𝚂𝚞𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚂𝚊𝚍𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜

Chapter-27

He looked up at me, "These kids, they're us right? You and me."

I nodded. My cheeks were burning, this felt so oddly personal. I didn't want him to see what I thought of the younger version of himself, the way he made me feel. I don't know why but it felt like it would give him more strings to my heart than he already had- and it was already way too many.

He got up, trying not to disturb how everything was laid and hopped over whatever he could to make his way out of the room and back to me. We sat down to eat, I unpacked the containers and we ate wordlessly for a while. It was really hard to feel any sort of mean or bad emotions towards him in the moment because of how good the food was. He was tugging on these strings of my heart way too much alright!

"Let them be together the first time." He finally spoke up.

"What?"

"What if he arrived at the train station that day? What if she had the courage to tell him how she felt?"

"She didn't, she never did and never will."

"Well, she is. She's more brave than you give her credit for." He said holding up a Tamaki up to my lips with his chopsticks.

"Are you feeding me?" I laughed.

"Well you eat too slow and I'm afraid I've eaten most of the platter. Now eat!"

I couldn't seem to stop laughing, being fed made me feel like I was a child. But at the same time it was sweet, the door creaked. My head jerked to its direction.

I could now see a very stunned Matteo who looked like his eyes were going to fall out, I looked back to Charles who was just sitting there with an awkward smile on his face.

"Give me a minute." I explained to Charles walking towards Matteo.

"What is he doing here!?" Matteo whispered.

"I've been wanting to tell you for so long." I beamed, giddy with excitement, "what are you doing here?"

"Oh I-" Matteo moved aside. A few seconds later, both of my other friends were at the door too. Looking at their ex in disbelief. Their ex looked back and choked on the sushi roll he was eating.

Great. I was in the middle of a royal mess, there was no sane explanation to any of this. I can't believe I was worried about his fame, blowing the covers off our relationship. I had forgotten to account for my stupidity.

Both of them didn't even bother giving me a look, they turned around and walked away. Matteo was still standing here with his arms crossed, I owed all of them an explanation. I tried calling for them but it was in vain, they were already long gone.

I invited Matteo in, he sat down opposite to Charles. Glaring at him, Charles shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. I wish I could ignore how awkward all of this was, but I couldn't.

I started rambling on, Charles just nodded- "yeah, this was happened. Exactly this." Matteo just listened to everything, his gaze still cold.

"Didn't you even once think about telling me?" He scoffed.

"I did Teo, but the time never felt right. Everything was happening so fast and I was scared of how you'll take this." I said fighting back the lump that was forming in my throat.

"I'm not annoyed that it's him. I'm annoyed that you thought our friendship is that fragile." He answered.

I could see the hurt in his eyes, but this was the moment reality was sinking into me. I had let go of two friends because I chose Charles. I wanted to curl into a ball and just lay on the floor for a minute, since when did my life become so dramatic?

"I understand where you're coming from, but you can't make her feel guilty for it." Charles stood up for me.

"You stay out of this." Matteo snapped, "you're the reason this mess even exists!"

I've hated confrontation my whole life, and this moment right now made me hate it even more. I didn't like how pathetic I felt in this moment, I was standing there still trying to figure the right words out but both of them were already taking shots at each other.

"You should be happy for your friend, she's happy with me."

"That's what you like to believe." Matteo rolled his eyes.

"I feel like your words come from a place of insecurity." Charles provoked him. I could see the devilish smile on his face, he knew what he was doing and I had to stop it before it got worse.

"Charles don't say that." I finally spoke up, "and Teo... this is exactly what I was afraid of. How are you so sure you would have reacted differently if I told you?"

"I'm just very mad right now." Teo huffed, "please don't bother showing up for our new year's celebration."