Counting Stars ✓

twenty-six

[warning: foul language ahead.]

Four days. That was how long Rune had gone without seeing King. Despite the countless effort to contact him, or find him on campus, he had no luck whatsoever. The younger boy hadn't showed up for the club meeting either.

He had tried to get in contact with Baifern like she requested, but she was heavily busy and their time zones were different. So whatever she needed to say regarding Rose remained unknown to him. But whatever it was, he had a feeling it may be why King suddenly up and left.

Fang and Fah offered to help him out when they noticed his growing stress, but even they had no luck catching sight of him. With a sigh, he sat on the bench, in the park where he and King met a few months back.

He felt a buzz in his pocket, and hurried to answer it - hoping it was the person he was deeply missing and worrying for. He scrunched his eyebrows when he realized it was Baifern.

However, maybe now he'll have a better clue on the fuck Rose is, and why King decided to suddenly leave after she came from whatever trip she took. Because at this point, it was a possibility she said something about his ex to King and caused some sort of misunderstanding.

"Baifern," Rune greeted, looking up at the evening sky.

"Rune," came a similar reply. "I-Rose is back, right?"

"Yeah," he answered, "and King is gone."

"What?" Baifern exclaimed in surprise. "What do you mean by that?"

"I don't even know," he let out another sigh, standing up to kick some stones in frustration. "After we saw Rose off in a taxi, I went for a shower. When I came back out, he was gone. I talked to him on the phone but he suddenly asked me about my ex out of nowhere and then...that was it. Haven't heard from him since."

"Shit," Baifern let out. They were silent for a while before the singer began to speak up once more. "What - what exactly did he say about your ex?"

"Well, he asked to confirm if I dated Kasper-"

"-Kasper?!" came another exclamation of surprise. This time, it was more high pitch, and full of panic. "You dated Kasper from Blueblood?!"

He felt the confusion grow, wondering why she reacted badly to the mention of his ex. "Yeah," he confirmed. "I dated him. Do you know him?"

"Rune," Baifern stressed. "Kasper...he's King's half brother's cousin."

Rune eyes widened at the information. He had no idea his current love interest was in fact related to his ex-lover. He groaned. Yet the confusion still didn't clear up as to why she had such a harsh reaction to Kasper.

Kasper was a mess, yes. And Rune questioned why he dated such a guy in the first place. But as far as he knew, Kasper wasn't one to usually mess with people first. And knowing King's behavior, there was no reason for them to have a conflict with one another. Kasper never mentioned anything about being related to such a rich family like King's, either.

"Okay, but why...did Kasper do something to you guys?"

Baifern bit down on her nail, anxious about everything. She prayed whatever was happening wouldn't make her lose King. She wasn't ready for the pain that she would feel. And Rose. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she didn't want anything to happen to the said girl either.

Indeed, the jealousy she had towards Rose's closeness with King made her become a possessive and terrible girlfriend. Her change in personality caused King to become even more suffocated because he had another person trying to control him. But by the end of the day, she should've chosen to see his effort to make her less jealous. Baifern should've been the bigger person and trusted King and his genuine feelings for her.