Chapter 23:Welcome To Lily’s Unicorn Kingdom

Yuna's POV

If someone told me this morning that I'd end up studying with Kai inside my six-year-old cousin Lily's aggressively pink, unicorn-infested bedroom, I would've laughed in their face. And yet, here we were.

It wasn't our first choice. Or our second. Or even our third.

We tried to study in the living room, but Uncle Ramon had already claimed it, sprawled on the couch with his shirt halfway rolled up, fanning himself dramatically while watching some intense action movie at full volume.

"Tito, can we study here—"

"Shh! This is the best part!"

Onscreen, some guy got dramatically thrown off a rooftop.

"Right. Never mind."

Then we thought about the garden, but as soon as we stepped outside, we realized there wasn't a single working light. Unless we wanted to study by the mystical glow of the neighbor's karaoke machine, it wasn't happening.

And my room? Still under renovation. For some reason. Even I wasn't sure why.

That left us with Lily's room.

Lily, my tiny, chaotic cousin, who currently had a deep and passionate love for unicorns.

The moment we stepped inside, Kai stopped in the doorway, staring.

"…This is a lot of pink."

He wasn't wrong. The entire room was violently pink. Walls? Pink. Bedsheets? Pink. Curtains? Pink and covered in glitter. There was a giant unicorn plushie sitting in the corner, staring into my soul. And just when I thought it couldn't get worse, I noticed the tiny plastic tea set on the bedside table.

"Welcome to my suffering," I muttered, dropping my books on the bed.

Kai smirked, looking way too entertained by all of this. "I dunno, I think it suits you."

I turned to glare at him. "Say that again and I will smother you with that unicorn."

He just chuckled, setting his notes down beside mine. "Alright, alright. Let's just get this over with."

For the first ten minutes, things were actually normal. We sat cross-legged on the bed, going through our notes, while Lily hummed to herself in the background, playing with her toys.

And then, Lily had an idea.

"Yuna," she said sweetly. Too sweetly. "Let's play house."

Kai and I both looked up at the same time.

"No," I said immediately.

"Yes!" Lily clapped her hands together.

"I'll be the mommy. Kuya Kai can be the daddy. And Ate Yuna—" She beamed at me.

"You're the baby!"

I choked. "WHAT?!"

Kai, for the record, was completely unbothered. He casually turned a page in his notebook.

"Congrats, Yuna. You're a baby now."

"I hate you."

Lily was already setting up the tea set, completely ignoring my distress. "Okay! Kuya Kai, you go to work. And Ate Yuna, you cry when you're hungry."

Kai stood up, stretched, and said, "Alright, I'm off to work."

He walked exactly two steps away before turning back.

"Okay, I'm home."

Lily gasped, putting a hand over her chest like a dramatic soap opera actress. "You're home early! Did something happen?"

Kai put on a serious face. "I got fired."

I buried my face in my hands. "This is the worst night of my life."

Lily, on the other hand, looked delighted. "Oh no! Don't worry, I can work too!"

And before I could stop her, she ran out of the room to get her pretend cash register from the living room, leaving me and Kai alone in the unicorn kingdom.

For a moment, there was silence.

Then Kai leaned back on his hands, looking at me with a lazy smirk. "So. How's the baby doing?"

I threw the nearest unicorn plushie at his face.

He caught it effortlessly, still grinning. "Be careful. The baby's trying to rest."

I groaned and flopped onto my back. "I give up. I physically cannot study in this environment."

Kai just chuckled, then reached for my notebook. "C'mon, at least pretend to try. What do you need help with?"

I sighed, propping myself up on my elbows. "Math. Always math."

Kai scanned my notes, then grabbed a pen and flipped to a blank page. "Alright, let's go over this one."

To my absolute horror, he started explaining the problem, and it actually made sense.

I stared at him. "Wait. You're actually good at this?"

Kai raised an eyebrow. "You just figured that out?"

"I thought you were, like, cool-dumb."

He blinked. "What does that even mean?"

"You know. Too cool to care about school."

Kai snorted. "I'm not Ethan."

I laughed at that, then yawned, stretching my arms over my head. Maybe it was the late hour, or maybe it was the sheer exhaustion of dealing with my cousin's antics, but I could feel myself starting to get sleepy.

