After Darkness

*7. The day after*

The night had been busier than Krist had anticipated. And all because of the kisses. But not all kisses had been as lively as he liked to remember. In his chest there were still conflicting feelings about the kiss he had shared with Gawin. But he couldn't escape one reality: he had returned the kiss. He had enjoyed the kiss.

When their lips parted, Krist turned and ran. He didn't know why he did that, it seemed like a reaction from any Korean drama protagonist, and he should act better than that. But that's what he did, he ran on and on, even when Gawin called out his name.

He sauntered downstairs but noticed that Gawin wasn't following. A mixture of disappointment and confusion washed over him. A handsome guy had given him a kiss and instead of keeping making out he had run away. The truth of that pathetic reaction surged through him. Maybe it wasn't too late to go back there, be brave and face whatever this situation meant, even if it was just a make out in the greenhouse.

But he was interrupted by the second kiss.

This time the kiss hadn't been between him and Gawin. In fact, it had been given by a person who shouldn't be kissing another.

He continued watching that scene, hidden, as he saw those two people continuing that kind of movie kisses. But something inside him told him it wasn't worth intervening. Not at that moment. Krist turned his back on the scene and headed back to the court, the situation with Gawin a little forgotten in his mind.

He needed a drink. The night wasn't as fun as he would have liked, and he needed a drink. Krist went to the bar table, where a slightly drunk New was filling a glass with vodka.

"Hey, what's happened?", he asked. But he thought he knew.

"May didn't come. She called me to tell that she would be at home tonight. She was feeling sick", New answered.

It was a lie. Because Krist just saw May and another guy kissing out on his way to the party. But he kept in silence. It wasn't the place and the time to tell what he just saw. "That little bitch", he thought.

"What do you think happened? Did she say?" Krist tried to cheer up his friend.

"She just told me that she wasn't feeling well and that she would explain everything to me tomorrow. I thought we were fine..."

"Calm down, Newwiee. Wait to talk to her to find out what really happened", he consoled his friend, questioning whether May would actually tell the truth or if she would try to lie to his friend. Anyway, if she wasn't straight with New, he'd be the one to spill the beans.

But after that episode, the party had gone downhill from New and Krist. The two still drank a little more, but when he realized that New was very drunk, Krist saw that it was time to take his friend home.

He called an Uber and waited with New outside the college. New was crying, he could tell, but he put it down to the fact that his friend was drunk. The next day would be difficult. For now, he was just suspecting that there was something wrong with May, but the next day the whole truth would come out. One way or another.

Now lying in his bed, with a headache from his hangover, Krist thought back to the kiss he and Gawin had shared. Everything that had happened with New had completely wiped that event out of Krist's mind, but it was time to think about his own feelings.

He barely knew Gawin, the two had only exchanged a few words. Could he really be in love with Gawin? But maybe he was overreacting. Enjoying kissing someone doesn't mean you're crazy in love with them. It just means that he's a good kisser and that you'd like to kiss him again for that reason. Wait... was he admitting to himself that he wanted to kiss Gawin again?

The group chat was strangely silent during that Saturday morning. Probably Gun and Off had slept together and still wouldn't be awake, the end of Mike's party was a mystery and New wasn't supposed to get up until mid-afternoon. Krist was the only one up this early that Saturday.

It was all about the taste of the kiss, Krist decided. Gawin's kiss had a flavor he hadn't experienced with anyone else. Krist wasn't the most experienced person in the world when it came to relationships, but he had kissed a few people. He was no greenhorn. So, what was different about Gawin's kiss?

"I'm going to end up going crazy", he thought.

Everything would be resolved on Monday. He would look for Gawin, try to chat with him again. Gawin had said that he wanted to get to know him better and he also wanted to get to know the boy more. The two could be friends with benefits, talk about deep things and then exchange intense kisses. He wouldn't mind that. But he knew his friends would think it was the strangest thing in the world that he wanted to have a friend with benefits. No one saw him as he really was.

After lunch, he threw himself on the couch and grabbed a book to read. He hadn't received any signal from his friends yet, so he figured everyone must still be sleeping. New had gotten drunk early at the party and the two had gone home early, but the others must have stayed there until dawn. Mike loved being one of the last to leave any event he attended.

"Aren't you going out today?" his mother asked him.

"Maybe later. I think the guys are still sleeping," he replied, losing focus from where he was in his reading.

"You came back early yesterday..."

Krist knew very well where his mother was going with this conversation. He wasn't usually one of the first to leave a party, so she must have been imagining that something had happened to him. And indeed, it had, but that wasn't why he'd come back early.

"New wasn't feeling well, problems with his girlfriend", he explained generically. His mother didn't need to know everything that was going on with his friends.

The explanation seems to have satisfied her because she stopped asking questions. He tried to refocus on reading, but his eyes were heavy. He decided to put the book aside and take a nap.

Krist woke up to find New looking at him with some impatience. He got up scared.

"What the fuck...! What happened?"

"I was already beginning to suspect that you were dead," New joked. His mood seemed a lot better, so Krist guessed his friend shouldn't have spoken to May yet.

"I see your mood is up. I thought you were going to wake up with a hell of a hangover," he said, rubbing his eyes to wake up.

"I woke up almost dead, but I've been up since early. I couldn't stand being home without talking to May and it was all just a misunderstanding. She was worried because her period hadn't come, and she was freaking out thinking she was pregnant. But she told me that her period has come, and everything is fine", New said, visibly relieved and happy.

An enormous rage took hold of Krist. How that little bitch had the malice to keep fooling New. But luckily for his friend, he had seen it all and wasn't about to let New be treated like an fool. He deserved better than that.

"She's lying to you", he said, an outsized anger ingrained in his voice.

"What? What do you mean...?" New looked confused.

"She did go to the party. I saw her. She was... She was making out with someone."

A heavy mood took over the place. New looked at him, initially seeming to think his friend was joking, but then noticing the serious, angry tone Krist was using.

"How do you know?" New asked.

"I saw it. Yesterday when I was looking for you, she was making out with someone in the hallway. You know I wouldn't lie about something like that..." he tried to explain.

"And why didn't you tell me about this yesterday?"

"You were drunk, Newwiee, I didn't want you to do anything stupid. And I thought she was going to tell you today", Krist tried to justify himself.

"You're my best friend. You should have told me as soon as you saw it. I made fool of myself this morning because of you."

New looked at him with such anger, Krist's heart froze. He tried to grab his friend's arm, but New pulled away as if his touch could burn him.

The sound of the door slamming after New left echoed in Krist's ears for the rest of the day.