33 ✒ Chapter 21: Mutual feeling

AT SCHOOL...

"What happened to your lip?" Ethan asked Rei as the two of them sat to each other for the next class. Rei was no longer avoiding Ethan. He felt bad for Ethan when the president didn't do anything for Rei to avoid him.

"I accidentally bit it" Rei said while faking a smile. Ethan shrugged his shoulders as he said, "Can't be helped. You bite your lips all the time anyway."

Rei's eyes widened as he looked at Ethan in awe.

"You noticed?" Rei asked in awe.

"Well, I'm kind of an observant. I can't help it,  hope you wouldn't mind" Ethan said with an apologetic look. Rei smiled, he shuffled Ethan's hair and said, "It's fine"

Khein entered the room with his eyes instinctively looking around to find Rei having fun with the president. Rei noticed Khein's presence but he chose not to look at Khein or else the rebel guy might storm out of the room out of disgust again. Khein made his way towards Rei's seat as he slowly passed beside the psycho guy. He frowned when Rei didn't even turned his head towards his direction.

"Hey, what's your plan for the Holy week?" Ethan asked Rei. It is March of the year and the Holy week is approaching. Khein rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms across his chest.

"I don't know. Maybe I'll stay at home for the whole week." Rei said.

"You can stay at our house! Center is going to stay there too" Ethan said with a smile. Center planned to stay at Ethan's house for the whole week, simply because he wanted to be with Ethan.

"Really? But I think your spoiled brat friend won't let me stay" Rei said referring to Center. He still could remember he hasn't paid Center back for vomiting on him before.

"That won't happen, trust me!" Ethan said with a wink as he tapped Rei's shoulder.

"My room is quite big, so we can still have another one to stay at my place. Do you have someone you want to invite?" Ethan asked. Rei turned his head slightly to see Khein listening to music in his headphone. Ethan caught Rei's eyes so he immediately walked towards the rebel guy. Khein raised a brow when the president appeared in front of him.

"What is it?" Khein said, frowning while looking up at Ethan as he removed his headphone.

"You wanna stay at our house for the Holy week?" Ethan asked. Khein snobbed his eyes and averted his gaze towards Rei who was not looking at him. He thought, 'He's using Ethan to communicate with me?'

"No thanks, I got plans" Khein lied. He thought, 'What if Rei would invite me instead?'

"Ah okay. So it's only three of us, too bad Rei has no one to share with the bed." Ethan said. Khein frowned when he heard Rei's name.

"He's going to spend the entire week with you?" Khein asked Ethan. The president nodded innocently with a smile.

"Yes, Center and him" Ethan said. Khein hissed and glared at Rei. He hated the idea of Rei and Ethan sleeping under the same roof together. The truth, Khein didn't mean those words to Rei. He didn't mean to make Rei stay away from him again. He assumed that Rei would turn back to normal and would approach him again very soon.

"He got plans" Ethan said to Rei. Rei bit his bottom lip in dismay.

"Let him be" Rei said hopelessly.

•••

ON the first day of the Holy Week...

"What the hell is he doing here?!" Center asked loudly when he saw Rei carrying a backpack in front of Ethan's door.

"Shut up, he's staying with us" Ethan said as he let Rei inside his room. Center watched Rei with burning eyes as he held Ethan's arm defensively.

"Cut it out" Ethan said as he rolled his eyes on Center.

"Stay away from MY Ethan" Center warned Rei which made the taller guy chuckled. Rei was quite envious of Center. He wished he could do what Center has been doing to Ethan the same with Khein too.

"He's not YOUR Ethan" Rei teased Center.

"I'm NO ONE'S Ethan" Ethan said in the background. The three boys were watching movies and grabbing tons of snacks late at night. Ethan's father went to their old town where they used to live before. His father believed that Ethan's mother's soul was left on that town so he would be spending the whole week there.

Rei was staring at his phone with Khein's name on the screen. He felt the urge to tell Khein everything he has been doing at Ethan's house but he refrained himself from doing so. On the other side, Khein was staring at his phone blankly in the middle of the night. He couldn't sleep and Rei never sent him even a single message. Khein felt guilty and his chest felt tight recently. He picked up his phone and typed : Hey, still up?

He chuckled and thought it was stupid for him to start the conversation after what he did last time. He immediately deleted the text and threw his phone behind him. Rei was staring at Khein's name on his phone when Ethan noticed it. Center was knocked down before they could finish the fifth movie. He was softly breathing like a sleeping grizzly bear.

"Rei, do you like someone?" Ethan asked casually as he noticed that Rei has been after Khein recently. Rei smiled bitterly and said, "Yeah, but he doesn't like me"

"Was it Khein?" Ethan said or to put it simply, asked for Rei's confirmation. Rei answered with a sad smile.

"Did you confessed to him?" Ethan asked.

"Sort of" Rei answered.

"Sort of?" Ethan asked frowning.

"I kissed him" Rei said which made Ethan gasped softly.

"And? What did he say?" Ethan asked excitedly.

"He pushed me away right after he realized he was kissing me back" Rei said. He is getting more open towards the president and it was a good thing to build their friendship stronger.

"He likes you" Ethan concluded as he tapped Rei's shoulder and added, "trust me, he likes you too"

"How could you say so?" Rei asked confused.

"Man, do you realize you're cool? You're good looking and rich. You're charming and warm hearted. In short uhmm... You're handsome, yeah?" Ethan said to cheer up the lonely guy.

"The fact that he kissed you back, it's beyond unexpected. Khein has been my classmate since first year and I've never seen him got so close with anyone before. Not until I've seen him being comfortable with you around him." Ethan said. Rei believed that since he knew Ethan has always been observant.

"That's because I always insisted to be around him." Rei reasoned out.

"Trust me, Khein likes you. You know why?" Ethan said and gave Rei a teasing grin.

"Why?" Rei asked curiously.

"A lot of girls and even guys tried to get so close to him even before you. They did what you usually do, sticking around him and buying things for him. But he never accepted any of them. He would never even talk to them and completely ignores them. But with Rei, he talk shits and stuffs. That's his way of expressing when he wanted to talk with the person he likes. Just like his mom, he never sweet talked with his mom but he liked her so much" Ethan said no more.

What he said was just more than enough to make Rei felt a little bit better, confident maybe.