Kai must have noticed, because he nudged me with the end of his pen. "Oi. Stay awake."

"Trying," I mumbled, rubbing my eyes.

He tilted his head slightly, watching me with an amused look.

"You get sleepy really fast, huh?"

"It's a talent."

He chuckled, then tapped my forehead lightly with his pen. "C'mon, don't pass out on me now. We haven't even finished one topic."

I swatted his hand away but barely had the energy to be annoyed. My eyelids felt heavy. I shifted slightly, resting my head against the fluffy unicorn pillow beside me.

Kai went quiet for a moment, watching me. Then, in a softer voice, he asked, "You wanna take a break?"

I blinked at him sleepily. "Would that make me a bad student?"

His lips quirked up in a small, lopsided smile. "Nah. Just means you're human."

I hummed in response, not really processing his words anymore. The last thing I remembered was the sound of pages turning, Kai's quiet laughter, and the warm, comfortable weight of the blanket as sleep finally won over.

The next morning, I woke up feeling weirdly well-rested.

Which was suspicious.

Because I never woke up feeling well-rested.

I blinked, staring at the unfamiliar pink walls covered in unicorn stickers, the stuffed animals piled around me, and the glittery canopy hanging over the tiny princess bed I was currently lying on.

Right. Lily's room.

It took me a few seconds to piece everything together—Kai, the studying, the tragic attempt at being responsible, and Lily's very aggressive insistence that we play house in the middle of it all.

The last thing I remembered was struggling to keep my eyes open while Kai went over some formulas, and then… nothing.

Somehow, at some point, I had completely knocked out.

I groaned, rubbing my face as I slowly sat up. Across the room, Lily was still curled up in her bed, hugging a stuffed unicorn like she had no worries in the world.

Dragging myself out of bed, I shuffled out of the room and into the dining area, still feeling half-asleep. Aunt Rosa was already up, placing a plate of fried rice and eggs in front of Uncle Ramon, who was drinking coffee and scrolling through his phone like a man with no real obligations.

"Morning," I mumbled, plopping into a chair.

Aunt Rosa turned to me with a knowing smile.

"Good morning, Yuna. You and Kai studied so hard last night, ha?"

At the mention of his name, I blinked. "Wait… where is Kai?"

Aunt Rosa sighed, shaking her head like she had just witnessed the greatest tragedy of her life.

"Ay, that boy. He left after saying your study session was over, but it was already so late! I tried to make him stay over, but of course—

his family would get mad," Aunt Rosa finished, shaking her head in disapproval.

"I even told him, 'Kai, just sleep here! No one's kicking you out!' But nooo, that boy is too stubborn."

I blinked, still processing. "So… he actually went home? At, like, what—midnight?"

"Past midnight," Aunt Rosa corrected, placing a plate in front of me.

"I don't know what's in that boy's head. Imagine walking home that late! And I know his mother probably scolded him for staying out too long."

I stared at my food, feeling… weirdly guilty. "I should've kicked him out earlier, huh."

Aunt Rosa laughed. "No, no, I liked having him around! He's a good boy. And he missed my cooking, so of course, I made him eat first before I let him go."

That sounded exactly like something Aunt Rosa would do.

Uncle Ramon snorted from behind his coffee. "Hmph. If he really missed it, he should've just stayed for breakfast."

Aunt Rosa lightly smacked his arm. "He was being polite, unlike some people."

Uncle Ramon just grumbled into his coffee.

I poked at my fried rice, my brain still catching up. Kai had actually stayed until we finished studying. And instead of just crashing at our house, like a normal person, he still made the trip home despite Aunt Rosa practically begging him to stay.

I wasn't sure why, but that left a weird feeling in my chest.

Not bad, just… something.

Maybe I was still just waking up.

Shrugging it off, I took a bite of my food, humming in appreciation. "Tita, you really are the best cook."

Aunt Rosa beamed, already piling more food onto my plate. "Of course! Now, eat up! You need all the brain power you can get."

I sighed dramatically. "For what?"

"For your next study session, obviously!"

I nearly choked on my food. "Next?"

Aunt Rosa just grinned.

I suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

To be continued.