HE'S MINE

002

"Hey, is anybody there?" It was Mikey, peeping inside with his whole body leaning ahead. He joked and laughed, smiling as he watched my face.
 
"I knew you would be hiding there from me; aren't you excited to see me?" He raised his brow and faked anger.
 
I rubbed my hands together and held my breath. He looked gorgeous. He would always tease me because of how shy I was.
 
He knew I had always hidden from him as his presence made me nervous and awkward. Yeah, I was awkward.
 
"Stop teasing her." Me. Grandpa voiced it from downstairs. Mikey rolled his eyes playfully and stormed inside.
 
"Hey, Miss Y/N," he said, scanning my room, showing his Jock attitude.
 
He was always good at football and taekwondo, and we all know how popularity, good looks, and being a jock make them confident.
 
He was the dream guy of every girl in the town, and I was jealous of that.
 
"Hi!" I shyly replied, and he watched my face for a second before bursting out in laughter.
 
"Why are you blushing at me?" he laughed, shaking his head unbelievably and lying in my bed with his hands spread like an eagle.
 
The minute he laughed, I felt something breaking inside my chest; it was my heart. It felt awful when he joked about me or my actions. I wasn't very confident and bold like other girls, but most importantly, I cared about my image and the people judging me.
 
"This is how I am." For my rescue, I mumbled in shame.
 
I didn't want anyone to know my feelings for him, especially Emma, who walked inside just to spy on us.
 
She wouldn't ever leave us alone for a minute; she was too scared of me stealing him or him falling for me.
 
"Oh, I almost forgot what girls with no confidence look like," he commented very casually like it wasn't going to hurt my feelings.
 
But I had a reason to have a good sleep tonight; he was in my bed, and it just blessed me to feel his presence for the night.
 
"So, did you make girlfriends there?" Emma, who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed on her chest, enthusiastically asked, her motives clear.
 
Sometimes I had a feeling that they all knew my feelings for Mikey, including him, and they purposely tried to hurt me except for Shinichiro.
 
"I made friends, but I had no time for girlfriends." Mikey pulled out his cell phone and began searching for something; he showed us the screen, and there was a girl's picture on it.
 
"She is my friend, g/n," he announced. The girl looked like a model from Victoria's Secret, and I felt a burning sensation in my heart. But the good point was that he hadn't made any girlfriends there.
 
"She is so pretty." Emma, totally impressed, ran and took the phone out of his hands.
 
I gritted my teeth and raised my brow in anger.
 
"She is all makeup, and I'm sure she has spent time Photoshopping it as well," the petty me commented. Emma rolled her eyes while Mikey shrugged.
 
"I have seen her in real life, and she looks exactly like this," Mikey defended in a mild tone. He grabbed his phone back and put it back in his jacket.
 
"You haven't changed a bit," he stated, scanning me from head to toe. Was it a good thing, or did he expect me to change because he wanted to change me?
 
"She pretty much downgraded herself." Emma folded her arms again and sputtered in pure hate.
 
They kept joking about my appearance like I wasn't even there, but Mikey did not fault that; he was just kidding childishly.
 
"Don't be so rude," Mikey, changing his side to us, scolded his sister.
 
He defended me; I couldn't breathe due to happiness. A wide smile wanted to be drawn on my lips, but I had to control it.
 
"Y/N, do not take her words to heart," he apologized, getting up from the bed and walking past us to the outside. Why didn't he notice how I looked? Or maybe I didn't look satisfied enough for him to compliment me.
 
Why was it so hard to get the attention of someone I loved?
 
We two followed him to the lounge and sat by his side for a moment before I saw Shinichiro working in the kitchen.
 
"Excuse me, I will go and help Shinichiro." I excused myself, getting up and walking away from them.
 
Mikey wasn't very interested in having a conversation with any one of us; he had held the remote and was now switching between channels.
 
"Did you two talk?" Shinichiro, who was cutting some fruits now, questioned with a pleasant smile covering his lips. He had some high expectations for a born failure like me.
 
"Yeah! We did a little," I replied, microwaving the food I had made for him before.
 
"Did you see his friend G/n? She is so beautiful," I added, to let him know that I was not his type.
 
It wasn't like Shinichiro and I had ever discussed openly that he wanted me to be with him, but he would always hint to me that he wanted to see me with him. But sometimes words are not required to tell someone how you feel. Shinichiro just knew me.
 
"Who?" he halted, "these LA girls are not wife material; my bro knows the difference between a good girl and girls like them."
 
Of course, he was his older brother and was going to defend him, but sadly, it looked like those types of girls were his type, and I was just a nerd who had a crush on him. We can't deny the fact that LA girls were gorgeous, but Shinichiro kept telling me that besides me, no girl had kept his dignity safe.
 
"Maybe," I murmured in my mouth. I have waited so long for his arrival that I thought he would notice that I have grown up as well.
 
When you are in your teens, even one year changes you a lot, and until his arrival, I thought I had changed into a grown-up girl, but his ignorance just crushed my confidence.
 
