EIGHT

A week had passed of them living together. Abby spent her days as usual, working from home and cleaning. While Cain on the other hand had to completely change his regular routines for new ones. He started spending most of his time trying to learn Spanish, even while Abby worked. All the apps he had installed on his phone to learn Spanish had started helping him a lot with vocabulary. He was still not able to form sentences but he was at least able to memorize some words. 

He had told Abby that if he learned at least 20 words for things around her apartment then she was going to have to try and learn how to dance and rap. And Cain was confident that he already memorized at least the 20 words he was going to need. The whole week he had kept repeating these words for items around the house. He had even asked Abby if he could stick sticky notes with the names on things and she let him but she said that the sticky notes would have to come off once the week was up. All morning long he had passed by all these things and read each word. Lampara, abanico, tapete, cojin, libro, librero, repiza, mesa, silla, microondas, estufa, refrigerador, gabinetes, cortinas, ventana, puerta, pared, oficina, recamara, balcon. There were all things that were in every home.

Not only did Cain have to worry about memorizing the 20 words but he also had to worry about Abby's mom who was to visit. She had left Abby her groceries and mail outside her apartment the prior week when Abby gave her the excuse that she was going to be having a video chat appointment with her psychologist at the time. But her mom wasn't going to allow for two weeks in a row to go by without seeing her daughter. According to Abby her mom was persistent and stubborn. Because of this he and Abby were going to have to figure out what to do.

"Have you come up with anything yet?" 

He felt bad for asking but he was going to need time to prepare for whatever it was they were going to have to do. Not knowing what their plan was only made him more nervous.

"If only I were just Agoraphobic and not a Germaphobe...There is no way my mom is going to believe what I've come up with." 

"Well what did you come up with?" 

"Well before I was a Germaphobe and even before I became Agoraphobic, I had this Korean friend come over a few times and whenever he was here my mom would be okay with me speaking Korean to her because she wanted him to understand what we were saying." 

The "friend" Abby was talking about was really her fiancé at the time but she didn't want to go over such details with Cain. It was already painful enough for her to still have him in her memories.

She had met Jun her freshman year at UC Fullerton. He was a foreign exchange student from Seoul and was majoring in Business. He didn't know English, his classes were all taught in Korean by Korean professors. But the university had a program that matched English majors with foreign exchange students so that they could be tutored in English.There was only one requirement for the English majors to join the program and that was that they had to know another language. Abby was fluent in three languages so she joined the program.

Since she knew Spanish and Korean, she applied to be matched with either someone from Latin America or Korea. She was matched with Jun. The two ended up liking each other and started dating a few months after meeting. They dated up until graduation and it was during the graduation ceremony that Jun proposed to her. Her engagement with him was the reason why she had moved to Korea. And the apartment she was living in had actually been his apartment, she had moved in with him.

"So...does this mean you were thinking about introducing me to your mom as your friend?" 

Technically it was going to have to be him that would have to introduce her as a friend since he was the one in her body.

"Yes but now that I'm a Germaphobe that doesn't even let her own mom hug her or come near her, how am I supposed to have a friend? And not only that but one that I've let into my house. She isn't going to believe that. I barely even let her and my dad come over. And when I do let them, they have to disinfect before coming in."

By disinfect Abby meant that she had them take a shower before leaving their apartment and then once they were outside her apartment's door, she would have them wipe themselves with disinfectant wipes and even spray their shoes and clothes with disinfectant spray. 

Cain tried to think of a solution. He knew there had to be a way around. She was a Germaphobe that didn't let people in because she thought of them as dirty and she didn't want to get their germs. But what if there was nothing to be afraid of? What if that other person was not dirty? What if that other person was just as clean as her? Another Germaphobe! That's what he was going to have to be! Well that was what Abby was going to have to be as she was now him. But she was already a Germaphobe so she wouldn't even have to act. The only one that would have to do any acting would be him and he had watched her enough the past week that he had learned all of her habits.

"I'll be a Germaphobe!" Cain yelled out his idea.

