Love Me Not - {riren au}

Love Me Not ~ 24

A week had passed and Eren was not himself. Everyone around him could sense something was off.

The outgoing Eren at work was unusually quiet. He didn't speak much at home either.

Grisha wondered what happened. Mikasa and Armin were also extremely confused.

Eren was trying to deal with a lot of emotional issues. He didn't want to talk about it to anyone, so it was bottled up. Not being able to let the emotions out bothered him, but he refused to let anyone else know what happened between him and Levi.

One night after returning from work, he was cornered by Armin and Mikasa.

"Eren, what is going on? You've been really down for like a week." Armin asked, raising an eyebrow.

Mikasa stood with her hands on her hips. "Did something happen?"

Eren sighed and shook his head. "No, I just haven't been feeling well. It's not a big deal." He went to walk past them, but they took up the doorway.

Armin and Mikasa exchanged a glance.

"Is it about the night of the party?" Mikasa asked.

Eren quickly shook his head, getting very defensive. "No. It wasn't."

Mikasa and Armin finally figured out what it was about from Eren's reaction. Something happened the night of the party they didn't know about, and they were now determined to find out what happened.

"If you guys could stop grilling me, that'd be great." Eren managed to push past them and walked right by Grisha as he sped to his room.

Grisha was also concerned. He didn't know about the party, so he thought that Eren might've been acting the way he was because he went on the business trip.

Eren knew something had to be done at that point. He was closed off and was worried that people would find out. The fact he didn't tell the two closest people to him bothered him. He just didn't want them to make assumptions or tell him 'I told you so' regarding the whole situation.

He'd have to build up the courage and talk to Levi. It seemed like a big deal was being made over nothing, but to him it wasn't a small issue.

Eren had to live his life seeing Levi around. It would be weirder for him to not point it out.

-

The next day at work Eren waited for Levi to come in. He didn't make an appearance everyday, but it was often.

He came later on in the evening and it seemed like he would go to the bookstore after getting out of work.

It was the only time he was hoping for Levi to come into the bookstore.

Once it was around closing time again he heard the door chime as it was opened. He turned, but was surprised to see Erwin.

Eren sighed softly and turned to face him. "Hi." It was still awkward to interact with him. He had seen way too much and Erwin had definitely crossed a line with him.

He didn't know what happened in that moment because Erwin had seemed like a decent guy. Did he snap or something?"

"Hey." Erwin looked around. "Busy day?"

Eren shook his head. "Not really. It's really hot so a lot of people are probably at the beach and pool."

Erwin shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded. "Have all of the boxes in the back been unpacked? I know some new books have been coming in." He asked. His parents, the owners, had asked him to keep an eye on the employees and make sure they were working.

"I think they're almost done. Connie and Sasha were in charge of that. I was watching register and organizing the front while Jean returned books and tagged any new ones we were getting." Eren explained. "I also had an idea I wanted to run past you."

"I'm all ears." Erwin leaned against the counter and waited. He crossed his arms.

"I feel like the front area is kind of empty. I was wondering if maybe once a week we could set up a display and pick an author to show. We could add their bestsellers." Eren asked.

Eren encountered a lot of customers that wanted to get a book with a certain genre or author, but didn't know what they wanted exactly. He figured putting some bestsellers from certain authors could help.

Erwin nodded. "I don't see why that would be a problem. We have a lot of empty space up here anyways."

"Alright. I'll work on that my next shift then." Eren was glad that he could at least talk to Erwin about work. He turned to get back to work, about heard the door chime again.

Eren turned to welcome the customer in, but froze when he saw it was Levi.

Levi walked in and saw Erwin with Eren. Erwin was in a relaxed position while Eren just stood there. He wondered what was going on.

"Hey." Levi said to both of them. He didn't have the energy to ignore anyone or stress. It wasn't a big deal.

Erwin looked at Levi. "Hey." He said back simply. He didn't say anything else after that.

Levi walked past him and to Eren. "Hey, anything good come in?" He asked.

Eren shrugged. "We got a lot of new books in, but I don't know your taste in books to tell you if anything good came in."

"That's true." Levi started looking through the shelves.

"You just bought a book. Do you need another that fast?" Eren asked.

"I read fast, kid. That's my hobby." Levi turned and went down one of the aisles.

Erwin was still leaned against the counter, but was on his phone. He seemed to be distracted.

Eren followed Levi down the aisle. "Do you think you have a second to talk?" He asked.

Levi raised an eyebrow. "Right now?"

"Well, no. You're usually around here at closing so maybe after. Could you wait?" Eren asked. He was extremely nervous and was hoping it was visible.

"Sure." Levi said shortly. He had a feeling it was about the night of the party. What else would it even be about? He then wondered if Eren remembered more.

"Alright. So, I guess I'll see you in a bit." Eren turned and walked away. He was so glad he was able to actually ask. He thought that when the time came he would give up and walk away.

-

dun dun dunnnnn