He Was a Friend

/20/ He noticed. /

"You know how social media is uncontrollable now. If it was before, we can just pay them and it's a done deal."

It was Art's manager, Kristelle. He is on his way home after being fetched from the airport by their security team as well as his manager, who managed to do a damage control of the situation.

He sighed and scrolled on the photos in his SNS.

There are lots of photos of them during the incident. They're all captured in different views, coming from different phones. There were four scenes in summary: one shot was when Louise and Eric was hurrying towards him, another shot was him kissing her, one more with Eric punching him, and another while he's down to the floor, rubbing his obviously injured lip.

Well, I expected this much.

He's just worried on the implications his actions had, on Louise's side.

He massaged his temples and looked outside the window. He was sitting at the back of his car, with one of the security team members driving, and his manager sitting on the front passenger seat.

"You went through all that trouble, did you gain something at least?"

He looked at her inquiring eyes through the front mirror.

"I'm not sure. At the very least, I'm sure I made my point through," he replied.

His manager let out a deep long sigh.

He then looked outside the window again and saw the familiar area where his gym was.

"Can you turn right? I want to go to the gym—"

"No. You are so resting right now," his manager interrupted. "You might not have noticed it, but your voice recently is a bit hoarse. That's why I postponed the recording today to tomorrow. You have to rest," she commanded darkly.

He leaned on his seat after hearing his manager's complaints.

"I'm sorry for that. I'll do as you say," he promised.

His manager nodded to acknowledge his apology.

"With the rate things are going, you'd definitely need to have a presscon. We have to release a statement soon," his manager added.

He scratched his head after realizing her point.

"Give me at least a day. I'll get back to you on that tomorrow morning," he responded calmly while crossing his arms. Coincidentally, he saw an airplane flying off from the airport.

I wonder how she's taking this.

After all, he feels guilty having to mess up her trip when she's all excited about it.

But I've got no choice there. It was a gamble I had to take.

He opened his phone again and checked out the photos. He stopped scrolling on the photo with Eric punching him.

He hit me. I was expecting him to stop me, like push me or something. But he actually punched me?

His forehead knotted, trying to understand the logic on that picture.

If it was me, and I had a friend, and she was suddenly kissed by... not a stranger but someone actually close to her, would I do the same?

He pinched the gap between his eyes, closed his eyes and concentrated more on his thoughts.

I mean, I would probably stop them, at most, but I wouldn't really butt in and even hit the guy not knowing what those two actually are to each other except—

He opened his eyes as soon as it clicked.

Eric loves her, too, he muttered as his jaw clenched.

He remembered how Eric is in a three-day trip with Louise.

He pulled out his hair in frustration.

This is the worst.