Yuki sipped from her straw, a tapioca pearl sliding up with the sweet coffee flavor into her mouth. "You really think I should try to win Rhett over? Seems easier to convince Ethan to play the game." After her initial burst of ambition, the task of making up with Rhett looked like a mountain compared to the hill of winning over someone new.

Her co-worker, Cate, finished wiping her side of the counter and tossed the wet rag over. "He's your Truth but you can win the scholarship? That's a no brainer to me."

With about half an hour before closing, most of the customer flow had ebbed, but there'd always be one who squeezed in for a boba blast right when they tried to lock up. That or they wanted to meet Mango, who sat purring on Yuki's lap. She stroked his fluffy head before picking him up and setting him down on her stool while he meowed in protest.

Picking up the rag, Yuki avoided Cate's questioning glance. The other girl shrugged and went to clean the blender, her strawberry blond ponytail swishing behind her. "All I'm saying is you've got nothing to lose by trying him first. Weren't you two close?"

Yuki sighed, pointing a warning finger at a miffed Mango to keep him off the clean counter. "We were best friends. Only saw each other in the summer when I came out to visit my grandparents, but we wrote all year-round."

In truth, even the thought of being able to talk to Rhett again, to crack jokes and tease him made Yuki's heart burst with longing. But the secret kept them apart, the reason she'd pushed him away. If the logic for her action had existed before, it'd grown stronger now.

As if hearing the conflicting thoughts, Cate put down the blender and came to lean with her back to the counter next to Yuki, smoothing her tangerine-colored apron over her jeans. "I don't know what happened between the two of you, if it was your fault or his, or even a little bit of both. What I do know is that it's better to face up and make amends because you only find a friend like that once or twice in a lifetime."

Yuki smiled at the nudge from Cate's elbow, though her heart ached. "He's likely to reject me though. If he's my Truth, then I could be his Lie."

Cate laughed and it made her blue eyes sparkle like oceans over the golden stars of her freckles. "When you get to be my age, you'll find that rejection isn't the end of the world. Besides, wouldn't you be even then? You seem like quite the heartbreaker yourself."

"Okay, esteemed senior citizen," Yuki teased. "Your additional four years of wisdom must come in handy." She pushed off the counter and almost tripped over Mango. "I'll lower the shades."

A storm had moved in and on, scattering droplets of moisture across the windows. That's what she hoped she'd been to Rhett, a brief midnight rain in the summer of his life. She hoped she hadn't broken his heart. She hoped he'd moved on.

Maybe she was scared of rejection, but Yuki wanted to believe her reluctance was because she didn't want to hurt him again either.

She'd hurt him enough as it was.

A dull pain stabbed Yuki's abdomen when she reached for the cord to lower the blinds. She sighed, grabbing a chair. Even now, after a full year, her body refused to heal fully. While she considered herself to be lucky to not be wheelchair-bound, it still rankled that she'd proven all too fragile. After wrestling the shades closed, she walked to the other side to flip off the "Open" sign.

The bell on the door chimed, prompting Mango to run over meowing his trademark welcome. Never failed. Cate swore customers waited until they saw the sign blink off to make a fashionably late entrance.

Whenever students from Zenith High came in—which wasn't often—Yuki abandoned Cate at the register and hid in the kitchen until they left. But with the door between her and the kitchen, it left no escape path this time.

The girl who'd entered gasped, pastel pink nails the same shade as her hair flying up to delicately cover her mouth. "Yuki?"

Forcing a smile on, Yuki picked up Mango and fed him a treat from her apron pocket. "Hi, Sophia."

"Fancy meeting you out of school!" Sophia adjusted the Birkin bag on her arm with a puzzled look at Yuki's uniform. "You work here?"

"Volunteering," Yuki lied easily. "I tried the animal shelter first but it broke my heart seeing the poor things in cages. I really couldn't handle it, you know? But Mango here is a wonderful substitute."

Mango purred in agreement and licked his orange paw.

"Oh, of course and he's darling!" Sophia appeared to remember why she'd come in. "I'm going to make an order. Can you take it? Era told me this is the best place to get boba. I'd like the milk tea with mango flavor and aloe jellies. Soy, please."

Yuki took Mango to the kitchen and handed him off to a quiet Cate, mechanically going through the steps to make the order. Era had sent Sophia here. That couldn't be a coincidence, could it?

