Isolophobia | kth

07

"Hello?"

"Yeah, hi."

"Hey."

"Hello?"

"How are you? I guess you already landed."

"Yeah, I landed a few hours ago, and i'm totally fine," she took a deep breath, "Yeah, it's uh, pretty here."

"Convincing." Jayson sassed.

"Haha, well, it's just, really cold. Like, i'm wearing so many layers and shivering so hard."

"Oof, you should put more on. It would be a shame if you got sick before school started up."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Maybe, if I was there," he paused, making Remi nervous, "I could keep you warm."

Remi paused for a while, sitting down on the edge of her bed, wistfully glancing out the window, and biting her nail.

"Jay?"

"Yeah, Rem? You okay?"

"By any chance," she squeezed her eyes shut, finding it near impossible to get her words out, "D-Do you...uh, like me? Y-Y'know, like that?"

She heard him slightly laugh over the phone, confusing her.

"Yeah, you could say that."

She blushed, not expecting that answer so literally.

"Why? Do you like me?"

Remi was thrown off by how forward he was being, it was harsh, because she definitely wasn't feeling as confident as he was.

"W-Well-"

"Don't feel pressured to give me one answer, I want your answer. Your truth. I'd rather you tell me you don't like me and be honest to yourself, then lie and say that you do just to make me happy."

"I-"

"You're a people pleaser, Rem. Which-by the way-is perfectly fine. I just don't want you to be that way with me, because you being you, is the only way you could ever really please me."

She could feel his warm smile over the phone. And then, in that very moment, 5,173 miles had never felt so far.

"I do like you."

"What?"

"I have for a long time."

"This isn't some prank? Okay okay, I figured it out, where are the cameras?"

Remi laughed.

All that distance between them, and he still made her laugh.

"No, I really do!"

There was a long, awkward silence after that, where both of them were trying to gather their thoughts. This had been the first time Remi had ever confessed her feelings to someone, but Jayson couldn't say the same.

"Wow, I didn't expect that."

"Well, what did you expect?"

"Uh, a big fat 'fuck off you ugly fag'? Because, you're way too pretty for me. Seriously, this is any ugly guy's dream."

Jayson wasn't ugly, and both of them knew it. He had been in enough relationships with beautiful girls, to know that he wasn't as 'ugly' as he was pretending to be.

"Shut up! You're not ugly. You're the real-life, blonde-haired version embodiment of Akabane Karma."

"Who?"