Mike wakes up realizing the cold space next to him. He pats the bed knowing that the person who used to sleep there has got up for more than half an hour. He reaches to the bedside table and finds his phone. It shows that it's almost lunch time. He is making the bed when a small figure comes to the room bringing a tray.
"Good morning, Sir," she teases him with a smirk on her face.
He whispers his greeting and motions her to come closer. She puts the tray on the table across the bed and sits next to him, "I thought about making you pancake for breakfast, but it is lunch time already. So, would Mr. Chang here come and have lunch with me?"
He smiled sweetly to her and nodded. He isn't the one who talk much, and that's what makes they fit together. He will be happily listening to her ranting about practically everything. He always adores his girlfriend since high school and he feels so thankful that he finally gets to be with her. He stares at her for a moment, reaches her to kiss her in the lips, and then goes over the table holding Rachel's hand.
"So tell me again why are you wearing my shirt?" He grins before taking out the chair for her. He doesn't really need her answer anyway.
"It feels good to wear your shirt, I feel safe in it. I thought you said you liked it when I wore them?"
"I did, but not anymore," she cuts her sausage slower and looks at his eyes, waiting for the next argument she thinks he will give.
"I love it," he adds, make her rolls her eyes but can't hold her smile. "Oh you do, now?"
"Well, I do, but I love you more than I love that shirt on you," he leans in to kiss her forehead. For a moment they are just sitting and eating in a comfortable silence. He just chuckles when she takes a bite of his pancake, because he knows that after all she will cut her sausage and feed him in return.
He is drinking his orange juice when he notices that she is staring at him. Her chin rests peacefully on her clasped hands. He raises his eyebrows expectantly, waiting for her to ask whatever it is that bothers her. When she mentioned to him if she can ask him a question, he just nods.
"How many were there before me?"
He raises his eyebrows in confusion, so she repeats the question, "How many girls did you love before me, Michael?"
She smiles as she realizes that she can see him counting the imaginary number in his head.
"Love, five, I loved five women before you, Rachel." She nods curiously. "Five, okay, not bad. And who were they?"
He sighed. Sometimes he just doesn't understand why Rachel Berry has so many ideas or questions about life or about him, but what he doesn't realize is that he is used to it already. "They were Who, What, When, Where, and Why."
"Can you tell me about them?" Before he can refuse her, she pouts and adds, "Please, please, pretty please, Michael?"
He chuckles knowing he can't say no to her. It will take a while, he thinks. So he grabs her hand and takes her to sit on the couch next to him. He takes a deep breath as he begins to talk.
"Well, first I had Who. Who I loved was a girl that I met when we were both in college. She didn't go to Joffrey. Well we actually hadn't really known each other, not until my roommate was finally dating her best friend. We only had a few interactions over semesters because she was a little bit snarky, but eventually we managed to become friends. I was excited to get to know her, because she was a very nice girl once you knew the true her. The only problem was that she wasn't into opposite gender for, uh, a romantic relationship. She admitted that she was looking at me as her best male friend, but she also told me that she was sure she would totally, I quoted, jump into me if she was straight. She turned me down, nicely, but I could tell that she was telling me the truth. Whoever she was, she was the one that I loved."
Rachel smiled at that and let him continues his story.
"What I loved was an old friend; we knew each other forever, practically since her birth. But she was much more than just a friend. We were separated when I got my scholarship for dance major in Joffrey and she got her early acceptance for her mathematics engineering major in MIT. But then again, we couldn't let time and distant got between us. We met each other occasionally only to share our favorite topic each time, our loves. I saw her different boyfriends come and go. I knew she had a threesome once with her boyfriend and one of my – oh."
He sees Rachel glares at him telling him with her eyes that he shouldn't mention that part, so he quickly mutters his sorry.
"Um, so, I knew all of her breakup stories. And she was also there for me, for telling me if every girlfriend I had was worth me, and for telling me that they who broke up with me couldn't see the best in me and they weren't good enough for me. She was perfect. We were almost perfect to each other. But the only thing that wasn't perfect was our timing. When I was single, she had her boyfriend, and vice versa. What we loved about each other was never enough to leave who we were with. This is something we eventually had to face and accept, and we had to leave behind what we had."
