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XV

They stood there, the tension in the air almost unbearable, so thick one could cut through it. Eddy’s wild eyes were cast to the side while his fingers were kneading themselves helplessly. 
Brett however took a few deep breaths in order to calm his uneven heart beat and to try to come up with something, anything to say.
“Uhm”, he cleared his throat, giving the deafening silence a nudge in hopes that it’d give way, “You know, I kinda thought you hated me after I first met you.”
It worked. The irritation in Eddy’s features was replaced by bewilderment. 
“What?”
“Well, I mean… you did apologize for being a prick, remember?”, Brett rode the wave, slowly steering their conversation into safer waters. 
“Ah, yeah… guess it was inevitable for you to think that”, Eddy mumbled, his gaze busy inspecting the dirty practice room floor. 
“Tell me something! Did you… do you despise me?”
It’d only be an opinion of someone Brett barely knew. It didn’t matter at all, theoretically, what Eddy thought of him! So why did Brett suddenly feel like all the air had been sucked out of this stuffy practice room? The silence that followed Brett’s question was as bad as the one several heart beats ago and the seconds leading up to whenever Eddy was going to free Brett from a truly nerve wracking uncertainty felt like countless forevers in a vacuum.

But then, Eddy shook his head wildly. 
“No, I didn’t despise you! Why would I? I barely know you!”
Relief flooded Brett’s whole being while his brain yet had to determine if this was a positive or not so positive answer.
“Uhm, cool, I guess.”
“I’m just…”, Eddy began, looking shy as ever and still avoiding Brett’s gaze. 
“Yeah?”, Brett encouraged. 
“Argh! Fuck it! I’m not good around people, alright?”, the taller suddenly burst and finally gazed at Brett intensely with wild eyes. 
“Oh…”, Brett mouthed, though he had suspected something like that after his numerous exchanges with other people about Eddy.Chen. 
“And I guess I was nervous meeting ‘the other guy’. And when I get nervous, I turn into an ass.”
“Oh, well, I wouldn’t put it like that…”
“No! I was really mean to you and you tried so hard to talk to me. I’m sorry.”
Brett blinked a few times, trying to process the load of new information he’d just extracted from Eddy’s confession, the loudest of them screaming that Brett had come across as a tryhard. 

And cold-hearted my ass. Eddy Chen had been nervous to meet Brett? That he’d even spent a thought on Brett was a surprise. Now that Eddy had put it that way, it had been a totally “normal” reaction given his social awkwardness. Brett wouldn’t have been different if he’d be more introverted.

“You apologized already”, Brett said slowly, softly, his voice firm however, “no need to anymore. Besides, you made up for it by saving my butt today! But seriously?”
Brett leaned back against the chair again. “‘Trying so hard to talk to me’?”
Eddy blushed hard. 
“Uhh… uhm… I didn’t mean to…”, he stuttered until Brett let out a snort. 
“Dude!”, he laughed, “Yeah, guess I was pathetic.”
“No!”, Eddy hurried to say, “Not at all! I thought… I was so surprised that you still wanted to talk to me. Up until now…” Eddy snapped his mouth shut. What? Brett thought. What was it up until now?

The taller took a deep breath. “I admire you!”
Now that came massively unexpected. 
“You admire me?”, Brett exclaimed. 
Eddy nodded almost imperceptibly, like he had difficulties to admit it, to Brett and to himself.
“Why?”
Those dark eyes locking with Brett’s were shining with something when he replied, “You weren’t set back by my behavior. You just kept trying.”
And Brett had still no idea why, in fact. 
“And why is that admirable?”
“I could never do that.”
“I’m sure you're doing exactly that in other aspects of your life”, Brett stated without thinking. 
“What do you mean?”, Eddy frowned. 
“I’m sure it’s not a coincidence you’re such a good violinist. And you’ve clearly encountered your share of difficulties in your learning process. That’s why you could help me to begin with. See? You also don’t give up.”
“Yeah, but… the violin…”, he hesitated, and even though Brett really wanted to urge Eddy to continue, he remained silent. 
“The violin is like the one thing I’m comfortable talking about. The one thing I’m comfortable sharing.”
“I see”, Brett mumbled. And he could have restarted the issue from before. Could have posed the question yet again, why Eddy couldn’t find any joy in his craft. 
But Brett wasn’t gonna. Not now. He knew it was too soon, their loose bond too fragile to carry any weight at all.

“You know what?”, Brett said, “Let’s use the little bit of time we have left to actually practice and then, you gonna show me the best bubble tea place around here.”
Eddy looked at him like he’d gotten crazy, much like yesterday. 
“What? Why?”
“Just so!”, Brett declared. 
“But…”
“No buts! Or do you need to be home at some time?”
“No, I live at the student dorms.”
So he wasn’t a local, or at least not living in Sydney itself, although, didn't Angelica say he'd won local competitions too? Brett took a mental note on that and continued, “Good! Then I’m gonna follow your lead! Deal?”
Did Brett imagine things or did the glow in Eddy’s eyes just get more intense?
“Okay! I’m in. Although… there is something you should know.”
Brett raised his eyebrows. “What?”
“Bubble tea places usually close at ten p.m., you know.”
“Oh…”