Absinthe

The best sleep of my life was suddenly interrupted by tiny voices asking me to wake up.

"Fairy godmother, it's time for dinner."

I opened my eyes and saw Eiji and Elle on my bed poking my cheeks.

"Eiji! Elle!" I said, shocked at their presence. "What are you doing here?"

"Ninang BJ." Eiji gave me a kiss, and Elle followed after. "Mommy said we should wake you up. There's a dinner party for everyone."

"Eiji!" I reprimanded him. "I told you not to call me ninang or fairy godmother!"

The two of them giggled.

"C'mon, ninang! We're hungry!" said Elle.

I glanced at the clock—it was already 6 PM. I'd slept right after the challenge and had the best, most satisfying sleep ever. I glanced around trying to see if Jiwoo was anywhere in the room.

"Your boyfriend's already there, ninang," Eiji said, laughing. The kid was too smart for his own good.

"He's not my boyfriend," I said sternly.

"But he looks more handsome than Tito JM," Elle interrupted.

"Elle!" Eiji said angrily. "Mommy said we should not talk about him. He's a bad tito!"

"Enough," I said as I scooped up the twins and carried them to the door. "Let's go eat!"

I was shocked to see the entire gang at the hotel. Well, minus Cassie, of course. They were all seated in a big makeshift table. Janus cheerily waved at us. Sitting beside him was Robert, who looked tired and annoyed. There was an empty seat beside him, which I presumed to be mine. Beside that was Faye with two empty chairs to her left for Elle and Eiji. Then there was Derrick, Vivi, Nico, and Jiwoo.

I approached Faye and put the kids down before giving her a kiss on both cheeks.

"What a surprise," I said. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Well," Faye said. "Your new friends invited us so we can all get to know each other."

"It should be fun," Nico said. "Jiwoo here planned these activities for all of us. I think it's called membership something—"

"Membership training," I said as I sat down. "It's a Korean thing, like their version of team building, only with lots of booze."

Nearly everyone laughed. Jiwoo and Robert resembled statues.

"Hey BJ, congrats on your dish!" Derrick said. "I heard you made all the judges cry."

I blushed. "It's nothing. I'll make it for you guys once we get back to Manila."

"Yeah!" Faye rejoiced, ladling food onto her twins' plates. "By the way, what did you guys put in this chicken? It's amazing!"

I almost choked on my food, but Robert tapped me gently on the back. Nico and Vivi burst out laughing.

"BJ and Jiwoo slaughtered too many chickens, so we had to force ourselves to eat the same thing for four days straight!" Nico said to everyone's amazement. "But because we couldn't possibly eat it for one more day, we told Jiwoo to find a way to deal with it. This was the idea he came up with."

"You made us come all the way here to eat chicken?" Robert asked in an arrogant tone.

BJ wasn't feeling well, so we thought a full

said. "This place looks amazing. I'm sure we'll have fun." Although she was smiling while speaking, I caught her glaring

to finish eating, and it also took Faye no time to get

from a wine glass to find out who are teammates were. The whole thing was a bit childish, but for

apart from Robert, who looked about ready

was grouped with Nico, Vivi, and Janus. Faye volunteered to be our captain, while Janus

your team," Jiwoo announced. "It's called the Snake Challenge!" Nobody knew what he was referring to, so he continued. "The mechanics of the game are simple. All team members must give

laughed at his explanation. Even Robert smiled a little

have 90 seconds each!" Jiwoo announced.

off their socks, belts, and accessories and placing them on the floor. The guys were taking their shirts off,

took my shirt off, but I was thinking I couldn't possibly expose my underwear in front of Nico, Vivi, and Robert. They

the same thing.

teammates. None of them moved, however, because of the unmistakable tension between Jiwoo and Robert. Vivi didn't care about that,

glared at each

need your boxers, too." It was Faye, my ever-mischievous

you doing?!" I hissed at her angrily. "You're

course I want

of his

fuck!

time was up went off. Whew! Saved

clear winner!"

Faye," Vivi said, seething. "I envy you for having teammates who

at Nico and Janus. They were red in the face, looking as though they were about to protest. Derrick, meanwhile, was laughing his ass off at the corner. We all drank some beer and chatted for a bit before Jiwoo faced all of us to explain the next

to remove any sort of awkwardness between all of us. I'm sure you're all familiar

this

make it slippery," Jiwoo replied to everyone's amusement. "Now, line

us in line. She placed me in front with Robert right behind me and then herself. She signaled

do you mean no?"

remember saying

"Get lost," Robert said.

tell me what to do,

Robert said angrily.

said, "To be fair, why don't

given him the card, he announced, "We have

the floor. He was supposed to transfer

eyes

up!" I heard Vivi

the card on his lips and tried to suck hard to stop it from falling. I positioned my lips right in front of his to make things easier, and just as I thought we were going to be successful,

apology sounded more like a

We did it!"

card in her hand, which meant

"Sorry guys," Jiwoo said.

balled his hands into fists, and I was afraid something bad was going

round of beer before Jiwoo announced the last game

right! Settle down, ladies and gentlemen. Form a circle

knee, forming a circle. Jiwoo joined us and put a big bottle of tequila in the middle as well