Mei wasn’t happy.

Not because she didn’t like being back with her family – she’d missed them all terribly and it was great to finally be able to swap stories about her boyfriend with her sisters.

‘He really said that???’ Aria sounded aghast when she told them about her first-date fight with Luhan – the calling her ‘easy’ thing got them all riled up. ‘And you let him live?’

‘Calm your , I dealt with him.’ Mei responded dismissively.

‘Mei!’ Sera, the eldest among them, sounded scandalized by her language – Aria just dissolved into cackles along with her.

And there were the late night coffee sessions, staying up all night, catching up on her favorite seasons and so many things that she’d been unable to do and it was all good.

Technically.

She wasn’t happy because she and Luhan had been unable to keep in touch at all.

And she was suffering through an intense bout of withdrawals. It had to be that – good thing she’d gotten used to lesser contact from him over the last month, tapered off the Lu drug because going cold turkey would’ve killed her.

As it was, she was only suffering through terrible blues and some hallucinations.

It was these Luhan-deprivation-caused hallucinations – hypnopompic, Aria had told her sardonically – that worried her the most. Because they made no ing sense but left her feeling terrified for his safety and wondering what the hell was going on with him.

Like the zombie-apocalyptic-star-warsesque dream she had just now. Luhan was being attacked by so many whatever-the-hell-they-weres, he’d been buried underneath them and she’d feared for his life. Then, he’d used his Luke-Skywalker abilities – why the hell she associated him with Luke Skywalker when she wasn’t even a fan of the series, she’d never know – to blast the creatures off himself.

They flew like debris as the volcano erupts and burst into flames, turning into a fireworks display of sorts.

All of which was well and good but why the hell was she seeing it all in first person? As in, through Luhan’s eyes… wasn’t that taking ‘being one’ too literally? Or what if it indicated something more serious? Like maybe she’d forgotten what the real Luhan looked like – since she had been deprived of him so long – and now, she couldn’t even remember his features?

Panicked by the thought, she hurriedly grabbed her phone from her side table, went to the gallery and opened the first picture that came up. It was her sister, Aria, making a crazy face.

‘No…’ She moaned, curling up on herself. She really had forgotten what he looked like and now, instead of him, she was seeing her sister and no wonder she couldn’t see his face, even in her dreams. Her mind had been warning her and she’d ignored it and oh god, what would she do now???

‘Ya!’ The night lamp and Aria, blinking sleep out of her eyes, mumbled. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Everything!’ Mei cried, curling up even more and hugging her cellphone to her chest. ‘I don’t even remember his face…’

‘You’re not making any sense.’ Aria told her but she wasn’t listening, too busy crying. She was terrible – only a month and she’d already forgotten him when she clearly remembered everyone else…. Wait, what did that mean? Was something wrong with her? Her brain??? Was it dying?

Panicking again, she sat up and grabbed Aria’s nightshirt’s collar. ‘What is wrong with me?’ She demanded, eyes wild.

‘You’ve died and come back to haunt us.’ Aria told her seriously, gripping her wrists and prying them off herself.

‘WHAT???’

Her shriek could’ve woken the dea… not even thinking about it. Aria’s cackles told her she’d been tricked. ‘You jerk!’ She muttered, her racing heart calming down.

‘Relax honeybuns!’ Aria patted her head. ‘Did you have a nightmare?’

‘I don’t know… geez…’ Mei rubbed her eyes tiredly.

‘Tell me.’ Aria told her in her best trust-me-I’m-a-psychologist voice. Mei began. ‘See, I keep having these weird dreams…’

‘They’re called wet dreams.’ Aria informed her confidently, ‘all adults have them.’

‘Ew!’ She hit her sister with a pillow. ‘Not with the talk again!’

‘But you need to know, now that you have a serious boyfriend!’ Aria had that older sister voice and that just meant she was about to get horrible images burned in her head. She still had nightmares from the time Aria had decided she was old enough to know about when she'd had her first period.

‘I don’t want to hear it!’ Mei covered her ears.

‘But…’

‘NO, not happening. Do you wanna hear it or should I go to Sera?’ Mei glared at her.

‘Fine, what did you see?’

She began again and related most of the dream. ‘Why do I see it in first person?’ She was about to share her worry that that she was maybe forgetting Luhan’s face but of course, Aria interrupted her.

‘Know what I think?’ she’d been staring in the distance thoughtfully, looking serious. ‘I think you have a serious voyeuristic kink – specifically you wanna see yourself when you do the do…’

‘What?’ Mei was appalled. How the hell did she come to that conclusion?

‘So, if and when you guys get to it, make sure you use a mirror.’ Aria finished with a satisfied smirk. ‘It’ll make your experience – mmph!’

‘Shut up, seriously! Just shut up!’ Mei threatened.

