Part 1:

She put down the candle and smiled reassuringly to her mother. Danielle’s shopping
cart was beginning to overload and not from her own purchase but her mother’s. She was not
planning to do her shopping until the day after she moved in her new house—a share-house,
that is—but her mother insisted to get over with the shopping so that she can use the
remaining time socialising with other students. Though the idea was perfectly reasonable,
Dani had not intended to use up such precious time mingling with people she would not talk
to again. Yet, here she was, complying to her mother’s adamant suggestion to do as she said.
Otherwise, she probably would not have left until Danielle said yes and to spare herself the
drama and the whining, she did.
“You need to have a theme. Maybe like pink and white. Oh! You like purple, right?
Like purple and white?” Her mother’s voice beamed from the other end of the aisle.
Danielle let out a faint awkward chuckle. “It’s okay. I think I’ll examine my room again to
decide.”
Her mother did not reply but returned a short stoic glance. Danielle slightly bit the side of her
lip feeling uneasy after her mother’s reaction. She has always tried to maintain a civil and
uneventful relationship with her mother especially after her dad disappeared and later
emerged back into their life just to inform them that he was to leave them for another family.
Ever since that incident, her mother had grown distant towards her and spent majority of her
time working or spending the night out. However, Danielle was thankful that she never
resulted to alcohol or drugs to cope—well, not that she knows of. Even though they had
reached a stagnant and impersonal point of their relationship, she was always grateful that her
mother never left her side during her dad’s theatrics.

“I should get back home soon. I still haven’t moved my stuff downstairs. It might get
in my housemates’ way.” Dani noted to her mum as she pushed the trolley.
Her mum nodded with a heavy sigh. “Okay, let’s go.”
The drive on the way back was overdone from her mum’s side feeling more awkward with
her awareness of the situation. She could recognise when her mum was also awkward and
oblivious to how one should react when they could feel an emotion—she would blather,
mostly about herself and her work. Unlike every other average human being, her mother had
preferred this method of managing emotions… by ignoring them and being aloof. Danielle
had already accepted this reality and it was one she was particularly comfortable with.

The car’s vibrating noise that indicated the wanted silence was almost comforting
when her mum unexpectedly hugged her in the most hesitant and strained manner. Her eyes
widened as she squeezed her arms together unaware of how to react. Her toes curled as she
felt a cringey sensation all over her body and to the back of her neck.
Oh my gosh. What the hell is happening?
“Sorry. I uhh—I thought—It just felt like the right thing to do. Enjoy university and
call me if you ever need anything.”
Danielle softly grinned as her mother anxiously put the key in the ignition. She grabbed her
bags and waved her mother goodbye and spared not another thought and proceeded to enter
the house to take up the boxes to her room as soon as possible.
“Hey, you need help with that?” A deep voice called out. A boy was sprawled across
the couch with one of his legs prompted up on the coffee table.
 “Um, yeah. Sure. That’d be great.” Danielle carried one of the lighter boxes into her
arms and slowly crept up the stairs. She made one look-back and saw him struggling to
maintain his balance with two boxes in his arms. She would ask why he would carry two
boxes but then that would mean he w ould reply, and she would have to construct a silly witty
comment. So, she didn’t. The boy bent over and placed the boxes on the floor with a loud
pant.
“Shit, that was heavy.” He laughed. The boy stood tall against Danielle, and she
wasn’t a short girl. His torso stretched almost longer than the rest of his body which made his
head look a little small on top of his long neck.
“Thank you, umm….” Danielle’s eyes wandered back and forth to his eyes and the
wall behind him.
“Chiko. Chiko Lance.”
His name was unusual to her, but she was more confused as to why he was in her house.
“You’re not my housemate,” she muttered, “right?”
Chiko’s eyes widened and she heard him chuckle faintly. “Oh, no! Why? Do you want me to
be?”
Danielle was stunned by his sudden jest and Chiko seemed to have noticed this.
“I’m your housemate’s ex. I hang around sometimes. To study or drink. Mostly
drink.” He marvelled at her reaction.
“So, you have a key?”
“…sorta. Jess keeps her spare under the doormat. If you’re uncomfortable with me
being a—”
“No, it’s okay. Just… make it known that it’s just you.”
Chiko’s eyes squinted. “I don’t know how that’s possible, but I will try.”
Danielle smirked and was suddenly reminded of a question. “Does anyone else use her spare
key to get in?”
“… Yeah.” She figured a sense of embarrassment in his voice.
“A lot?”
“… Yeah.” He anxiously bit his bottom lip and ran his fingers through his brown
curls.

