My Little Secret: Privacy

**My Little Secret: Privacy** is the thirteenth book in the Candy Series series. It was realeased on March 2015.

## Blurb

Fed up with her mother reading her diary, Emilia decides to trick her by writing a fake diary where she makes up negative stories about her friends. Unfortunately, Mia, Joni and Corey stumble on the fake diary and thinks that Emilia secretly dislikes them! What is worse, after Emilia's mother finds her real diary, she wants Emilia to change schools! How is Emilia going to sort out this mess?

## Characters

* Emilia
* Mrs. Ouyang (debut)
* Mia
* Mrs. Zhang
* Mia's Siblings (cameo)
* Joni
* Mikael (cameo)
* Julian
* Sofia
* Zara
* Qistina
* Mrs. Kwek (mentioned)
* Corey
* Carmen (mentioned)
* Mr. Liu (flashback)
* Mrs. Liu (flashback)
* Jade
* Mr. Ouyang (debut)

## Chapters

### Privacy Peeves

After Emilia greeted her mother when she came back home, she went to her room and noticed a piece of paper scrap on the floor, which she proceeded to pick it up. She then opened her drawer and took out her diary while wondering to herself that her diary was read by her mother again. As Mia was about to take a bath, her mother entered the bathroom to give her a towel without knocking the door, which made Mia scream as she told her mother to knock the door first before entering the bathroom next time. When Joni was video-chatting with Mikael, he told her a joke by boasting about when he mistook chili sauce for ketchup sauce, several girls approached him and gave him milk and he attempted to make Joni jealous that other girls are showing concern towards him. As Joni asked Mikael where was the funny part he was speaking about, he became furious and screamed at Joni, which made Joni puzzled on why he got so angry at a sudden. It was not until Julian entered Joni's room and noticed that she was blocking the computer with her entire body, he then questioned Joni on who she was chatting to and she lied to him that she was watching a movie. Julian and Mikael got angry at the same time and Julian proceeded to question Mikael the relationship between him and Joni. When Mikael was asking the relationship between Julian and Joni, Julian suddenly pulled off the computer plug and he reprimanded Joni that befriending strangers on the internet is dangerous. Joni then talked back to him about him pulling off the plug without asking her permission, which resulted in a fight between the two.

On the next day, Joni voiced out her feelings about Julian's behavior yesterday to Mia and Emilia angrily. Mia sympathesized with Joni's feelings by saying that her mother also wanted her to not lock her room's door even though she wished to have some privacy to herself. Emilia asked the two on whether they let their family members know their true feelings and they told her that this was not the first time that they had voiced out their feelings to their family members and they always used the saying "You are still a kid" to keep them quiet. Mia then asked Emilia on whether children are not allowed to have their own privacy and Emilia thought to herself that her situation was far worse than Mia and Joni's situation, but she chose not to badmouth her mother by telling them that it was no big deal because their family did this just because they were concerned about them. As Emilia assured her two friends, Sofia, Zara and Qistina appeared behind them and Sofia told them that even children have the right to protect their own privacy. She also told Candy JEM that in order to protect her privacy, she did a lot of preparations and protections.

### A Child's Voice

Sofia proceeded to tell Candy JEM that her parents did not care for her feelings by entering her room and rummaging through her belongings, making Candy JEM shocked at her parents' behavior. Emilia asked Sofia on whether she found differences in her room everytime she came back home and Sofia replied that there were a lot of differences that she found. For example, she left her computer when she left home for school but it was shut down when she came back home and the books and magazines she left on the floor were back to their original place when she came back home. Sofia proceeded to tell Candy JEM that the most frustrating thing was about he bed being rummaged too, which made Candy JEM think that her room was being tidied up instead of being rummaged through. In order to protect her privacy, Sofia thought of a strategy that Candy JEM was eager to know about. Sofia told them that if she found out that her room's belongings were changed again, she would threaten her parents to run away from home in attempt to make them stop their behavior. This made Candy JEM scared at Sofia's decision while Sofia told Emilia that this was only joking. As Candy JEM was saluting Sofia's mother, Corey appeared behind Sofia and advised her that their parents had suffered much to raise them and it was inappropriate to threaten them to run away from home. Sofia replied that it was none of Corey's business to restrict what she wanted to say and Corey said that he did not approve of her stubbornness just now because their parents worked hard to give them a better life. He told Candy JEM and Sofia that even though they cannot retaliate their parents, but at least they should take care of themselves to not let them to be worried about them. Sofia then told Candy JEM and Corey that she was just joking just now and she did not intend to run away from home. Corey encouraged Sofia to chat more with her parents to let them lessen their curiosity towards her privacy and this made Sofia blush while Joni teased Sofia about her sudden blush, which made Sofia mad while telling Joni that she was just thinking about something. Emilia then thought to herself that the cheerful and optimistic Corey can easily solve problems that he encounters no matter how complicated the problem is and everyone is able to get together if he is there. She also thought that nothing can make him be annoyed or upset.