‘Fine, okay okay!’ Aria raised her hands in surrender. ‘I was wrong, it’s astral travelling – your soul is seeking him out… ouch!’

‘I. Hate. It.’ Mei punctuated each word with a punch. ‘I hate it!’ Aria bent over, offering her arm habitually – when they got like this, Aria was prone to getting beaten up for annoying the hell out of Mei.

‘Are you going to get serious or not?’ Mei demanded angrily. She loved her sister but honestly, she was going through a serious crisis right now. ‘I don’t even remember his face, I see yours instead!’

Aria blinked at her near-tears tone. ‘Really?’

Mei nodded and held up her phone. ‘See!’ She turned the screen towards Aria, who grinned at her crazy photo.

‘Looks funky, doesn’t it?’ She winked.

‘Aria!’

‘Geez, you’re such a baby.’ Shaking her head, Aria grasped her phone and swiped through the pictures. ‘Here!’

She stared at Luhan’s familiar face peeking out at her and let out a sigh. ‘Oh…’

‘Seriously.’ Aria shook her head. ‘Did it really not occur to you that you’ve snapped around a thousand shots since you’ve back and maybe Luhan’s were a little ways down?’

Mei didn’t grace that with an answer. In her defense, she’d just woken up from a terrible nightmare and wasn’t, obviously, thinking.

‘Geez…’Aria muttered, rolling on to her side only to sit back straight when Mei let out a yelp. ‘What now?’

Mei didn’t say anything, staring at the picture she’d just received from Tao along with the message ‘See what your boyfriend does behind your back!’

‘What is it… oh?’ Aria’s lips twisted in a smirk. ‘Nice.’

It was a picture of Luhan and Kai. Kissing. A full face, close up shot so clear, she couldn’t even say it was a trick.

Was it weird that she only noticed how hot he was looking?

‘Who’s the hottie?’ She didn’t need to see her sister to know her dirty smile was firmly in place or that she was wiggling her eyebrows.

‘That’s my man, so keep away!’ she threatened, trying to cover up the screen.

‘I’m talking about the dark one.’ Aria leaned over her shoulder, pushing her hand away. ‘Wow, nice lips.’

‘Ew, that’s my best friend, keep away from him as well!’ She pushed her sister off herself. ‘He’s my age – waaay too young for you! Besides, he has a girlfriend.’

‘Calm your , sister, I ain’t no pedo.’ Aria patted her shoulder forcefully, lodging back into place and touched the screen to zoom in on the picture. ‘Nice.’

‘.’ She pushed her off. ‘Stop checking out my boyfriend.’

‘Oh you can keep the fairy, I like elves.’ Aria and her stupid fantasy-verse references.

‘Whatever. Don’t look.’ She covered her phone up. Aria finally backed off, leaning back on her elbows. ‘Shouldn’t you be asking why they’re making out if both of them have girlfriends?’

Mei blinked – why indeed? ‘Uh…’

Thankfully, her cellphone beeped just then and she hurriedly opened the message, seeing as it was from Luhan.

Mei, it read, please please please ignore that picture. I can explain! (>_<)

‘I wonder what he’ll come up with – it’s too lonely without you?’ Aria wondered aloud. ‘So I decided to kiss my… are they related?’

‘Cousins.’ Mei muttered distractedly, typing her reply. ‘More like brothers, I guess.’

‘Hmm, it doesn’t matter then.’

‘What?’

‘I’d kiss you in an instant if I was missing my boyfriend,’ she told her seriously. Mei rolled her eyes as her cellphone beeped again with a long winded explanation about how that picture came to be – Sehun and Tao, apparently, had planned it and sent a picture to her and Kai was struggling to stop Sehun from spamming Tiffany with a similar text. God, she missed them – it sounded like they were having fun.

It’s alright, she typed, at least I got to see your face… my sister’s saying you guys look cute together (>u<) she’s also thinks you’re very pretty

Luhan’s reply came under a second. I’m manly!

She laughed at that – he hated being called pretty. A second message came immediately afterwards. I don’t care how cute we look together, you’re still the only one for me.

‘Cheeessseee…’ Aria sang. Mei flipped her a bird and turned to the side, grinning she typed.

Did you kiss him because you were thinking about me?

Ya! Don’t even joke about that! (O_o) I miss you *pouts*

I miss you more *kissy kissy* can’t you call me?

Sorry, am too busy right now. Honest.

Fine. Take care. I love you.

Love you more.

Mei stared at the three words, feeling like a tumble of butterflies had been let loose in her tummy. Her lips spread in an unconscious, sappy smile as she went back to her gallery and started browsing through his pictures.

Aria stared at her for a moment, wondering if she should sister, then decided she’d done enough for tonight and could do the rest tomorrow.

‘Good night.’ She called as she slipped back into her bed and switched off the nightlight.

Mei didn’t reply, completely lost in his snapshots.

……………………