EPILOGUE: Aaron's Turn

"Happy birthday, Aaron!"

"You're finally 21!!!"

I blow out the candles on my cake.

My birthday is the week before Christmas so everyone usually manages to come home and help me celebrate it. I go to university in New York City, so in a way it's good and bad.

Why?

Because my brother Wintar and his wife, Lira, also live there too.

Wintar is now a photographer for top models while Lira has her own five-star restaurant.

"I hope you like the cake," Lira says to me. "It's your favorite. Red velvet."

I nod. "Thanks a lot. But if you really wanted to make my birthday wish come true, you would have waited for me to grow up and be your boyfriend."

"HEY!" Wintar yells at me. "She's my wife! Get over it!"

"I had my first date with her before I turned four!"

Wintar frowns. "That's because you kept whining about coming with me."

Lira only shakes her head and starts cutting the cake.

"You'll find someone," she says. "Someone who won't look at only your beauty."

I lean back into my chair. "Yeah. Where am I going to find someone with a phobia of beautiful men?"

My mom hands me a slice of cake. "I met your father when I was out of college."

"And you're really young," says my dad.

Lira reaches for my hair. "You should grow your hair out."

I grab onto Lira's hand. "You just wait. I'm going to find a girl just like you."

Wintar reaches in. "Let go."

"Afraid of competition?" I say with a smile.

Wintar points at Lira. "She's my WIFE!"

Yeah, yeah…

A month later I get back to school after Winter Break ends and the new semester begins.

I head to my first class at 9AM.

The room is small since it's a seminar and there is one table with a number of chairs around it. I take a seat next to some random girl.

There's still ten minutes before class starts so I just keep to myself and take out some music.

However, I only listen for half a song when I notice the girl next to me is shaking more and more.

And just as I'm about to ask if she's alright, she suddenly stands up and moves two seats down from me and sits down again.

I smell myself.

Do I offend?

Nope.

I'm lemony fresh.

In class, she sits in between two people and is completely fine.

What's wrong with her?

Two days later back in the same class, I purposely come early and the same girl is already there. I take a seat next to her again.

And again, her legs begin to shake until her whole body shakes and she immediately stands up and moves to another seat away from me.

What the heck!

At the end of class, two other girls try to chat me up to see if I'll help them study, but I tell them I need to go.

"Hey," I say reaching the curious girl.

She turns around. "Yes?"

Dark hair tied in a loose bun and she wears glasses. She has a few freckles here and there.

"I'm Aaron," I say. "From your class."

The girl nods. "I know."

Okay…

"And you are?"

"Oh," the girl says with a small laugh. "Sorry. I'm Ciel."

I hold out my hand, which she waits for a moment before shaking. Upon making contact, she flinches.

"Can I ask you something?" I say trying to be polite as possible.

"Sure?"

"Why do you keep moving away from me when I sit next to you?"

Ciel looks shocked.

"Don't worry I'm not asking you out or anything," I say. "I just want to know."

"Ah," Ciel says looking away. "I'm really sorry about that. I'm just uncomfortable when people break my bubble."

"What?"

"I have really strong sense of personal space," Ciel explains.

"But those two girls sitting-"

"Just men."

"Oh," I say nodding.

Ciel stands there for a second longer.

"Um, alright. Bye," she says and leaves in a hurry.

Wait a second…

Could that be a phobia?

"Wait!" I say following her.

"What?" she says stopping.

"I know how to help you!"

Ciel only looks confused. "What?"

I hold my hand out. "Overexposure! You'll get over your phobia in no time!"

Ciel looks at me like I'm crazy. "It's not a phobia!"

I walk closer to her and she takes a step back.

"No, let me explain," I say, but Ciel is already walking away.

"Overexposure is the best remedy!" I say running after her.

Ciel starts to run. "Not when it's by choice!"

I can't help but grin though.

She's the one.

A/N

Thank you to everyone who has read this and enjoyed it! To be honest I really wouldn't have ever finished this story. But even after I stopped writing it, I would get that one review from time to time which meant people we're still reading it and I hated that I never updated since a lot of you asked nicely. And so really, it is your reviews that have spurred me to actually finish this story!

I've gotten reviews that Vandrophobia reminds them of manga/anime and I take that as a compliment - it has that surreal quality, histrionic and dramatic actions that really drive it to be that way, but that is also the key to its humor. And getting reviews that my humor is "witty" or "wicked" and that the story is "hilarious" always makes the me feel more at ease. I swear, every time I put up a chapter I wonder, "What if this chapter isn't that funny at all?"

As for character pictures, in the end I would rather leave them up to you, the reader, to decide how these characters look like. I don't want to destroy that image in your head that you've been developing of Lira, Wintar, Jeff, Alda, Aaron, and etc. Plus, that's the fun too I think. Coming up with your own idea of how the character looks like. I intentionally leave some character descriptions open ended so you can fill it in with what you believe the character looks like.

I don't know whether you're really interested in this part - but where I got my characters/story from is this:

The Idea - comes from an exagerration of my own fear, as explained on my profile. Have you seen Shrek II? You know the Prince in it? When he puts on lip gloss towards the end of the film, I always shudder. Hahahaha.

Lira - based 20% on me, the other 80% is what makes sense her character to be as someone who has this phobia. I also tried to keep her as sensible as possible without removing the humor of her behavior. I didn't want her to be dumb about obvious things - for example when Wintar dances with her at the Winter Ball. Most people would know the physique of their best friends enough to know when they're not dancing with them. But I feel like a lot of writers forget to take this into account and so it ends up being an oblivious love triangle which is obvious to all the readers except the characters themselves.

Wintar - a completely made up character. I just thought having a mixed race beautiful boy would be interesting.

Jeff - based on a best guy friend I had in high school. Only the masculinity. The character is different. Jeff isn't so sensitive.

Alda - based on girls I've met who are beautiful that give off the wrong first impression.

Mimi - based on evil. Hahahahaha.

Thank you for reading and reviewing. I don't know when I'll be writing my next comedic story again. I do have an idea rolling in my head for a while now using the same style of writing and humor about a love between the son of a con artist and an affluent girl, but I'm working on something different right now. Who knows? Look out for that story in the future!