As Emilia headed back home, Mrs. Ouyang greeted her excitedly and after instructing the servants to put Emilia's bag in her room, she asked Emilia on how was her school day and whether something interesting had happened in school. Emilia then thought of Corey's advice to her and she told her mother that one of her classmates was sleeping on English class and when the teacher asked him about what was he doing, he said that he was trying to catch a shark. When Emilia wanted to continue her story, Mrs. Ouyang stopped her from continuing and she wanted Emilia to learn from Carmen since Carmen got the first place in both her class and grade. Mrs. Ouyang asked Emilia on whether she had the confidence to beat Carmen and get the first place in class, which Emilia promised. Emilia then told her mother that she wanted to go back and study in her room and Mrs. Ouyang told her that she would tell the maid to get her some soup for her. After Emilia got back to her room, she took out her diary and thought to herself that even though she did not mention the fact that Carmen got the first place in the entire grade to her mother, but her mother knew about it by reading her diary. As Emilia was distressed about how to prevent her mother from reading her diary, she noticed a newspaper on the table and she came up of an idea. She searched her bag and found a new diary she had bought today and she decided to jot down her real thought and happiness in the original diary while jotting down fake thoughts in the new diary. But then she thought that this was a bad idea, so she decided to record her real thoughts in the original diary while recording the exact opposite of her real thoughts in the new diary instead. She then proceeded to jot down Corey's suggestions to her in the real diary while jotting down her fake thoughts that Corey was a long-winded person while Joni and Mia were portrayed as being a stupid person and crybaby respectively in the fake diary.

### Privacy Plans

On the next day, Emilia brought the real diary to school while leaving the fake diary at home for her mother to read. As Corey bumped into her, Joni appeared at his back and attacked him while saying that he was a cheater. Joni told Corey that after listening to his suggestions, she told Julian about how she met Mikael and even showed him the photos that they took together to him, but Julian told his parents that Joni and Mikael were dating, thus making Julian cut off her internet connection in her room and he wanted Joni to use his computer when she wanted to do homework and search for information. When Mia saw the gang, she happily told Corey that thanks to his suggestions, she honestly voiced out her opinions to her mother and her mother promised to respect her privacy and that Mia would not be worried about her mother entering the bathroom or her room suddenly again. Joni thought of this as unfair and she screamed loudly. As the bell rang, everyone headed to class and Emilia thought that everyone's family is different since Mia and Corey's family are kind and understanding, thus making problems between them easily to resolve while Julian was just protective of Joni which made him forbid her to befriend Mikael. As Emilia was thinking to herself, Corey asked her what was wrong with her and he said that she always keep her worries to herself, which she awkwardly denied while thinking to herself that she should write the incident in her diary once she goes back home.

When Candy JEM and Corey entered the classroom, Sofia was chatting about her online friend to Zara and Qistina while boasting about her charm. Zara asked Sofia on whether she really wanted to meet her online friend as they think that it was quite dangerous. Sofia said that she did not want to have a relationship with somebody that is ugly and she also scolded her online friend and deleted him from her friend list. Joni told Mia that luckily Sofia had the most basic common sense or else she would be in trouble while Mia agreed with her. Emilia told them that it was unsafe to confirm anything at the moment.

After class had ended, Zara and Qistina wanted to pay a visit to Sofia's house while Sofia agreed. As Sofia and her friends were walking out of school, an unknown person suddenly threw rats at Sofia, which made her scream and she fell down as the attacker yelled to her to get a taste of her own medicine. Candy JEM was shocked by Sofia's scream and Emilia asked Zara on what happened just now. Zara told Candy JEM that an unknown boy threw a lot of rats at Sofia just now and they were shocked. Emilia and Zara then helped Sofia to stand up which they noticed that she might had sprained her foot while Emilia suggested that they go to Shun Clinic to get medical attention for Sofia. As they arrived at the clinic, Jade bandaged Sofia's injured foot and reassured Zara and Qistina that it was a mild sprain while they thanked her. Corey asked Sofia on who did she offend and she told him that she did not know who did she offend and she thought maybe it was because of her beauty which made somebody jealous. Emilia brought up the fact on whether the attacker was Sofia's online friend and Sofia wondered to herself that her online friend and the attacker looked alike but she said it was impossible because they had not met each other face to face before and she asked how did the attacker know so much about her. Emilia explained to her friends that Sofia always like to post her private information such as home address, phone number, interests, weaknesses and name of school on social media, which made her location being easily tracked by others. Sofia said that this was very common and she was not the only one who knew about it. Corey asked Sofia on whether she knew about what is privacy and he explained that not only secrets are considered privacy and when one opens his or her personal information on the internet, it is also considered as opening one's privacy to the public.

