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When one of your friends told you that he’d inherited the powers of the Monkey King, received his staff, and was the newly sworn protector of your city, you thought he’d finally gone insane. But after watching him fight a huge bull demon that had managed to level half the city, you didn't doubt him anymore.
MK was a huge scatterbrain, constantly forgetting small details, and running around like his life was constantly on the line. But considering his new-found hero status, you’d honestly believe that. He was fighting demons left and right, and now the rest of the group was assisting him in his escapades. Just last week he had saved Pigsy and Mr. Tang from a spider demoness, granted they did cause severe damage to the road because of a boat.
But you were the only one without anything going for you. You didn't have any magical weaponry or excessive knowledge about demonic and celestial entities, and you sure as well weren’t intimidating as Pigsy was. You didn't have anything going for you, maybe that’s why you hadn't hung out with MK in so long. You’d kill just to spend some time with him, but all your hangouts were always included, Mei. You loved Mei, she was awesome, but you just wanted to be left alone with the one you loved.
He hadn’t figured it out yet, he was too dense for that. But everything, his laugh, his beautiful eyes, even his tendency to accidentally break things was endearing to you. All you wanted, more than anything, was to have him see you as something more than a friend.
That wasn’t important right now though, you had to get to work. The bakery wasn't going to open itself. But when you grabbed your keys to open the front door, you paused. The door was already open? You could’ve sworn you were supposed to do the opening shift today.
You walked inside the shop, only to see your coworkers inside. They were getting all the chairs off of the tables and wiping them all down. Usually, you would have to do all that work since they both never came in early.
“What are you two doing?” You asked, and the one fixing the chairs turned around.
“Oh we’re doing the opening shift today, boss said you had the day off.” He explained, setting the last chair down. “She said you were working too hard and deserved a break or something. So she asked us both to come in and do the opening for you.”
You blinked.
“I have the day off?”
“Um yeah?” Your other co-worker piped in, “Didn't you get the email she sent you? You don't even have to be here right now.”
You didn't even let her finish the sentence before you bolted out of there. You hadn't gotten some time off since the fight with Demon Bull King, your shop was the only few that survived the damage so everyone was taking in orders from you guys.
You walked through the surprisingly empty street towards the park. It was still somewhat early in the morning and you figured you needed some fresh air anyway. Plus, if you were lucky you’d be able to pet some dogs that walked by.
You picked a bench near some shade and sat down. You grabbed your lunch from your bag since you wouldn't be eating it during the workday anyway. As you opened the wrapping to your sandwich, you felt a hand on your shoulder.
“Hey [Name], what’s up?”
It was MK as happy as can be. He wasn't wearing his uniform though, he just hand his signature jacket. You could've sworn he had work today, that was strange.
“Hey MK, I’m doing okay.” You said, taking a bite of your sandwich. “Aren’t you supposed to be at work today?”
“Oh, Pigsy gave me the day off so I went to go see you.” He explained, taking a seat right next to you. His boss wasn’t that lenient last time you checked, and what possessed him to come to the park instead of the arcade?
“Wait, so you’re spending your day off at the park?” You raised an eyebrow. “Not going to the Anti-Gravity Arcade with Mei or something?”
“Well I didn't just come to the park for no reason, I wanted to spend some time with you.” He leaned in a little closer, and you thought you were gonna choke on your food. “Alone.”
His tone was oddly suave and he was so close to your face you couldn't even process your surroundings. The only thing you saw was his half-lidded eyes staring into yours. Since when was he so smug?
“That’s nice…” You croaked, absolutely positive you looked like a tomato. He laughed at your nervousness and brought a finger to your chin. His free hand was pressed onto the bench, effectively pinning you to it.
“You’re nice.”
—
“Are you sure that's a good enough opening line?”
“Why does it matter? Look how flustered they look right now!”
Jin handed his brother the gourd and turned towards the wall of photos and notes they had. It looked like something straight out of a mystery movie, with red lines connecting different people together. They were a little disappointed they hadn’t managed to destroy the Monkie Kid, but capturing their close friend with the fixed Calabash was a good backup plan.
“Are you positive this plan is gonna work this time?” The silver demon asked, lightly tapping on the gourd. “I mean last time he managed to get out of this thing pretty easily.”
“Right, but this person doesn't have any powers. Even if they manage to figure it out they don't have the strength to get out.” Jin grabbed a picture from the wall. “Besides, unlike our past romance idea, they actually like him!”
“That was your idea!” Yin snapped and peeked into the gourd. “But I guess you’re right this time, they seem really into it. You think they’re gonna find the new behavior suspicious?”
“Hey, they can't get too mad at us.” Jin waved his hand and handed the brother the photo. It was a picture they had snapped of you, MK, and Mei at the arcade. They were both duking it out on an arcade while you were off to the side looking awkward. “Now they’ll finally get the opportunity to tell him how they feel.”
“A fake version of him.”
“They don't know that.”
—
“Wait, how did you even get all this done?” You asked, petting one of the cats that crawled onto your lap. “Did you two plan this ahead of time or something?” You glanced at Sandy, who was decked out in a high-quality suit. His hair was slicked back too, which was extra weird.
