Blinding Lights: Despite Everything GeminiFourth

*12* But I don't believe in love

"What are you doing?" He asked me, scaring away all the magic of this moment. At that moment it dawned on me that I must have been acting really strange. I probably looked like an idiot to him, great, just awesome!

"N-nothing" - I replied, stammering as usual in such situations.

I wish my voice didn't shake when I said it. I wish I could not show how this unexpected closeness affected me. I wish Fourth would never see me struggling with myself and never see me fail. He was one of those few people in front of whom I wanted to always be strong and brave, masculine and not childish. In his eyes, I wanted to be a winner.

"Gemini?"

"Yes?" - I looked up and saw him staring at me. If I believed in love, I would say that was how Fourth looked at me in that moment, with love in his eyes. Love doesn't exist. There is no such thing. And I'm not going to suffer like my mother. I told her so many times to give up and forget about dad, he's not worth her tears or the fact that she hates me because of him. I'm not him. And I'm not going to let the chemicals in my brain cloud what's important. Fourth doesn't love me. And that will never be possible. I will never believe it. Never!

And speaking of love...

Phuwin heard my conversation, or rather argument, with Pond and went to talk to him, but he didn't find him at home. He waited for him for over two hours, but when my friend didn't show up, he went home sounding like someone who had lost faith in everything.

Phu is a romantic, no wonder he was captivated by Pond's story.

Is it just me or does Pond not seem as much in love as he claims? At the company, he often spends time with me or Joong, they are very close. This worries me. I'm afraid he will hurt my brother. I want to trust him, I know he is my friend and I should support him, but something tells me that Pond is hiding a lot from us, maybe he has some hidden intentions? What if he was the one who planted the cardboard box with the flag on it? After all, it's not impossible at all. Pond knows me very well, he knows when I have classes at the university, and he has a lot of free time lately, which means he has a lot of opportunities. It wouldn't be strange if he was the perpetrator.

But why? What would he gain from this?

The answer came from Fourth, who said:

"What if it's Pond? How well do you know him?"

"But Pond is my friend, he wouldn't do that" - I denied it, but the seed of doubt planted in my heart by Fourth was slowly starting to sprout.

"He has a motive. You have a job, you have new projects, he has nothing. If you were him, wouldn't you take the chance to eliminate your biggest rival?"

I had to think this through carefully. Pond seemed to me too good-natured to hurt someone so badly, and too stupid to come up with a more complicated plan. No, he was off the suspect list. Well, unless he wasn't acting alone. Pond was just a typical big, even gigantic teddy bear who loved to dance and wanted to be hugged. Even though I don't fully trust him, I've decided to keep him close for now.

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer" - What if Pond did that and got closer to me to get closer to Phu and make it harder for us to find the truth? Then I have to pretend to believe him.