Chapter 4
A BIT OF GUILT
After what happened to me and Rozen, I did my best to stay away from him—and I stayed away for two years.
"Coreen, Noah has band practice at home. Would you like to come?" Reina asked me.
I smiled upon hearing Noah's name, but that smile immediately faded when I realized the evil Elizalde would be there.
"Oh! I can't today. Me and my family are going out," I reasoned.
What a waste. I want to see Noah, but I really don't ever want to see that animal Rozen ever again. I don't think I could control myself if I saw him. I might even punch his face again.
Besides, my family and I were really going out. As the youngest child, I am very close to my family. My elder brother Luke and elder sister Julie have their own families now. My parents married young so they had Luke and Julie at an early age. My family loves spending time together. My parents especially love exploring the world, traveling abroad, and trying new cuisines. That day, we went to this garden restaurant called Countryside. It had a stone path that led to a butterfly garden outside.
As I was seated on a wooden chair inside the restaurant, someone familiar caught my eye.
"Shit!"
"Watch your mouth, Coreen!" Luke warned me.
I rolled my eyes at him and looked at the guy again. What the hell is Rozen Gaiser Elizalde doing here? We were just five meters apart— that was the closest we'd ever been after two years.
He was staring at the ceiling's intricate design. I shook my head and rolled my eyes.
"What's the problem, my dear? You looked irritated," Julie asked as she was feeding her child.
"Nothing, Ate... Just..." I couldn't touch my food.
I stood up and dropped the cutlery by accident. "I'm going to the toilet," I told my mother, who nodded.
But I went straight to Rozen. He almost jumped out of his seat upon seeing me, especially after I held him by the neck.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I whispered to him.
"Easy, Coreen... Easy..." He smiled. "You scared the shit out of me." He glanced at our table. "You're here?"
I let go of him like he was radioactive. "Don't pretend that you didn't know that I was here. I saw you looking at our table!"
"You came from that direction so I deduced that that must be where you were seated." His forehead furrowed, and he let out a devilish laughter.
That's it? That's his excuse?
"Idiot! I don't ever want to see your face again. I hate you," I whispered to him.
"Why? I didn't cheat on you, Coreen. I love you," he said, glancing at the other girls around us.
Countryside had a strict Reservations Only policy, so there were normally few customers. But today was different. The restaurant was full! All around us were other girls my age.
"What? Stop joking around, Elizalde!" This was embarrassing. Everyone here might think that we were in the middle of a lover's spat. Yuck!
He steepled his fingers in front of him and leaned closer to me. "You know telling me to stop only makes me want you more," he warned me, smiling and making my skin dimple with goosebumps again. This is dangerous. So. Dangerous.
"Really? After two years? If you really wanted me, why did it take you two years to tell me?" I didn't realize how my question sounded until after the words were out of my mouth.
His face lit up, and his smile grew bigger. "What did you just say, Coreen?"
I stepped back, but he grabbed hold of my closed fist.
"Pardon, Coreen?" He was smirking.
"Don't twist my words around!"
"Coreen? I didn't know that Rozen was here. Why didn't you tell us?" I looked at Julie, who was standing behind me. She was smiling so widely and looking at me and Rozen.
I tapped Rozen's hand and hid my hand behind me. "He's meeting someone else here—"
She looked unconvinced and smiled instead.
Darn!
She might assume Rozen and I had "something."
"Is he really? Aren't you jealous?" Julie asked. Her tone made me think that she was misinterpreting this.
"Of course not!" I immediately said.
Rozen rose so Julie and I looked at him. "I was just leaving. Sorry to disturb you..."
"Weren't you waiting for someone?" asked Julie.
Rozen looked at her and answered in a cute way. "No one. I was just going to eat lunch."
Wow! Lunch in a place like this on a regular day? This Elizalde really must be wealthy. Even my family only ate here on special occasions. On a regular day, I would rather eat at Jollibee.