“Oh, this? I just really wanted to find something to cement my role in the group dynamic.” Sandy explained as Mo walked towards the table with a silver dish on his back with drinks. “And then it just came to me!” He shot his hands in the air in triumph. “Boom! Romantic Cruises!”
You stared at him dumbfounded as the drinks were placed on the table by Mo, who climbed down immediately after. The two of them walked back inside of the boat.
“We’ll be back with the hors d'oeuvres!”
You felt your eye twitch as you awkwardly waved to the two of them. When they were out of sight you turned back to MK.
“Hey, don’t you find this all a bit weird? I mean Sandy’s a nice guy but doesn't it feel a bit out of character for him to be doing all this? Like did he train Mo to serve drinks and stuff and-”
You felt MK put his hands on yours, effectively ending your ramble. As though he always was, his clothes were replaced with a black suit. There was a small nimbus cloud on it, along with a red tie the same color as his bandana, which he had taken off. His hair was down, falling onto his face in such a way that somehow didn't cover his eyes.
“When did you…” You kept staring at him, utterly confused.
“Shhh, you need to stop overthinking things. You should just,” His thumb rubbed the back of your hand “live in the moment. Just let loose a little, I’d feel a lot better if I could see that smile of yours tonight.”
A large blush crept onto your face, as he continued talking to you with that deep tone that made your stomach flip. You didn't even realize his voice could sound like that, but you definitely weren't complaining.
“That’s right, you’re almost there, now can you give me a little smile?” He brought your hand up a bit and kissed it. “Or am I going have to keep talking until you let one out?”
“I um..”
“Or maybe,” He stood up and walked around, so he could be a little closer to you. “I could kiss one out of you, would you like that? A kiss?”
You could only nod, and he crept in a little closer. His hand cupped your cheek and he pulled you towards him. And then he crashed your lips against yours, holding onto the back of your head to keep himself grounded. It was everything you could've ever wanted and then some. You could taste a faint taste of mint as his tongue slipped into your mouth, which he probably took before the date started.
When he pulled away, he poked your cheek with his finger.
“There’s my smile, can you keep it going for the rest of the night, star shine?”
“I’ll try…”
—
The two demons let out a collective sigh of relief at your response. Not only had you managed to follow along with the whole illusion, but it seemed you were enjoying yourself.
“You know, despite the fact we’re doing this to destroy the Monkie Kid, this person is really fun to work with,” Yin said, still peeking into the gourd. His brother nodded, placing a hand on his shoulder.
“Yeah, maybe this is the relationship we should’ve picked from the beginning. They have really good chemistry, and this played out way better than last time.”
“Oh yeah, definitely.”
As the two brothers continued looking into the gourd, a golden staff suddenly crashed through their room. MK jumped down, effectively destroying everything on the floor.
“Give me back my friend whatever your names are!” He shouted, pointing his staff at them. “Or I’ll be forced to use this!”
The two demons squinted at them.
“Wait, you only just noticed we took them away?” Jin asked, and his brother tilted his head.
“Yeah, we’ve had them in here for like five hours. How’d you just notice?”
“Wait, they've been gone for five hours?!” MK lowered his staff. “How is that even possible?”
“That’s a question you need to ask yourself, mate,” Jin said, tossing the gourd in the air and catching it. “We’ve been kinda just having fun with them this whole time since it took so long for you to show up.”
“Yeah, we've got a tight schedule here you know! We should've been playing ping-pong by now!” Yin snapped, holding up a paddle.
“I don’t care about ping pong, just give me my friend back already!” MK pointed the staff at them again. “I won’t ask again!”
“Fine, but only because there isn't enough angst for our tastes.”
They tossed the gourd back to MK, before walking out of the room.
“What, hey!” He shouted, “How am I supposed to get them out of this thing?!”
The two demons just shrugged.
“Eh, I think you just break it from the outside,” Jin said before his brother added on.
“Since you know they probably can't do it from inside there.”
Before MK could ask anything else, the duo disappeared into a puff of smoke. He didn't even notice them pull out smoke bombs. He looked back at the gourd in his hands and examined it. When he was trapped inside of it, all he had to do was get his staff back. He could just smash it, but how was he supposed to know that it wouldn't hurt you?
He continued to think, but his pondering caused him to accidentally drop the calabash. It hit the ground before he could grab it, and on impact, the entire room was filled with light.
You rubbed your head as your vision cleared, only to see MK sitting right in front of you. Only now he was back in your usual outfit and seemed far more worried. He grabbed onto your sides and started shaking you.
“Are you okay?! Me and the guys couldn't find you and Mei said her tracker said you were here but that camera wasn't working! And then these two guys showed up and it turns out you were trapped in some thingy called the calabash and-”
He continued rambling on for what seemed like forever, explaining the entire situation. But there was only one thing on your mind.
It wasn't real. MK didn't like you, he only saw you as a friend, and would never see you as something more than that.
“Listen, MK, you don’t have to get so worried.” You sighed, sliding out of his grip and standing up. “Besides, you got me out of there before any real damage was done.”
“Oh alright then, maybe you can join me and Mei for some arcade fun. I still need to beat her at the game.”
“Yeah, sure, that sounds great.” You lied. “Thanks for getting me out of there MK.”
“Oh sure, what are friends for?”
Right, friends. That’s all you’d ever be.