The streets were silent, which was interesting for downtown L.A.

Mai exhaled as a car rushed past, buffeting her hair and giving her a burst of energy as she chased after her prey.

"EMIKO MARY DIBB GET BACK HERE THIS INSTANT,"

"How about no?"

"Emi, PLEASE!"

A little snorting laugh came from about a few paces ahead of her, as out-of-breath and as winded as she was. Mai growled and put on a burst of speed before Emiko reached their apartment, where fistfights were strictly prohibited due to a couple... let's say... misunderstandings among the four flat-mates.

This was a rule Mai wasn't willing to break, but she still wanted to get a couple of blows in at Emi because she had literally just came back from her dance session and she was perfectly exhausted and not able to deal with this right now.

"HAHAHAHA I MADE IT!" Emiko cheered, her peculiar golden eyes flashing a deep orange for half a second, something they did when she was excited. It was strange but also beautiful, and Mai had learned not to question it.

I had to learn not to question a LOT of things, living with these three doofuses.

"NOT QUITE!" Mai hooted back as she yanked Emi off the steps of their apartment building and promptly began to kick at her exposed shin.

"OUCH!"

"GIVE ME MY PHONE!"

"NEVER!"

A couple of seconds later, Mai emerged from the tangle of arms and legs victorious (which was expected, with her being the one with martial arts training and all), holding her phone up high.

"Ha!" she grinned down at Emi, waving her new phone teasingly in front of her face. She rolled her eyes, pouting in annoyance. Mai grinned down at her before sticking a hand out to haul her up. She snorted but took it, letting Mai pick her off the concrete.

"Come on, dummy," Emi laughed before picking up the plastic takeout bag from the ground and skipped two steps as she climbed them, "let's get inside and hope the boys don't mind that the food's a little squashed."

"And WHOSE fault is that?" Mai spluttered, highly offended.

Emi ignored her and walked on ahead, still smiling, pushing her long, straight dark hair that was dark at the roots and bronze on the ends back out of her eyes. Sweat beaded on her tan skin from her and Mai's race from the city. Mai gave her a good-natured glare, which Emi readily returned.

Although they seemed to be a very strange duo, Mai knew Emi was her best friend. Sweet, kind, helpful, funny, and borderline crazy. Which Mai also was.

We're a perfect match, aren't we.

"HEY IDIOTS, WE'RE HOME!" Mai flung the door open and sauntered into their small but messy flat, revealing a lean, lanky, cat-like figure sprawled on the couch, lazily flicking his foot once in a while like a cat flicking his tail. His pale skin stood sharply against his black shirt and a single silver earring hung from his right ear.

"Took you guys long enough," Yuki drawled, fluidly leaping off the couch and grinning happily at the plastic takeout bag in Emiko's hand. He flicked his white-blue hair out of his silver eyes. "So? Come on, what happened to the damn bag?"

In that moment, Zheng stepped out of the back room, rolling his own deep blue irises. "Come on, bro, you do know that Emi probably stole Mai's phone and then Mai freaked and tackled Emi and then they squished the bag in the process."

Mai glared at the solidly built Chinese boy, who grinned, dimples showing, pushing his thick-framed black glasses up his nose.

"You suck," she huffed.

"Mhm," he laughed, catching her in a headlock, which she squirmed against.

"HEY," she whined, pushing against his arm.

"Aw, c'mon guys. We're starving back here!" Yuki hollered, his shockingly white-blue hair ruffled as if he had just climbed off the couch he was napping on. Which, knowing him, was exactly what happened. His grey eyes narrowed playfully at Mai as he rolled his shoulders. She snickered.

"I thought I might make you two suffer for a bit," she replied, her sharp tongue immediately going to work. Emiko laughed softly.

"You guys are mean," he pouted. Emiko looked at him and smirked.

"Well then, maybe we shouldn't save you any food next time," she grinned wider, most probably knowing, exactly as Mai did, the reaction she would get from both boys.

"No no nononono SORRY WE'RE REALLY SORRY,"

Mai looked at Emi and they both burst out laughing.

