MIRA
Days of my life...
Ever since I was born, my life has been a rollercoaster.
Not the fun kind.
Not the kind people willingly stand in line for.
Mine was the terrifying one—the kind that sends your heart to your throat and makes you question every decision that brought you there.
Only, while other people screamed and laughed, I screamed and cried.
Internally, of course.
I always thought that one day the ride would finally slow down.
That someday I would build a peaceful little world of my own and live quietly in a corner of it.
No drama.
No chaos.
No disasters.
Just peace.
But if I could go back and tell that innocent version of myself anything, it would be this:
You are terribly wrong.
Because the rollercoaster doesn't slow down.
It gets steeper.
And just when you think you've survived the worst part, life throws you into another loop and watches you panic for entertainment.
Still, God seemed to have different plans for me.
Because He clearly wasn't planning to kill me that easily.
No.
Instead, He decided to throw a whole plot twist into my life.
And unfortunately for me...
That plot twist wore glasses, had a permanent bad attitude, and lived right downstairs.
After that incident, I was so embarrassed that I avoided both Aunt Shu-Zhen and, most importantly, Grumpy Goggles for days.
Well...
Not exactly Aunt Shu-Zhen.
I still talked to her three or four times.
Mostly because she genuinely acted as if she hadn't seen anything that happened on the rooftop.
And honestly, I appreciated that more than she knew.
She never pushed me, never teased me, never brought up my countless humiliations. Instead, she always tried to pull me back onto the right track whenever I started hiding from the world.
She was just... sweet.
Too sweet.
Sometimes I genuinely wanted God to transfer all of her future troubles to me and give her my remaining years instead.
Then let me die peacefully.
However, when it came to her son...
That was a completely different story.
I never met him.
Or rather, I made sure not to.
I avoided the bakery at certain hours.
I left the house through the side entrance whenever possible.
And if I spotted him from a distance?
Immediate retreat.
No questions asked.
Because I knew.
I just knew.
The moment we met again, that man would somehow bring up the rooftop incident.
Or worse—
he would act completely normal.
With that annoyingly calm face.
That infuriatingly nonchalant attitude.
As if nothing had happened.
As if I hadn't spent the last few days reliving the most embarrassing moment of my life every time I tried to sleep.
And somehow...
That possibility terrified me even more.
Why do I feel this way?
It meant nothing, right?
Nothing happened.
I almost fell.
He caught me.
End of story.
Then why was I wasting every single night thinking about that annoying creature?
I swear to God, it had to be because of his face.
That ridiculously perfect face.
And his stupidly strong arms.
And absolutely nothing else.
...Right?
But was it really just that?
Honestly, I had never been that close to a man before.
Not like that.
Not close enough to hear his breathing.
Not close enough to notice things I shouldn't have been noticing.
And definitely not close enough to end up replaying the moment in my head at two in the morning like some hopeless fool.
But things like that only happened in movies.
In dramas.
In books.
Not in real life.
At least, that's what I had always believed.
Wait.
A minute.
Mira.
Mira Neog.
What exactly are you thinking right now?
I sat upright so suddenly that my chair squeaked against the floor.
"YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS."
The words escaped my mouth before I could stop them.
No.
Absolutely not.
I was not about to become one of those girls who developed feelings because a man did the bare minimum and prevented them from falling off a roof.
I refused.
Snapping myself out of the dangerous direction my thoughts were heading, I immediately looked down at the unfinished study assignment spread across my desk.
The assignment stared back at me.
Judgmentally.
A pencil was still hanging from my mouth.
I slowly pulled it out.
Then looked at the notebook.
Then at the notebook again.
And finally realized...
I had spent the last twenty minutes staring at the same page without writing a single word.
"Oh, for God's sake."
I buried my face in my hands.
"He's literally ruining my grades now."
To escape my own thoughts, I rushed into the bathroom and splashed cold water on my face.
A fresh start.
That was what I needed.
Not Chen Yuze.
Just academics.
A peaceful, productive academic session.
I took a deep breath and looked up at the bathroom mirror.
Then something moved beside me.
I froze.
Slowly...
Very slowly...
I turned my head toward the wall.
And that's when I realized my life had finally reached its end.
A cockroach.
Not a normal cockroach.
A huge one.
The kind that looked like it paid rent.
For a moment, we stared at each other.
Me.
It.
The tension was unbearable.
Without breaking eye contact, I quietly stepped backward and pushed the bathroom door shut.
I didn't lock it.
Because if that monster escaped into my bedroom, I would simply pack my bags and return to India.
