One Fateful Night (ON GOING)

Chapter 22

The relief that Gulf feels a moment ago is quickly replaced with nervousness as he stands in the front door of the penthouse, too coward to punch the code, because Bright is standing right behind him.

Gulf’s mind can’t stop imagining what will happen once he opens the door, when he knows that Mew somewhere on the other side of this door.

“Will you open this door?” Bright asks impatiently. “Or I’ll bang this door myself.”

Gulf heaves a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves. He is not fond of violence and although he knows that Bright is the same as him, he also knows that his friend can break some bones. And he is also worried to Mew.

Mew just comes out from the kitchen when he hears the door opens. So, he quickly turns to see if Gulf is back. He only has few people who know the code of his place. His best friend and his sister and both rarely come to his place and recently Gulf.

When the door opens, a smile immediately creeps on Mew’s face but it fades as quickly when his eyes catch someone behind Gulf. If his memory serves him correct, when he checks Gulf’s background once, the guy is Gulf’s friend.

However, as he noticed Gulf’s friend’s piercing glare, it’s too late for him to realize how it zooms in every second.

It happened so fast that it’s too late for Mew to dodge…and the punch, coming from the stranger, safely lands on his jaw that he staggers a step backward.

“Bright!” Gulf exclaims not expecting something to unfold so fast. He quickly goes to Bright holding his friend in place.

Mew feels the impact of the punch that his lip sting. He wants to get even but his sanity has him in place and Gulf’s attention on the other guy, holding the guy who punched him, is not making him feel so good. He is after all the one who got punched, so shouldn’t the younger stand by his side? The thought stings even more than the punch.

Glaring and fuming mad, Bright speaks. “Remember this bastard, I don’t care if you’re a royal or a fucking president in this fucking country, but I am watching you. You better watch your back.”

Bright feels like someone precious to him has been stomped on. Rationality in check and trying to satisfy his own self with one punch, he turns to leave…but halts when Gulf utters the word he has not heard for a long time.

“Bai…”

Mew watches everything from the sideline. He would’ve whistled with the intensity of the atmosphere. He might even be moved with the kind of drama unfolding before him. But he can’t.

Mew just can’t. Not when he can feel something pricking in his chest. And the fear, ever so little, but like a poison, slowly yet steadily consuming his insides and he…doesn’t like it.

For Bright and Gulf, it could only mean a nickname: a call to coax the other or a simple reminder of their friendship, their bond.

However for Mew, it is much more. That one word uttered by Gulf sounds so many things to Mew. From the tone of the younger’s voice to his eyes. His mind is telling him so many things.

Don’t go.

Please stay.

I need you.

Or worse...I like you.

It shouldn’t be it, right?

Mew can feel a familiar clenched in his chest from his own thoughts as he watches Gulf’s friend heaving a deep breath. He panics trying to predict what Gulf’s friend will say. He will not witness something bad right…like a confession…? He suddenly feels suffocated from his ideas.