### Switching Schools?!

Emilia continued to explain that a lot of people nowadays like to share what they are doing on social media, which may lead to criminals knowing about their daily routine and to find a chance for making a move on those people. Joni remembered that she always posted pictures of food on the internet, which made her wondering whether she would be fed to death if criminals knew about this while Mia, Corey and Emilia denied the possibility of the incident that Joni imagined. Sofia asked about what she should do and Corey reassured her that if she protects her privacy and avoid revealing too much personal information on the internet, then it will not be a big problem. He also guaranteed Sofia, which made Joni wondering that whether they were having some intimate moment. Emilia said that she wanted to go back home, which made Joni and Mia follow her while Sofia told them that she wanted to stay a little longer at the clinic, which made Corey shocked.

When Emilia came back home, Mrs. Ouyang welcomed her back happily while telling her that she had some good news. Emilia asked Mrs. Ouyang on what was the good news and Mrs. Ouyang said that the boastful Mrs. Lee had visited their house with her son three days ago. Emilia then asked on why her mother was so happy about it and Mrs. Ouyang proceeded to tell her what had happened three days ago. Mrs. Lee and her son visited the Ouyang residence three days ago and Mrs. Ouyang had afternoon tea with them. Mrs. Lee asked about Emilia's grades and Mrs. Ouyang told her that Emilia scored well in her grade by getting the second place overall. Mrs. Lee said that only a school with poor standards could get such results, which made Mrs. Ouyang mad but she later calmed down. Mrs. Ouyang then asked Mrs. Lee about her son's results and Mrs. Lee told her that recently she sent her son's exam results to Six Trees International School, one of the top 5 international schools in the world for evaluation and she was about to enroll her son into the school, which made Mrs. Ouyang shocked and felt being looked down by Mrs. Lee. This incident made Mrs. Ouyang very frustrated and she sent Emilia's exam results to the international school for evaluation, which Emilia's results passed and Mrs. Ouyang would be enrolling Emilia to Six Trees International School by next month. Emilia angrily questioned her mother on why she entered her room without her permission, sending her exam results for evaluation and even reading her diary. Mrs. Ouyang sternly questioned Emilia on since when she dared to defy her because she did not did so before this and she asked her on whether she befriended bad friends at school. Emilia denied her mother by saying that her friends are kind and understanding but Mrs. Ouyang did not accept this by saying that children who are understanding do not defy their parents and she wanted Emilia to change school no matter what. A frustrated Emilia ran back to her room with her mother screaming downstairs and she took out her real diary while jotting down about how she studied hard to please her mother but her mother never respects her decisions. She remembered the incident that Sofia was injured and when she wrote down the incident in her diary, she thought of Corey and Sofia acting intimately and she got furious while jotting down her fake thoughts of Corey in the fake diary.

As Emilia was writing the fake diary, somebody knocked her door room and she hurriedly hid her diary in her bag and answered the door. She noticed that her father was outside the room and he told her that her mother said that she had locked herself in her room since she came back from school. He also said that her mother had mentioned everything to him but he also wanted Emilia to understand her mother's wishes of wanting her to study in a better environment. Emilia apologised to Mr. Ouyang and she was brought to negotiate with her mother by Mr. Ouyang.

### Diary Dilemma

As Emilia was walking to school on the next day, she thought of the argument between her and Mrs. Ouyang the day before this. As a mother, Mrs. Ouyang wished that Emilia would get the best education and she mentioned that a lot of people failed to enroll in the international school despite their strong wishes to be enrolled. It was not until Mr. Ouyang stopped the argument by giving them some time to observe. Although Mrs. Ouyang listened to her husband's suggestions, but it was only temporarily as Emilia thought that she would have to change school sooner or later. When Emilia mumbled to herself that she could not see her friends anymore, Corey appeared behind her and asked her who was she talking to, she replied that she did not talk and as Joni and Mia bumped into them arguing, Joni commented about how intimate their relationship was, making Emilia fought back by saying she was not intimate with Corey. Corey then asked whether Emilia was overreacting and she avoided the topic by saying that she wanted to go to class while running away, leaving Joni, Mia and Corey puzzled.

