TRUST ME | Brothers Conflict | ✔

07

"Can you take off next Thursday?" Kaname asked me. Fiddling with the hem of my skirt, I wondered whether I could take off another day on such short notice. On the other hand; Kaname had invited me to help prepare for a festival.

"Are we going to help set up the stalls? I can't wait!"

"Your enthusiasm... it's... cute. Well, I'll see you in front of the shrine next Thursday five in the morning."

Shocked, I stared at my cell phone, wondering whether my mind had made the last part up.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked cautiously.

"He just called me cute," I told her breathlessly.

"Who? Kaoru? Of course, he's obliged to think you're cute," she scoffed, shaking her head as if I was a hopeless nutcase.

"No, Kaname," I corrected her, waving the cell phone in her face to show her the call log.

"Are you two-timing, or aren't you?"

"I'm not! Kaname is a friend, and Kaoru is my maybe-boyfriend," I explained, wondering whether I was digging my own grave with this statement.

"Are you sure it isn't the other way around?" Sakura asked, chuckling when I shook my head wildly.

"I promised Kaname that I wouldn't fall in love with him, so there's that."

"Your love life is insane," Sakura commented. I wanted to ask to her love life, but I had learnt the hard way that Sakura didn't want to discuss that topic.

Humming in response, I turned back to my computer screen. However, my cell phone buzzed moments later, pulling my attention away from my work.

"If you keep this up, you'll get fired," Sakura warned me when I reached for my cell phone.

"You're right," I told her after a glance at the display. "But it would be unfair if I accepted Kaname's calls and blocked Kaoru's."

"You're two-timing them, [Y/N]. Just admit it already," she teased me, making a dive for my cell phone. Before I could accept the call, Sakura switched my cell phone off, tossing the white device in her bag.

Laughing, I shook my head, hands raised in front of me in mock defence.

"I'm serious, Sakura. Kaname would flee if I showed even the slightest bit of affection."

"I still think it's a love triangle," Sakura complained, and I couldn't disagree.

"Call it a love line if you must," I protested lightly. We both fell silent when a client entered the building, focussing on the files in front of us again.

"What are you going to do?" Sakura asked me when the lobby was empty again.

"I'll keep bothering Kaname until he has grown used to me." I realised that I might be a stalker, after all, my statement more of a threat than a wish.

"Aren't you trying to make him fall in love with you?"

"Am I?" I ran a hand through my hair, wondering whether Sakura was right. "That would be the ideal scenario," I confessed, which meant that I was in love with Kaname. Under closer inspection, everything pointed in the same direction; I was hopelessly in love with Kaname -which was I avoided looking at my feelings too closely.

"If you're using Kaoru just to make Kaname jealous, you're playing with Kaoru's feelings," Sakura mentioned, a deep frown creasing her forehead. Startled, I looked at her, wondering when I had started to use people.

"I'll do something about this situation," I promised her, wondering whether someone had used her like that as well.

She relaxed slightly, nodding sharply in approval.