+ + +

It was a Saturday morning when Kiu woke up.

He rolled around a little in bed, curled around his pillows and a tangle of sheets. Eventually, he got up to brush his teeth.

Afterwards he got changed and went downstairs for breakfast.

+ + + 

As usual, his mom was still asleep, and the ground floor was totally silent. 

His mother, June Xi (she never changed her last name), was the CEO for a small biotechnology company. She frequently stayed at the office until late at night, and even when she came home, she would continue working. Although the company had been insanely successful since it had been founded ten years ago, the workload never quite diminished. It was common for her to spend the entire weekend in pajamas and sleeping in.

In the Lee household, there was no one else awake at this time of day.

Also, the wooden flooring felt frigid. The central heating was not programmed to automatically turn on at this time of year, but the morning weather in October could occasionally be chilly. It certainly didn't help that Kiu was in the habit of staying barefoot at home.

Many years ago, Kiu used to come downstairs to the steady chatter of voices on the television. Dad had been the kind of early-riser who ritually turned on the local news in every morning. Meanwhile, Sis was always loud and rambunctious wherever she went. The odor of scallion pancakes sizzling in the pan while his sister blasted tasteless music from Spotify Streamify was a vivid part of his memories.

Kiu wasn't sure if he was just imagining it, but the kitchen used to seem warmer back then.

+ + +

The seventeen-year-old boy stood there shivering slightly as he turned on the electric stove and waited for a pot of water to boil. He added a 50:50 ratio of chicken stock while still rubbing his eyes slightly.

Meanwhile, he browsed through the Internet on his PD ("personal device")¹Personal Device (PD): In the 25th Century, cellphones have largely been replaced with PDs -- a wearable accessory that projects holographic screens and provides an interface to augmented reality.. A few of the webnovels that he followed had updated overnight, but Kiu would probably go read them later. Nothing really caught his immediate interest. Mostly, he was just trying to kill time until he could get some water going, and checking his PD was more of a daily habit than anything else.

A few minutes later, Kiu finally decided he couldn't stand the cold and went to grab a quilt from the living room. He draped and wrapped it over his shoulders before returning to the pot, which soon came to a gentle rolling simmer. Bundled up in an extra layer and feeling a bit warmer, Kiu opened the fridge and pulled out a few leftovers. Mostly, he was looking for yesterday's rice.

The general idea for this morning's cooking was congee — a very "classic" Chinese-style breakfast food.

+ + + 

The Lee family was relatively "Chinese" as far as Chinese-Americans went on the spectrum of ethnic culture. However, many customs were also bastardized to a significant extent. Both sides of Kiu's family had been in the Americas for many generations, certainly long enough for most cultural traditions to dilute to nothingness. In fact, Kiu's name was hardly even "Chinese" — it was a poor romanization of Qiū (秋) "Autumn" that was slightly misspelled.

He had realized this in his childhood when some other Mandarin-speaking classmates pointed it out to him, and for some odd reason it always made him feel strangely insecure.

Basically he was something like "fake Chinese"?

Although, at the same time he also felt kind of like "fake American" — in the sense that he neither looked or lived way most multinational Americans did. Whichever it was, it didn't really feel like he belonged in either box. 

Kiu cracked open a Century Egg²Century Egg: Century Eggs (also known as "thousand-year eggs") are a form of preserved and salted egg. Despite the name, they are not actually preserved for a hundred or thousand years. and stirred it into the rice porridge, his thoughts wandering aimlessly.

Well, he could use chopsticks, if that counted for anything...?

+ + +

By the time Kiu was finished with the porridge and was quietly sipping a bowl of congee, a clamor of footsteps came tearing down the stairs. They were a good deal more rushed than normal, and Kiu glanced up from his PD.

A middle-aged woman burst into the kitchen with a bottle of dry shampoo in hand, all while simultaneously attempting to brush her hair.

"Kiu! I forgot about a meeting I scheduled for today. I have to run. Have you seen my bag?" Her voice was breathless and panting.

She flashed from one side of the room to another, hurriedly trying to gather her things.

