"I should have known when I got you alone

That you were way too into me to know

This isn't love, boy, this ain't even close

But you always think we're something that we're not"

Something That We're Not by Demi Lovato

Waking up the next morning, Andy was confused and disoriented. Also, she was in a little pain. Her mattress was on the larger side, so she was used to sprawling out while she slept. On the couch, though, she was forced to curl up a bit. The unfamiliar and weird positions she had slept in from that coupled with the fact that she hadn’t grabbed enough blankets to cover up with (there was no way she was raising the temperature, that was wasteful), left her body feeling achy.

At first she was incredibly annoyed with herself for falling asleep on the couch, then she remembered exactly why she was there. She continued to lie on the couch for a couple more minutes, thinking back on the situation, making herself come to terms with it all over again.

Andy’s alarm on her phone went off again and she got up then, much to Peeve’s annoyance as he was curled up next to her, realizing that she had forgotten to get clothes for the day when she grabbed her pajamas last night. She opened the door to her bedroom as quietly as she could and headed towards her closet. She stole a glance at Yixing and from the light pouring in from the living room she saw he was still sleeping. She had to pause and let the sight of him sink in again. Lay of Exo was sleeping on her bed. Shirtless at that.

Sighing, she returned to the task at hand. She went about her morning routine as quietly and unobtrusively to Yixing as she could, waiting as Peeves followed her into each room before shutting the door so she could turn lights on when needed.

She went through her morning routine then managed to sneak to the living room and kitchen area without waking Yixing. Andy was about to start preparing food, but hesitated since she wasn’t sure what people usually ate for breakfast in China. She didn’t really have much give on what she could make. Andy was a creature of habit and usually ate the same type of meals over and over again so it wasn’t like she had a lot of ingredients to get creative with anyways.

Deciding to just stick with what she knew, Andy pulled out a carton of eggs and ham and some fruits. She had just the stovetop when her bedroom door opened and a still-shirtless Yixing walked out, his hair pointing in every direction, pouting.

“Morning,” Andy said as she cut up the fruit.

“Morning,” Yixing echoed as he moved to stand across from her at the kitchen bar where she was working.

“Sleep well?” Andy asked, feeling awkward since she wasn’t really sure how one was supposed to act in this kind of situation.

“Yes,” he sighed, confusing Andy. “Where did you sleep?”

“On the couch.”

This seemed to be the wrong answer.

“Why did you sleep on the couch?” he asked, concerned.

“Well, you were on the bed,” Andy shrugged, not getting why this seemed to bother him.

Yixing looked aghast at that.

“So I made you sleep on the couch?”

“What? No,” Andy began, saying the first thing that came to her mind to try and comfort him. “I mean it’s not that big of a deal. The couch is comfortable.”

Well, mostly. If she could get used to sleeping curled up and remembered to grab more quilts next time, it probably would actually be a nice place to sleep. As it was, it wasn’t all that bad.

“I’ll definitely sleep on the couch tonight, I can’t take your bed from you,” Yixing said, looking determined.

“No, you get the bed,” Andy contradicted as she went back to slicing fruit. “You wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for that stupid wish I made,” Andy felt her cheeks warm up a bit, recalling the wish and averting her eyes from the implications of it standing in front of her. “So you get the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch,”

“But I want to be here,” Yixing said, leaning against the counter. The angle put his face lower than Andy’s, so he had to look up at her.

“That’s the magic talking,” Andy said without thinking, caught off guard by the look he was giving her.

“Magic or no, it’s the truth.”

Andy had a hard time believing that was true, but didn’t bother refuting it.

“You know, since I want you to have the bed, and you want me to have the bed, we could both just share it. Then we’d both get what we want.” Andy’s face flamed up at that, giving Yixing a scandalized look that caused him to start laughing. “It was just a thought.”

Andy fumed for a few seconds over how embarrassed she had gotten and how flippantly he had made that kind of suggestion, cutting the fruit with more vehemence than was strictly necessary. Yixing watched on quietly, taking in every detail about her and what she was doing. Andy didn’t like being scrutinized like that.

“I’m still working on breakfast,” Andy said, indicating all the ingredients in front of her. “So you can go take a shower or whatever else you need to do in the mornings.”

Yixing frowned, seemingly about to protest until he realized he hadn’t taken one yesterday after he’d been on that plane for so long. He left and took a quick shower (Andy didn’t even bother trying to push down the jealousy she felt over how fast people with short hair could shower. Especially when they didn’t need to shave anything).

While this was going on, Andy was hit again with how surreal the whole situation really was. It was something like out of a fan fiction, not something that could happen in real life. And yet, Yixing was in her apartment to prove her wrong with his magically implanted feelings for her. If this was a fan fiction, she could probably enjoy it, spend time indulging in it before she could get the cooperative and nice genie or djinn or whatever to fix everything by wishing to undo the spells or whatever it was people usually did in these kinds of stories, at least the ones with the happy endings. But this was Andy’s reality, and she had to figure out how to get Yixing out of this mess as soon as she could without the help of the evil djinn who’d made her wish come true.

