DRAWN (5 page)

“Piss off.”

“One look at you,
senpai
, and I just knew.”

“Ha-ha.”

“I’ll be hard for you forever.”

Yeeargh!

“Y-you…” I’m totally at a loss for words.

A tiny grin appears briefly on his face. “
Senpai
, I want you. Not them.”

I want to believe him, badly, but…

“It just doesn’t make sense!” I burst out. “You’re you and I’m---”

“
Senpai
, listen to me.”

I’m grateful he’s used a more polite way of telling me to shut up so I do.

Then he says with absolute seriousness, “I’ve got a hard-on I can’t get rid of since I heard you moan my name. Is that hard enough for you to understand?”

How many hard jokes does this guy have?

We stare at each other, the silence between us just stretching more and more like an archer’s bow getting pulled back bit by bit.

I know he’s baiting me. I know I shouldn’t but I peek anyway.

A whimper escapes me.

I hear Yuki suck his breath.

He has a stiffie, all right, and I’m mesmerized at how that part of him is
not
still.

“I wish you can touch me right now,
senpai
,” he whispers.

That snaps me out of my thoughts and my eyes fly to his face. “I…ah…” I’m horrified and mesmerized all at the same time.

Yuki’s naughty, mischievous smile makes it obvious he’s enjoying my discomfort. “Relax,
senpai
. I was just teasing. There’s time enough for that.”

I can only smile back weakly, uncertain if I’m relieved or disappointed that he hasn’t forced the issue.

He tucks a few tendrils behind my ear. “Be my toy,
senpai
.”

“B-but I told you, I won’t have sex.” I know I’m grasping at straws, but it’s the best I can do to resist him.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“People might know.”

“They won’t.” His fingers trace an invisible line on the side of my face. “Trust me. It’s going to be better than anything, everything you’ve
imagined.
”

          And of course, that clinches it.

          My mind is suddenly filled with erotic images of Yuki and me in a tangle of sheets, followed by smutty scenes on paper that will get all my future readers just as hot and bothered as I am.

          “
Senpai
?”

          I give myself up to the dark side. “Yes.”

          I close my eyes and wait for the magic to begin.

          It does not.

          When I open my eyes, Yuki is gazing at me with a wicked grin.

          I react instinctively, grabbing the throw pillow between us so I can hit him with it. But Yuki’s too fast. Or maybe he really is a god – a sex god – and he just knows how to make things more exciting. He captures both my wrists easily, locking them together in his grip behind my back.

Then his lips slam on mine.

          It should have hurt, but it doesn’t.

          “Open your mouth,
senpai
.”

          Yeeeargh.

          I don’t think I’ll ever be able to resist him when he’s speaking like that. And somehow, the Japanese word feels like it’s become a special nickname, a term of endearment that’s mine and mine alone.

          My lips part and Yuki’s tongue immediately darts inside. I stiffen because it’s my first kiss- my first French kiss, my first everything. Yuki’s grip on my wrists tightens the same time he deepens the kiss, his tongue delving deeper, exploring my mouth. When I let my tongue tentatively move against his, Yuki’s body stills, just before the kiss instantly turns deliciously rough, his lips hard and soft at the same time, his tongue teasing and seducing me with its movement.

          I’ve dreamt of this kind of kiss, but none of my dreams have prepared me for how abso-bloody-lutely freaking hot it would feel.

          When Yuki pulls away and looks at me, we both know the truth.

“Oh my God, that is the hottest guy I’ve ever seen you draw,” My sister-in-law Cheena exclaims as she takes a seat next to me in the dining room while I’m working on my sketches.

          The dining room is quiet, with Drew still in the kitchen and my one-year-old niece Samantha sleeping peacefully in her stroller, parked next to the Christmas tree with its twinkling rainbow lights, its music muted for the baby’s sake. Its gold leaves droop under the weight of the glittering balls, ribbons, and all kinds of trinkets tied to its branches. Underneath it, an assortment of beautifully wrapped boxes lies in wait. They’re all empty. It’s just so Kelly’s associates would think she’s such a generous parent when they come over for dinner meetings. My mom is such a showoff.

          Since I got home, a new character had fully evolved in my mind, one who’s Yuki through and through. The image is so vivid that I knew I just had to draw it or it’s going to bug me forever. I haven’t even bothered to change from my uniform. I just raced to my room to grab my stuff, sat down, and disappeared into my own little world.

For the last hour or so, I worked nonstop on preliminary sketches, my pencil practically flying on the drawing pad as I fill page after page with Yuki’s
manga
lookalike in different poses: Yuki sitting alone in the classroom, Yuki standing next to the classroom windows, Yuki waiting outside school…the list goes on and on.

Cheena’s words finally make me drop my pencil so I can take a really good look at my drawings.

Bloody hell.

They’re actually…good.

Extremely good.

The best I’ve done so far, probably.

It just sucks that I had to be a toy first before I can draw something like this.

          “A guy
that
hot can’t be real,” Cheena says, still gazing admiringly at my drawings.

          I look at Cheena and…give her my finest smirk
a la Yuki
.

          Her brown eyes widen. “You have got to be fucking with me!”

          My smirk turns into a very smug grin. “I’m absolutely not.”

          Her eyes narrow. “Then…you’ve got to be fucking him!”

          That effectively wipes off my grin. “I’m not!” I can’t even understand how she came up with it.

          Cheena grins, smugly, too. “But you like to do him, don’t you?”