"On top of the piano," Kiu answered. "There's a few steamed buns in the toaster too."

"Ahh~ You're a lifesaver! You are seriously the best kid a mom could ever ask for!"

Kiu's mom swung by the toaster to grab a few napkins, a banana, and a steamed bun, before resuming her bouncing ball course throughout the house. Kiu stood up to move out of her path, especially with the dangerous way she was bustling around the kitchen. If she wasn't careful, she'd probably knock over a vase or something.

"You won't be home for lunch then?" He asked while quietly retrieving an empty glass of water that was dangerously positioned in an exposed spot on the countertop. He rinsed it quickly before putting it in the dishwasher.

"Ah, nope! Sorry dear!" His mom's response was immediate. "Actually on that note, do you think you could visit your dad today and bring some of yesterday's leftovers? I haven't checked in on him in five days, and both of us know how he won't eat vegetables unless you deliver it to him."

"Okay." Kiu thought for a moment, and then added to his response: "Some of the cabbage and bean sprouts are starting to go bad in the fridge too. Should I cook those for him as well?"

"Ah, yes! If you're up for it, that'd be fantastic! I didn't get to thank you for doing all the cooking last week, either!"

Kiu didn't really respond to that, mostly because at this point he was doing the cooking in this household more often than not. That said, he didn't really mind it. Kiu sort of liked creating things, and he actually enjoyed browsing the Internet for cooking videos and recipes. The only slightly annoying piece was that his mom often purchased more groceries than what was necessary to feed two people, so it was always a frenzy at the end of the week trying to figure out how to use the produce before it spoiled.

As for his dad — well, his parents were divorced.

In theory, Kiu was supposed to visit him every other week. However, oddly enough, his mom actually visited even more frequently than that, and she usually dropped by his place every three or four days carrying food that Kiu cooked. It was slightly bizarre in a sense.

Kiu's dad was an alcoholic and currently unemployed, and his parents had gotten divorced two years ago for such reasons. However, Kiu figured that Mom must have felt guilty somehow, because she still continued to visit him regularly after they separated. Kiu wasn't aware of the full details, but he did know that his mom's side (the Xi family) was the wealthier party coming into the marriage, and they had signed a prenup³Prenupital agreememt: A prenuptial agreement ("prenup" for short) is a written contract created by two people before they are married. A prenup typically lists all of the property each person owns (as well as any debts) and specifies what each person's property rights will be after the marriage.. Kiu's dad had gotten almost nothing from the divorce, except for a small sum from alimony. 

Basically, Kiu felt that his mom was kind of weird for sticking around, but not necessarily in a bad way.

+ + +

"Kiuuuu, give me a hug for good luck?" His mom shouted from the front door.

However, a frown quickly appeared on Kiu's face.

"Guys don't do the hugging thing," he muttered before looking away.

Kiu's mom was unfazed, and she brazenly ran over to give her son a quick squeeze.

The black-haired teen stood limply for a few short seconds before his mother released him.

"Ai, time passes so fast! You know it wasn't that long ago when you used to cling to me all day! Where did my cute little Kiu go? Should I be sad that you've become a cold-hearted brooding young man who's always pretending to be angsty and emo?"

"Mommm..." Kiu's tone of voice was slightly exasperated and irritated.

"Just kidding, kiddo." She winked as she slipped halfway out of the door. "Don't do drugs, 'kay? I'll be sad."

Kiu felt somewhat overwhelmed. His mom could get seriously frivolous sometimes. He wondered if she was also like this at work? That couldn't be the case, right?

"...You're going to be late." He spoke flatly.

"Shit! The time! Anyways, love you!"

"..."

Kiu waved half-heartedly as the door shut and he was left behind in an empty house.

...It looked like this was going to be an ordinary Saturday, like usual.

∎

ohko

Hey all! I'm a little nervous about putting a real-life chapter this early, since it seems like most of you readers are here for the gender-bender. However, I did promise that the story would have both online and offline parts, so one of these chapters was bound to come sooner or later. >.< But I still couldn't help but dread it a little! In either case, I hope this chapter turned out okay...