Slowly, I lifted my slipper.
The cockroach remained still.
I remained still.
The slipper remained still.
This was a duel.
A battle of survival.
One of us was leaving this bathroom alive.
Then I struck.
And naturally—
it did the exact thing I prayed it wouldn't do.
The cockroach spread its wings.
My soul left my body.
"NO."
The cockroach took flight.
"NO."
It flew directly toward me.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
What followed could not be described as fighting.
It was panic.
Pure panic.
I swung my slipper wildly through the air while running in circles around the bathroom like a woman possessed.
The cockroach flew.
I screamed.
The cockroach changed direction.
I screamed louder.
The cockroach landed on the wall.
I nearly filed my will.
"WHY DOES IT FLY?!"
Nobody answered.
Because God had abandoned me.
Then it took flight again.
Straight toward me.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!!!! FUCK MY LIFE!!"
I screamed so loudly that I was pretty sure the entire neighborhood heard me.
At that point, survival instincts took over.
I wasn't thinking.
I wasn't breathing.
I wasn't functioning as a civilized human being.
I was simply reacting.
The next thing I knew, I had somehow climbed onto the toilet seat, crouching like a cornered animal with a slipper raised in one hand.
My eyes never left the flying demon.
Please, Bhagwan.
Help me this once.
I promise I'll stop complaining about my life.
I'll study harder.
I'll call my parents more often.
I'll even wake up early every morning.
Just please—
remove this creature from existence.
The cockroach buzzed across the bathroom again.
I tightened my grip on the slipper.
My soul prepared for departure.
And then—
the bathroom door slowly opened.
I froze.
The cockroach froze.
Time itself froze.
My head snapped toward the doorway.
And standing there was—
the absolute last person I wanted to see.
Chen Yuze.
For one long second, neither of us said anything.
His gaze moved from my face...
to the slipper in my hand...
to my current position crouched on top of the toilet like a frightened squirrel.
Silence.
Complete silence.
Then one eyebrow lifted slightly.
"...What are you doing?"
I stared back at him.
He stared back at me.
The cockroach flew between us.
I pointed at it with the desperation of a dying soldier.
"THAT."
For the first time since I'd met him...
I watched Chen Yuze blink.
Then look at the cockroach.
Then back at me.
And somehow...
I watched his expression change.
For the first time since I had met Chen Yuze, that annoyingly calm face cracked.
Not much.
Just enough.
As if he had suddenly witnessed something capable of altering the course of his life.
I blinked.
Wait.
Was that man... scared?
No way.
Impossible.
This was the same person who climbed rooftops, handled disasters with a straight face, and acted as if nothing in the world could surprise him.
Yet the look in his eyes said otherwise.
He looked deeply disturbed.
Almost terrified.
Like his soul was currently negotiating its resignation.
The realization hit me so hard that I nearly forgot about the flying demon.
Oh.
My.
God.
He was scared.
"CLOSE THE DOOR, YOU LITTLE—!" I shouted as the cockroach buzzed toward the entrance.
Yuze immediately stiffened.
The cockroach changed direction.
Yuze took a step back.
The cockroach moved again.
Yuze took another step back.
I stared.
There was absolutely no way.
"Step outside!" I yelled. "I can figure it out myself! Just don't let it go outside!"
For a second, he didn't move.
His eyes remained fixed on the creature currently flying circles around the bathroom.
Then he spoke.
Very calmly.
Far too calmly.
"...Kill it."
I almost fell off the toilet.
"ME?!"
"You're the one with the weapon."
I looked at the slipper in my hand.
Then at him.
Then back at the slipper.
The betrayal I felt in that moment was indescribable.
"You're a grown man!"
"And it's a cockroach."
"Exactly!"
Another circle.
Another buzz.
The monster flew directly between us.
Both of us flinched at the exact same time.
Silence.
Our eyes met.
...
"Oh my God," I whispered.
His jaw tightened.
"Oh my God."
"Mira."
"YOU'RE SCARED OF IT."
"I'm not."
"YOU ARE."
"I'm not."
"YOU ABSOLUTELY ARE."
The cockroach flew toward him.
And somehow, instead of stepping outside—
he stepped in.
Then he shut the bathroom door behind him.
I stared at him.
He stared at the cockroach.
The cockroach stared at both of us.
"What are you doing?!" I whispered-yelled.
"Preventing it from escaping."
His answer came immediately.
Suspiciously immediately.
The problem was that he was standing much closer to me now than before.
Much closer than necessary.
