Absinthe novel Chapter 46

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.

Vivi was quick to answer him. "It's not just that. BJ wasn't feeling well, so we thought a full weekend with his closest friends might do the trick."

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

It didn't take long for us to finish eating, and it also took Faye no time to get the kids settled in bed with their nannies.

It was barely 8 when we all gathered at the function room of the resort, drawing lots from a wine glass to find out who are teammates were. The whole thing was a bit childish, but for some odd reason, everyone seemed excited about it.

That is, apart from Robert, who looked about ready to jump someone.

I found out that my teammates were Robert, Jiwoo, and Faye. Derrick was grouped with Nico, Vivi, and Janus. Faye volunteered to be our captain, while Janus was the opposing team's.

"Our first game of the night is meant to measure how much you're willing to sacrifice for 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 up articles of clothing and line them up to form the longest snake possible. The team with the longer snake wins!"

We laughed at his explanation. Even Robert smiled a little when he saw me staring at him.

"Teams, you have 90 seconds each!" Jiwoo announced. "Ready, get set, go!"

Everything was a flurry of movement. People left and right were taking off their socks, belts, and accessories and placing them on the floor. The guys were taking their shirts off, with Jiwoo and Robert undressing side by side.

I also took my shirt off, but I was thinking I couldn't possibly expose my underwear in front of Nico, Vivi, and Robert. They weren't as close to me as Faye and Derrick were.

Just then, Jiwoo started unbuttoning his trousers. Robert looked at him and did the same thing. They were both only in their boxers now, and everyone was staring at them.

"What are you doing? Get yours off, too!" Vivi scolded her three male teammates. None of them moved, however, because of the unmistakable tension between Jiwoo and Robert. Vivi didn't care about that, so she still tried to pull Nico's trousers down as well as Janus'.

Robert and Jiwoo glared at each other.

"Guys! We need your boxers, too." It was Faye, my ever-mischievous friend.

"What are you doing?!" I hissed at her angrily. "You're adding more fuel to the fire!"

"They're hot!" she squealed. "Of course I want to add more fuel to make things hotter!"

I turned and saw Jiwoo with his hands on the waistband of his boxers, ready to strip. Robert was doing the exact same thing.

Fuck me—I mean, fuck! This shouldn't be happening!1

Suddenly, the alarm signaling that the time was up went off. Whew! Saved by the bell!

"We're the clear winner!" Faye announced happily.

"Congratulations, Faye," Vivi said, seething. "I envy you for having teammates who aren't cowards!"

Faye snickered and winked 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 event.

"This game is designed to remove any sort of awkwardness between all of us. I'm sure you're all familiar with Pass the Queen of Hearts." He came over and handed each team a Queen of Hearts card.

"Why is this oily?" Janus asked.