entangled // ryan nguyen

nine

[author's note: 3.3K READS?? i gotta keep writing...fr my updates are so slow recently bc of school :( thank you sm for all the love and support! sorry this chap is a bit of a filler...]

the remainder of the boba run, aside from ryan and justin arguing occasionally about random crap, was actually really enjoyable. we talked and laughed the entire drive and there was never a second of awkward silence. after justin lost the game of rock paper scissors, he had to go and order all of the drinks as a punishment, which gave me and ryan some time to talk and get to know each other more. he told me about his parents, his sister, and his dogs back home. i told him about my life before being an influencer, including how i played high school volleyball, did gymnastics up until the end of middle school -- for fun and not fully competitively -- and a treehouse that i built with my friends when we were kids and still serves as our designated hangout spot to this day. we also bonded over our nonexistent love lives, with both of our main reasons being that we were soulmate-less...until now of course. that was still a mystery that i didn't want to fully solve.

"we're back!" justin yelled as me, him, and ryan walked back into the house. ryan and justin held the numerous drinks and placed them on the kitchen counter as i continued recording for my first youtube video.

"what took you three so long?" darren asked, running up the stairs to come greet us.

"traffic. and justin's indecisiveness," i answered.

"rude," my brother glared at me as i grinned back.

"hey, i know ryan can back me up on this one," i defended myself.

"really now?" justin said, turning to ryan. 

"boy, me and miya were waiting in that car for almost thirty minutes," ryan answered. "how is that not your indecisiveness if you already had our orders and the shop wasn't busy at all."

the boy in question rolled his eyes. "people, let's not forget who kept on vlogging every moment of a fucking boba run."

"language young child," kane said as he strode into the living room. "don't make editing any harder for miya," he warned, gesturing to the camera in my hands. 

"yes please," i added. 

"well if you say so..." justin grinned evily and began spewing out every cuss word and swear he knew out of his mouth. 

"i'll just edit him out of the whole video," i whispered to kane, who laughed at my words before going over to collect his boba. 

"yay boba!" sebastian exclaimed as he ran over to us. once he found his designated boba, he stabbed the straw through the plastic covering and began drinking it happily. "what did you get miya?" he asked, coming over to me to grab the camera to record me.

"brown sugar boba milk," i answered, holding up my drink before proceeding to take a sip. "easily the best of all time. or tied with milk green tea. it's a close race."

"ooh, nice nice," sebastian smiled. "so...now that it's been two weeks of living with us," he said, beginning a very impromptu interview. "please rank all of us from favorite to least favorite and give reasons why."

"miya i better be your favorite," oliver chimed in as he came into the kitchen with regie.

"nah man it's gonna be me," regie said confidently.

"hmm...let me think about this for a second," i said, biting my bottom lip in thought. "also, let me just put a disclaimer that this is just for fun and it's not meant to be hurtful or malicious," i added, looking at the camera and the boys. "i love all of them, even when they're absolute idiots, so this is just fun and games."

"we love you miya!" darren said in a high pitched voice.

"oh be quiet," i laughed before taking another sip of my boba. "to begin, well, i know that last place is definitely way worse than everyone else."

"please proceed with your ranking, m'lady," sebastian said with a cheesy british accent.

i laughed at that. "okay, i'll go from the least favorite to most favorite but i'll say my absolute least favorite at the very end," i decided. "sixth place is seb, but he could've been higher if he hadn't done that accent just now."

"hey!" sebastian said indignantly. "you thought it was funny. admit it."

"moving on," i continued, stifling my laughter at sebastian's fake-annoyed face. "fourth place is a tie between darren and regie because i like hanging out with them but i also don't know what the hell is going on between the two of them half the time."

"fair," darren commented. 

"third place is ryan because our humor is similar and he's fun to talk to and hang out with but he screams too much when he plays video games."

ryan immediately piped up. "fam you screamed louder than me when we were streaming on twitch a few days ago--"

"you heard nothing," i smiled at the camera as i put my hands over ryan's mouth. "anywho, second place is kane because he's more mature than the rest of you -- except for when we play literally any game and his competitive mode turns on which makes him second -- and oli is first because he takes care of me the most."

"yay!" oliver cheered, coming over to the camera and giving me a hug. "i'm the favorite!"

"i'm hurt miya," kane fake-sobbed as sebastian instantly turned to camera to face kane's melodramatic acting before turning it back to me.

"love you too kane," i answered. "and last place is...justin!"

justin walked over and looked straight into the camera. "and this is what it's like to be justin phan, the victim of all of miya's bullying," he said seriously, pretending to be sad before going back to his usual self. "except the plot twist is, i bully her too," he said mischievously as he began to lightly slap my arm and shoulder repeatedly. 

"siblings," kane sighed as he walked through our fight.

"as if you and ty never do this," justin retorted. "by the way, where does he stand on the ranking?"

"bro, manager ty is higher than all of you," i answered swiftly. "he is out of all of your leagues. he's next level."

"so my first place is basically second then?" oliver concluded, looking at me.

"i mean, if you look at it that way, then yeah," i nodded.

"see? we're all losers," ryan deadpanned. 

"hey i'm the real loser here!" justin argued, referring to his last place rank.

"you don't count."

"YOU LITTLE--"