He sees Rachel's eyes become wet, so he takes her closer and kisses her temple. "I'm not going to continue this if it makes you cry."
"No, no, please continue! I'm fine." She turns her head up, pecks his lips and smiles as bright as she can.
"Okay, fine. Where were we?"
"It's When, I think."
"Oh, right. When, oh well, she was my girlfriend in high school. She was a perfect picture to describe a combination between love and youth. She was my love and my youth. We were so young, and we only went through that age once and I was so grateful that I had to spend it with her and only her. We shared almost everything. My favorite part was definitely late night sneaking out."
Rachel chuckles and hits his chest playfully, making him chuckles too.
"Well, all of that has become a nostalgic love memory. We were innocence back then. We took adventures. But this one love always had a place back in my mind, an in my heart. Just as a reminder that it was there, we were there. And even though we were just kids, there wasn't any doubt in my mind that when we were there, we were truly deeply in love."
"Where I loved was the girl I met in New Haven. It was when I had this internship after graduating as a choreographer's assistant that supposed to be last for only six months. But she made me stay. A year had passed, and somehow another year after that. I just couldn't leave her. She was the best girlfriend who helped me getting through the city. She helped me believe that I could be more than just a choreographer's assistant, that I was more than that. She also gave me a new energy, new experiences, that really pushed me to mature more than anyone or anywhere else. When people ask what city I love the most, I say New Haven. It's the city where I lived the most."
The brunette smiles at him and with her eyes he knows that she is telling him to go on his story. He sees a prick of tears in the corner of her eyes, but he is sure she wants him to continue it.
"So I had loved Who, What, When, and Where. But I also loved her, Why. Why I loved was a close friend of mine who passed away. She was okay when she told us, her friends, that she was diagnosed Asperger syndrome. But you couldn't really know what happened in the future, because she was suffering. Her Asperger syndrome made her having trouble forming relationships with other people, and she became depressed. Guys who were chasing her backed down when they knew about her condition. So she locked herself in her room for days. When I visited her one day, she told me that she was really sad knowing the fact that she would never really feel like she had fallen in love. She wouldn't get to have the emotions, good and bad, of being hurt and of being held. I loved her, so I stayed with her, hoping I didn't let her felt that way. But she was too weak to get through all the depressed medicine, she passed away. After that, I realized that she was teaching me how to see that one of the great gifts we have, that we must be grateful because we are alive. There are so many people like her, whose lives end before having any of those experiences. What a waste if we don't strive to love in our lives. She made me understand why. Why waste this life not loving? Right?"
"Right." Rachel whispers to him. She has her tears down her cheeks already. He cups her face and wipes her tears. "You okay?"
"Of course, I understand now." Rachel nods.
"No, you don't. And I will make you do." He pulls her and sits her down on his lap. "Rachel, you're the sixth."
"Yeah? And what's so special with the sixth?" She asks but she doesn't look at Mike's eyes. She plays the hem of his shirt that she wears.
"Well, if you ask, this sixth girl is none of them. She is the love of my life. She is who I love, that nice girl who is straight," he grins as he makes her chuckles.
"And the best part is that she is, I hope, totally into me. She is what I love, my best friend, and my home; she is my everything. She knows all my stories, she knows me the best. She is when I love, because I never look back when I'm with her. She makes me believe that we will always have a new page for our life. She is my never-ending story. She is where I love. If she is about to go anywhere someday, I will follow her. I just want to be with her. Every place is home wherever I'm with her. She is why I love, because with her, I understand what I'm looking forward in my life. Now that we found each other, I truly believe that I won't waste any single minute I have in the future not to love her. She has been in my past, she is my present, and she is my future. She is the sixth. She is the last."
He says everything he has to say looking her right to her eyes. She is crying now, but he believes it as happy tears. She launches herself to his firm chest and hugs him tightly.
"Thank you." She whispers to him. This time she cups his face and pecks him lightly; his ear, his forehead, his temple, his nose, and his cheeks. Then finally she gives him a deep kiss in his lips.
They are hugging tightly when she hears him saying, "So, how many were there before me?"
"There are five." Rachel smiles as Mike looks at her expectantly. She adds, "I loved Who, What, When, Where, and Why."
