Cool Boy and Cold Heart (RAMKING)

Regret

King was sitting alone outside of the cafe he frequented at the university. He had just finished catching up with the amount of work he had to do after about 2 weeks of missing his classes. Putting away his papers and pens, he exhaled loudly as he leaned back against the chair and when his eyes spotted something,no, someone, from a distance, he stiffened.

Ram was there not far away from where he was seated. He was standing under a shade of a tree with two dogs by his feet but it wasn't the dogs that made King nervous; it was the way Ram stared at him.

When their eyes met, King immediately turned his gaze away, his heart thumping loudly in his ears although he's not even sure why. Was he nervous? Scared? Anxious?

He didn't have the opportunity to continue to ponder about his feelings when a glass of iced coffee was carefully placed on the table in front of him and he immediately looked up at the waiter, confused.

" I didn't order this." He said quickly.

"Someone ordered it for you." The waiter told him kindly, looking around as if searching for the person she's talking about. " I think he already left." She said eventually with an apologetic smile.

King hesitantly nodded, uttering a silent 'thanks' as she left. Pulling the glass closer to him and taking s careful sip, he allowed himself to slowly look back at Ram's direction only to see him gone.

He heaved a sigh, unsure if he's relieved or dissappointed.

It was raining when King left the library that afternoon. He hadn't expect it to rain so heavily since it was hot and sunny when he entered the library so he didn't bring any umbrella with him. Now he was stuck there in front of the door, watching the water droplets as they hit the pavement.

He considered braving through the rain but when he looked down at the borrowed books in his hands,he ultimately decided against it. He can risk getting wet but he didn't want to be fined for ruining the library's books.

Sighing, he eventually sat down on the bench outside of the library. It was chilly and he shivered a little as cold breeze blew past him.

As he watched the rain, he can't help but be reminded of that time Ram offered him his umbrella, that time they shared the bus ride home, that time he took the picture of himself with Ram's tattooed arm on his shoulder.

He smiled sadly as it hit him that he's still got that umbrella Ram gave him somewhere in his apartment. And that picture he took was also still in his phone. He should get rid of them if he really wanted to move on. But does he? Or is he still hoping for something?

He was startled out of his thought when a shadow loomed over him, obscuring his vision of the rain. Looking up, he realized that the shadow was TingTing, who was smiling at him as she held out an umbrella for him to take.

"Use this,P' ". She offered.

"Ah,it's okay. I'll just wait, I'm not in a rush." King tried to politely refuse but TingTing stubbornly forced the umbrella into his hand.

" Just take it,P'. Someone will be really worried if you get sick again. " She insisted, smiling mischievously before running into the library, successfully stopping King from further refusing her.

King was left frowning and confused, staring at the umbrella in hesitation before shrugging and giving in. Standing up, he gathered his books into his arms and quickly braved through the rain.

And if he thought he saw a drenched Ram standing by the side of the library building, he tried hard to convince himself that it was just his imagination.

When King agreed to tutor a bunch of his faculty's juniors for their upcoming exam, it never crossed his mind that Ram would be there too. He didn't think Ram would want to learn anything from him anymore after what happened between them and he supposed he was somewhat right after all, seeing as to how Ram stayed quiet and kept to himself even as his friends eagerly bombarded King with questions after questions. He figured that Ram was probably forced to be there, judging by how tense he was.

King tried not to mind it, but he can't hide the way his hand shake as he wrote, and when he eventually broke the tip of the pencil he was using from how tightly he was gripping it, he could only let out an awkward laugh as the junior he was teaching hurried to get him another one.

When a new pencil was placed in front of him, he immediately recognized it. How can he not when it was the exact pencil he carved Ram's name on and gave it to him in place of the lost lucky pencil his mom gave him?

Taking the offered pencil, King made sure to hold it looser as he wrote. He didn't want to break the supposedly lucky pencil just in case Ram wanted it back. But would he even wanted it back? What if he considered the once lucky pencil an unlucky one now after what King did to him?King struggled to not think about that as he continued to tutor his juniors.

King kept his head down and pretended to be busy with his phone as the juniors thanked him and bid him goodbye once they're done with the tutoring session. He didn't dare look up until it was completely silent and he was sure that everyone had left. But when he placed his phone down and finally raised his gaze, he was startled to see Ram still sitting at his spot across the table, staring at him.

"My pencil." Ram said in that deep and low voice of his which made King realize that he was still holding on to the lucky pencil.

He quickly slid it over to him, not trusting his voice to even say a 'thank you'. He watched as Ram picked the pencil up and stored it in his bag but when he thought Ram was going to get up and finally leave, the latter took out something from inside his bag and placed it in on the table between them.

A Venus flytrap.

The Venus flytrap King gave him.

King couldn't help but smile as he saw how big and healthy the plant had grown but when he reached out to touch it, Ram's voice stopped him.

"I'm not returning it to you."

King quickly retracted his hand, muttering a choked "sorry" as he did so before quickly standing up to leave.

"Back then..." Ram didn't physically try to stop King from leaving but King couldn't find it in him to walk away when Ram was talking to him like this.

"Back then you said you'd buy me more of this plant...if it means that it would make me talk to you." Ram paused, leaving a heavy silence between them.

King stayed and waited for Ram to continue but he wouldn't look at him. Instead, he just gripped the strap of his bag tighter and stared at his feet.

" But why is it...when I finally talked to you, when I finally bared myself to you,you pushed me away? "

"You even asked me to return this plant to you."

"Do you regret it? Regret ever approaching me? Regret ever making me talk to you?"

King couldn't answer.

"Are you regretting it all now,P'King?"

A/N I know it's been so long since I last updated this and I'm sorry. I'm not even sure if there's anyone still waiting or wanting to read this but if there are, thank you so muchh