It either had to have been super early when I woke up the next morning or I was just too exhausted to be able to fully come out of my sleepy daze, but when I felt Ji Ho shaking me a little, I couldn’t really open my eyes.

                “Hmm…?” I mumbled, trying to roll away from him.  He took his hands off my shoulders and placed them on my face.  I grabbed a handful of his shirt, but was too weak to push him away.

                “Wake up, Dani.  Just for a second, listen.  I have to go.  My parents come back from Beijing today.  I don’t know when exactly and I don’t want them to catch me out.  I’ll talk to you later, ok?” he explained, his mouth near my ear.

                I nodded, but didn’t let go of his shirt.  “‘Kay.”

                He smoothed a hand down my fist on his shirt and laughed as he effortlessly pried my fingers open.  I wasn’t sure if I drifted back to sleep or what, but I thought he’d left.

                So I was just the tiniest bit surprised when I felt him press his lips to my forehead before hopping off the bed and hurrying out the window.

                Some time later, when I woke up for real, I was alone and I couldn’t figure out if I’d dreamed any of it.  Everything from my sinister plot to the conversation I had with Ji Ho to this morning when he kissed my forehead.  It all replayed in my head.  I hadn’t been dreaming or having a nightmare.  It all happened.

                And I just felt worse than I did yesterday after that realization.

                Why was he being so nice to me?  I mean, I know he’s always nice to me, but I don’t know, something was off.

                The paranoid part of my brain told me he knew what I had done and he was just making me feel guilty.  He should yell at me.  Hate me.  Tell me he never wants to see me again.  Tell me we aren’t friends anymore.  I got all choked up just thinking of that.  That would be a fate worse than death for me.

                I sat in bed and yanked my hood up over my head.  What the hell was I going to do?

                No, I know what I’m going to do, I told myself as I reached for my cell phone.

                “Hello?” the familiar voice answered sleepily on the other end.

                “Kyung!” I chirped.  “You awake?”

                “No, what’s up?” he answered.  I rolled my eyes before going into a full explanation of what I did and about my night with Ji Ho.

                “I need you to come over and kill me now, please,” I finished my story with a sigh.

                Kyung was silent for a moment.  “Whoa, Jo Jo.  I didn’t think you had it in you to be so…devious,” he finally said.

                “It’s not me.  I must be possessed.  Keeping everything bottled up for so long has shoved me off the deep end.”

                “I’d say Ji Ho is going to be pissed if he ever finds out, but now I don’t know.  I can’t believe he wasn’t more upset about her not showing.”

                “Maybe he was just shocked.  What do I do?  I need to fix this.  Not to mention, I have to come clean, don’t I?  I mean, the guilt is going to eat away at me like that flesh eating bacteria from those horror movies.”

                He laughed.  “Man, Jo, I don’t know.  Maybe you could just talk to Natalie?  Work something out so Ji Ho doesn’t have to find out what you did.”  He hesitated.  “That is, if you want to fix this so that he ends up with Natalie…”

                More lies, I thought miserably.  I guess that saying is true.  Once you lie once, you can’t stop.  You have to tell more and more lies until you’re drowning in them.  Drowning would be a kind fate for me after all the lies I told though.  Especially to someone I supposedly cared so much for.

                “You know I don’t want him to end up with Natalie, but I have to fix this!” I snapped.

                “Forget that.  I want to change my answer.  Just go to Ji Ho and come clean about everything including your feelings for him.”

                “Never.  He’s going to hate me.  I can’t tell him what I did then say, ‘Oh, by the way, I am completely in love with you. Now, how does running away together sound to you?’”

                “Jordan, something isn’t right about this.”

                “You think?” I grunted.

                “No, I mean, you said it yourself.  He was so blank about her not showing up and then he was all cuddly.  Something is up.  What did he say when you told him we decided to just be friends?”  I could practically smell the smoke coming from his head as he processed everything with his detective-like mind.

                I shrugged even though I knew he couldn’t see me.  “Nothing.  Besides offering to beat you up for me.”

                “Yeah, um, thanks for defending me on that one,” he chuckled.  “He got all snuggly with you after you told him we weren’t together?”

                I thought for a moment.  “I guess so.”

                “Something’s up,” he repeated, sounding confused.  “I don’t know, Jo.”

                “Thanks, you’ve been so helpful,” I grumbled unhappily.

                “Hey, I told you to just come clean.  Aren’t you tired of all the lies?”

                I sighed.  As sick as it sounded, I’d lie all over again if I could make it work so that Ji Ho ended up with me.  Loving me the way I loved him.  I was wrong about my plan.  I wanted to be there for him when his heart breaks over her not showing, when really, my heart was the only one that was broken after my diabolical plan fell apart. 

                “I’d come clean if I didn’t think I’d lose him.  How could I be so stupid?  So manipulative?  That’s so not me.”

                He exhaled romantically.  “Love does that to you, I hear.”

                “Bye, Kyung,” I muttered.  He laughed again.

                “Call me if you need anything.  You want me to talk to Ji Ho?  I could try the guy approach.  Maybe he’d take things differently if the truth came from a dude.”

                “Yeah, call me if you find a dude then,” I retorted.

                “Ha, ha, ha,” he said sarcastically.  “Fine.  I can take a hint.”

                “Thanks for listening to me, though, Kyung.  You’re a good friend to me.  Even though I’m a head case.”

                I could hear the smile in his voice.  “No worries, Jo.”

                “Talk to you later.”

                “Bye.”

                I sighed and clapped my phone shut, flinging it across my bed.  The only good thing here was that I at least had a day to figure things out.  Ji Ho’s parents were coming home today, he’d told me.  He probably wouldn’t talk to anyone at all today if he was busy spending time with his family.

                With a groan, the next morning, I sank under my blankets and hid my head under my pillow.  I’d been thinking all night.  I felt more deranged on no sleep.  But I’d come to a conclusion.  I knew what to do.  What I had to do, should do, but not what I wanted to do. 

                But you have to do it.  I growled.  That flipping voice was back.  Holy Cheetos, I really was nuts.  Maybe that was my real punishment.  I had developed a second personality and it was slowly going to drive me mad by talking to me.

                “Enough,” I snarled, sitting upright and sliding the blanket off my head.  I pulled back my hood and smoothed down my static electrified hair.  Shower and new clothes.

                I had a relationship to fix.

                Even if it meant sacrificing a different one.