bowed and said, “Annyeonghaseyo, Annie Tan imnida.” I’m guessing he’s Korean, seeing as he is here with my dad.

He bowed as well. “Annyeonghaseyo, Lee Changsun imnida,” he introduced himself. “But you can call me Joon; it’s my nickname.”

My dad beamed. “Well, let me start by saying this.” He turned to me and gestured to Joon. “Joon here is your brother.”

I have a brother?