"Xela! Your remix is amazing as always! I thank God every day for having a sister like you! I love you, sis!"
I tapped his broad back. "Bro! Enough! A girl is suffocating—do you want your first murder case?!"
His smile disappeared, then reappeared. God. Him and his mood swings.
"This is gonna be more than enough for our upcoming battle. I can't wait to make a choreo out of this," he cheerfully exclaimed.
"Yeah, I get it. Now go. I have an audition today. You're bothering me!" I pushed him out of my room.
"You're rude as always! But anyway, your piece is awesome. Thank heavens you're my sister. I won't pay for some lame-ass remix again."
"You think it was for free?" I said nonchalantly.
His eyes widened. "I knew it. You suddenly volunteered to do this—which you never did before. What is it, then?"Oh, he knew me so well.
I smiled. I wondered if I was turning red.
"Yuck. You're blushing. Please don't tell me you fell in love with one of my mates?"
I smacked his forehead. "No one's attractive enough in your homegirls." It's true, though.
"Who is it, then? You rarely come to me when you have a crush. Who's this lucky girl?"
Oh. I forgot to mention—my brother knows I'm gay. My whole family does, actually. It's cool because they support me anyway.
I smiled a little. "That... T-that one girl you battled against last week?" Shit. This is embarrassing.
"Dawg. Your crush is an international girlypop. It'll be hard to get her number."
Yeah, right. We live in the Philippines and their last battle was in Tokyo. Maybe she's Japanese?
"Just search their group on Instagram. That's all I can do to help. Good luck."
The moment my brother left, I started searching for their group name.
"Ahhhhhhh! Her aura is too cool for me?!!"
I rolled over on my bed after seeing her pics. She had tons of dance videos uploaded but her face was covered. I knew this was her because, duh, I just knew.
I scrolled a lot but still hadn't found her personal account. Maybe she's the mysterious type?
I was kind of disappointed. I followed their group, but now what?
I was just about to give up when my feed refreshed and they posted a new update.
"Yo. Looking for fire remix we'll use for our upcoming comp. DM your samples. Arigathanks."
My eyes sparkled. I felt blood rushing through my veins. I got fired up and immediately started working on a remix—so much so that I completely forgot I had an audition today for a drama.
Two hours passed. I saw my manager calling. I answered while still looking for sounds to mix. "Hello? Who is this?"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHO IS THIS?! GET YOUR ASS HERE IN 20 MINUTES OR YOU'RE NOT GETTING THIS MAIN ROLE—OR ANY ROLE—EVER AGAIN!"
I sighed. "Fine. I'll be there."
I forced myself to get dressed and headed to the audition venue. It was the first time I felt lazy about going to an audition. I shouldn't be acting like this just because of a new crush.
Right—if we ever meet, I should be famous enough so I won't embarrass myself in front of her.
"Graaaah! Now I'm even more fired up!!!"
Meanwhile… Xela's anonymous crush in a different country suddenly felt like someone was talking about her. She got goosebumps while practicing for their upcoming battle.
***