Danielle was silent for a moment before she managed to collate her thoughts back together.
“I can just start placing it somewhere else. I’ll let her know. It’ll be just me, you and
her that’ll know. Other people know because she can’t handle her alcohol and always need
other people to take her ass back home.”
Danielle appreciated this. “Yes, please.”
Chiko nodded in agreement and gave her a reassuring smile. With that out of the way, she
continued organising her things and pushed half-empty boxes around her surprisingly
spacious room.

She softly kicked the last box just outside her room and chucked her bedsheets on the
mattress. The room came with the double bed and a study desk which she was grateful for.
She didn’t want to have to take her oversized study desk to the trip there. She breathed
heavily and felt a relief when she flung her body on the mattress and watched the ceiling fan
slowly rotate. It was getting colder so there would be no need for fans.
CLANG!
Danielle shot up from the bed and briskly exited the door. She ran to where the sound came
from and saw Chiko standing over a frying pan on the tile floor.
What the?
 “So sorry. I hope I didn’t disturb you.”

No, you just scared the hell out of me.

“What are you doing? She asked. His eyes fell to the ground almost indicating the
food that was smeared all over the ground. There were overcooked beans mashed between
the tiles as if he stepped on them. Some sort of red sauce was slowly running beneath the
couch.
“Wait—Quick!” Chiko yelped as he noticed the liquid almost staining the couch.
Danielle quickly reached for the sauce and tried to stop it with her hand but slowly it was
overflowing to the side and began making its way to the couch again. Chiko quickly snatched
a towel from the kitchen table and used the sauce to slide his way to the couch and wipe it.
“Ow, fuck!” Danielle felt a crushing pain in her fingers and attempted to pull it out
from Chiko’s feet, but this only caused him to lose balance and slip from the sauce.
Danielle’s eyes widened as she felt his whole-body weight crush her against the dirty
smooshy floor. What was worse was his hand that had, of course, landed on her breast. It was
gripping on it too. Tightly. As if it relied on it for balance. He immediately pushed himself
off her and stood up.
“I’m so sorry. Oh fuck….” He muttered under his breath. She watched his cheeks
gradually turn into a shade of pink as he frantically looked for something to do.
“I’m so sorry.” He repeated. Danielle could feel her cheeks also burning up and could
only imagine how red she looked right now. She wanted to play it off and just laugh, but the
feeling of embarrassment was far too strong that all she could do was grunt and storm back
upstairs.

Danielle didn’t come back down for the rest of the night. She showered vigorously and made
sure she locked her door.
Why did I do that? Oh my gosh!
She kicked her feet in the air and flung her arms around before she buried her face into her
pillow. She got up and stood in front of the mirror attempting to imitate how she would have
looked while making the sound.
“Ugh.” She silently repeated. It only upset her more as she pictured the red sauce
covering her legs and arms, probably looking like a squashed tomato on the floor. This was
not how she intended to start her supposedly independent entrance of adulthood. Shaking her
thoughts away to calm herself, she laid back on the bed and replayed the show she was
watching. It only took her a quick ten seconds until she was obsessing over the
embarrassment of the incident again. Who wouldn’t? Danielle had always actively avoided
situations that could potentially result in her own humiliation. It was a constant irrational
anxiety she felt when there were other people around. Like the time in tenth grade when she
attempted to give her crush a simple compliment about his avocado printed socks, except she
had been sick that whole day and ended up puking on his shoes instead. Ever since that day,
she never made contact with him again or even allowed the thoughts of complimenting
another boy. It didn’t help when her friends constantly brought it up for their source of
entertainment.

