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"Have fun, kids…" Everything started with Mom going to bed.
I still remember clearly how her voice carried down the stairs as she went up to her room. Meanwhile, everyone in the living room --myself included; I’d slipped away with Hero to make it to the party-- waited impatiently for her footsteps to fade so we could stop acting like well‑behaved teens.
After a few moments that felt like hours, the sound of a door being opened followed by Dad’s raucous snores made it clear the moment we’d been waiting for was close, as everyone struggled to hold back their excitement.
Then, as if on cue with the silence downstairs "…And happy 14th birthday, Sunny! I love you!!!" Mom shouted from her doorway before slamming it a second later, fully aware of the inevitable reaction it would draw from the birthday boy.
"Moooom" he muttered under his breath, mortified, his face turning red as he tried to hide it behind his hands while shrinking into himself. The rest of us still dissolved into quiet giggles at his shy, adorable reaction.
We did exactly as she said, and it turned into one of the funniest birthday parties I remember from when we were younger.
The boys spent most of the night gathered around the TV, jumping from one game to the next as every match turned itself into a competition. Between rounds they talked about typical boy things and while I understood most of it, the intensity of their competitiveness was a little overwhelming.
We girls, for our part, went to the kitchen and ate far too many snacks, drank too much soda, made jokes, whispered gossip that grew louder, and laughed at things that probably weren’t that funny.
But soon Sunny got serious, annihilating every man or woman who dared to challenge him. His winning streak becoming so wild, so relentless, that Aubrey and Kel had to ask him to step aside, half‑joking that they really, REALLY didn’t want to hurt him on his birthday but might not be able to stop themselves if he kept humiliating them like that --even if something in their looks and the tightness of their smiles made it seem not entirely like a joke.
I still laugh when I think about Kel’s just-a-friend from back then. The way she’d shriek and twist in place every time she pressed a button, her blue hair whipping like fierce waves in the glow of the TV. The more intense the match became, the more dramatic she grew, somehow making watching her far more entertaining than the game itself.
The night stretched on and energy finally began to dip.
In the end, when videogames started to feel too monotonous, we pulled an old Monopoly box from the back of the closet and, sitting in a circle on the floor, tried to enjoy the game for as long as we could.
It didn’t last, though. Not even an hour had passed before the mood soured as the jokes stopped and friendly comments turned sharper, making everyone feel too uncomfortable as the game continued.
So there was no winner. We all agreed to call a truce and put the capitalist battlefield away before things got any worse.
As I packed the pieces back into the worn box, I found myself thinking the night had finally come to an end. That with nothing left to do, someone would suggest it was time for everyone else to finally head home.
But then, Basil spoke.
He wore a mischievous smile, the one that might have slipped past the other guests, but not to me.
I've known him for too long and knew just how twisted the flower boy’s mind could be when it came to matters of the heart.
He always had theories about relationships, and loved playing cupid whenever the chance appeared. So with so many people gathered in one place, it was obvious he wouldn’t waste the opportunity to test the romantic matchups his imagination had been crafting for years.
"Does anyone want to play truth or dare before we head home?" he asked, surprising everyone except Hero and me. As the oldest, and after attending far wilder parties since starting college, it was a VERY familiar proposal.
Still, to my surprise, the idea excited the younger ones.
The ones most interested were the girls I didn’t know well --Kim, Cris, and Mincy-- who seemed to become closer to my old friends the time we were out.
As for our friends... Kel just gave an awkward smile; Aubrey looked bored from the start; and Sunny, wearing his usual stoic expression, let out a small sigh, the same one he’d had since he was little whenever he was already ready for bed but was forced to do anything instead of sleep.
Even so, we all agreed to play, on the single condition Hero and I insisted on: nothing too daring. They were still young for that kind of game, and we weren’t about to let it get out of hand. That, of course, only prompted that sly fox Basil to ask whether we had ever played a wilder version much to our embarrassment. Though I hid it far better than Hero.
Truths started light, dares even lighter. Whoever refused to do any had to take a sip of Orange Joe with the sole exception of Kel, who for his part, had to drink a glass of milk.
Then someone asked if anyone had ever committed a crime. To everyone’s surprise, only Sunny and Aubrey admitted they had. Neither of them elaborated. They just exchanged a look, then glanced at Hero, who returned it with a gentle little smile that told us there was a story there none of them would share.
Eventually it was Basil’s turn again, and, to no-person-alive’s surprise, he steered the game toward matters of love and attraction.
That changed everything, and the mood turned more playful as reactions grew livelier and the truths and dares became a little more demanding.
Not by much, of course, but enough to put us, the older ones, on the spot every now and then.
Truths were now about childhood crushes, celebrities someone found attractive or things couples had or hadn't done on their dates. Meanwhile, dares started to be about flirting to the air or with the person next to you, even if they weren’t your partner.
