Prologue
May was excited. Nervous, yes—but still excited. She had just finished reapplying her lipstick in the small mirror hanging by the door, smoothing her lips over with one final touch of glossy red before stepping back and giving herself a once-over. Her sage-green dress hugged her figure perfectly, though the material was already starting to scratch slightly into her ribs. No matter. Tonight was worth it.
She sat down on the edge of her couch, legs crossed and hands neatly folded in her lap, waiting for the doorbell to ring.
Ten minutes passed.
Then twenty.
By the forty-minute mark, the excitement that had been buzzing in her chest began to fizzle, replaced by a prickling sense of irritation .
May watched, annoyance and slight disappointment filling her chest, as the hour mark ticked slowly by.
May let out a sharp exhale through her nose, the sound echoing faintly in her otherwise quiet apartment. The soft lighting she’d adjusted to create a warm and inviting ambiance now felt ridiculous, as if mocking her for the effort.
"Okay, that's enough," she muttered to herself, standing abruptly. Aly’s glowing endorsement of this “keeper”—a close friend of Tan, no less—felt increasingly like a cruel joke. May tugged at the waistband of her dress, the scratchy material now unbearable. She was 22, for heaven's sake. Plenty of time to find the one . This wasn’t worth it.
But just as she took a step toward her room to peel off the dress and throw on some sweatpants, three loud, deliberate knocks sounded at her door.
May froze.
"No way," she thought, turning slowly.
Another knock, just as loud.
Taking a breath to steel herself, May walked to the door and opened it, half-expecting—hoping—to see an apology written all over her date’s face.
Instead, there she was: the girl from the photos Aly had shown her, the girl May had secretly thoroughly stalked on social media earlier in the week.
Ai-oon leaned casually against the doorframe, one arm resting above her head in what May could only assume was an intentional attempt at looking effortlessly cool. Her dark, straight hair framed a face that was annoyingly attractive—like, unfairly so. May wanted to scowl, but instead, she took in Ai-oon’s outfit: a leather jacket thrown over a plain white t-shirt, paired with ripped jeans and white trainers. The girl looked like she’d just stepped off the set of some indie band photoshoot.
May forced a polite smile, though a sigh that sounded frustrated slipped out before she could stop it. "Hi."
Ai-oon’s lips curved into a lazy grin as she openly checked May out, her gaze lingering just a little too long. "Hey."
May fought to keep her composure as she held out a hand, her voice clipped but polite. "Metavee. But you can call me May."
Ai-oon took her hand, her grip firm but strangely gentle. "Ai-oon," she replied, her smirk widening.
May withdrew her hand quickly, crossing her arms as she leaned slightly against the doorframe. "Well, it’s nice to finally meet you, Ai-oon." She didn’t bother hiding the emphasis on the word finally.
Ai-oon raised a brow, clearly catching the irritation in May’s tone. "Am I late?" she asked, tilting her head slightly, her voice laced with mock innocence.
May’s jaw tightened, but she forced a smile to stay on her lips. "Well, just an hour," she said, the smile stiffening with every word. "But Aly did mention that you're… a little late sometimes. So I guess I shouldn't be too surprised to have been kept waiting ..." She trailed off, shrugging.
"Yeah," Ai-oon replied with a chuckle, her tone maddeningly carefree. "Tan said you’d probably say something like that."
The sheer audacity of her made May blink in disbelief. She let out a hollow laugh, trying to process this girl’s complete lack of remorse. " Oh, did he? " she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. " Neat. "
The exchange hung in the air awkwardly for a moment before Ai-oon slapped her knee, clearly unbothered. "So! Should we go?"
May stared at her, momentarily speechless. Was this girl for real? Forcing herself to swallow her initial reaction, she nodded stiffly. "Yeah. Let’s… go."
May told herself this was fine. First impressions weren’t always accurate. Maybe Ai-oon would improve with time.
As she grabbed her purse and stepped out of her apartment, Ai-oon moved aside to let her through, doing some odd, exaggerated shuffle-dance as she gestured for May to go first. It was like she couldn’t decide if she was being funny or trying to be cool.
May rolled her eyes internally but kept her expression neutral. They walked in silence down the hall, Ai-oon’s shoes echoing with every step. As they reached the stairs, May’s tongue betrayed her, letting out a dry quip she hadn’t planned.
"I’m super hungry, by the way," she said, her tone light but pointed. "Because It’s been, you know, an hour."