"Cash or credit?" Cate asked.

Sophia swiped her card, cooing over Mango as he walked the counter like a runway. Yuki knew for a fact that Sophia's family owned several Jindo dogs and were devoted animal activists. Cats she hadn't been sure of, but it looked like Mango had earned his keep as the mascot of "Mango Madness" once again.

Yuki scrawled on the full cup with a sharpie and placed it on the counter. "One boba blast for Sophia Lim."

After one sip of the drink, Sophia's eyes widened. "So good. This looks like a really fun place to volunteer. I would if I had the time, but with dance practice and the club, I really can't."

"It's hard to juggle social obligations," Yuki agreed. "The club especially. I don't know how I'm going to fit the fortune in."

"Ugh, tell me about it," Sophia climbed onto the stool, slurping at her boba. "Means I have to rethink my whole winter formal and prom ensemble. I think Ethan would wear what I choose, but Rhett's the more handsome of the two. Man has the worst fashion sense though, even if he got rid of those nerd glasses."

A pang struck Yuki in the chest. She'd liked his glasses, even if she'd called him Arthur and hid them when he wasn't looking. Rhett looked like a stranger with contacts. "I bet Ethan would improve with a haircut and he's taller." Her heart clenched at a memory of Rhett with his bowl-shaped hair, the treacherous thing.

"Height is important if I decide to wear the heels." Sophia tapped her fingernails on the counter surface in thought. "You have the extra credit history assignment for Wednesday covered?"

Yuki bit back a sassy remark. "Of course, I'll have it to you by Tuesday afternoon."

Sophia nodded, leaving her half-finished drink. "Ciao then. Stay stunning."

"Always." Yuki waited until the door closed before slumping to the floor.

"Volunteer?" Cate raised an eyebrow at her. "Extra credit assignment?"

"Honest work isn't in my classmates' vocabulary," Yuki muttered. "Neither is studying for some of them. I told Sophia I want the money to buy Mikimoto pearls because my parents wouldn't get them for me until my birthday. She's not really the brightest."

"You're digging yourself a deep hole there," Cate said and Yuki was relieved she didn't sound angry.

"I've dug it. I'll dig my way out later. Right now, I need to figure out how much Era knows about me and who Sophia's Truth and Lie are."

"It's obviously those two boys, the same ones as you," Cate took off her apron and hung it on the hook, gesturing for Yuki's. "Your boy must be her Lie."

That seemed too simple—too unlike Era. A Lie on Lie pair would prove the most difficult. "He's not my boy. And if I didn't know better, you sound invested in this."

Cate smiled, making Yuki wish they could be the same age, same school friends. "I ran out of Korean dramas to watch. Yours is the next best one."

──────༺༻──────

The rain had started again and now Yuki was the drenched K-drama protagonist getting off the bus and walking home. If her life were a story, the love interest would be appearing right about now with an umbrella.

She shivered, her hand gripping the pepper spray in her sweater pocket. Passing under the streetlights, she wished her grandparents had thought to come pick her up.

Late walks like this scared her, reminded her of the one night she'd turned to midnight rain—of the tears that dribbled down her face, mingling with blood before they hit the endless asphalt road. She saw that road in her dreams still, as she walked until her shoes fell apart and it was her feet getting cut on the shiny, wet pavement.

Those were the better dreams.

After about ten minutes, she reached the neighborhood that had been her summer paradise. Her grandparents lived at the end of the cul-de-sac while the Tudors lived a few houses down. Yuki stopped at the end of Rhett's driveway, basking for a moment in the glow of the thousands of golden lights decorating the house and beautiful front lawn. His mother kept them up all year-round, so it was like Christmas every day.

On the third floor above the garage, Rhett's bedroom window was open.

Chilled to the bone, Yuki stood in the rain while his voice drifted down from that golden window like sunshine spilling through the cloudy curtains.

The song "Daylight" wrapped her in its embrace. Rhett always sang from the soul with that rich baritone, lyrics edging into heartbreak. When they were younger, she'd sung back up to him, her voice coached to mediocrity by his patient teaching.

But this time she simply listened. His song filled her heart to brimming, until it ended and the lights dimmed.

Yuki reached home, cold on the outside, warm inside from the daylight—believing for the first time in a long while that she could reach the end of that road.

She wouldn't be stuck in this midnight rain forever. 

Chapter Word Count: 1709