“Will...” I cried out, then smacked the silver spoon against Will’s cheek as he sat there wearing nothing but an irritating smile.
“Ow... that hurts, Che,” he said in an exaggerated tone.
“This is my pancake. If you’re hungry too, you should’ve made two portions, Will.” I glared at him as he sat in the chair across from me.
“One portion is enough for both of us, Che.”
“But I’m still hungry if I have to share with you, Will,” I said, pushing a bite of pancake into the blue-eyed man’s mouth.
“That’s why you should learn to cook, my queen,” he said, brushing the tip of my nose. I caught his hand and looked at him sadly.
“That isn’t necessary, because I have you, Will.” The blue in his eyes dimmed, replaced by a worried expression. Tears began streaming down my cheeks, falling freely and widening the silence that had begun to form.
I turned my gaze toward the view of London as the city began to stir with activity—faces beginning to shine with hope in the morning, faces bored by routine, faces wearing masks betrayed by trust and hope. I roughly wiped away the tear tracks, then smiled at Will again.
“I’m sorry.” I wasn’t the only one who was hurting. The man in front of me was hurting too, and that realization made me unwilling to let him bear all that pain alone.
“Hehe... what are you apologizing for, my queen? There’s nothing wrong between the two of us. Isn’t that what you said yesterday—‘everything gonna be okay’?”
A gentle, warm wave slipped into my heart when I saw the sorrow in Will’s blue eyes, hinting at affection and optimism for a relationship on the verge of collapse. Like sunlight illuminating the earth behind the chill of gray clouds. He and I tried to walk once more along a road that was beginning to crumble.
“Che...”
I turned and found my best friend, Leona Twistle, walking—or perhaps lightly jogging—toward me, her curly blond hair bouncing in every direction. When she reached me, she immediately bent over, bracing herself with her hands on her knees.
“Are you okay? Is something following you?” I asked in confusion, but the person I was questioning merely looked up at me in horror, as if I were an alien from beyond the Milky Way.
“So the news is true, Che? It isn’t just a rumor, is it? Why didn’t you tell me first? Che, I’ll always be by your side, even if a storm separates us.” Leona gripped my shoulders tightly as she launched into God knows how many words whose meaning I couldn’t quite grasp.
“The news about you and Will,” she asked, her voice burning with excitement.
The smile that had briefly adorned my face was swept away by the cold wind around campus, vanishing into the distance and leaving behind a huge hole that had begun to gape open again.
“So the news has already spread?” I asked with a bitter smile. How could it not? For two years, everyone had known Will and me as a couple, and now we had to pretend to be older and younger siblings. Ironic, isn’t it?
I walked away, leaving Leona staring at me with pity. Hah... I didn’t need a look like that. Wasn’t it obvious that thousands of pitying looks like hers wouldn’t change the reality unfolding in front of everyone’s eyes?
“Che.” Leona’s voice, sounding as if she were asking for an explanation, managed to stop me. She then fell into step beside me.
“Tell me everything you feel, Che.”
“I’m okay, Leona. Don’t worry about me.” Then I felt Leona’s friendly embrace. I really couldn’t hide my feelings from Leona, my best friend, but for now, I wanted to keep all of this to myself.