"WELL we may have gotten here EARLIER if EMI hadn't decided to STEAL MY DAMN PHONE-"

"Hey, it was only a bit of fun!"

Yuki broke in, glaring at Emi. "Oh come on, we were starving here, and you're talking about FUN?" Mai nodded and gestured frantically at her gray-eyed friend.

"YEAH!" Zheng huffed, looking very offended at Emi's comment as well.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Emi relented, "Can we eat now?"

"FINALLY!" Mai rolled her eyes. The four of them were honestly three-year-olds mentally. They could never stop bickering. That included her, of course. They were all guilty of having fast mouths. They could never stop their sass, even in the worst situations.

Mai unpacked the Chinese takeout after Emi had placed it on the small, circular glass table in the kitchen where the foursome usually ate their meals and they soon descended into not-so-silence, talking about most everything and anything.

"How's our birthday girl?" Yuki asked, smirking over his plate of chow mein at Mai, who glared at him, knowing exactly what he was going to say, "How's our Queen?"

Mai glared at him with enough force to knock an elephant over.

Well, with the amount of food he eats, he IS an elephant.

"It's not my birthday yet," Mai grumbled, stabbing at her orange chicken, "and I TOLD you not to call me that!"

It had been a book character with the same name as her. An amazing, fun character who died at the end of her story and everyone remembered her as 'Queen'. And that's when it became a problem. Because her friends figured: 'That's probably what's going to happen to OUR Mai, and we KNOW she's going to hate this, SO WHY THE HELL NOT'.

It wasn't like Mai disliked the book, or the character, or any of it. She disliked it because they spoke it with an air and with an assumption she was LIKE that character- amazing and pretty and fiery and athletic and smart and fun.

Maybe she was some of those things, but certainly not on that scale, or in that perfect blend.

Mai admitted it- she was smart. Brilliant, picked things up incredibly quickly. She admitted she was very sarcastic, but most of the time, it came across as mean. Well, she thought so, at least. And pretty? HA. She'd look at her plain, brown skin in the mirror, a small zit here or there, her chubby thighs, her boring brown hair and dark brown eyes the color of dark chocolate and wonder why Emi was calling HER pretty when SHE still existed in the world.

She admitted she was athletic... but... well...

She DID do martial arts training. And she liked sports. She just wasn't very good at the running part. Which was typically the most very important.

Born a cripple, always a cripple.

Her feet were born lopsided and wrong and in need of correcting. They had been corrected (surgery), but it wasn't the same. It wasn't much- a slight twinge here or there, an occasional round of sharp pain that vanished as soon as it came. But it wasn't much. Just enough to make her afraid to push too hard.

So no. She did not like being put on a pedestal she did not see herself earning.

Mai hated flattery. She may have been all those things, but she didn't really care. People voicing them out loud... that was too much. For her, it was like taking off her armour, what made her who she was. This was what everyone saw. The real her was ridden with imperfections.

Mai felt something pull at her heart, and she focused on downing her food and being able to stay above her thoughts, her odd thoughts that curled around a few words.

"You good, Mai?"

Zheng scrutinized her with his big blue eyes behind his glasses, and she quickly nodded, though knowing that any of them could see right through here.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. Just thinking about what horror you guys have planned for me tomorrow," she snorted into her orange juice, an unnecessary theatrical effect, but at least it earned a few chuckles from her friends. Yes, Mai's birthday was tomorrow, and every single one of the four years they had known each other, every one of their birthdays had been intensely crazy, fun, or, in most cases, both.

"See guys, she's fine. It's a regular worry," Emiko threw her head back and laughed, winking at Mai as she did so.

I'm fine.

Was she really?

A/N:

Yes hello, this is an edited chapter. If you read the old version of this thing, then you will know that I completely rewrote this just for you guys ;)

Thank me later.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this story, and I am AWARE that BTS hasn't showed up yet, but they will.

TRUST ME, THEY WILL, PLEASE KEEP READING PLEASE.

Okay, see you later, soon, or whatever~

-MyOwnA.R.M.Y