God damn it. She did it again. Him. Him. Him. ASMR guy. Radioman. Voice pimp. Rando on the internet. Whatever she decided to call him in her head for the day. She couldn’t stop thinking about him.

She so wished to be in her spa room right now, burning calming incense and loading up the MP3 file of his voice.

She was thinking about him more and more these days and she didn’t even know why. And it had to stop.

She’d have to make it stop. And she knew exactly how.

* * *

Troy Ziwipeak looked down at the girl. He checked her boob size, her expensive clothes, her barely conscious face. He smirked.

“Pretty cute with your eyes rolled back,” he muttered.

It was rare Troy found a girl who hit even one of those three categories, much less all three.

He decided she was worth saving.

* * *

‘This isn’t exactly what I had in mind,’ Byul thought.

Empty-eyed, she looked up at the starry night sky. More like was forced to look up. She was frozen in her spot, unable to move her face or body.

In her peripheral vision, she saw Kat, one of her influencer friends, frantically in tears. Her mouth was open wide like she was screaming but Byul couldn’t hear anything. It was as if she was wearing cotton ear muffs soaked in water. Her own blood was pooling by her head.

What was Kat doing here? Kat, Kat… Her head was hazy.

And who was that guy approaching her?

* * *

A few hours ago. Byul’s apartment. Before her life was turned upside down.

Byul slid the knife into the salmon’s scales and halved its belly. The whole salmon was one of her winnings at 99 Ranch Market, amongst Sailor Moon sodas, eggs, dried tofu skin, mala spice, and a gallon of organic soy milk. At the reveal of the salmon’s innards, her eyes glistened.

“Jackpot.”

Byul whispered to herself and pulled out the mesmerizing sack of salmon roe, still in its blood red pouch. This could sell well as A-grade sujiko, but nope. She carefully removed the salmon uterus and ran it under tap water, using the most gentle fingertips to ensure not a membrane broke apart. This would be an incredible source of protein and Omega 3 for Veggie. Her sushi expedition could wait. And waiting she’d do gladly for him. As she stood smiling with the knife in her hand, the doorbell rang.

“Huh?” She said out loud.

That’s strange, she wasn’t expecting a guest. Veggie, who was napping with four paws in the air, jumped up and started barking at the door. Byul walked towards the door, letting Veggie smell her palm to calm him down.

Through the peephole, Byul saw Kat. Byul’s Coachella-VIP, Sex-in-the-City-watching (yes, the reboot), Instagram bestie. The one who only knows Byul as the prim and proper, latte-drinking, old-money aesthetic influencer. Kat had never even seen Byul eat raw sashimi, least of all clean out a whole salmon’s guts with her bare hands. Byul was still gripping the salmon-juiced knife in her hand.

“What is she doing here?” Byul whispered to herself, panicking.

Kat balled up her perfectly manicured hands and slammed the door.

“Byul! He was the worst! The worst!!”

Kat cried out loud, no doubt waking up all of Byul’s neighbors. The clock was noting 1:45am. The Homeowners Association would not be happy with this level of noise.

“Byuuuul! I know you’re in there!”

Kat continued yelling. Byul took half a step back, glancing over to the kitchen covered in Asian groceries and salmon blood.

Oh…

F*ck!

* * *

Kat speed-tapped the doorbell again. Byul could see Kat put her own eyeball on the peephole’s fisheye lens fully knowing she couldn’t see from the outside in.

“Just a second!” Byul said to the door, peeling herself off the peephole.

“Open up!” Kat said.

“It’s so messy in here, I’ll be right there.” Byul said, running back to the kitchen.

“I don’t care if it’s messy!” Kat yelled back.

Veggie was standing firmly on his four short legs, barking furiously at the door. My poor baby, this is stressing him out! Byul thought.

“I care!”

Byul shoved the removed fish body parts back in theirs plastic bags and threw them into the fridge. She grabbed a tea towel and wiped the red blood off the counter.

‘Damn, these were expensive,’ she thought to herself. The Fortnum & Mason teal-colored tea towels were from her most recent London trip. Her and a few influencer friends had planned a United Kingdom Air sponsored trip spanning England, France, and Denmark. She chucked the towels, now stained red here and there, into the trash.

“Veggie, no!” She whisper-panicked as her puppy ran over to the trash and sniffed around for the bloody tea towel.