Knock. Knock.
Danielle froze hearing the gentle tapping sounds on her door, figuring what she should say
before she opened it.
“I’m—I’m changing.” She stuttered as she shuffled around to create noises.
“Oh, okay. It’s Jess. Just wanted to say sorry I got home late. I forgot to let you know
that Chiko was gonna be at home.” Her voice was calm and hoarse.
“That’s okay!”
There was a brief silence. “I made dinner as well. Come down if you want some.”
Danielle badly wanted to say no. “Sure. I’ll be down in a minute.”
She waited a few seconds—sliding the door of her closet, shuffling around to make it seem
like she really was changing. When she had calculated that it seemed realistically long
enough for her to change, she reluctantly made her way downstairs and to the kitchen where
both Jess and Chiko already helped themselves to dinner. A sweet savoury aroma filled the
room as she felt a slight breeze of heat from the oven. She took a shallow breath before
sitting down next to Jess.
Jess placed a plate in front of her and cutleries, and slightly pushed the food closer to
Danielle.
“So, how was the drive up?” Jess asked as she took another spoonful of mashed
potatoes in her mouth.
“Oh, it was good. Mum’s car was big enough to fit all my stuff in.” Danielle grabbed
the ladle and served herself some beef stew. She could tell that it was still too hot from the
visible steam coming from the pot.
“I could never imagine driving three hours just for uni.” Jess shook her head, a thick
strand of her platinum blonde hair, that she unkemptly twisted above her head, falling to the
sides of her pale cheeks.
“Well, I didn’t really have a choice. There were no universities where I lived.” Her
eyes fell down to her food and occasionally looked up to Chiko who was busy serving
himself more stew.
“Must have been a really small town.” Jess added before getting up to take out the
bread from the oven. Chiko remained silent and merely minded his food. He didn’t even look
at the girls when they spoke. Danielle decided to do the same until Jess addressed the uneasy
aura between the two.
“Why are you so quiet, Chiko?” She gently kicked his foot under the table. He
slightly jumped in his spot and gazed at Jess in a questioning manner. He shrugged his
shoulders, not uttering a word. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you so awkward?
Is it ‘coz of Danielle? I thought you already met her?”
“I’m not awkward. I’m just enjoying my food, damn.” He replied and made a quick
eye-contact with Danielle.

The room remained silent for the rest of the night, occasionally being broken by Jess’ offhand
comments about country and city lifestyle. Danielle felt a sense of an unfriendly tone from
the way Jess spoke, but it could have been something else, so she thought nothing deeply of
it. Her main dilemma at that time was Chiko staying silent and not apologising or even
addressing what happened that afternoon. She felt Chiko held the responsibility to bring it up
since he was the one who committed such terrible act. She wasn’t going to bring it up either,
plainly out of stubbornness or embarrassment… of course. It reminded her of the time she
caught her mum outside the house suggestively pinned down against a man’s car and had
unfortunately made eyes contact with her mum from the upstairs window. The silence yet
nonchalant attitude her mother had the next morning was overbearing. It was never addressed
ever since. Except this time, she was personally affected, and it was by a boy she didn’t even
know.
When Jess got up to wash her plate Danielle whispered to Chiko.
“Hey, why aren’t you saying anything?”
He was in disbelief. “Why me? I already said sorry.”
“Well, it’s pretty awkward right now.”
“Why should I even bring it up?”
Danielle scoffed. “Because you’re making it awkward!”
“Bro, I thought you wouldn’t want me bringing it up and I didn’t want to embarrass
you.”
“I’m not embarrassed. Why should I be embarrassed? You’re the one who harassed
me.”
Chiko’s eyes widened almost letting out a laugh. “Jess, earlier this afternoon, while I was
cooking, your housemate felt me up. Like straight up my balls and stuff.”