TRUST ME | Brothers Conflict | ✔

18

"I can't believe that he's your boyfriend," Reiko told me, her voice light but laced with venom nonetheless. Notwithstanding the acid words, the managed to smile sweetly at Kaname, who appeared to be indifferent about the ordeal.

As soon as Reiko and her friend her cornered us, he had lost all interest, studying our surroundings. I hadn't expected him to put any effort in his boyfriend-act, had already been shocked by his easy admission, but this was borderline offensive.

"Uh," I hesitated, figuring that Kaname wasn't my boyfriend and unwilling to lie about that fact. Finally, Kaname piped up with a short "she is" that felt like a victory more than anything.

"Your dress looks tattered," her friend commented with fake concern, trailing a finger over the fabric. Startled, I took a swift step back.

Uncertain of how to proceed in this situation, I shook my head. "I don't think it is."

It was, though. We all knew that my dress wasn't meant to be this asymmetrical, but Kaname was too kind –or disinterested –to comment on it.

"She probably can't see it," Reiko supplemented, which made heads turn in our direction. "It's on her shoulder after all," she added as an afterthought, the words too late to change their previous intention.

This conversation was turning into a massacre –a massacre of my personality and fashion taste to be precise –even if those office ladies tried to hide their pettiness behind a façade of concern and kindness.

"Ah! There's Sakura," the friend exclaimed, waving at Sakura, who was weaving her way through the crowd. Behind Sakura trailed a man who I knew all too well, his identity making my stomach lurch.

"I know him," Kaname remarked, with confusion. "Where do I know him from?"

"It's Kaoru," I helped him remember sourly.

I had always doubted whether Sakura had told Kaoru about the day Kaname and I went to the festival but had never bothered to pursue the truth.

Here it was.

"Are they family?" Kaname asked me, a sharp edge in his voice and eyes. Surprised by his sudden change in demeanour, I shook my head.

"She would have told me if they were related."

"She didn't tell you that he would be her date either, [L/N]."

"True as that might be we are friends. I tell her almost everything."

"What are you doing with [L/N]'s ex-boyfriend?" Reiko asked, voicing my question when Sakura drew closer.

Sakura grinned, pulling Kaoru in the small circle we were forming.

"He's my brother," she told us, a short statement that should have been a simple introduction. Instead, it was an admission of betrayal –in my eyes at least.

"I didn't know you had a brother," I said, hating the whining tone in my voice.

"The more you know." Sakura's reply was an echo of the argument we had had earlier this afternoon.

Did this mean that Sakura didn't have a tragic past love life? Was it possible that Sakura's anger had been about me using Kaoru rather than me two-timing?

However, this logic explanation didn't make the sharp pain of betrayal disappear. In fact, it made it worse, because there was no telling what she had done to all the other secrets I had shared.

Flat rejection, I could deal with, was something I had grown familiar with after befriending Kaname, but this feeling of betrayal was more than that. It was more than a simple rejection; it was stomping on all the years of friendship between us.