the boy is mine part one (rojie’s version)

LINK: the boy is mine part one (rojie’s version)

Here’s the thing… we started off as friends.

Let me preface that Gongju (공주 in Korean or 公主 in Chinese) means princess. And she honest to God thought she was one. She came from money and she made sure everyone knew it. Her parents gifted her a luxury SUV upon graduating from uni. She also had vanity plates on her new whip that read GONGJU. Yes. Yes, she did.

She also could have lived alone in her spacious flat but said that she would have been lonely on her own and preferred to collect rent from us and have company instead. Prior to us living together, she was living with her boyfriend, a boujie Thai man who also came from an affluent family. I’m uncertain as to why they broke up, but then again, I never asked.

Later on, there were five of us living together:

1. Me – yours truly
2. Gongju – Irish fashion designer who identifies as a Korean princess, who consistently c-blocked me
3. Yummy – Japanese/Korean interpreter and actress
4. Brian – Korean soldier but sensitive with anger management issues
5. Nick – Korean mechanic dating one of my besties, Jules

Nick had just broken up with one of my closest friends, Jules. It was amicable but it did leave him unmoored since they were high school sweethearts. He was a mess—financially, emotionally, and well logistically since Jules moved out and he couldn’t afford the apartment rent on his own.

Gongju, the opportunist, clocked it and immediately swooped in, letting him stay with us till he got back on his feet. I stayed neutral because he was my friend’s ex. I knew immediately what Gongju was up to, she had done it to me so many times… she obviously didn’t follow the girl code.

What she didn’t account for (and TBH, I also did not know) was that towards the tail end of his relationship with Jules, Nick had met someone online. A girl named Linh, from Dallas, Texas.

Nick was INFATUATED with her. I wouldn’t call it love, but he was definitely “in like” with her. He was constantly on the phone with her and every time her name came up, he’d show us the latest pictures of her and his face would light up. The man was beaming with happiness. He started flying out to Dallas to see her regularly. When I asked when she’d come visit Chicago, he’d deflect, change the subject, and never gave me a straight answer. I took it as a sign that it was none of my damn business so I stopped asking.

He’d share with us about how he’s met her family and they’d taken to him immediately. He said how comfortable and “at home” she made him feel. I thought that was wonderful and I was happy for him because he had such a tumultuous upbringing from what he’s shared with me before. Plus, if I’m going to be frank, his relationship with Jules was non-stop drama and toxic AF.

I spoke with Linh a handful of times myself, Nick would pass the phone over to me and Yummy whenever she’d ask about us, his roommates. I think she wanted to get a vibe if we were interested in Nick romantically or not. From my limited interactions with her, she came across as genuinely wholesome, a bit quiet, but good-natured. From what I could tell, they seemed like they meshed well.

Gongju, however, had other plans.

I don’t think I was meant to hear it but I did. She was telling a friend of hers: “If I had known Nick was into chubby girls, I would have gone after him first.”

And at that moment I shook my head. Le sigh. She was locked in and she had her sights on Nick.

Soon after, the love bombing and manipulation was in full effect. She started hiding his phone, kinda playfully and joking around saying that he needed to live in the moment and not be tied down to his phone. I knew it was her way of cutting off his communication with Linh for long periods of time. She offered to add him to her phone plan to minimize the monthly cell phone cost so that he would have more funds available. Heh. Yeah, I know she wanted access to his phone records to see what was going on and now she could do that. She’d prance around the house in lingerie and skimpy outfits whenever he was home. Gongju would buy him clothes and cologne to her liking. He went from looking average to mister GQ. She pierced his ears and they got matching tattoos. She learned how to make his favorite Korean meals and spent hours in the kitchen preparing them for him. The woman even did his laundry and went full trad wife on him.

As I’m watching this unfold in real time, I inwardly groaned. Nick didn’t stand a chance…

… to be continued…