Andy sighed as Yixing returned from his shower in a new pair of jeans, but no shirt again as Andy finished setting the table.

“Why do you keep walking around without a shirt on?” Andy asked as she raised a glass of water to take a drink.

“Because I am y,” Yixing answered plainly.

Andy spit out the water all over the floor in front of her.

“You don’t agree?” he asked innocently, grabbing a napkin off the table and trying to help.

“Please just go put on a shirt,” Andy said, taking the napkin from him to wipe off her face herself.

Andy was grateful that he didn’t argue this time, and simply went back and pulled on a shirt before joining her at the table. They ate in silence at first, but then Andy spoke up, giving voice to her thoughts.

“Yixing, do you think you could go back to China without us breaking the spell?”

He hesitated, food in the air to his mouth, before turning and giving her a wounded look.

“Do you want me to leave?”

“It’s not about that. You should be in China. Or Korea. Or wherever else you’ve been working.”

“So you really don’t want me to go, you’re just telling me to because you think that’s what I should do?” A smile was spreading across Yixing’s face.

“That’s not it either,” Andy sighed. “You have responsibilities, and I want you to uphold those responsibilities.”

“Even if I have to leave you? Plus, you’re the one who made the wish for me to fall in love with you, to come here and see you. You do want me here.”

Andy sighed again, turning from a concerned Yixing back to her food, dropping the topic once she realized it wasn’t going to go anywhere.

“I have class all morning and part of the afternoon, are you just going to hang around here while I’m gone?” Andy asked.

“I can’t really go anywhere else.”

“I feel bad leaving you trapped here…”

“Don’t, since I don’t speak English, it’s not like I can go many places anyways.”

“There are actually a lot of foreign exchange students in this area because of the college. You wouldn’t be too hard pressed to come across someone from China or Korea.”

“Maybe, but that’s actually a problem. If they’re from China or Korea then they’re likely to recognize me, and I can’t have anyone knowing where I am.”

Andy was about to ask why, but then caught herself, understanding a bit.

“Don’t worry about me,” Yixing said, smiling shyly at her as if the thought of her worrying about him actually pleased him a lot. “I’m a grown man, I can keep myself entertained for a few hours.”

Andy frowned, knowing he was right but still feeling guilt over the whole thing. Especially since she hadn’t been able to make time to try and find out a way to break the spell. Not that Yixing seemed to mind. He just continued on eating, shooting Andy shy smiles every once in a while, like this was all perfectly normal, like there was nothing wrong.

~

“So how’d last night go?” Christine asked while we were sitting at a study group table in the math building between classes.

“Last night?” their friend, Jenny, asked.

Andy had met Jenny during her freshman year at college in their biology class together. They clung almost desperately to each other during their lab for the class, both being the only two students there not inherently good at it that actually tried. The ones who were good at it had all stuck together, while the rest kept trying to bum off other people, both for the lab and for regular class. So, they ended up getting close to protect each other from everyone else.

“When you say it like that it sounds like something else happened,” Andy said as she pulled out her work from another class.

“So you didn’t finally snap and take out Mary?” Jenny asked, disappointed.

“What?” Andy asked. “I figured you’d be thinking something more ual.”

“Please, this is you we’re talking about,” Jenny said, waving the comment off. “It’s way more likely that you’d snap and kill someone that have any ual escapades.”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Christine cut in, arching an eyebrow with a knowing look. “Andy had a boy stay the night last night.”

Jenny dropped both her jaw and the pencil in her hand at the information, turning her shocked eyes on Andy.

“A boy?” she asked aghast.

“You say it like it’d be less surprising if it was a girl,” Andy said, trying to keep the conversation off of Yixing for as long as she could.

“Honestly?” Jenny began, a thoughtful look on her face. “Yeah, I would be less surprised.”

“Why do I have to live in a society that thinks if you’re not trying to get in a guy’s pants your trying to get in a girl’s pants?” Andy asked, rolling her eyes.

“Because only crazy people don’t want to get in other people’s pants,” Christine said matter-of-factly. “Well, crazy people and s.”

“I take from the fact that you still find that uninteresting to mean you’re still a ?” Jenny asked Andy who nodded in reply. “Then what happened last night? Why was a boy staying there?”

“He’s having issues with his family and needs somewhere to stay.”

“Who is it?”

“That’s the thing,” Christine said, her displeasure of the situation reflected in her face. “He’s some guy from China she met online.”

“Online?” Jenny repeated, shocked again.

“Yup.”

“Andy! How could you be so stupid? Did he do anything to you? Did he touch you in any way that made you feel uncomfortable?”

“Jenny, calm down, it’s not as bad as you think,” Andy said, trying to sooth her friend’s fears before they got too bad.

“How can it be any better?” Jenny asked, only winding herself up even more.

