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As soon as we arrived at the place, I immediately ordered two pizzas. One for me and Cece, and the other one for Duvall. “So he won’t sulk about not being invited,” Cece said with a quiet laugh. While waiting for our order to arrive, we sat back comfortably and continued the conversation that had gotten interrupted earlier in the car. At first, everything was normal. We talked about people, life, random things—basically whatever came to mind. But eventually the atmosphere grew quieter because we both got distracted by our phones.

And then suddenly— “KO, I SWEAR! So apparently, that… you know… THAT person—!”

I literally jolted in my seat because Cece Chungah’s voice suddenly got so loud out of nowhere. Some people around us even turned to look at our table for a second. Obviously, my curiosity kicked in immediately, so I put my phone down and looked at her.

“What is it, Ce? Spill the tea already!”

Cece instantly pulled her chair closer to the table. She looked deadly serious, but also way too excited, like she was about to expose classified national secrets. And from there… Our heated conversation officially began. Right in the middle of all that gossip, Cece suddenly shoved her phone toward me. Her mood changed ridiculously fast.

“Ko, take candid pictures of me. I’m gonna pretend I’m laughing, and then you take the photo, okay?”

And well, as the devoted younger sibling that I am, I simply obeyed. So for the next few minutes, I unexpectedly switched careers and became Cece’s personal photographer. She started posing like she didn’t notice the camera, pretending to look out the window dramatically, pretending to laugh to herself, and at one point even said, “Don’t make it look posed. It has to feel natural!” Right… sure, Ce. Totally natural.

Thankfully, the pictures actually turned out pretty nice, so she immediately smiled in satisfaction and went, “Now that’s more like it, Ko.” Not long after that, our pizzas finally arrived. Honestly, the smell hit us instantly and both of us just went completely silent for a few seconds. We were starving at that point, so we started eating half of it there while continuing our conversation. But of course, because Ce Chungah is the queen of aesthetics, before touching the food she still made me photograph the pizzas and drinks first.

According to her, the evening lighting there was perfect and my photos looked “Instagrammable.” So naturally, I ended up taking pictures from every possible angle like some professional food blogger. After both pizzas were packed up and we finally collected everything, it turned out it was already around five in the evening. The sky had slowly started getting darker too, so we decided it was time to head home. The ride back felt much quieter compared to earlier. Cece was busy sorting through all the photos I took of her, while I just sat there feeling completely full, exhausted, and oddly satisfied after the whole day.
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if life gives you lemon, just make a LEMONADE 🍋