“Byuuuuul!” Kat cried out from outside.

Hoisting Veggie away from the trashcan, Byul fixed her hair in the mirror by the door for a quick second. Finally, she opened the door.

“Hi! Sorry about that.”

Her distressed friend ran into her arms.

“What took you so long, I need you!”

“Arf! Arf!”

Veggie jumped up adorably at Kat, looking for pets and kisses and attention.

Byul let out a long sigh of relief, clocking the sparkly clean kitchen.

* * *

“He took me to a ramen shop. A ramen shop!”

Kat exclaimed, nearly in tears. She was already making herself at home, sprawling down on the coffee table. Byul’s fashion magazines and coffee table books fell down like dominos.

“What’s wrong with that?”

Byul giggled. She loved ramen and meant it.

“You want a coffee?” Byul stood up and opened a new box of Nespresso capsules. Raspberry and dark chocolate flavored; holiday edition.

“Ha-ha, very funny. And yes, I want a coffee.” Kat stuck her tongue out.

“And he tried to kiss me afterwards with ramen breath. Yuck!” Kat gagged.

“Simply unbelievable.”

Byul responded with a grin, sarcastically. She put two cups of espresso on the coffee table and sat across Kat. Veggie brought over his favorite ball and dropped it next to Byul, eyes sparkling. Byul picked up the ball and tossed it gently, and Veggie jumped up and caught it in his mouth.

“The place wasn’t even like, Tonchin or Ippudo.”

Kat listed gentrified ramen restaurants in the area.

”It was some random place in the South Bay!” Kat went on.

“Wait, what was it called?”

Byul perked up. South Bay was where the real authentic Japanese restaurants were in Los Angeles. Touristy areas like Little Tokyo could never compare.

Veggie dropped the ball by Byul again. Byul tossed it up, letting Veggie catch it. These games of catch were like breathing to Byul and Veggie; they were a natural part of their day. Veggie sure loved his ball.

“I don’t remember! It was a super small hole-in-the-wall.”

This guy was probably the real deal, taking Kat to an authentic Japanese restaurant instead of a gimmicky one that went viral on TikTok. Too bad Kat preferred the showy, bougie places over authentic, mom and pop stores. Byul gave him a silent salut in her head.

“I just can’t with online dating anymore. It’s completely hopeless!”

Kat said, pouting.

“Couldn’t agree more.”

Byul said, taking a sip of her coffee. If only everyone accepted that fact and moved on to the greater things in life, like loving dogs. She brushed her fingers down Veggie’s soft neck fur.

“Sooooo. I was thinking. Let’s go out tonight.”

“Tonight?” Byul exclaimed. “It’s the weekend before Christmas. The crowd’s gonna be insane wherever we go.”

“Exactly!” Kat exclaimed even louder, putting down her coffee cup with a clang.

“You want to be alone over Christmas? Have no one to kiss on New Year’s Eve?!”

Kat put her hands in her hair, panicking even at the thought.

“Hot girls like us deserve to have men fawning over us.”

“We do have men fawning over us.” Byul pointed out this very important fact.

“But not the right kind of men! Come on, you don’t even have to post it anywhere. I promise, I won’t even put you on my Story.”

Byul was a bit more inclined at the promise of lowkey-ness, but not entirely convinced. She drew out her hesitation and looked at the ceiling. Veggie dropped his ball by her again, and she reached for it.

“If you don’t come with me, I’m taking Veggie instead!”

Kat hugged Veggie from behind. Veggie, who was sitting pretty ready to jump up at the ball, fell backwards into her arms. Kat showered him with kisses. Veggie turned around and licked Kat all over, dying at the attention.

Byul laughed. Seeing Veggie happy always made her smile.

“Go ahead, he’ll draw in a better crowd than I would.”

Byul said, shrugging.

“Fine! If you’re going to be that way-“

Kat snatched Veggie’s ball from Byul’s hand. Veggie’s head immediately turned towards it, all his attention on the ball.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”

Kat dashed towards the front door with the ball in her hand. Veggie followed suit.

“Wait, Kat!”

Kat opened the door wide and chucked the ball out.

Veggie disappeared down the corridor in the blink of an eye.

Out in the streets of Los Angeles, in a crowd of hundreds, her baby was nowhere to be seen.

To be continued…