Unrequited

Ch. 17 - Christmas Eve

You were partly stunned to silence when you heard his sleepy voice on the other end. The sound of it made your heart flutter to no end.

"Hi," you finally peeped up through the painful knot that still remained in your throat. "Sorry if I woke you."

"You didn't," he answered quickly and with a very straightforward tone.

"Oh," you mumbled, unsure of where to take the conversation. You had no plan when you called him, you just wanted to hear his voice.

"Did he hurt you?" Kento asked at the obvious pain in your voice. He knew full well what you were expecting after leaving the reception hall.

"N-no," you answered and then laughed lightly. Naoya had nothing to do with your tears at all. You could care less about the jerk.

"Are you okay?" He asked with a questioning intonation.

"Yeah, fine," you sniffled. "I, uh, just wanted to hear your voice." You admitted.

The line went dead for a few prolonged seconds, air static filling your ear as Kento tried to process your words through a neutral perspective.

"I'm sorry about earlier," you apologized for the bathroom incident to break the silence, "I was...very drunk."

"Don't worry about it," he answered casually, "I was, too." You blushed as you remembered the incident, not as drunk as he thought you were. "I hope you didn't take it the wrong way." That sentence killed you, but it solidified the fact that he wasn't interested. What you had was dead and gone.

"Y-yeah," you replied, "it's probably better off this way." The pain was really starting to sink in at this point, the realization you probably shouldn't have even spoke to him again in the first place hitting your brain.

"I'm glad you're starting to see things that way," his voice sounded almost hesitant.

"But..." you whimpered, trying to keep your voice from cracking, "even after all of this...if I had to go back and do it all again, even knowing it would end like this, I'd still do it the exact same way. I don't care if you don't love me..."

His side of the line fell completely silent. You were trying to judge what that silence could mean but at this point you had no solid answers from him.

The call didn't last much after that, there wasn't much to share beyond the obvious elephant in the room. Life felt like some kind of big mess to you at this point, nothing going in any sort of positive direction. It felt as if there were oceans between you both, two completely different pages destined to be apart. 

You continued living under the Zenin roof for another few weeks, enduring night after night in Naoya's "chamber." Usually a firecracker, he was stunned at how subdued you had become. He had originally thought he'd have to punish you day in and out.
And he would have if you hadn't felt so hopeless. You felt there was no point to your existence than to just be a vessel - no matter who you were or what powers you had, whether you had any type of confident attitude...you were getting stepped on.
You ultimately decided that this was your life. All you had to look forward to was Suguru's return - something that you could hopefully help with and prevent any losses to make up for your own betrayal. 

Christmas Eve eventually arrived and you spent most of the morning anxious, waiting for Naoya to show his face in one of the common areas so you could speak to him about the incident Suguru had planned.

"Naoya," you stood in front of him as he lounged on one of the sofas in the den space.

He lazily looked up at you for a few seconds, a small frown at your sudden unscheduled appearance. "What do you want?" He hissed, sitting up and crossing his arms.