Yeju

I caught my mother drinking alone last summer.

It was the middle of the night, and she was slumped on top of the dining table with a near-empty sake bottle in her hand. When she turned to face me, her eyes were red and swollen.

I had never seen Mom cry before, and the sight triggered my fight-or-flight response. As usual, I chose ‘fight’. I was ready to fight whoever or whatever made her cry.

The culprit turned out to be my father. Apparently, Mom had found out that Dad was flying all the way to Los Angeles just to meet this woman he had been talking to on Instagram. A much younger, much cuter woman.

Disgust filled me. I had just come back home to New Jersey, but I was ready to fly back to California with Mom at that moment. I formulated a plan: we would go to that meeting place, we would catch Dad in the act, and we would demand an explanation. It would be satisfying, cathartic, and it would take Mom’s mind off the constant speculation.

And so we did. We flew to Los Angeles and followed Dad into that fateful cafe. Everything went downhill once we saw who he was meeting up with—not one, but three women, who looked even younger than me.

Before I could even throw up at the fact that my father might be messing with multiple girls, Mom rushed forward and started yelling at him. What transpired was a blur of events. Things were thrown. A scuffle involving the cafe employees. Screams and crashes of items. My head ached like never before.

Worst of all, I heard Dad’s explanation.

He was not cheating on my mother. He had cheated on her twenty years ago. While my mother had been raising eight-year-old me all by herself, my father had been fucking a schoolmate at National Taipei University.

And now he was looking to reconnect with his long-lost daughter. Chloe, or whatever they called her. She was sobbing like crazy, as though she was the most hurt by all of this.

Hell no. The one most hurt was Mom. Mom, finding out that true love doesn’t exist. That the person she trusted had lied for years. That the father I had was a cheating bastard. It was Mom, crying on the plane home, drinking alone at night.

And it was all my father’s fault. And Chloe’s. And all the other girls who were with her.

They fucking destroyed my mother.

And right now, one of those girls is here. In the apartment I live in. Standing in front of me. Staring at me with those bright, round eyes again.

The world spins around me; I am not ready for my memories to hit me this hard right after I wake up.

“It’s you,” I manage to say, gripping the door handle to stop myself from collapsing. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Her mouth drops open. A faint blush paints over her cheeks. “Oh… hello, I’m- I’m Lia. Nice to meet you.”

This time, my mouth drops. Her voice is like… Honeycrisp apple. Sweet, clear, and subtly melodious. A voice you would hear on a morning radio.

I give her a once-over. She is wearing a simple blouse with jeans. Her posture is as proper as a pageant contestant, while her high ponytail is as smooth as a shampoo commercial.

Is she a fucking model or what?

I clear my throat. “Well, okay, whatever, hi, Lia. What are you doing here?”

“Oh…” Lia tilts her head. “Did… Yuna not tell you?”

“Yuna? Tell me what?”

I look around and see the bags strewn around the floor. Realization dawns on me. Shit. She’s the new apartment mate? Los Angeles has a population of almost four million people, and Yuna has to choose her out of everyone? One of the people who broke my mother?

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Lia tugs at the ends of her ponytail and laughs nervously. “I guess she didn’t. So anyway, I’m your new—“

“Get out.”

Lia blinks. “What?”

“Get the fuck out,” I repeat, every word laced with venom.

“But I… live here now. In the other room.”

“Yeah, I don’t want you to live next to me.”

“Hey, I signed the lease.” Lia’s silvery voice raises. “I’m living here.”

“Un-sign it then.”

“That’s ridiculous. I’m gonna unpack.” Lia grabs her bags and marches to her room. Yuna’s room.

I stomp out as well, leaning against the wall between the two doors and glaring at Lia as she unzips her bag. “How the fuck do you sign the lease without my permission anyway?”

“I don’t need your permission,” Lia snaps. “You don’t own this place. I have the landlord’s permission, and that’s all I need.”

“I’m gonna call the landlord to evict you.”

She rolls her eyes. “Do whatever you want,” she mutters before turning her attention back to her bags.

My jaw clenches. I know my landlord would never evict a paying renter, but there must be something else I can do. I stalk back into my room, slam the door, and dial Yuna’s number.