Every time Basil took his turn, he made it seem as if his targets were random, but nothing about his questions or dares ever was. There was always a second intention behind each one.
For example, he asked Mincy --who I’d initially assumed was Sunny’s girlfriend and had bothered me for a good part of the night-- what kind of guys she liked and, to the very specific annoyance of a blue-haired someone in the room, she ended up describing Kel almost point by point.
His next turn he turned to Kel while a sly smile tugged at his lips.
"Truth" The tallest boy said immediately, already suspicious.
Basil asked whether there was anyone in the room he’d ever liked enough to actually date, framing it as a harmless question even though we all knew exactly what he was trying to uncover.
Kel laughed it off at first as Chris burned holes into the side of his head with her stare.
He didn't answer, though. But the way his eyes flicked just for a second toward the space between Aubrey and Sunny, right before he reached for the glass of milk at his side, gave him away instantly.
The room erupted, and he protested loudly as he drained the glass, though he was smiling the whole time.
His next turn his attention shifted to Aubrey.
"Truth" she said, arms crossed, clearly bracing herself.
Basil, chin resting on his hand with a faintly mischievous look, asked if it was true that the person she liked was on her school’s baseball team.
Her reaction was immediate: her face went bright red, beads of sweat started pouring down from her forehead, and her head snapped into every direction like a bird on high alert while she began to stutter at him to shut up, only confirming everything.
I remember thinking it was a shame because I believed Sunny liked her, and I also knew he’d never say a word about it, especially with him sitting right beside her, close enough to watch every flicker of embarrassment that baseball person stirred in her.
I felt strange then. Part of me aching at the thought that my brother might be quietly swallowing the hurt of knowing he wasn’t the one she liked, and another, more confusing part, oddly relieved that Aubrey didn’t feel the same way about him.
The realization unsettled me; I kept insisting to myself that I’d outgrown those feelings after moving out of my parents’ house.
Still, I didn’t say anything about it. I just kept my feelings inside, just in the same way I did most of my life as the game continued.
Finally, Basil’s gaze landed on me. He tilted his head; the malice behind his tease seemed to soften for a moment.
"Mari. Truth or dare?"
I chose dare, foolishly thinking it safer.
He didn’t think much.
"Uh… I can’t think of anything to ask you, so… I dare you to tell us everything you like about Hero" he said, almost offhandedly without realizing how heavy it felt given our situation.
We hadn’t told any of them, but by that point Hero and I had already broken up weeks earlier and agreed to not say anything to not ruin Sunny's special day.
It was simple, really. Or at least that’s what I kept telling myself.
Once we started living together in the dorms and tried being a real couple day to day, the small differences in our habits, our ways of speaking, the rhythms of our personalities and the quiet expectations that come with intimacy began to surface. At first they were minor, easy to brush aside, but as the months passed they turned into small arguments, then heavier silences, until ignoring them took more effort than facing them.
In the end, we both understood that we couldn’t keep going like that, ending our relationship in the best terms we could... I guess.
"...” But at the party my mind simply short‑circuited.
"..." It should have been easy, almost laughably so. All I had to do was list the things I used to say when we were still us, the same neat answers I gave whenever anyone asked.
Or I could tell the truth, of course.
I thought about both options in my head once.
Twice
'Say what you liked about Hero'
...
And then…
Half-truths.
I spoke about his kindness and his personality, carefully avoiding anything else. The most generic traits in the world about a person spilled out of my mouth until even I could hear how hollow they sounded.
They sounded right to everyone else, I think...
To everyone else... but him.
It was clear as the cleanest sky. The melancholy in his eyes and the forced smile he wore said it.
But there was nothing left to do.
The game went on, though I was no longer really there. I just watched the others take their turns, my gaze drifting again and again to the quiet figure of Sunny.
Since the game started, he didn’t ask anything too intrusive, nor gave out any particularly harsh dares --except, perhaps, when it came to Kel or Basil.
His stillness, his familiar and steady stoicism, gave me just enough calm to keep pretending I wasn’t unsettled, even as my mind circled Basil’s question and the growing certainty that I could no longer answer it honestly.
And yet, if he had asked me about Sunny instead, the answer would have come easily… and very differently.
The night dragged on into that quiet, hazy hour when everything felt slower. We kept playing to stay awake, and simple questions turned into longer stories and half‑honest confessions.
At some point, it began to feel as though I were sitting among people much older than the ones I knew. We spoke more openly, laughed more softly, and listened longer.
Eventually the yawns won.
Heads began to dip.
Aubrey nearly fell asleep mid‑sentence.
Hero missed his turn entirely.
It felt like the night was finally winding down on its own.
Then Basil’s turn came around again.
Of course it did.