Ai-oon didn’t respond immediately, just shot her a glance and smirked as she walked ahead, her hands shoved into her pockets.
The silence that followed was enough to make May wonder why she hadn’t just stayed home.
And yet, as Ai-oon pushed open the building’s front door and gestured for her to go ahead—complete with a mock bow and a teasing “I'm starving too”—May couldn’t help but shake her head with a mix of irritation and begrudging amusement.
Maybe Aly was right. Maybe.
But if this date didn’t improve drastically, it was going to take a lot more than good looks and bad jokes to win May over.
"So, I hear you just moved to Bangkok," May said, her tone friendly as she tried to kickstart a conversation.
"Yep," Ai-oon replied quietly, her hands shoved into the pockets of her leather jacket as they strolled toward the gate of May’s apartment complex.
May blinked. That was it? No elaboration, no follow-up, no curiosity. Just yep.
"Oh," May said, her voice trailing off as she struggled to think of something else. Clearly, this girl wasn’t one for small talk. Okay then.
She tried again, forcing a polite smile. "How long have you known Tan for?"
"High school," Ai-oon said, glancing around casually like she had better things to do than answer basic questions.
Another dead end.
"Oh. Cool," May said, her patience wearing thinner with each passing second. Any initial intrigue or attraction she might have felt toward Ai-oon was rapidly being overpowered by annoyance. It didn’t matter how attractive this girl was—her attitude wasn’t winning any points.
They reached the outside gate, and May was surprised again when Ai-oon, at least, had the decency to hold it open for her. So she can be chivalrous when it comes to holding doors open but not conversing? Odd. "Oh. Thank you," she said, stepping through.
"I’ve known Aly since university," May continued, determined to make the conversation less one-sided. Ai-oon gave her a nod, but nothing more.
"We were in a dorm together," May added, her tone almost daring Ai-oon to at least pretend to care.
They reached the edge of the street, and May glanced around for any sign of a car that she didn't recognise to be one of her neighbours. The parking spaces in front of her building were mostly empty, and she furrowed her brow. "Where's your car?"
"Right here."
May turned to see Ai-oon walking toward a parked motorbike, a sleek, well-worn thing that looked like it had been through its fair share of adventures. Before May could process this, Ai-oon placed a helmet into her hands—a very unpadded helmet, at that.
"Oh," May said flatly, staring down at it.
"Come on," Ai-oon said with an easy grin, swinging one leg over the bike and mounting it like she’d done it a thousand times before. She gave May a once-over, her smirk deepening. "You can hold on tight. I promise I won’t read into it."
Her voice was teasing, and the way her eyes lingered on May’s frame sent a shiver down her spine—a reaction May chose to ignore. It didn’t help that Ai-oon revved the engine a second later, the sound loud and juvenile, like a 12-year-old boy trying to show off his cool toy.
May narrowed her eyes, clutching the helmet in her hands as she glanced down at her outfit. Her dress—tight, elegant, and ending mid-thigh—was absolutely not suited for 50-mile-an-hour winds on the back of a bike.
"I’m not really dressed for..." She gestured to herself, as if it should be obvious. "For, you know, this. "
Ai-oon tilted her head, her brows furrowing slightly as she seemed to realise the impracticality of the situation.
"I don’t even think I could get my leg up over it," May added, raising a brow.
Ai-oon stopped revving the engine and looked genuinely lost for a moment, as if she hadn’t considered the logistics.
"But it's all good, I’ll drive," May said firmly, gritting her teeth as she pointed toward a small red car parked perfectly beside them. Its glossy finish gleamed under the streetlights, and May’s voice softened with pride. "And it’s new, so I love driving it."
Ai-oon slid off the bike, her hands back in her pockets as she eyed the car. "It’s a sweet ride," she commented with a nod, though May couldn’t help but notice the slight reluctance in the way she walked toward the passenger side.
May unlocked the doors with a click, taking satisfaction in watching Ai-oon slide into the passenger seat. For someone who seemed so used to being in charge—or at least acting like she was—this felt like a small victory.
As May settled into the driver’s seat, she allowed herself a small smile. Let’s see how this date goes now.
"So, where shall we go?" Ai-oon asked, turning to May as she lazily buckled her seatbelt, her tone as casual as if they were discussing the weather.
May felt the heat rise to her face, a combination of frustration and disbelief. "Uh, well... where did you make the reservations?"
There was a pause.
"The reservations you said you were gonna make," May added, enunciating each word carefully.
Silence.