The cockroach buzzed past the mirror.
Yuze's eyes followed it with the focus of a soldier tracking an enemy aircraft.
"...You really don't like those things, do you?" I asked.
"I don't have any opinion about it."
"Liar."
"I am not."
The cockroach suddenly took flight again.
Both of us immediately looked up.
Then it dove toward our side of the bathroom.
"AHHHH!"
"Move."
"You move!"
"You have the slipper!"
"You're taller!"
The cockroach changed direction.
I panicked.
Without thinking, I launched my slipper across the bathroom like a professional athlete.
The slipper flew.
The cockroach flew.
A loud smack echoed through the bathroom.
Silence.
Complete silence.
The slipper dropped onto the floor.
The cockroach dropped with it.
Dead.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then—
"I GOT IT!"
I pointed at the floor victoriously.
"I ACTUALLY GOT IT!"
I jumped off the toilet in celebration.
Unfortunately, my foot landed directly on the wet patch I had created earlier while splashing water on my face.
My victory lasted approximately half a second.
"Wait—"
I slipped.
At the exact same moment, Yuze looked down and noticed the dead cockroach far closer to his feet than he had expected.
For the first time, genuine alarm flashed across his face.
Instinctively, he stepped away from it.
Directly toward me.
And before either of us could process what was happening, chaos won again.
I lost my balance.
Yuze tried to avoid stepping near the cockroach.
And somehow, we collided.
Hard.
I grabbed the front of his shirt.
He grabbed my shoulders to stop me from falling.
The bathroom was far too small for any of this.
For one ridiculous second, both of us were frozen in place.
Then I slowly looked down.
Then at him.
Then toward the dead cockroach.
Then back at him.
"..."
"..."
A pause.
"You were scared of it."
His expression immediately hardened.
"I was not."
"Chen Yuze."
"I wasn't."
"You almost used me as a human shield."
"That's a very dramatic interpretation."
I pointed at him.
"You literally ran toward me."
"And you're still alive, aren't you?"
I opened my mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
Honestly?
That was annoyingly difficult to argue against.
The bathroom suddenly became quiet.
For the first time in the last ten minutes, there was no screaming.
No flying cockroach.
No slippers being launched across the room.
Just silence.
And unfortunately...
That silence gave me time to think.
A dangerous thing.
Because only now did I realize how close we were standing.
Again.
Not exactly like the rooftop.
But close enough.
Close enough for my stupid brain to remember things it had no business remembering.
The warmth.
The safety.
The way he had caught me before I could fall.
I immediately looked away.
No.
We were not doing this again.
Absolutely not.
Trying to distract myself, I glanced toward the dead cockroach.
Then back at him.
A thought suddenly crossed my mind.
A very important one.
I narrowed my eyes.
"Wait."
"What?"
"If you're so scared of cockroaches..."
"I'm not."
"You are."
"I'm not."
I pointed dramatically.
"You practically looked ready to leave this world."
His jaw tightened.
I smiled.
Victory.
Glorious victory.
Then my smile slowly faded.
Because another question had appeared in my mind.
One that genuinely confused me.
"If you were that scared..." I asked quietly, "then why did you come inside?"
For the first time, he didn't answer immediately.
The teasing disappeared.
The argument disappeared.
Even the annoyance disappeared.
He simply looked at me.
Then away.
Then back again.
As if he was deciding whether the answer was worth giving.
Finally, he sighed.
"You sounded scared."
My heart skipped.
Just once.
A tiny, stupid skip.
"...What?"
"You were screaming."
His voice remained calm.
Matter-of-fact.
Like he was explaining something obvious.
"I thought something happened."
The words were simple.
Nothing dramatic.
Nothing romantic.
And somehow...
That made them worse.
Because he wasn't saying them to impress me.
He wasn't saying them because he wanted anything in return.
He was simply telling the truth.
A truth I wasn't prepared to hear.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then, as if realizing what he had just admitted, he looked away and reached for the door.
"It's late," he said. "Go finish your assignment."
And just like that, the moment disappeared.
The door opened.
He stepped outside.
Then paused.
Only for a second.
"You should keep insect spray in your room."
I stared at him.
He stared back.
"...That's what you got from all of this?"
"Yes."
"Unbelievable."
A faint scoff escaped him.
Then he walked away.
And for some reason...
As I stood alone in the bathroom, staring at the closed door, I couldn't stop thinking about what he had said.
You sounded scared.
Such a simple sentence.
Such a simple reason.
Yet somehow...
It stayed with me long after he was gone.