Purple Ink (SatoGou)

Chapter 15

"Of Lillie?"

He nods, frowning. "I didn't reply to you for two weeks after you told me about her."

I blink blankly at him, remembering. It wasn't obvious until now. "You said something came up and you couldn't reply."

He shrugs. "I lied. I didn't deal with it very well. I couldn't stop thinking about everything you were doing with her. She's beautiful, too."

"So are you," I say, before I can stop myself. A blush spreads visibly across Goh's face, and I feel my heart spark to life at the sight of it. "Are you moving back to the flat?"

He hesitates. "I don't know."

I don't want to push him, so I don't try to convince him, even though I want to. It's so hard, not being around him. We walk in silence for a few minutes, until the building starts to come into view. When we reach the entranceway, I pause, biting my cheek. I don't want to let him go. Moments like this seem rare between us now, and I want to hold onto him, so I open my mouth, unsure what I'm even going to say.
"Hey, Goh," someone says from behind us. I hear the sound of the doors closing behind us, and turn to see a guy I don't recognise. He's tall, almost as tall as me, with a mop of blonde curls on his head, lighter than Clemont's. There's a smug look on his face that instantly sets me on edge, and before I can ask Goh who it is, he's coming up beside him, snaking his arm around Goh's shoulder. My whole body tenses up, alarm bells going off in my head. I bristle, restraining myself, because the sight of someone else touching Goh makes me want to throttle them.

Goh looks like he's ready to run for the door. "Who is this?" The other guy asks, looking at me, that insufferable smirk spreading wider.

I wait for Goh to shrug his arm off, but he doesn't. I know the anger must be visible on my face, but it doesn't matter anyway, because he won't look at me. "It's Ash, one of the guys from my old flat," he says. My heart twists painfully, and I furrow my brows, wanting him to look, so he can see how much it hurts me that he introduced me as 'his old flatmate' and not as his best friend for the past twelve years. Like that's all we are to each other.

"I'm Bede," the other guy says, looking up at me. "Nice to meet you. I'll see you in a minute?" He says down to Goh, who nods weakly. I think he's about to walk away, but then he leans down and presses a brief kiss to Goh's lips, and it's all I can do not to slam his head against the wall. Then he's moving away from us, heading out into the courtyard. Fury is burning in my chest, and I clench my hands into fists at my side, hiding their shaking.

"One of the guys from your old flat?" I say, trying not to seem as heartbroken as I am. "Really? Is that what I am to you?"

"Ash..." He sighs, pushing his hair back from his face.

"That's why you don't want to come back," I say, a humourless laugh escaping me. "Because of him?"

"You're angry," he says, furrowing his brows. I almost laugh again. If he thinks this is me really angry, well then he hasn't seen anything yet.

"Of course I'm angry," I say, trying not to raise my voice. "Are you kidding?"

"Well what did you want me to say?"

I don't bother to reply to that. I walk past him, storming to the door. My anger is clouding my brain, and I don't care if he's going back up to his new group of friends, and his new boyfriend. Goh calls out my name, but I ignore him. I make it up the stairs and to our door before I realise he's following me, saying something. I pull open the flat door, ready to slam it shut again, but Goh catches it with his hand, holding it open.

"Really?" I give him an incredulous look. I see Serena out of the corner of my eye, peeping out from the kitchen to see what's going on.

"I wasn't going to let you storm off like that," he says, out of breath from trying to keep up with me.