❝𝒎𝒐𝒖 𝒍𝒆𝒊𝒑𝒆𝒊𝒔.❞
(you're missing from me.)
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𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅 𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔
Iva Laurent lost her parents when she was eight. Sold to the black market by her only relative left on this earth, she was l...
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LONDON February Location: Vivienne's Apartment
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Hugging onto a huge bag of groceries, I struggled to punch in the passcode to enter Vivienne's apartment. I was urging to drop them on the ground but I knew I would be too lazy to bend forward to pick everything up later. Straining my index finger forward, I keyed in the last number and thankfully, a resounded beep sounded and the door shuddered unlock. I dragged myself into the entryway and complained, "Seriously, Vivienne Yuan! You—"
A sudden loud pop nearly made me release all that heavy amount of groceries in my arms and I stunned at the sudden burst of coloured strings thrown in my direction. They landed messily atop of my head and everything was followed by a loud cheer of "happy birthday" within the house. Seth came forward to give me a little help with the bags and I swept away the tangled strands of ribbons from my line of sight.
Ahead of me, Vivienne laughed cheekily and I scanned around the room, noticing that the living area was decorated with colourful pastel balloons and there was a small birthday banner on the wall that read "Happy Birthday Iva!". A laugh bubbled off me and I exhaled, "What the hell, Viv? Isn't this supposed to be your housewarming party?"
"Well, good things come in two!" Vivienne winked, seemingly proud that her surprise plan worked beautifully on me. "Your birthday and my housewarming party appear to be a lovely couple."
"But you do know that I don't celebrate birthdays?" I raised my brows in amusement.
"Say that again, I'm going to whack you," Vivienne raised her arm threateningly towards me.
"That's if you can win me," I challenged while sticking my tongue out at her. She threw the plastic cake cutter at me and I caught it with swift accuracy, laughing heartily. Our fight was going to get interesting until Seth decided to step in.
"Alright, children. Let's eat, please." Seth sighed from the side.
"Look who you're talking to, Sethie!" Both Vivienne and I turned around and exclaimed at the same time. Then, we faced each other again and burst out laughing. Seth only stood by us and shook his head helplessly, seemingly despondent at our childishness and ugly cackles.
Vivienne set the table up with Seth, unpacking the bag of groceries as they prepared many small dishes at the side with a wide pot in the middle. I enthused, "Are we having hot pot?"
"Yes, dearest, because it's your favourite," Vivienne chuckled, adding a ladleful of chilli into the soup. I do love spicy food but when she tried to add another, I shot my hand out to stop her and reminded, "Seth can't eat that spicy."