After Emilia entered the classroom, she thought to herself that she needed to be more careful so that Joni, Mia and Corey did not know about the fact that she was about to change school. Joni and Mia then entered the classroom and Emilia explained to them that she was not in a bad mood. When Corey asked to sit beside Emilia, she blushed while saying it was up to him. When Emilia was about to take out her homework from her bag, her diary fell out of her bag and Corey attempted to pick it up, thus leading Emilia to be panicked while she snatched the diary from him. Corey asked Emilia on what was that book, which made her say that this was none of his business.

Corey kept thinking of why Emilia was behaving unusually during reccess and he did not notice that a basketball was approaching him. As a result, he got a nosebleed because the basketball struck his nose. As he headed back to the classroom and got his extra shirt, he accidentally knocked over Emilia's bag, which made him panicked while putting away Emilia's belongings back to her bag. As Corey was putting back Emilia's belongings, he noticed the diary that made Emilia behaved unusually that morning and he struggled on whether to read the diary or not. After a hard struggle, he decided to not read the diary and ran away with his shirt, but failed to run away because Joni was asking him what was he doing. This sudden reaction made Corey even more panicked and he knocked over both his and Emilia's bag. Joni and Mia then helped him to put back the belongings into the bags and Joni asked whether Corey was peeking into Emilia's belongings, which made him nervously denying. As Mia and Joni were suspecting his words, he finally told them that he was attempting to read Emilia's diary at first but it might invade her privacy. As a chase spiraled between Corey and Joni, which the latter started to read the diary, Corey noticed the contents of the diary and he attempted to snatch the diary away from Joni. When they started reading the diary, they were surprised to discover that Emilia portrayed Joni and Mia as demanding children who constantly complained about their parents while Corey was portrayed as a person who looked kind on the outside but was secretly a busybody on the inside and she wished to stay away from three of them. Joni and Mia then wondered on whether those were Emilia's real thoughts on them.

### Cold War

When Emilia returned to class after helping out the teacher, she discovered that Joni and Mia were in a bad mood and she commented on Joni reading a book as it was a rare sight. Joni responded that in Emilia's viewpoint, she was a lazy student who only thought about fun and games. As Emilia asked what was going on, Corey asked her angrily on why she did not honestly voice out that she looked down on them and they were not fit to be her friends while grabbing his bag and walking past her, saying that she was a faker. As all of the classmates were gossiping about what happened, Emilia slammed onto Joni's table while threatening Joni and Mia to tell her what had happened. Mia told Emilia that they accidentally read her diary and Emilia was surprised to hear that her diary had been read while Mia explained that it was an accident. Emilia was even shocked when she discovered that the diary that she brought to school was the fake diary which recorded her fake thoughts on her friends and the problem that she was facing right now was the whereabouts of the real diary.

As Emilia headed back home, she saw her mother speaking to the principal of Six Trees International School through her cell phone about her admission to the school in next month and the only things that were required for the admission was her father's signature and the school transfer procedure of Sacred Hearts Primary School. After Mrs. Ouyang hung up her phone, she was shocked to discover that Emilia was standing behind her and she greeted Emilia nervously that she was back. Emilia asked Mrs. Ouyang in an upsetting tone that she was lying and that she promised Mr. Ouyang to observe for some time before making a final decision. Mrs. Ouyang replied that Emilia would be changing school sooner or later, thus an early decison was better because a lot of people were competing just to enroll in the international school and the opportunity should not be wasted. Mrs. Ouyang also told Emilia that Mr. Ouyang had headed for a business trip and he would be only back by next week, thus the school transfer issue would be decided by Mrs. Ouyang herself. Emilia tearfully ran back to her room while screaming that she did not want to change school and she remembered to find her real diary. After seeking for every corner of her room, Emilia failed to search for her real diary, which made her wonder whether she left it at school.

On the next day, as Emilia was walking along the school corridors to look for her real diary, she bumped into Corey, who walked away from her without advising her to watch her step. On the other hand, Joni was surprised that Corey wanted her to advise Emilia to watch her step because it was very dangerous and Joni asked him why he did not want to advise her by himself. Corey answered that he did not want to speak to Emilia because he was still angry with her, making Joni and Mia think that the usually mature Corey could get childish when he is angry. When Joni and Corey were fighting on who should advise Emilia, Emilia entered the classroom and directly went to her seat without talking to them. Corey then signalled Joni to advise Emilia, which she did so but the meaning she intended to deliver was absolutely wrong.