Ai-oon’s confident expression faltered ever so slightly, replaced by the faintest hint of guilt. Her lips parted as though she was about to say something, but nothing came out.
"You didn’t make them?" May asked, her tone now edged with sharpness.
"I said that?" Ai-oon asked, her voice innocent yet maddeningly unconcerned.
May stared at her, biting back a string of words she was sure would have made her mother proud. Instead, she took a deep breath and forced herself to keep calm. "It’s fine. Whatever," she said, though her jaw tightened as the words left her mouth.
"Yeah, it’s cool," Ai-oon replied with a shrug, as if they’d just agreed to something trivial like what movie to watch. The nonchalance in her voice made May want to scream. "We can go anywhere. I don’t care."
Really not helping.
"Okay," May said through clenched teeth. "Well, how about Café Five? Have you ever been there?"
"Nope, but it sounds good," Ai-oon replied without missing a beat.
May pressed her lips together, trying to salvage the conversation. "My friend from culinary school is the—"
Suddenly, the loud, unmistakable beat of Trick Daddy’s " Pull Over " blared through the car.
May blinked in disbelief as Ai-oon let out a sheepish grin, reaching into the pocket of her jacket to pull out her phone. "It’s just my phone," she said, as if the painfully obnoxious ringtone hadn’t made that abundantly clear.
"I figured," May replied flatly. "You can answer it if you—"
"No, no, it’ll go to voicemail," Ai-oon interrupted, waving her off with a smile.
The ringtone continued, unrelenting.
"Okay," May said, her irritation barely contained.
"Yeah, well, as I was saying, my friend from culinary school is actually the—"
"You know what?" May cut herself off mid-sentence, letting out a frustrated laugh. "Go ahead. Just answer it. It’s fine."
Ai-oon hesitated, clearly debating whether to take the call, before finally muttering, "I—I can wait."
The ringtone blared on.
"All right, yeah, it’s a little too loud," Ai-oon admitted, glancing down at the caller ID. She tried—poorly—to shield the screen from May’s view, leaning awkwardly to the side as if it made her less conspicuous.
"Hey…you," Ai-oon finally answered, her tone dropping lower.
May folded her arms and turned her head, staring out the window in an attempt to block out the exchange. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
"Well, you know me," Ai-oon continued, glancing at May with a smirk that only made things worse. "Always in the middle of something. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Eleven? All right. All right. Later."
May’s hands tightened around the steering wheel, her face flushed with anger. She didn’t know what infuriated her more—the call itself or the fact that Ai-oon looked so unbothered by it.
When Ai-oon hung up, she turned to May with an apologetic grin that didn’t reach her eyes. "I’m sorry. It’s... it’s a sick friend."
May snapped. "You know what? We don’t have to do this."
"Really?" Ai-oon replied, raising a brow. "Okay."
May’s jaw dropped. "Oh my God . Are you serious?"
"Okay, let’s be honest," Ai-oon said, leaning back in her seat with an almost maddening air of confidence. "You knew the moment you saw me, you didn’t like me."
May gawked at her. "But our mutual friends set this up, so I think we owe it to them to—"
Ai-oon cut her off with a dismissive wave. "To what? Spend a few hours faking small talk? Look, best case, we get drunk and hook up."
May’s vision blurred with rage as her mother’s voice echoed faintly in her mind: It’s wrong to hit people, Metavee. Be patient.
"What kind of an asshole are you?" she gritted out.
Ai-oon shrugged, completely unfazed. "It’s a Saturday night. I just wanna have some fun. I can go see my sick friend, and you can go do... whatever it is you like to do on a Saturday night. You look like you read. You can go read a book. Or I don't know, bake?"
"Bake?" May repeated, her voice rising. "Okay. You know what? If you wanted to ensure that this wasn’t gonna be a lousy night, here’s a tip: don’t show up an hour late, and don’t make a booty call!"
"She’s a sick friend," Ai-oon argued, her smirk unfaltering.
"Oh, right," May said with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. "Were you going to heal her with your magic touch?"
To May’s surprise, Ai-oon burst out laughing, clearly amused. "Okay, fine," she said, throwing her hands up in mock surrender. "If you wanna go out, we’ll go out—"
"Oh my God , no!" May shouted, exasperated. "I’m not going out with you now. What are you, crazy? Get out of my car!" She punctuated her words with a sharp smack to Ai-oon’s shoulder. So much for her mothers words of wisdom.
"Get out of my car!"