          “I don’t!” That comes out a little too loudly, and Samantha wakes up with a cry. I look at Cheena with an apologetic grimace. “Sorry.”

          “It’s okay,” she says with a grin as she goes to Samantha. Cheena scoops her up, expertly cradling her baby in her arms as she presses a gentle kiss on Samantha’s downy head. Her tiny fist curls as she yawns, her eyes fluttering closed.

          Cheena is only nineteen, but when I see her like this I feel like she’s centuries older. She’s been going out with Drew since she was fourteen and neither of them had second thoughts about tying the knot right after Cheena got her diploma from high school.

Although I’ll never admit this to anyone, I’ve always felt like Drew’s been unfair to Cheena. He has her married and knocked up at eighteen. Couldn’t he have given her a chance to spread her wings first, even just to give her a taste of what college life would be like?

          Cheena hums Samantha to sleep, holding her with just one arm while she reaches out to tuck her chestnut curls behind her ears so it wouldn’t tickle the baby to waking up. 

          She sees me watching and winks. “Someday, you’ll have this, too.”

          I grunt.

          “I can just feel it, Kat.” While people in school calls me KC, everyone in my family calls me Kat. I draw under a pseudonym, too: Karin Tsuyoi. As you can see, I’m a girl with many names. It’s one of the most interesting things about me, which I know isn’t good at all.

          “You
like
that guy.”

          “Which guy?”

          Cheena rolls her eyes. “Stop pretending. You like that guy you drew. It’s obvious in your drawings.”

          “How many times do I have to tell you this? Just because my character looks like a guy I know doesn’t mean I’m in love with him. If that’s the case, I’d have to be in love with Scott, too.”

          The thought has us gagging the same time.

          I love Scott, really, but he’s such an obnoxious jerk when it comes to girls. I don’t think he’s ever slept a night alone since he learned how to drive and sneak out Dad’s car from the garage.
Backseat hotel,
is what he calls it. I totally burned the
manga
I patterned after him when he told me that.

          “I still think this one’s different,” Cheena insists.

          Of course Yuki’s different. He’s a god. That’s all there is to it.

          “I don’t like him, okay?” I’m prepared to deny it to my last dying breath, but Drew’s come into the dining room already, holding a platter of baked chicken rice. “Dinner’s ready,” he says.

          I stand up to clear the table and dump my drawing stuff on the empty chair next to me. When I find myself glancing at Cheena, she gives me a wink, which I return with a glare.

“I
don’t
like him,” I hiss under my breath.

          I physically desire him, I’m sexually obsessed with him, but I don’t like him like I’m a tiny step away from falling in love with him.

          But of course I can’t tell Cheena that.

          No one knows about my dirty little secret – well, nobody did until Yuki.

          “How’s school today, Kat?” Drew asks as he takes off his baseball cap before reaching for Samantha. Drew’s very tall – like, the NBA kind, which is why Lace always wants to weep when she sees him. She thinks he’s wasted as a doctor.

He has perpetually messy hair, and when he’s with family Drew likes to dress in loose shirts and torn jeans that are the baggiest you’d ever see outside a grunge fashion exhibit. No one looking at him would probably guess that he’s med school’s brightest star.

          Cheena gazes at me with the kind of innocence that eerily reminds me of Yuki. “Yes, do tell us what happened today.” She and Yuki must have been twins in their past lives.

          Drew, shoving a huge spoonful of rice in his mouth, asks, “Anything exciting?”

          I can feel blood rushing in and out of my face, as if confused if I want to blush or pale in absolute horror. Why is it so blasted hard to lie?

          “I…uh…You shouldn’t talk with your mouth full, Drew,” I say instead. “It’s not good for future doctors.”

          He shoves another mouthful in. “It’s okay. You can understand---” Drew’s phone rings shrilly.

          “Saved by the phone,” Cheena whispers to me as Drew takes the call.

          I kick her under the table. Just because I’m nice doesn’t mean I don’t know how to get even.

          “Yeah, Mom. We’re here, having dinner---” Drew stops talking at Cheena’s yelp of pain. Partially covering the phone with his hand, he asks, “You okay, hon?”

          “Your sister---”

          I kick her again.

          She sighs. “I’m okay.”

          Drew smiles at her, mouthing “I love you” just before he gets back on the phone. “Sorry, Mom.”

          I repress a shudder. It’s yucky when they’re sweet like that.

          Cheena leans across the table. “You’ll pay,” she says darkly.

          I meet her halfway. “Bring it on,” I say, just as darkly.

Drew seems oblivious to all the darkness going on around him. “Oh? It’s like that, huh? Well…that’s cool. Don’t worry. We’ll take care of Kat.”

          I roll my eyes.

          I wish they’d understand that just because I’m the baby of the family doesn’t mean I’d eternally need a babysitter.

          Drew ends the call. “Mom’s not gonna be back till tomorrow.”

Kelly heads the R&D of a really famous microchip firm, the kind that does business with Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft on just about every product they launch. It’s a cushy job, with the very best perks, but it also means having to spend overnights in the office when results from their A/B tests are due to come out. Basically, that just means they’ve introduced versions 1 and 2 of Product X to target buyers, and it’s feedback time. It’s not a good idea to be around Kelly during these times since she gets a little overprotective about her babies – and by that I mean her products, not us.

          “You don’t need to stay over,” I say. Drew and Cheena come over with the baby to have dinner with me whenever Kelly has to pull an all-nighter at her work. Although hanging out with them is cool, I really prefer
not
to be dumped on them like they’ve suddenly gained a 16-year-old daughter by default.