Tay and New

The Weight of Love

Tay has never been in a romantic relationship but it was not because he was never attracted to anyone, as he used to always assure himself, rather he felt that he has received and given out ample of love that it was not necessary nor fair to devote so much of it to only one person.

While Tay was clueless, everyone else could see that the way he treated New was infinitely different from his hundreds of other friends. This was especially apparent when he acquiesced to New's request of being accompanied to school after a terrible heartbreak, accepted his calls in the middle of night while everyone else would've flung their phones if their sleep was disturbed, and spent a considerable amount of his free time just being with him.

Tay spent a long time unknowingly falling in love with New and when he finally realized his feelings he spent twice the amount of time trying to hide it from the younger one. So, when all the pretensions came down on that fateful morning, he felt drained and exhausted.

Tay sat dejectedly on New's couch after his botched confession of love was rejected. The other was changing clothes inside his room after he convinced Tay that eating sweets after getting your heart broken was better than drinking alcoholic beverages even if the subject of one's woes was the dining partner.

He fished out his phone from his overnight bag with the intention of drowning his misery with videos of cute dogs sleeping on their backs when an unopened message from New caught his eye. The message was sent a little after New went inside his room and it read:

"Tay...I also have a confession to make. I have known about your feelings for quite some time now. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I never tried to distance myself from you even when I couldn't return your feelings. I just couldn't stand the thought of losing my best friend. Will it be selfish of me to ask you to stay by my side even after all of this? "

Tay buried his face on the palms of his hands. The absurdity of their situation could make any grown man cry but Tay just laughed bitterly instead. It took him a couple of minutes to compose himself enough to come up with a reply:

"O.K. but you'll be footing the bill. I am still too heartbroken to open my wallet right now"

From there, New understood three things: first, Tay loved him enough to carry all the pain instead of hurting him back, second, their façade of a simple platonic friendship has eroded, and third, he cannot let Tay hurt any longer. He sank at the foot of his bed and cried.

That was how Tay found a heap of disheveled New on the floor when he came looking for him after an hour of waiting. He sat beside the younger one and held him close. New's head was cradled on the crook of his neck and Tay could swear that he could hear the other mewling.

"You're really are a cat" he whispered on New's hair. The other did not respond but snuggled even closer to Tay.

"I just got my first heartbreak but you're the one crying" Tay teased him lightly "My selfish Hinny, stop crying already"

Tay never thought that he could love one person so much until New raised his head from his embrace and looked properly at him with swollen eyes and flushed cheeks and said "Tay, when the time comes that you'll come to dislike me for all the bad things I've done, you will still be my most favorite person in the world and I will forever be grateful that you came into my life."

"Are you breaking up with me before we could even be together?" Tay asked incredulously to New.

"No, I'm just saying that I'm a difficult person to deal with and if you eventually wake up from the hypnotism I put you under, I'll understand if you'd hate me" he pouted at Tay.

Tay stared intently at New "Well, Okay. But just in case you've forgotten, I already know all your faults and weaknesses and yet here I am still at the center of your storm."

(BONUS)

Off: F*ck! That was so cheesy! You really said those words to New?

Tay nodded proudly.

Tay: I came up with them on my own.