"Don't be sad; he probably thinks you are not interested in him." He rubbed my arm, feeling bad for me.
 
I would always casually deny my feelings for him in front of him because I didn't want to make a fool of myself, but seeing him so ignorant towards me just hurt me that day.
 
It felt like Shinichiro was forcing this relationship, and that was sweet of him, but it was meaningless as long as Mikey didn't consider it.
 
"But it's not like that." Not wanting to deny it completely, I just murmured to ease him up.
 
"Come follow me." After thinking over it for a moment, he grabbed the tray and asked me to follow him determinedly. Having no idea of his intentions, I did as he asked me to do.
 
"You should be talking to us rather than watching this TV." He grabbed the remote out of his hand and switched it off.
 
Placing the tray in front of him, he too sat down. "Come sit with us, Y/N." He saw me standing by their side and offered me a seat.
 
"Um, it's been so long that I haven't tasted food this good," Mikey complimented after taking a bite from the spring rolls.
 
It was written all over Emma's face, but she was too sassy to compliment me.
 
"Y/N made those." Shinichiro smiled, watching his little brother and then my face.
 
"Wow, she improved so much." Mikey, who paid little attention to me, mumbled as he found the food more interesting than me.
 
"You know your ex-girl/r/n asked about you almost every day." Emma, who was also friends with Mikey's childhood friend and ex, g/r/n, spoke.
 
The mention of her made me uncomfortable. It was worse as his ex-girlfriend, even after the breakup, wasn't letting him go.
 
"But why did she ask you about me when we were always exchanging texts?" he casually stated, breaking my heart very silently. I tried to focus on anything other than his eyes. They were drowning me in the ocean of love that has no end and no boundary.
 
"Ohhhh! Am!" Emma teased, elbowing him playfully. She was forcing their relationship to begin again, even if his brother didn't want to.
 
"What, you think we are back together?" Mikey turned around and watched his sister's face in disgust. "Hell no." He shook his head and picked up another spring roll. It was a victory that he liked my cooking, but I was just waiting for the day he started liking me as well. Above all, he confessed he has no feelings for and no plans to get back with that witchy ex-gf/r/n.
 
"Why not? She is popular for her beauty and the head of the cheerleading squad, so what's stopping you?" Emma has started to get on my nerves. I was always polite to her, but she would never leave a chance to hook up her brother with some girl from the school, and her ex-gf/r/n was the worst to start with.
 
"Emma, your big brother is still present here," Shinichiro, who was a savior, muttered.
 
"Mikey doesn't need any girl to date or be with; he'll choose someone who loves him unconditionally," he added, making both of his siblings look at him. I knew he had me in mind; his smile and eyes on me were evidence.
 
"Big bro is right; I deserve someone special." Mikey, who didn't even bother looking at me for once, elbowed his sister to tease her more.
 
"Big bro, your definition of special and his definition of special are different, so don't forget that," Emma commented. I could tell she would never like me for her brother, and that wasn't even the issue; the issue was that Mikey wouldn't like me as well.
 
They talked for another few minutes while I headed back to the kitchen to wash the utensils and clean the kitchen. There was no use in sitting there when Mikey didn't have his eyes on me.
 
After finishing my chores, I climbed the stairs to my room and laid my back on the bed, as I was tired too. Mikey had left with his friends, and I couldn't stop thinking about how handsome he looked.
 
Yuzuha: Y/n...
 
Yuzuha, who is nineteen years old as me, and Mikey, my BFF, and my classmate were always by my side since I was little, but my and Mikey's beginning conversations lessened to zero once he started dating an ex-gf/r/n at the age of sixteen, and they broke up after a year or something.
 
Me: hey! What happened?
 
Yuzuha: Where were you the whole day? Are you going to school tomorrow?
 
Me: I was busy because Mikey came back after finishing his one-year scholarship in LA, and yup, I'll come.
 
Actually, after winning a competition, Mikey was awarded a scholarship to study for a year in LA.
 
Yuzuha: "Oh, he is back.
 
Me: yeah.
 
Yuzuha: Now he will never stop bragging about how awesome it was.
 
Me: "Hey, calm down; he isn't that bad.
 
Yuzuha: "Well, he is.
 
I don't know why Yuzuha used to hate Mikey so much, but they were always fighting and arguing.
 
Me: Anyway, please don't be disrespectful to him tomorrow.
 
Knowing that he was back, I knew he would be dropping me and Emma off as he went to school. We all went to the same school, but our sections were different. Emma was about to turn eighteen, so she was behind us.
 
Yuzuha: I will try if he keeps his mouth shut.
 
Me: Yuzuha:/
 
Yuzuha: Fine.
 
Thinking about tomorrow, I almost forgot about Mikey's friends, who have been bullying me since he left. What will happen if he sees them bullying me? Will he stand up for me, or will he just ignore it? His friends would always make fun of me for not having my first kiss or my first boyfriend at this age, but I never snapped back at any of them because I didn't want anyone to think I was a rude person. I cared a lot about what everyone would think.
 
I was in the middle of a mess, but one thing was for sure: I was madly in love with Mikey.