MIDNIGHT | ( o. shotaro ) ✓

eleven

"Sena, you're the webtoonist shinning sonnet?"

She suddenly forgot how to speak. What the fuck, he knows about her webtoon??

"Haha whattt, who's shining sonnet?" She decided to play dumb as she looked away from him. Scratching the back of her head as a nervous laugh escaped her lips. She probably scratched her head so hard her scalp started to hurt.
"Sena, I'm not stupid. So don't even bother to play dumb with me." Shotaro tells her as yet again, she went silent.

"I should've known. Seunghan was right, the story resembled too much of my own experience." He said.

There was no point of her trying to hide it from him anymore.

"How did you discover my webtoon." She asks. Her voice so small.
"My friends are a big fan of your webtoon, and they told me to read it because the character Kuro reminded them of me. So I binged read the original version of it and really resonated with the characters. I didn't actually think that you were the one that made it, I thought that all of it was just a coincidence." He said.

She was staring at the ground. She really did not know what to say. Was she embarrassed? Was she sad? Shocked even?

He held her chin as he tilted her head up so she was looking at him. Shotaro seeing that sad look in her eyes again.

"Why didn't you tell me the reason why you did that bet? I would've understood the reason why you were being so distant with me. Maybe none of this would've happened." He says. His voice so soft it made her want to cry.
"Because...because I just felt so evil. I like you, I genuinely do. I still do, but the thing that I did just haunts me until today. This feeling of guilt just keeps eating me alive, I couldn't face you anymore." She replies.

"So that's why you always avoided me for the next five years?" He said as she nodded her head in shame.
"I thought that maybe if you hated me, it would make me feel better. But you were always so nice to me, it made me feel even more horrible. I changed the colour of my hair whenever we encountered because I didn't want you to recognise me. But I realised that, no matter how hard I try to disguise myself, I just can't hide from you forever." She sighs before continuing.

"Maybe a reason why I finally changed my hair back to black was so I could overcome this feeling. I could overcome my past, and my fear of encountering you."

A soft look emerges on his face as he looks at her with endearment.

"You don't have to feel bad about it. I guess if only I put in the effort to chase you and speak to you in these last few years instead of acting like we were strangers, maybe we would've solved this a lot sooner. I was getting mad at the characters in your webtoon for not communicating with each other and didn't realise that I was being mad at myself for not having the courage to speak to you. It's ironic." He shakes his head in disbelief as a chuckle left his lips.

His statement somehow making her laugh as well.
"I guess we are pretty stupid huh." She said.
Silence engulfed the two of them.

"Sena." He calls out as she looks at him.
She hums in reply as she motions him to continue speaking.
"Do you think that we could maybe... restart? Let's get to know and catch up with each other on this trip. Maybe from there, we could be more comfortable around each other again." He asks her as it made her smile.
"I'd love too, Taro-kun. Sounds like a nice plan." She replies.

That always sad look in her eyes disappearing as Shotaro could see that her eyes were now filled with hope.