Heart's Tempo (Wattys2014) [EDITING]

Chapter 10

“You know what, Henry? Fourth has been acting strange lately.” Nisa started as soon as she got inside Henry’s car. He decided to take her home as it was too late in the evening already.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s spacing out a lot…I think something’s bothering him.”

“Maybe he’s just too excited about studying in the music school…”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

“But he seemed okay to me, though.”

“No, before you came. I felt there’s something he wanted to say but he couldn’t. I tried asking him about it but he said he couldn’t remember.” Nisa also wanted to say about the embrace Fourth gave her, but stopped herself. She didn’t know why, probably because she knew, there was something different with the way Fourth embraced her at that time and she didn’t want to explain that to Henry.

“…okay, so now you’re spacing out too?” Henry said. Nisa looked at him, surprised. Did she actually space out?

“I didn’t.”

“Yes you did. What was the last thing I said? If you didn’t space out then you’d know what it was.”

She was thinking about Fourth’s embrace…

“You said…”

It was like saying…

“Yes?”

…saying he liked her. No, more than that…”

“You said…”

Does he like me? Nisa finally realized what that embrace meant.

“See? You didn’t know what I said! You really did space out! I was saying you should wear  your seat belt.”

Nisa pretended to be listening to the radio the whole time Henry drove to her house. But the truth was, she was thinking of Fourth’s embrace. The funny thing was, she didn’t even try to wriggle out of his embrace even if it took longer than it was supposed to. 

"Thank you for taking me home."

Nisa said as soon as she got out of the car. She was trying to appear normal in front of Henry now, and hoped he wasn't seeing through her act.

"No problem. You should get some rest now, you have a long day tomorrow."

"You too. Be careful driving, understand?"

"Yes, I know."

Together they walked towards the door. Even before Nisa could insert the key into the doorknob, Henry already had his arms around her - embracing her.

"Thank you, Nisa."

"Henry, what's wrong?" She stayed still and waited for Henry to let her go.

"Nothing's wrong. I just want to thank you for being a friend to me again...and...I don't want to let you go anymore, Nisa. Not this time...not ever..."

"Henry...this isn't the time for that..." Relax...relax...Nisa told herself over and over again. Why in the world was she feeling so uncomfortable with Henry embracing her? She was afraid that if she embraced him back he'd take it the wrong way.

"Listen to me, Henry. I thought we already had an understanding?"

"I know...I just...have this feeling..." then Henry finally let her go.

"What?"

"Nevermind...go inside now, Yuri might be waiting for you already."

There was no response from Nisa anymore. She simply said bye and went inside. He didn't exactly feel like he was rejected, but rather felt something was strange with Nisa. If he wasn't mistaken, she felt uncomfortable when he embraced her. Well, that's not strange considering the fact that it's been a few years since they saw each other. What was he expecting anyway? Was he really expecting that Nisa say ‘yes’ again with just a hug like that? Henry shook his head and walked back to his car. He told himself a hundred times over, not to rush things with Nisa.