3 Days Ago
"It's...," Krist lets out a breath, "I shouldn't say why, should I? I'm not allowed to say."
"You're not," Yui confirms.
Krist shakes his head. "I can't believe you're making me do this."
"I don't want to do this," Yui tells him. "I didn't want to have to make you do this."
Her words make Krist's fingers stop their drumming. "Did you know? About how I feel? About us?"
Yui looks up from her phone. "Do you even know how you feel?"
Krist can't find an answer.
Hana walks in then, hair up in a wet ponytail. "Thanks again for letting me use your shower, Krist. Are we talking about the thing?" She pulls her phone out of her pocket and taps at the screen for a bit before angling the screen towards Krist. "Look. My picture of us got two thousand likes. I'm going up, aren't I?" She's trying to diffuse the tension. It's not working.
Krist sends the woman a tight-lipped smile, and when it's clear Yui isn't looking, Hana sends back a concerned look. Krist shakes his head. Yui looks back over then, and Krist answers. "I guess so."
"It'll take awhile before you two get as popular as Krist and Singto. I guess I should've thought about that more, but it's clear there's supporters of you and Hana." Yui puts away her phone and pulls out a memo pad. "Eventually, Singto and you will be forgotten. Or, at least, not as big as before. Things'll work out in the end." She bites her lip, reading something off her notes before looking up at Krist. "I just want what'll help you most in the long run."
Krist ducks his head once as his hands grasp tightly at each other behind his back. "I know. Thank you, P'."
Hana, who had been scrolling through her phone some more, taps Krist on the shoulder. "Look," she whispers. On the screen, there's a picture of Singto and Krist. She clicks on the comments, beginning to type something different than the thousands of hearts filling the section.
i'm sorry, she types, you two look cute together :)
Krist looks at her. Takes her phone.
thanks, he types back, we were acting fake here, though.
Hana laughs softly. doesn't matter, she writes. you two just complement each other.
When Yui asks what they're giggling about, Hana is quick to change the picture to something else in her Explore and show it to the elder.
Krist thinks back to what she wrote. He thinks back to what he knows. What Yui thinks he doesn't know.
His phone dings with a text.
He pulls it out to see who it's from.
Hey! Are you free Saturday?
Singto.
Krist looks over at his manager. She's pointing at something on Hana's phone. Hana looks up at him. She sees his phone in his hand. Immediately, her eyes go back to her own phone and her words with Yui resume, louder this time.
Are you free Saturday? he reads again.
Krist swipes his thumb across the screen to reply.
Yeah, he writes, heart constricting in his chest at his next words, what are we going to do?