"Really? You should join us then. We were just about to start," Julie said.
I rolled my eyes and went back to my seat. My parents noticed the sudden change in my mood, but before they could ask, Rozen was already at our table.
"Mom, Rozen's here," Julie said.
My family knows the Elizaldes. Reina and I were long-time classmates. They knew her and her brothers.
"Oh, Rozen! Sit there!" Mommy said, pointing at the empty seat beside me.
Rozen blushed, looking sheepish in front of my mom. I rolled my eyes again.
"Don't be shy! You take care of Coreen when she's at your house.
You think she cares if she's imposing on them?" Mom said with a hearty laugh.
Oh my! Where did that line come from, Mom?
"She's no imposition at all. We like having Coreen at our house," Rozen said.
I closed my eyes, trying and failing to keep down the pressure building inside my body because of that statement.
"I'm glad to hear that she's not being a nuisance to you," my dad added.
"Oh no! She would never disappoint her crush, Noah," my brother Luke teased me.
"Kuya!" I exclaimed and glanced at Rozen.
He was staring at his food. He didn't say anything, but he looked at me and smiled.
That made me nervous for some reason. I shook the feeling off and focused on my food again, but I knew he was stealing glances at me while he talked to Daddy.
"Dad, I'm going out for some fresh air," I said. I couldn't keep up with the conversation around the table, but based on bits and pieces I heard, I knew they were talking about Rozen's new business idea.
"Coreen, can you bring Rozen along?" Julie said. I had a sinking suspicion that she was doing this on purpose. I glared at her, and she answered with a bemused smile.
"I don't think he'd want to leave Dad and Luke in the middle of an engaging conversation about business," I told her, but Rozen rose from his seat.
"I want to get some fresh air, too. I feel like the conversation out there would be more engaging than here," he said with a laugh. He looked at my father. "Excuse us, please."
My jaw dropped, and my father frowned. My father may not see what Rozen was trying to do, but I could. I could always tell when Rozen was up to no good. I hated that I could.
Dad finally replied, "Sure. Don't forget to check out the butterfly garden."
"Thank you," Rozen answered, then turned to me. "Let's go?"
And he led the way, leaving me no choice but to follow him out.
Outside, I avoided talking to him as much as possible. I had to or I'll be tempted to punch his face.
I was watching an orange butterfly land on a flower, when Rozen came out nowhere.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Rozen said out of the blue.
I startled back. How long had he been standing there? "Don't sneak up on me like that! We're not friends!"
He just laughed. "What are we then?"
My outburst must have frightened the butterfly because it flew away.
"Nothing. You're a stranger to me."
His smile widened. "I'm glad we're not enemies."
"God, I hate your guts!"
"I love your guts," he teased.
I held myself back from throttling him and kept my mouth shut for good measure.
"Now that you're in college, do you still have a crush on Noah?
Two years had passed. Two years you could have been happy with me. Don't you regret the time we lost?" he said.
I wanted to laugh. What was he thinking? Had he gone insane?
"It's still Noah. It'll always be Noah. My feelings won't change tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next year, or even in the next decade. There's no one else. It will never be you," I told him.
The light in his eyes faded a bit.
I avoided his eyes.
"Don't look at me like that. You had this coming!"
"This is what I get for loving you too much?"
I should laugh at that. It was laughable. "You mean loving me too much while you flirt with your side pieces?"
His expression changed from hurt to serious. "You said you wanted a challenge. You said I was boring. What do you want me to do? Treat you the way Noah treats you? Be rude to you? Make you feel bad? Do you want me to be exactly like Noah?"
I shook my head. "You don't need to do that." I sighed deeply, saddened that I had to let Rozen down this way. "Rozen, I really like Noah. You can try and copy Noah all you want, but you will never be him. It'll always be just Noah for me. Noah all the way."
He exhaled deeply, but he didn't say anything more. For some reason, I felt guilty.