"Huh? What do you mean you'll be a Germaphobe? I've already told you not to try to pick up my habits, it would only do you bad." 

"I'm not talking about that. I mean that I can be introduced as your Germophobic friend. You would allow another Germaphobe into your house, wouldn't you? Someone that was just like you? Someone with the same habits and that is just as clean as you?" 

Abby thought he had a point. It was something that could work. She would only need to come up with a story on how they met and became friends. Since she was Agoraphobic they weren't many opportunities for her to meet people but ever since her Agoraphobia had started to get a bit better due to exposure therapy, she had made a few new friends, at least before the Coronavirus pandemic.

"We'll have to come up with a story on how we met. It would only be believable if we come up with one. My mom is also nosy and she'll want to know. So the more details we come up with, the more chances she'll believe us." 

She thought that perhaps she could use the same story on how she met one of her friends. So far she had only made three. She had met Debbie since she was a youtube vlogger that graduated from UC Fullerton and was also now living in Korea. Abby had been a subscriber to her channel and she ended up bumping into her one day at the park across the street. It turned out that she only lived a few blocks away and they met up a few times ever since then. She hadn't seen her since the Coronavirus outbreak though, she hadn't seen anyone since then. But using the story on how she met Debbie would probably not work on Cain since he was too young to have graduated from a university and he also wasn't a foreigner like Debbie. 

The stories for how she met her other two friends were different but they too had similar backgrounds as Debbie, they were foreigners from the US as well and because of that they were all able to speak English. Abby was going to have to come up with something else to use for Cain.

"How would I meet someone if I don't go out much?" 

Abby tapped her fingers on the dining table while trying to come up with something. Her food was going to get cold if she didn't come up with something soon. Her mom was bound to show up in a couple of hours so they didn't have much time to perfect their stories. 

"Online! Lots of people meet online these days!" 

Cain exclaimed excitedly. He was right. Anything could be done online now, even making new friends. It wasn't odd for two people that met online to meet in person.

"But where exactly online though?" 

There were many social media sites and they were going to have to decide on one. She didn't want to end up saying Facebook while Cain ended up saying Instagram. 

"Well definitely not an online dating site." 

Cain chuckled nervously at this. He really just said it because he wanted to see what Abby's reaction would be at the mention of dating. He knew that when people went online to meet someone it was usually on dating sites. 

"Definitely not a dating site. We don't want my mom to think we're dating." 

He wanted to ask why not but he decided to keep the question to himself.

"I got it! I was actually thinking about social media sites like Facebook or Instagram but Facebook would probably be better." 

Abby couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it sooner. It was perfect and her mom would believe it.

"Why Facebook?" Cain asked.

"Because there are groups on Facebook. Groups for people that have Agoraphobia and Mysophobia and my mom actually knows about me being active in a lot of those groups. And I've seen a few instances where group members find out about other group members living in the same city as them and they end up meeting up. It doesn't happen too often unless it's Agoraphobes and Germaphobes that are in the process of recovering so like say, two Agoraphobes are currently working on exposure therapy, they'll agree to meet someplace where there aren't many people. And this way they would have someone as a support with them, making things less scary for the both. I don't know how Germaphobes would do it but this is the way I've seen people with Agoraphobia do it."

Cain had never heard of such Facebook groups but that was also because he had never actually looked to join into those type of groups. He didn't even have a Facebook to begin with either way. As an idol he wasn't yet allowed to have his own personal SNS accounts. He had however heard of group therapy where people struggling with certain things such as Abby would meet up in a group with a counselor. They could also probably say they met this way but he didn't think of Abby as someone that would actually go to in person group therapies. He thought her idea was still good though since it made sense. And he didn't think he was going to be able to come up with anything better. 

"Let's do this then, I'm a Germaphobe that is also an Agoraphobe who is trying to do some exposure therapy. We met in one of these groups on Facebook and we found out that we lived only a few blocks from each other. So we talked and got to know one another and we decided to meet so that we could both work on our exposure therapy together while also trying to work on our Mysophobia."

