https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2gzYpkdLd5Kk0htflpBQEJ?si=AdOxFe7RSL6f3Ou1DkcP7w&pi=RBcWiU1WScmm2

Malika’s POV

The years we’ve spent as friends have been filled with countless memories, a mix of laughter and chaos, victories and failures. Every high and low in my life has had him by my side—the first time I failed a test, the nerve-wracking day I learned to drive, our high school graduation, leaving for uni together, and even the moment I landed my first job. Almost half of my life, in one way or another, has been tangled up with his.

It’s been ten years.

Ten years of never really being apart.

Even now, when we’re both buried in our own careers—him jetting off for matches, me drowning in case files—somehow, he always finds his way back.

Like when he shows up drunk at my apartment at two in the morning, flopping onto my couch, and slurring something about how the girl he was seeing "got too attached" after two dates. Or when I get home late from work only to find him raiding my fridge like he lives here.

Miguel Brooks.

Son of one of the wealthiest blokes in the country. To the world, he’s the charming golden boy—a talented socialite with endless connections, a national athlete, and, of course, a notorious name on every list of eligible playboys. Yet, beneath the glamour and expectations that come with his last name, he’s something entirely different. Miguel is down-to-earth, refreshingly low-key, and completely unbothered about the legacy everyone reckons he’ll inherit. The throne that seems inevitable doesn’t hold any real power over him.

He’s the definition of unpredictable—the kind of bloke you can never quite figure out.

When he chose to study Urban Planning at UC Berkeley, it caught everyone off guard—including his parents. But that’s just Miguel. Full of surprises. While the world expected him to breeze through a business degree, he spent his university years buried in city development models, blueprints, and research on sustainable urban spaces.

He was passionate about it, but never loud about it. While I stayed up obsessing over case files and investigative reports, he’d be sketching city layouts on the backs of his lecture notes or rambling on about how to integrate smart infrastructure into historic neighborhoods.

For someone like me—meticulous, disciplined, with every part of my life mapped out—Miguel’s laid-back, spontaneous nature was both baffling and frustrating.

But that’s just how we’ve always been—completely different yet always stuck together.

Unlike Miguel, I’ve always known exactly what I wanted.

Every step I’ve taken, every decision I’ve made, has been leading me to one goal—to replace my father as the head of National Intelligence Agency.

I spent my entire life watching him, learning from him, preparing for the day I’d take his place.

And Miguel?

Despite being born into power, he insisted on living on his own, doing things on his own terms—which, strangely enough, included being an incredible cook, obsessively clean, and a footy fanatic through and through.

For the past two years, he’s been one of the top players on the national team.