Hello Stranger(completed)

Chapter 9

Autor pov

It was a little cold outside because of the rain yesterday it was like the sky was also crying with New, yesterday was a mess he knew that Tay didn't remember him but seeing him with Nueng the woman who at one time challenged him that she will snatch Tay from her he just couldn't take it more. He was a little fine after the hospital incident he even motivated himself but this no he can't it's too much at once. "So he wants to date girls and be with them ok Tay if that's what you want I'll grant you that as well" New sank beneath the warm covers of his bed sheets, contracting his limbs towards his body to allow the blanket to insulate him from the chill.

It had been cold, colder than any winter he had experienced for the twenty-six years of his life. He felt his feet lose their sensitivity, and though trying to dig deeper into the sheets, the cold always seemed to plot its way through to them. In this state, he had tried to search desperately for the warm sensation that he had felt during the summer, for he longed for the rays of the sun to dawn on him once again and the heated breath of the wind to glide across his skin. The times of affection, tenderness, and fervency seemed to have gone, broken off from their branches and changing from an autumn red into a crippled brown. He looked at the bare branches of a tree scratching against his window pane, as though begging to come in, for it was bare and naked in this cold, winter hour. New smiled to himself because he thought everything would be fine and his soulmate would be back.

The telephone at his bedside gave a startling ring. New leaned over to his side.
"Hello?" He said "New... It's me, P Gulf! How are you doing? I want to visit you but your brother is a mess stuck with so many meetings and stuff" Gulf said and New could hear an apolitical tone

 "Mmm... Okay, I guess. Don't worry p, P Mew needs you more there"

He had been okay, or so he wanted to think. Gulf had so kindly helped him take the day off, and he knew he needed that break to think things through and to just rest his weary body. The burdens that weighed on his head had caused a splitting headache and his muscles became heavy. His amazingly agile body had become cumbersome in a few days. And, he knew not exactly the cause.

 "Do you think I can come over tonight? The night meeting was canceled last minute. I... have something to tell you." "What is it p? You can't say it in the call?"

 He was reminded of the day before once again. That scene, those words, which had instilled more confusion in New's mind, started to play back like a haunting record. He didn't know, he had never known about it. And he certainly was dumbstruck for a suitable response. His affection for Tay had not changed and he was sure of that fact.

 He pulled the blankets closer to him, tighter around his body. It was still a negative temperature outside, but hopefully, the blankets could secure him temporary warmth.
"Baby," Gulf said when he heard no response from the other side "Mm, feel free to come over then,"  New said without thinking much. He pressed the end call button and placed the phone on the receiver. There was a rush of emotions that flowed through him at that point.
 

As New lay there, wrestling with his thoughts and emotions, the weight of his secrets bore down upon him like a heavy burden he could no longer carry alone. He knew that he had been keeping something from Tay, something that had been eating away at him from the inside out.

It wasn't that he believed Tay didn't deserve to know the truth on the contrary, Tay was his partner, his confidant, his rock. But the fear of rejection, of judgment, of losing the one person who meant more to him than anything else in the world, had kept him paralyzed in silence.

New's mind raced with questions, doubts, and fears. Why had he kept Kay's actions hidden from Tay? Didn't Tay tell him that he can share anything with him if anything is bothering him? Was it out of a misguided sense of loyalty, a desire to protect him from pain? Or was it simply his selfishness, a refusal to confront the truth and face the consequences of his actions?