Ai-oon threw up her hands in mock surrender and slid out of the car, slamming the door behind her. "I don’t know what they were thinking," she grumbled as she walked toward her motorbike.
"Me neither!" May shouted back, slamming her own door for good measure.
As Ai-oon revved her motorbike and sped off, May whipped out her phone, her hands trembling as she dialed Aly’s number.
"Aly? Oh my God ," she said the moment her friend picked up. "The only way you can make this up to me is if you promise I never have to see her again."
That unfortunately for Metavee was not the case.
Over the next few years, Aly and Tan fell deeper and deeper in love, while May and Ai-oon seemed to fall deeper and deeper into something else entirely. For May, it was sheer, unrelenting dislike and annoyance—every event, every group dinner, every shared occasion was a battlefield.
For Ai-oon, it seemed to be something closer to amusement. After all, nothing was quite as fun as getting under May’s skin and watching her carefully composed exterior crack under Ai’s teasing remarks and carefree attitude. And thanks to Aly and Tan, Ai-oon got plenty of chances to indulge in her new favorite pastime.
***
The first time Aly and Tan hosted a formal dinner to celebrate their anniversary, May arrived early, eager to help Aly set up and enjoy the calm before the storm. That peace was shattered the moment Ai-oon walked in, late as usual, with a bottle of cheap wine and her trademark smirk.
"Oh good," May muttered under her breath, glaring as Ai-oon slouched into the room and greeted everyone like they were old friends. "The clown is here."
Throughout the night, Ai-oon made it her mission to sit directly across from May, her fork clinking against her plate as she interrupted May’s stories with sarcastic quips and wild anecdotes of her own.
When May excused herself to the kitchen to get more drinks, Ai-oon followed her.
"You know," Ai-oon said, leaning casually against the counter as May pointedly ignored her, "you’re really cute when you’re angry."
"And you’re really obnoxious all the time," May shot back.
***
Aly’s backyard birthday party turned into another battlefield. Ai-oon showed up late with a tray of cupcakes she’d obviously bought on the way over, while May had spent all morning baking Aly’s favourite dessert.
"Wow," Ai-oon said with exaggerated admiration, inspecting May’s cake on the dessert table. "That looks... ambitious."
"At least I didn’t stop by a 7-Eleven," May snapped, crossing her arms.
Later that evening, as May and Ai-oon found themselves playing on opposing teams in a party game, Ai-oon purposefully chose the wrong answers just to frustrate May.
"You’re doing this on purpose!" May accused, her cheeks flushed with both anger and wine.
"I don’t know what you’re talking about," Ai-oon replied, grinning mischievously.
***
When Aly and Tan got married, May tried to beg her way out of being paired with Ai-oon during the reception games, but Aly wouldn’t hear it.
"You’re both my best friends," Aly insisted. "You can tolerate each other for one night."
Tolerate was an understatement. From the way Ai-oon smirked during the bouquet toss, whispering, "Better catch it, May," to how she conveniently "forgot" the steps during the couple’s dance game, May was certain the night couldn’t get any worse.
But then Ai-oon caught the garter, holding it up triumphantly and winking in May’s direction.
"Of course you’d catch that," May muttered, her face burning as Ai-oon sauntered past her with an exaggerated swagger.
***
The birth of Aly and Tan’s daughter, Nova, marked a new chapter in their lives and forced May and Ai-oon together even more.
"We’re going to need you two to help out," Aly told them, cradling a newborn Nova in her arms. "You’re both family."
Family. The word landed like a punch to May’s stomach as she glanced at Ai-oon, who was already making ridiculous faces at the baby.
"Of course," Ai-oon said easily, her grin widening as Nova gurgled back at her. "Anything for my little SuperNova."
May crossed her arms, watching the scene unfold. It was unnerving how comfortable Ai-oon looked in this situation, as though she hadn’t spent the last three years being an absolute pain.
"I’ll help however I can," May promised her best friend, truly meaning it.
"You better," Aly teased, smiling at both of them. "You two are going to be seeing a lot of each other now. So behave"
May stiffened, her annoyance bubbling under the surface. Ai-oon, however, seemed to revel in the situation, sending May a quick wink as she straightened up.
"Guess we’re stuck together, May," Ai-oon said lightly, pretending to blow her a kiss.
May shot her a glare. "Lucky me."
***
Despite their constant clashes, one thing was clear: no matter how much May disliked Ai-oon, life seemed determined to throw them together. And for Ai-oon, who lived to needle and tease, it was the best arrangement she could ask for.