"N-no, I'm just...Ah, fuck." His best friend cursed and Ezra's eyes widened at the use of crude language. This was big. If Hikaru was using crude language, this was big. "I'm at a hotel."
"A hotel?" Ezra smirked. If he didn't fuck, then maybe he was going to fuck. "For what? Did you fly to another country?" Ezra snorted, leaning back into his chair, propping his arm on the table. This was getting extremely interesting.
"No, I'm just thirty minutes away from the dorms, actually," he replied. Ezra's brows furrowed. What? A smile crept up his face at the stupidity of the situation.
"If you're thirty minutes away and not there to fuck...What the hell are you doing? Trying to bag a girl?"
"Uh..." Hikaru paused, letting a low sound of thought. "Ah, shit. She told me not to tell you. Please don't tell the rest of them." Hikaru blurted out in a rush sounding extremely flustered. "Ah- fuck. I can't."
"Just spit it out!" Ezra told him sternly, rolling his eyes. "I'll know sooner or later anyway, a dumbass like you can't keep any damn secret from me—"
"I FOUND MY SOULMATE!"
Ezra blinked, his eyes widening at his words. Soulmate? Did he hear that correctly? He laughed.
"Don't screw with me..."
"I'M SERIOUS! I-I'm very sure...She's definitely mine."
Ezra froze. The break in his voice, the tremble of emotions, the burn of adoration in that sound, even a damn kid could tell that Hikaru wasn't lying. This was real. He was telling the truth.
Ezra inhaled sharply, mind reeling at the thought. Hikaru? His heart clenched, face scrunching up at the thought of his best friend. Memories of him flickered through his mind.
Dripping tears from doe-shaped eyes with fake laughter that Hikaru gave to the other members when he joked about love. The soft whimpers from a nightmare on bad nights. The wailing, the broken eyes, the sadness, the pain. The suffering.
Ezra had seen his best friend go from excitement to hope, to giving up completely. The worst part about this whole fiasco wasn't when his friend had been disappointed on his birthday. No. The worst part had been seeing the hope flicker out of Hikaru's eyes. The last drops of yearning had seeped out of that warm soul, replaced with coldness and fake laughter.
After all these years...His best friend was finally, finally free from those chains of suffering. Ezra's heart soared for his friend, hammering excitedly and he stood as genuine joy filled his frame. He hadn't expected this at all. He never dared to give Hikaru any extra hope, for the higher one rose, the greater one fell.
Ezra had always taken a sarcastic and negative stance on soulmates to spare his best friends further heartache. But that didn't mean that Ezra had never wished on his birthdays for someone out there to come for his best friends. If not any of them, then at least just Hikaru. He deserved a soulmate.
This was good news. This was fantastic news.
"Hikaru, oh my fucking God," he breathed. "That's fucking fantastic."
"T-thank you! We have a soul melt bond. I really didn't know she was mine until our skin touched, you know? I'm so glad. So, so glad."
His best friend prattled on, excited, overjoyed. Ezra had never heard this much happiness in his voice before. It overflowed and spilt out in waves and waves of joy. It made him forget about his own unhappiness.
"It's just that I waited so long. I can't believe she's finally here! Ezra! Can you believe it? She's here! She's here for me!"
"I know Karu. I know. I can't believe it too," Ezra smiled fondly, rubbing his nose.
"She lives in Sky Temple Street. Can you believe it? It's too dangerous for someone her age. She's really, really young. Just 20, so it makes sense why I had to wait for so long," Hikaru giggled.
Ezra blinked. That street...Wasn't that where he had met Amber? He swallowed, his mouth suddenly going dry at his best friend's words.
"Is that why you got to a hotel?" He asked carefully. He didn't know why his heart was pounding. The blood rushing in his ears loud and ominous. It pounded like the beat of the drum with the race of his heart. "Because she stays in that street?"
"She doesn't stay there anymore. She was staying with an unmated male friend, so I booked a hotel room for us tonight. I'm thinking of finding her proper accommodation. I just couldn't stand the idea of her staying with someone else aside from me. Is that bad? I feel horrible for it because she seemed to really like the guy."
"A friend huh?" Ezra's voice was far away.
He felt as if he were drowning within himself, submerged in layers and layers of fat and sinew. His mind was too far away and something within him thrummed with fear and horror. This was not happening. It couldn't be. It couldn't. It couldn't be. No, no. No. NO.
"What is her name?" He found himself asking, unable to stop his tongue from moving.
"Huh? Uh. I can't pronounce it well. I just call her Momo. It's her second name! But, I think Ambr-Ambrosia? Ambrosia Momo Pei?" He butchered the word with a strong Asian accent, his tongue rolling awkwardly over the name. Ambrosia. Ambrosia. Ambrosia. "Ah! She's out of the shower. I'll talk to you soon, love you!"
His best friend ended the call and Ezra stood, quiet as he stared at his phone watching the beep of the number. The flash of the profile picture of his best friend before his screen darkened.
Ambrosia.
Ambrosia Momo Pei.
His hands.
They shook, trembling with a weakness that Ezra did not understand.
Ezra raised his fingers, watching as they quaked and quivered before his eyes in the soft glow of the streetlamps. Why?
He pressed his palms together tightly, rubbing his fingers as he stared into the darkness. His eyes were wide open as his breath escaped his body in quick shallow pants. His eyes, they darted about frantically as his mind worked into an overdrive. Why?
He rubbed his fingers together harder, faster. The friction forming a gradually increasing heat between his palms. But still, he couldn't make the trembling stop. He slammed his hands on the counter. The loud sound echoed through his home, ringing and bouncing on the walls.
It hurt for a while, his palms. The pain burned and rippled up his skin and through his flesh. It spiked and distracted him for just one second. Still, the shaking wouldn't stop. It couldn't.
He tore into his flesh with ragged and bitten fingernails, digging into his skin. It wouldn't stop. It wouldn't. Why? Then he took a seat, running his fingers through his hair, shaking his head frantically.
What was he doing?
She was just a girl. Just another person that he wanted to fuck. Just another fling. Another warm, wet pussy. A nobody. Nothing like him. Ezra's lips stretched across his face. He could have any unmated woman in the world. Hell, some mated women continued to yearn for his cock despite having a soulmate.
He could tap into that. They would beg to lick his feet, beg to taste him on their tongue. He could have whatever the fuck he wanted. Cars, houses, luxury goods, jewellery, a whole fucking island. Anything.
She was just a random stranger on the street.
A nobody.