It wasn't uncommon for people to have more than one mental illness so the fact that they were both going to have the same two things shouldn't seem all that odd since it was something that was possible. Abby was happy with the plan and saw nothing wrong with it. And now that they had everything figured out, it was time for Cain's little Spanish test. She got up from her chair and threw away her plate and fork. Cain had actually found her stack of foam plates and told her they should use them instead so she wouldn't have to worry about washing dishes or him not washing the dishes well enough. It had been a huge relief to her.

"Mi estudiante Cain. Ésta preparado para su examen oral?"

Despite having had Abby teach him Spanish for a week, Cain was still shocked at hearing his own voice speaking in perfect Spanish.

He hadn't understood all the words she had said but he did understand enough to know what it was she was talking about, she was talking about the "test" he was going to be taking. The one where he had to name the 20 items around the apartment. He noticed Abby had already taken off the sticky notes as soon as she was done with work earlier that day so he no longer had anything to help him out. Just reading Spanish alone had been hard enough so to actually memorize these words was even harder. However, he did make himself some flashcards to study with and they had helped him a lot with his vocabulary.

Cain took a deep breath and tried running every single word for all of the 20 items in his head. Once he went over all the words and felt ready, he responded to Abby's question with a "si" which was yes in Spanish. He was ready but he didn't actually know how to say it in Spanish so he just answered with the simplest word in the Spanish vocabulary.

Cain ended up getting all the 20 words right. Abby hadn't been timing him so that was what had actually helped him pass. He didn't want to rush his answers so he took his time to name each thing. He wanted to make sure that he wouldn't get a single thing wrong because their deal had been that he needed to know all 20 words. 

"So should we start our dancing lessons now? Or would you prefer to start with rapping lessons? You said you like Italian rap, right? Why don't you play some songs for me and we can go from there." 

He didn't know Italian but rapping was basically done the same in any language.

Abby opened up an Italian radio app on her phone and clicked on a rap station. Both of them decided to just listen to some songs first before actually trying to rap. He had never heard any of the songs before but Cain couldn't help but move his head along to the music, he liked how it sounded. He asked Abby if there was any way she could get the lyrics to some of the songs and she got on YouTube where she found some videos with lyrics. Because of this they were both able to rap along or at least attempt to. Cain thought that Abby was doing fine, better than him even but that was because he had to get the hang of rapping along to a language that was so different from his. The lyrics did however help a bit and he was still able to point out some things to her while she rapped along. 

Abby had said she was bad at rapping but she actually wasn't, she just wasn't at the level of a professional rapper but Cain still thought that she could pass as a trainee. She had potential to improve if only she practiced some more. Cain himself had actually improved his rapping over the years just by rapping every single chance he got. He thought that perhaps the same thing could work for her. He didn't see why things wouldn't work out. Abby was a good teacher when it came to teaching him Spanish and if someone was good at teaching usually they were also good at learning.

"You're not as bad as you probably think you are. And to tell you the truth I wasn't actually always good at rapping as I am now. But you know how I got better? I practiced every chance I had. Even while doing chores around the house or in the shower, I would rap. You don't even have to remember any lyrics, you can freestyle rap about anything. That's what's cool about rap. So I would actually recommend freestyling as it helps more to create your own rhythm. Each rapper has their own style and you just have to find a style that works for you. Just take Adam for example, almost all of us can rap but we all have different styles."

"You're right. Every rapper has their own style. I've listened to enough rap to know that. But in this case wouldn't I need to rap like you?" 

Cain had tried imitating some of his favorite rappers in the past but he never really was able to rap exactly like them, he would sound similar but never exactly the same. And even though Abby had his voice, the way she controlled it was going to be different than he did. So his goal had never really been to get her to rap exactly like him but to just be able to rap in general even if it was in her own style. He knew the members would probably be able to notice the change and the fans would probably too but they would just think he was just trying a new style, rappers did that all the time. It wasn't uncommon or odd for a rapper to try new styles. He had even tried out different styles before settling on his current one.

