Thankfully, Kiara arrived in Los Angeles on a Saturday morning. For if she had arrived on a week day, her brother would not have been able to pick her up, and he certainly would not have been available to drive her to Santa Monica Pier. While it would have been a much better experience on really any other day than a lovely Saturday evening, Kaden's work schedule would not permit. Hence, the two of them found themselves walking amongst a crowd of other working people who also had no choice but to be there right then too.

While the crowds thronged together, they made little pockets of air around the street buskers. They were always doing something unique, whether painting your name into mystical creatures, beat boxing their own tune or breakdancing so passionately it made you ashamed that you had never even tried. It made Kiara smile to see some familiar faces, like the young man who did magic tricks with his pet turtle. Yet, the happiness was accompanied with the realization that these familiar faces were still in the same condition that they had been a year ago.

Did they want to busk for the thrill of it? Or were they busking to make money to live? Of course, the former told a much happier story than the latter. Even though her mom would kill her for what she was about to do, spewing the usual tale about supporting an unsustainable career or giving donations to the poor, Kiara decided against her upbringing and dropped some cash in the magician's bucket. As she did, he leaned forward with his silly smile and thanked her, offering to let her kiss his turtle.

She recoiled, but laughed. Stepping away as the childhood memory of her cousin kissing their pet terrapin came to mind. That had not ended well, leaving the poor boy with a nasty bleeding lip that sent him to the hospital for stitches. If that's what a terrapin could do, there was no way Kiara would mess around with a huge turtle. Even if it was magic.

Kiara continued down the pier, soaking it all in. There was just something about Santa Monica Pier that always evoked desire within Kiara.

The first time she had been there with Kaden, she longed for her love. Of course, she was not the only one overcome with emotions because the pier was just beautiful, it just so happened that a majority of the other people there were in a pair. All it took was some hand holding and smooching, and Kiara felt a stirring within her. She reached for her iPhone, lifted it up at a good angle to capture the ferris wheel lit up against the darkness. All she wished was for her love to be here in that moment, holding her hand, landing a kiss on her cheek, but instead, she was sending him this very photo instead.

The next time she had come was with her entire family after Kaden's graduation. Even though her mom had her arm in her dad's as they walked down the pier towards the very edge, Kiara learned to appreciate the pier for all it was. She did not need another person, especially since her previous relationship had taught her that you could invest all you had into someone only to have it fizzle on its own. Another disappointment was the last thing she needed, but by the time she got to the carnival games, she wished somebody would just win it for her.

This time, as she crossed the carnival games, she saw a prize she could not give up on. It's the same devotion a girl feels when she sees a puppy so adorable that she just gets to her knees to hug it, cuddling it and refusing to leave until her parents promised her the same exact one. Any other girl in Kiara's position would have walked away, after all, it seemed apparent that the girls at this carnival were incapable of winning prizes on their own.

While the other girls stood at the side watching their significant others try to win them a prize, Kiara handed her credit card to the game master. He swiped it, she threw three balls at the target, they all fell down, he clapped, and she pointed at the prize she wanted. She needed no man to win Ella, this little stuffed elephant, but it sure as hell would be nice.

For dinner, Kaden took Kiara to Pine and Crane at Silverlake. Although it was an hour and a half drive through traffic, Kaden knew Kiara only wanted to eat asian food, and any asian knew that good asian food was worth the time. In fact, it is often said that Singapore's favourite hobby was queuing up. When bubble tea first hit Singapore's shores, the queue for Koi would be a snake made up of at least forty people. Thankfully, it was only ever Kaden who was obsessed with ice cream milk tea with pearls, and Kiara never joined him on his hour long queue.

As Kiara gave her zha jiang mian a thorough stir, her thoughts drifted back to Hannah once more. Not because she wanted to know why her brother had reacted the way he had earlier, but because Kiara was genuinely curious. Kaden was engrossed with his food, hunched over picking out the Chinese parsley from the potstickers he had ordered.

"How did she lose so much weight?" She tried to sound disinterested, but her ears were sharp and she would commit whatever he said to memory.

Even though Kiara had not specified whom she was referring to, Kaden knew. Whether because they shared some sort of sibling affinity or because that was on the back of his mind too, Kaden just knew. "She just... well, stopped eating."

"Oh." An eating disorder. "Like in a healthy way?" But she already knew the answer.

"Well, at first it was. She cut down her portions, then she started making her own food, and then she experimented with intermittent fasting. Somewhere along the way, she just opted to stop eating I suppose."

"How much does she eat then?" She tried to sound concerned instead of truly interested.

Kaden sighed. "She doesn't eat really, starves herself up for when she has fine dining."

"But isn't that kinda heavy too?" Kiara thought about the time her ex boyfriend took her on her first ever fine dining experience at Jaan in Singapore. It had been six courses, but with the welcome canapés and amuse bouche, she had been full after the very first course. Not to mention, they had done the wine pairing and Kiara could barely down the third glass before she was flat out drunk.

"Not really, no. The portions are so tiny that if it was your only meal in the day, I'm sure you'd still be hungry. " Kaden looked up upon completing his mission. "That's how rich people stay skinny."

"How about exercise?" Kiara asked, still searching for a magic formula.

Oh.

Kaden shook his head, returning back to finally put a potsticker in his mouth. He let his eyes roll back a tiny bit as the flavours hit his tongue. "I love this place."

As Kiara digested the new information, she could only sit back uncomfortably against her wooden chair staring at the food in front of her. There was a bowl of zha jiang mian, a plate of fried rice, four pieces of wanton in chilli oil and three cup jidori chicken. Yet, in her mind, all Kiara could now see were numbers tagged under each plate. She added those numbers up and all of a sudden felt disgusted with herself. As much as her mom hated them wasting food, she gave up eating even though they had barely started.