He straightened slightly, eyes sharpening with that familiar, almost theatrical focus. His attention drifted across the circle until it settled on Sunny.
"Alright, Sunny..." he said, leaning forward. Elbows on his knees, back curved "... Last round. Truth or dare?"
Sunny was slumped slightly against Mincy’s shoulder. Her head tilted at an angle that looked deeply uncomfortable.
He rubbed at one eye with slow, tired movements.
"Dare" he said tiredly.
Everyone stirred at that.
Even half‑asleep, the word carried weight.
Basil’s smile appeared. The kind of smile that suggested he had already chosen long before he asked.
He tapped a finger lightly against his chin as if thinking, though no one in the room believed for a second that he hadn’t planned this.
"Alright..." he said quietly "... Then here’s your dare"
He let the silence stretch just long enough for everyone to look up.
"I dare you to kiss the prettiest person in the room"
Sunny blinked, a little surprised as every trace of sleep was erased from his face.
He looked at Basil with one brow raised, as if asking, 'seriously?'
The flower boy seemed to catch the message. He lifted both hands in mock surrender "A kiss on the cheek is enough" he clarified, that same smile never leaving his face.
Something in my chest tightened as Sunny sat there, processing.
He glanced around slowly at the five girls in the room, even me, as if weighing the room in silence while didn’t even look at the guys.
Chris was curled against Kel, half‑asleep on his shoulder, while Kel himself wore a strange expression, like he didn’t particularly enjoy where this was going; Mincy looked uncomfortable, shifting slightly where Sunny leaned against her; Aubrey and her friend Kim seemed completely uninterested, barely reacting at all.
Sunny remained still, but there was a tension in the set of his shoulders that gave him away. His hand drifted, almost unconsciously, toward the open bottle of Orange Joe sitting in the middle of the circle, like he was considering taking the penalty instead.
He hesitated, nervous and with a faint flush rising.
Then, his gaze drifted toward me and lingered for what felt like the two longest seconds of my life, my heart racing in the hush as in the quietness, I heard Kel’s whisper to Basil "Dude… he still has his sister complex?"
Still, I couldn't stop staring at him, expectantly, waiting to see if he’d choose anyone at all.
Then footsteps sounded from the hallway.
Everyone turned.
Mom stepped into the living room, tying the belt of her robe, blinking against the light.
"You’re still here?" she asked, surprised "It’s already morning"
Sunny didn’t hesitate.
He shot up from the floor so fast it startled half the room, nearly tripping over Mincy’s leg before catching himself.
In two quick steps he reached Mom, took her lightly by the shoulders, and planted an exaggerated, perfectly angled kiss on her cheek so everyone could see.
The room froze.
For one full second, no one said anything until Kel’s earlier tension vanished completely. A grin spreading across his face as he leaned back and clapped once.
"That’s how you do it, Sunny" he said, clearly delighted.
Laughter followed.
Basil groaned in theatrical defeat.
Someone yawned again.
The spell broke just like that.
Not long after, everyone started gathering their things and left for their house.
Sunny and I lingered behind to help straighten up what little we could. One by one, everyone left until the house felt quiet.
We said goodnight to Mom --though it was really good morning-- just as Dad came down the stairs in his usual dad-weekend uniform: faded denim shorts and a hideous old T‑shirt, clearly chosen because all his decent shirts were sitting somewhere in a laundry basket waiting to be washed.
Sunny and I didn’t say much after that. We just headed off to sleep.
.
.
Once we woke up --at 4 pm, we ended up in the living room again once the house emptied out.
The TV was on, the news channel droning on about nothing in particular.
Mom and Dad had stepped out to run errands, leaving the house in that rare, hollow quiet that only shows up when we were by ourselves as I sank into one end of the couch and Sunny took the other, both of us staring at the screen without really watching.
Sunny looked thoughtful, eyes fixed somewhere beyond the screen as my mind ran in circles: whether I should tell him that Hero and I weren’t together anymore, whether I should explain why, whether he’d already noticed. And beneath that, something else stirred: the old, familiar unease I had thought I’d outgrown back in high school, not long after the incident with the broken violin.
I wanted to speak to clear the air, but every possible sentence felt wrong, too heavy.
And we kept like that for a couple of minutes, until he said "Mari. Did... did something happen with Hero?"
I forced a small smile "We just… had a small fight" I said, aiming for casualness.
He turned to look at me, holding my gaze with that usual, unreadable quietness of his. And after a few seconds, he just nodded once.
"…Okay..." he said, turning his gaze to the TV "But… if you want to talk about it, you can tell me"
I did the same, suddenly aware of how strange I felt.
'Get a grip' I scolded myself inwardly.
"You’re getting full of yourself..." I teased, trying to shut my own excitement "...Just because you’re almost as tall as me now"
He didn’t smile, though.
