-Chi-Ya Zhou-

     Lee-Kang quietly closes her bedroom door and crosses her arms over her silky sky-blue

satin PJs. She looks fully awake and alert now, and kind of angry.

"You know, I can tell if you're lying or not. So spill the beans. But truthfully," she

demands. I can tell she's dying to know where I've been.

I sit down with a heavy sigh on her bed. "You just happened to wander into the kitchen  

and turn on the lights at 1 A.M?" I ask her. Worst. Luck. Ever.

"I wanted a glass of water. But we're not talking about me." She shakes her head and

sets down her stuffed tiger on her bed and sits down next to me. "You know, I can

promise you that I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to."

I pull my sleeves down on my sweater to hide my hands and take a deep breath. "You know

how my procedure is set in July?"

She nods and drops her voice down to a whisper. Her eyes light up as she realizes what

I'm getting at. "So you're seeing a guy and you've been sneaking around but you don't want

anyone to know?"

I see that her eyes don't show any hate or disdain or loathing. She looks serious and

just the slightest bit surprised.

"Well... we're not a couple or anything."

She frowns. "You're risking the danger of being caught with someone you don't even like?"

"I don't know. I mean, I like him as a friend..." I trail off when I realize that I didn't

even know anymore. He was just so real.

"Dang," she whispers, looking at the wall. "I never thought that you'd be the type of girl

who would talk to guys. He must be pretty special to get your attention. You hate guys."

"He's a new guy at my school. And he's not like the city boys here. He's kind of

mysterious. And he shows me stuff like shooting stars and..." I stop and look over at her.

Even though it seems ridiculous- like shooting stars, really?- she seems in awe.

"You're not scared of contracting amor deliria nervosa, are you?" she asks me. She fiddles

with the tail of her tiger.

"I don't want to get it," I declare. "But I don't even know what to think anymore. He's

getting me to think differently. And I'm not experiencing any of the symptoms."

"Yeah, I see. So what's his name?"

"You don't know him. But he's Ky-Tsung. And he just moved here from California."

She nods and sighs. "Okay, so I won't tell anyone. I'll cover up for you too if anything gets

screwy... but you better be careful. Please," she says. "I really don't want you getting

caught."

I scratch my neck. "You know, I don't even see why I'm doing this when I'm just going to

get assigned to my pair in half a year. I'm going to have to stop meeting up with Ky-

Tsung."

"Says who?" Lee-Kang challenges. "You're not going to love your pair anyway. So I don't

think it even matters."

My head spun. Was my rebellious little sister really against pairing too? I was so confused.

Did a lot of people go against what the government dictated?

"What makes you against pairing?" I ask her. Usually Uncureds don't even talk about it.

"Some of my friends are seeing guys. One of them is an Unnatural too. And they're all

normal and don't experience any of the symptoms."

"Oh, so that's why you knew right when I told you about the procedure. I thought you'd

freak out," I say.

She continues on. "Well, they usually seem happy..." she trails off and picks at her

cuticles. "You guys really are lucky. You feel it while the rest of us don't."

Suddenly, I'm back at the alley where I slapped Ky-Tsung, and his voice is echoing in my

head. "They feel it all the time. They're the lucky ones. They feel amor deliria nervosa."

"I should go to sleep. You should too. Don't you have volleyball practice tomorrow  

morning?" I ask her.

She grins. "I wouldn't be saying that, sis. Your team's practice starts one hour before

mine's. Now get out of here."

I groan and stood up. "Shoot, I completely forgot that I have to wake up at 7 tomorrow.

Good night sis," I say as I open the door.

She snuggles down into her comforter and waves her hand. "Good night, Chi-ya. Sweet

dreams."

"Oh, I will," I think as I walk down the dark hall.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Serve harder! Faster!" Coach Yi-Wong yells at me. Her tight bun is coming undone with

every shout.

Sweat trickles down my face as I grab my hundredth ball- yes, hundredth because Coach

Yi-Wong works us to death- and slam it over the net. It grazes the net yet again before

my teammate serves it back.

"Hello?! Is Chi-ya in there? What happened to those amazing serves I saw last week?

Just when our matchagainst the Beijing team ended? You're either tired or your arm

muscles are turning into jelly. Pull yourself together and give me thirty push-ups," she

commands. She immediately moves on to the next girl as I jog off to the side of the gym

and collapse on my hands and knees.

I am so effing tired. I  fell asleep at 2, had a fitful dream that I don't remember so I

was drifting in and out of sleep the entire night, and had to wake up at 6 to eat breakfast

and head of practice. I was amazed that I could still keep my eyes open.

The door to the workout room opens and there stands Ky-Tsung and his group of Cureds,

talking in muscle tanks and shorts. I quickly turn away from them and start my push-ups.

Yu-Lan jogs over to me, her eyes sparkling. "Did you see my spike, Chi-ya? The volleyball

should've went through the gym floor at that speed!"

I open my mouth to congratulate her, but her eyes flick up and she narrows her eyes. My

heart pounds and I swallow. "Nope, Coach is making me do push-ups," I say.

She sits down next to me and drops her voice to a whisper as she pretends to tighten her

ponytail. "Oh my gosh, the new kid was looking over at you. Ky-something. It was so

awkward."

I force myself to nod vigorously. "Yeah, boys are so weird. I don't understand. Now do 

this torture along with me," I say quickly as I resume my push-ups.

(WILL UPDATE SOON<3333 thanks for reading!)