“Because,” Andy said, pausing, trying to think up something fast. “Because I’ve researched him. You know, private investigator stuff.”

“You went that far for some guy from another country who wants to crash at your place because he’s having ‘family’ problems?”

“We’ve known each other for a long time.”

“If you’ve known each other for a long time why is this the first time I’m hearing about him? I don’t even know his name,” Jenny complained, though she seemed to be calming down. She clearly still thought the situation was ludicrous, but she was beginning to feel Andy hadn’t put herself in quite as much danger as she had feared at first.

“His name’s Yixing,” Andy supplied.

“Yixing,” Jenny repeated, a disgusted look on her face. “Sounds sleazy.”

“He looks it, too,” Christine added.

Andy couldn’t help but laugh and roll her eyes again.

“That’s it. You’ve got him perfectly figured out.”

“Then what’s he really like?” Christine asked.

“Sweet,” Andy supplied, guessing from how he appeared in the videos she’d seen of him and how he’d been acting so far. “And kind.”

“And yet he’s imposing on you by staying at your apartment,” Jenny commented.

“No, he’s not. I told him to stay at my place.” Both Jenny and Christine looked aghast at this. “Hotels are expensive, it was cheaper to let him stay with me.” Andy’s explanation didn’t seem to make them feel any better about it.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to feel better about any of this unless I meet the guy,” Jenny said.

“It won’t help,” Christine said. “He doesn’t speak any English.”

“I was practicing Mandarin by talking to him online,” Andy explained, already knowing what Jenny was going to ask.

“This is crazy,” Jenny said. “How could something this crazy happen to you?”

Andy shrugged having been wondering the same thing herself. Andy didn’t particularly like weird or crazy or out-of-the-ordinary things happening in her life, and went to great lengths to make sure they didn’t, or at least went away quickly. Ever since she saw Yixing yesterday standing in her school’s quad she’d been in a constant state of stress. She wanted to fix this, to set things back to normal, but hadn’t even had the time to try yet and that made her even more stressed out.

“This is the kind of thing that should be happening to Christine,” Jenny said.

“Excuse me,” Christine said indignantly, turning to Jenny. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you do stuff crazier than this on a regular basis,” Jenny said.

“That,” Christine said, “Is true. How could you one up me like this?”

“It wasn’t intentional,” Andy said. “Honestly.”

“You’re lucky I believe you,” Christine said, though she continued to look suspiciously at Andy.

At that time Andy’s phone went off signaling a text. She jumped from the sudden noise, especially since it was an EXO song. She felt silly for reacting so strongly since she had only just turned the volume on her phone back on a half hour ago after she got out of her last class just in case Yixing texted her. She had given him her number to call in case there was an emergency or something like that before she had left that morning.

When she saw Yixing’s name flash on her phone Andy tensed up wondering if this would be a good message or bad. Something could have gone horribly wrong and he needed her, like Nilah showing back up and doing who knows what to make things worse. Andy had also been hoping that the wish may just wear off and Yixing’s artificial feelings for her would fade or maybe just disappear. Nilah had never said if they were permanent, just that she wanted to wreak havoc through it. So it was a possibility Andy clung to with more hope than she probably should have allowed herself.

When Andy checked the text, though, it wasn’t an emergency. Just Yixing asking her how her day was going so far. He had even included a picture of himself with Peeves. Andy probably would have been annoyed at his apparent ease with the situation they were in if she didn’t feel so bad. Plus, he was stuck in her apartment with nothing really to do; he was probably bored.

“You know,” Jenny said, cutting into Andy’s thoughts. “You never did say why this guy had come all the way to Oklahoma. I know you said he needed to get away, but this is a bit extreme. Does he know anyone else out here?”

“Not that I know of,” Andy said, suddenly wondering about that, too.

“So to get away from his family this guy flees from his country to stay with a girl he only knew through online conversations,” Jenny said, expression showing how ridiculous she found this.

“It’s complicated,” Andy hedged.

“You say that, but you could still explain it. My only current theory for why he would be doing something like this is that he’s head over heels crazy stalker obsessed in love with you.”

Well, Jenny wasn’t entirely wrong.

Something on Andy’s face must have conveyed this thought as both Jenny and Christine latched onto it.

“Is he in love with you?” Christine demanded.

“I mean-” Andy began trying to explain.

“That just makes this whole thing ever weirder!” Christine exclaimed, beginning to look frantic about it again.

“Look, if you guys just met him then you’d understand how completely not crazy and not dangerous he is,” Andy said.

“Fine, then we’re coming over to see him,” Jenny said. “You don’t work tonight, do you?”

“No,” Andy said feebly, berating herself for making the comment. If Jenny and Christine came over to meet Yixing that would cut into the time she and Yixing were supposed to try and figure out how to break the wish, but she couldn’t think of a reason to keep them away. Andy wasn’t very good at lying or thinking on her feet like that.

“Then it’s settled, we’re coming over tonight,” Christine said.