"I’m also a year older than yesterday" Just replied, dead serious.
I laughed despite myself.
"Yeah, yeah. That’s true"
The air loosened, letting me shift on the couch and glance at him again.
"So…" I said, deciding to keep it light "...Did you have fun yesterday?"
"Yeah..." he said after a moment "...It was good..." And moved on the couch, shortening the distance between us "...I still don’t get what Basil was trying to do with that game. It's obvious Mincy and Chris like Kel the same way"
I huffed a small laugh "Yeah. It WAS obvious. Though I didn’t expect Aubrey to like someone from the baseball team"
"I won’t say names..." he said, his face fully turned to me "...but the girl’s kind of a jerk"
I turned to him, surprised " A girl? ...You knew?"
"Yeah. She told me first. That's why she rejected me when I confessed to her"
"Of course she did..." I muttered, recalling when she once told me she didn't really like any of the guys of our group but wanted to invite to our picnics a cute girl she met at lunch time "...You always were her confident. But... Didn't she break your heart?"
He gave a small shrug "Maybe. But she matters too much to me to lose her friendship over it"
"So you knew before Basil even asked?"
"Pretty much"
I leaned back into the couch "That’s unfair. You always know everything before the rest of us"
"Not everything, just what you tell me" he anwsered, closing his eyes.
"Please. You knew about Kel's love triangle and Aubrey's likings. You probably knew what Basil was planning something too"
He gave a small, quiet chuckle "That one was obvious"
We let the TV chatter fill the space for a moment.
"I thought you were going to pick Aubrey, you know...?" I said casually, feeling too dumb once I knew everything "...When Basil gave you the dare"
He didn’t hesitate "Aubrey wasn’t the prettiest person in the room"
I snorted "I know. It was Mom..." I turned back toward the TV, adding with a thin edge of mock bitterness "...I thought you weren't a mommy's boy anymore. "sigh" When you were little, you used to tell me I was the prettiest in the world"
There was a shift beside me and before I could react, Sunny leaned over and pressed a long, firm kiss to my cheek.
I froze as he pulled back like nothing had happened.
"I still think so. You're the prettiest in the world... " he said, already standing up.
Blushing, I pressed a hand to my cheek, heart racing as I watched him standing there.
"...But Kel and that jerk Basil would never let me live it down" he added quietly "They’d keep teasing me about my sister complex if I’d kissed you with four other girls in the room"
I stayed frozen, unable to move, the words sinking in as the moment settled around us.
He cleared his throat, suddenly looking a little awkward "I’m… kind of hungry" he admitted, as if nothing unusual had just happened.
That broke the spell just enough for me to breathe again, just before he entered the kitchen.
"Sunny…" I said, voice quieter than I intended and pulse quickening just like the first time I felt weird around him "...Before we eat... I- I need to tell you something"
.
.
.
.
As I stare at the ceiling, I catch myself thinking about that night again. Years have passed, and we are so different now that I can't really believe how far we've gone.
The room is dim, the curtains half‑drawn against a pale morning.
I lie on my back as my left arm hangs off the edge of the bed. My body feels heavy and slow as my weakened legs refuse to cooperate even though I very much need to get up and make it to the bathroom.
For a moment, I wake up from my stupor and try to remember where I threw my clothes last night. Somewhere on the floor, probably. Somewhere far enough that getting up without them feels… impractical.
Beside me, Sunny sleeps on his side, breathing slow and even --too tired to wake up earlier.
I let my hand hover in the air for a moment, then turn it slightly, letting the faint light catch on the metal wrapped around my ring finger.
It still feels strange there, as if it had been quietly conjured into being. And even if I know it is real every time I hold it beneath my fingertips, my mind still struggles to fully accept its existence.
I rotate my wrist, still watching the way it glints when behind me the mattress shifts.
"What are you doing?" he asks, voice still thick with sleep.
I don’t turn right away "Just… looking at it..." I admit "...It's so beautiful and pretty"
There’s a pause. I can almost feel him blinking himself awake behind me.
"It’s nice..." he says after a moment "...Really nice..." Another pause "...Second prettiest thing in the room"
That makes me turn.
He’s looking at me through half‑lidded eyes. His hair is a mess and his face is still wet.
"I could say the same" I reply.
We stay like that for a few seconds, just looking at each other in the pale morning light, as if the years between then and now have folded into something small enough to hold.
I exhale and let my arm fall back onto the mattress.
"Be a dear and find where you threw my clothes..." I say "I want to get up, but I’m not walking around the house like... this. It’s freezing"
He pushes himself up without complaint.
"Okay" he murmurs.
He swings his legs over the side of the bed, already scanning the floor.
"Yes, love" he adds simply, before standing to retrieve whatever remains from what he managed to scatter across the room.