𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚎 || 𝐅𝟒 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐃 (editing)

fifty two

chapter fifty two:

sickly sweet sentences
———

It must have been at least five minutes of complete silence that passed by after Liliana spoke. None of the typically rowdy and energetic members of the friend group dared to whisper a single thing. In fact, they were all holding their breaths, fearing the reaction of Thyme and what it would mean for their friendship with Liliana and Vincent in the future.

Thyme looked up from the papers in his hand and made eye contact with Liliana, searching for any slight indication of a bluff. His eyes looked as if he was attempting to disintegrate Liliana. His typically mischievous gaze was now cold. He was hoping to spot some sort of sympathy in Liliana's eyes. But he received none of that. She maintained eye contact with him and didn't waver for a second. In fact, she seemed to be oozing confidence. And why wouldn't she be? Liliana had single handedly solved all of their problems which subsequently all seemed to tie back to Roselyn. Yes, it was a total douche move to go through her plan without telling the others. Perhaps Liliana secretly knew that if she didn't take care of the issue without the four boys, Thyme would end up being stuck in a life he hated for god knows how long because, if we were being completely honest, Thyme wasn't as confident as he portrayed himself. And she knew that. She knew that if she went to the boys — who were all too stubborn for their own good — wouldn't be able to go through with it. Although Thyme, Ren, Kavin, and MJ were all born in a chaotic and emotionless world that required a lack of empathy in order to survive, their hearts were too gentle to completely destroy the reputation of someone they had known since birth.

Thus, it was a double edged sword.

On one hand, Liliana could tell the members of F4 of her plan. But the plan would never be properly executed and could leave the future with more unnecessary problems. On the other hand, she could go through the plan by herself — and Vincent, of course — but she would risk her friendships and relationship with the boys. Ultimately she chose the latter.

This decision is the one that ended up with the completely silent room minus the consistent sound of their heartbeats and uneasy breaths. Thyme opened his mouth to speak but closed it after realising he still wasn't quite sure how to feel about the entire scenario. Was he even ready to be in charge of the company? He sure as hell didn't feel like it. He just graduated a month or so ago — how could he possibly be responsible enough? Oh god what if he ended up destroying everything? What if he made a fool out of himself? Was he even sure he knew anything about making connections or marketing or advertising or selling or literally anything? What if—

"Don't get your hopes up," Vincent stated in a teasing tone, cutting off Thyme's panicked thoughts, "I'm not calling you Mr. Paramaanantra or Mr. CEO anytime soon, not with that awful losing streak you have against me in eight ball".

A stifled laugh escaped MJ's mouth as he desperately tried to stop himself from laughing like a psycho. Unfortunately for him, his self control was much smaller than he thought. Thus Kavin and MJ somehow ended up on the floor in hysterical giggles just like the hyenas from the Lion King. Ren let out a chuckle but quickly covered his mouth with his hand when he made eye contact with Thyme. "What's so funny about that?!," Thyme exclaimed, "You guys should be calling me Mr. CO!".

"It's CEO," Vincent stated. Thyme shot daggers at him, "Shut up Vinny! No one asked you!," he said with a lighthearted tone before tackling the Italian.

"Dammit," Vinny groaned, "I think you broke by rib cage."

"And it was completely deserved!"

"So you're telling me that you made this whole plan up and essentially destroyed the Paramaanantra company because of Thyme's mother?," Kavin asked, "Remind me again why you didn't tell us?".