After school had dismissed, Mia asked Joni on whether they were not going to forgive Emilia and she thought that the things that Emilia wrote on the diary was not real while Joni agreed with her but she also wanted Emilia to explain about the diary clearly, but Emilia went back home by herself without going back home with Mia and Joni as they previously go back home together. On the other hand, Emilia was searching for her real diary in the park while thinking to herself about how she wanted them to know her true feelings towards them before transfering school. Suddenly, somebody patted Emilia's shoulder which made her scream, only to realise that the person who patted her shoulder was Julian. Julian advised Emilia to go back home because there would be criminals wandering in the park since it was late and he offered to send her back home, which she denied. Julian offered Emilia to come to his house instead and Joni rushed down the stairs angrily while questioning Julian on entering her room again. She then calmed down as she noticed that her brother had brought Emilia back home and Julian wanted them to talk about Emilia's issues after they enter the house.

### Where's Emilia?

When Joni, Emilia and Julian were sitting in a row in Joni's room, Joni wanted Emilia to tell Julian to stay away from her room while Julian wanted Emilia to tell Joni to behave herself in return and brought up his suspicion on Joni being involved in a relationship. Seeing that the siblings were about to start a fight, Emilia told them that she should go to Mia's house instead and this made Joni wanted her to stay because everybody in her house would stand by Julian's side. After Emilia explained everything that happened to Joni, Joni was shocked to hear that the diary they had read was fake and Emilia continued that she came out with this idea to prevent her mother from reading her diary but she made such a big mess because of this. When Emilia told Joni that she was about to change school, Joni tearfully begged her not to but Emilia said that her mother had already decided about it. As Joni was about to go to Emilia's house to reason with Emilia's mother, Julian stopped her while wanting Emilia to wait for them inside Joni's room. After the siblings went out of the room, Joni threw a tantrum on why Julian stopped her from reasoning and Julian decided to call Emilia's parents that Emilia was at their place. Joni told Julian about the reason why Emilia did not want to go home was her mother read her diary and even forced her to change school and she would not betray Emilia. Julian smacked her on her head and he told her that running away from home without informing her parents was a serious issue for Emilia's mother and he continued to explain that he could see that Emilia did not want to change school but running away from home might lead her mother to lose trust towards her and Emilia would be forced to change school even more forcefully because of the perception that her friends influenced her to do so. Joni responded to Julian's explanation by saying that even though she voiced out her feelings towards them, they still did not respect her true feelings and she should stand by Emilia because they were facing the same problem. Julian said that at least they should inform Emilia's parents and Joni came up of an idea.

On the other hand in the Ouyang residence, a worried Mrs. Ouyang asked her servant on whether they found Emilia or not and the servant replied that they could not find Emilia despite searching the area numerous times. Suddenly, the house phone rang and Mrs. Ouyang hurriedly answered the phone, only to know that Joni was speaking on the phone. Joni reassured Mrs. Ouyang that Emilia was safe now and she could not reveal Emilia's exact location. As Mrs. Ouyang wanted to ask more about Emilia, Joni hung up the phone and she asked Julian whether her acting was perfect. Julian responded that Joni's acting was similar to a kidnapper, which made Joni panicked and asked what should she do. Julian told her that he would support her until the end. When Mrs. Ouyang arrived at the area where Joni resides, she could not find Joni's house and she only remembered that Joni's family owns a grocery store in the area. She felt regret that she did not listen to Emilia and she decided to look for Emilia no matter what. When Mrs. Ouyang started to run on the streets, she tripped on a drain cover and she fell on the street with her foot sprained. She was approached by Jade and Corey who were on their way back home and Mrs. Ouyang was brought to Shun Clinic to get her sprained foot treated. After Corey served Mrs. Ouyang a drink, she commented on how filial he was, making Jade reply that Corey is a caring and mature son despite not having good academic results. Corey asked Mrs. Ouyang on where she wanted to go and she told them that Emilia had not come home since then and she was about to go to Joni's house to fetch her back. Mrs. Ouyang then asked Corey on why Emilia ran away from home and Corey replied that Emilia disliked him, which Mrs. Ouyang responded with disbelief because Emilia had praised him in her diary numerous times. They both responded in disbelief and confusion that they both had read the diary before while Corey nervously denied that he had never read the diary, which made Mrs. Ouyang laugh and she predicted that Emilia prepared two diaries just to hide her true feelings away from her and this made Corey wonder that the diary he had read that day was fake.