"All you need is to be a rapper. You don't have to rap like I do because you are not me. You may look like me but you are not. So just remember that and don't feel bad if you can't rap like me. I actually don't even want you to try to rap like me. Just be you and find your own style. Trying to imitate me would only hold you back because you will never be able to. No two rappers rap alike."

Abby felt a bit better after hearing his words. She continued to watch more videos while trying to rap along to them. Cain had her go back on some parts and suggested different ways for her to try. And each time she went back to try again, he was able to slowly see an improvement. He thought that if only they had more than a week he could get her rapping at least as good as he was when he had just debuted. 

Cain thought they could probably still meet even if she started living in the dorms but he knew they weren't going to have nearly as much time to practice as they would if they were living together. He wished there were at least one member that would believe him if he told them they had switched bodies, then he could ask them to help Abby out. But no one would ever believe them and that was why they had to keep pretending that they were the other.

They had finished their rapping lesson but Cain didn't want to overwork her so they decided to wait to start the dancing lessons the next day. Since he thought her rapping and dancing lessons were more important than his Spanish lessons with her, he had told her she no longer needed to teach him. He was just going to continue on using the apps he had been using to learn Spanish while she worked. He had nothing else to do but she did and he wasn't going to make her do even more than she needed to do. Even as the sun had started to set, she still had things to do. Her mom was going to be there at any moment, she had just texted saying that she was on her way. Abby had started cleaning as soon as she received the text. She was nervous and Cain could tell because she usually started cleaning whenever she was nervous.

There was a knock on the door followed by the doorbell. 

"Oh gosh. She's here. You remember everything? What you're going to say and how you're going to act?" 

"Yes. I've even practiced it in my head." 

He was ready. Abby had not only told him what to say, but she had also told him how to act. The first thing he was going to have to do was open the door and quickly back away, either about 5 feet or 6 feet. Once he had moved back, her mom was going to walk in just barely enough to be able to grab the disinfectant wipes and disinfectant spray that were by the entrance. And once she had wiped herself and sprayed her shoes and clothes, she was going to walk in further but not until he started walking into the dining room.

The dining room was much easier to disinfect than the living room because the floors were of ceramic tile rather than carpet like in the living room. So this is why Abby always preferred being in the dining room rather than the living room.

Cain opened the door and did exactly as Abby had told him to do. They all went to sit in the dining room but instead of sitting around the dining room table, they were each sitting on chairs placed about 5 or 6 feet apart from each other.

Abby had already given her mom a heads up and told her she had a friend over, a Korean friend that couldn't speak Spanish or English. So she asked her mom if they could speak in Korean only and she had agreed.

"Wow. Tu amigo es muy guapo. Estas segura que solo es tu amigo y no tu novio?"

Abby was glad that Cain did not know enough Spanish to understand what her mom had just said otherwise she would have been embarrassed. She knew there was a chance of her mom trying to speak Spanish as soon as she got there but she had prepared Cain for this. 

"Korean only mom. I already told you." 

Even though Cain had no clue as to what Abby's mom had said, he repeated the same words Abby told him to say to her mom if she started speaking in Spanish.

"So you two are friends? JUST friends?" Her mom emphasized the word just. 

"Yes, we are friends." 

Abby couldn't help but reply to her own mother. She just wanted her to stop with the nonsense. Her mom already bothered her enough by trying to get her to date again but she had never wanted to. The relationship she had with Jun had already taught her a lesson and that was that no one would ever want to be in a relationship with someone like her. Jun had dated her for almost 4 years and claimed to have loved her but as soon as the accident happened and she was left with all that fear, with Agoraphobia, he dumped her.

Their wedding was going to be in just two weeks when he had left her a note on the refrigerator saying he wanted to call off the wedding, that he couldn't marry or even live with someone like her. Abby had called him later that day and asked what she could do to make him change his mind, she practically begged him because she loved him. But he just told her that she was no longer the person he had fallen in love with. He didn't like how she no longer wanted to go out. He didn't like how she would get panic attacks all the time, it had become annoying to him and he didn't want any of that baggage. He wanted to be a husband and not a caretaker. He abandoned her when she needed him most. She didn't want to be abandoned again and so she found herself closing her heart.