“Hey, Yej—“

“What the hell, Yuna?” I bark.

“What?”

“Where the hell did you find this new person to take over your room?”

“What? Why?” There are muffled voices and some shuffling noises in the background. Yuna must be hanging out with her friends. “I told you. She’s a friend of my ex’s.”

Ah. Her ex-girlfriend that I really should have requested to meet. “Don’t tell me your ex is a friend of Chloe.”

“Chloe? That’s RJ’s current girlfriend! How do you know her?”

I slap my fist on my forehead. “No fucking way.”

“Why?”

“Chloe is my father’s secret daughter!”

A pause ensues. Followed by a sharp gasp. “Wow, are you serious? The one you confronted with your mom over the summer?”

“Yes,” I say through gritted teeth. My head throbs and I rub my fist into my temple. How I wish I can drill my fist straight through.

“Wow, that’s crazy. This is such a small world, my goodness.”

She is laughing. I am fuming, and she is laughing.

“Yeah, yeah, crazy. Come back to live here and get Lia’s lease transferred back to you. I’m not fucking living with her.”

“What! No way! Come on, Yeju, you know it’s not her fault any of that happened.”

“I don’t care. I don’t want to see her around. I don’t want to see anybody involved in that shit show.”

“Well, I’m not kicking a poor girl out into the streets for a dumb reason like that.”

“Let her live in your current place then!”

“Absolutely not. What part of ‘I’m moving on from you’ do you not understand?”

“Alright, fine. If you don’t want to help me do anything, I’m going to make her want to leave.”

“What? Yeju, what are you thinking—“

I hang up on her and swing open the door. A glance into Lia’s room tells me that her bags are almost all unpacked. Her hair sways behind her as she busies herself with her bed, putting on a fresh set of bedsheets while humming along to a tune playing on her phone. Some song by Taylor Swift.

“I had a marvelous time ruining everything,” she mumbles, lost in her own world.

Of course her singing voice is amazing too.

I shake my head. Concentrate, Yeju. Chase this woman out of the apartment. She’s a Taylor Swift fan… What music would a Swiftie not like?

Hard metal, for sure.

“A marvelous time, I had a marvelous time…” Lia continues in the background.

I connect my phone to the speakers in the living room and choose a random Metalcore Mix playlist on Spotify. The first song has such a strong start that I jolt on the spot—and from the corner of my eye, I can see Lia jump too. My lips curl into a smirk. Perfect. Operation Annoy the Heck Out of Lia Endlessly, or Operation A-HOLE, is off to a great start.

Hopping onto the couch, I turn up the volume as much as I can take. Lia’s door closes next to me, but I know that won’t change anything. The soundproofing of this apartment is atrocious.

My smirk grows as another idea strikes me. I tap on the Tinder app and begin swiping through my options.

The queer scene in Los Angeles is huge; just one night back on the app and I have already talked to a handful of girls. There is a YouTuber with about ten thousand subscribers. I do not want to end up in a video, so I skip her. Next is this couple who is looking for a threesome. The woman is smoking hot, but the man… is a man. I skip them too.

My fingers linger on the next person I chatted with, Karina. She recently moved here from Boston, and we spent all last night sharing about our favorite restaurants and clubs in L.A. We even mentioned having a meal together. I raise my eyebrows as I reread our messages. Maybe I can reach out and ask her to come over tonight.

A text pops up on the top of my screen. It’s from my father.

Dad: Hi Yeju. I have moved out. This is my new address…

I swipe his notification away. I do not want to know his new address or anything about him. Maybe I should block him.

“Hey!” Lia calls.

I lift my head to see her door open and her face flustered. Not even an hour in, and I have already made her this frazzled. Operation A-HOLE is going very well, and I’m having a marvelous time.

“Can you please turn the volume down?” she asks.

I point at my ears and wave, acting as though I cannot hear her. Then, I flip over to lie on my stomach.

Time to activate step two of Operation A-HOLE. I message Karina.

Yeju: Good morning Kar-bear, how are you today?

Karina’s reply is immediate. My smile widens.

Score.