Aelise rose an eyebrow as she saw and heard him muttering curses. She looked at him in complete and genuine confusion. Then she realized. 'Fucking heavens. Really, now?' She snapped out of her thoughts and jolted as he abruptly stood up. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked him calmly, but she was actually freaking out inside.
Aelise waited for an answer, but instead, she felt warm hands cupping her cheeks. She tensed upon hearing his compliment. She somehow heard the sound of a camera clicking. "Z-Ze-" But she forgot what she was about to say completely as she got pecked on cheek by him. Her eyes went wide, face more red than a cherry. She just stood there, stunned. Severely stunned. Before the female could say anything, he already left.
"I... miss you even more." Aelise mumbled under her breath, her hand on the cheek he pecked. She shook the thoughts off and realized that the costumers were staring at her in shock. She shivered. If anything, she hated it when people stared at her. She somehow felt ashamed when they did.
Jwyneed walked up to her with a cheeky grin on her face. She expected Aelise to smile, however, all she received was a blank stare. "Aelise, I thought you guys were- wait, why are you crying!?" She exclaimed and wiped the tears. "Hey, he didn't dump you- don't cry-" She comforted her, even in front of the costumers. Jwyneed was always there for Aelise. It was almost like she was her mother. They were really that close.
She shook her head and fished her phone out of her pocket, immediately texting Zen. 'Hey. What happened? Are you in trouble? If you are, I'm so sorry. Please update me when you can. (ᗒᗣᗕ)՞' She hit the send button. Aelise sat down and covered her face with her hands. No words could describe how worried she is.
On the other hand, as soon as Zen got Nate to the hospital, the doctor took care of Nate. Zen was panicking. He felt for Nate's pulse before but it was way too low for his liking. "Please. Just please." He whispered to himself as he sat down. Arai sat next to him and caressed his back gently. "Sir! Who was that, Sir?" "Was that your best friend?" "Your boyfriend, Sir?" The questions were starting to annoy him. "He's my best friend and always will be." He spoke as he glared at the reporters. Arai had called for his bodyguards and they immediately came, keeping the media away from him.
Because of all this, Zen had recently started to get triggered because of flashing lights. He was forced after all. He couldn't associate any happy memories with them. The stupid flashes. Actually, he could but they were overpowered with the bad ones. Every time he looked at flashing lights, his fists would clench so tight to the point where his nails dug into the palms of his hands and they bleed. Arai lead Zen to a private waiting room. "Where were you, Sir? He tried to contact you so many times." Arai asked softly.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know this was happening. I was with Aelise. Dad didn't bombard me with messages so I thought I was free. Fuck. I'm sorry." He whispered as he held his head in his hands. In a few minutes, the doctor came back out and into the waiting room. "How's he?" Zen asked in a hurry.
"He's absolutely fine. Just a few bruises on his stomach, other than that, he's fine. No internal injuries thankfully. He will be able to go home by evening." The doctor smiled as he saw Zen relax. "Thank you so much. Can I see him?" He asked and the doctor nodded. "Just the room across." He informed and Zen bowed, followed by Arai as they went to Nate's room. "You bastard. Planning to leave me too, huh?" Zen chuckled as he hugged Nate gently. "Well, I need to annoy you so I'm still here." He smiled.
"Give me a second, bud." Zen smiled and Nate nodded. Zen pulled his phone out and texted Aelise. 'I had to rush Nate to the hospital. He's okay :)'
'Let's meet up some other time. Maybe you can kill me then XD. I meant what I said though. I'm a mess without you. I might seem pathetic saying this but I don't care anymore.' He just sent it and put his phone away. He took in a deep breath and went back inside to his friend. "No. Don't get settled here. Your dad has scheduled stuff. You need to go." Nate spoke and Zen stood up. "Come on, bud. I punched him. Mom will kill me when I go home." Zen sighed and looked at Nate.
"Just rest okay? I'll be back as soon as I'm done with work." He spoke and smiled. "Yeah yeah. Just go. Also, how was meeting her?" Nate asked playfully and wiggled his eyebrows. "Because of me you had to come back. I'm sorry, man." He apologized. "Shut up, dude. You're my soul mate. I'd leave anything for people like you. In fact, only you, your mom and Natalie." Zen smiled and waved to him a little. Nate waved back as Arai and Zen went back to the company.
"Everything that happened here, stays within these walls. Please, this is a humble request I ask of you." He spoke politely and bowed in front of his employees. "Of course, Sir." He heard and stood up to see them smiling at him. "Thank you guys so much." He smiled gratefully. He was so happy that he had good relations with his employees.
"Your father was taken home, Sir. His nose is broken." Arai informed with a nervous smile. "Right. I'm dead at home today." Zen sighed as he walked into his office. "Anyway, let's get back, okay? Here. Check these over." He said and handed a file of papers to Arai who smiled and bowed before leaving. Zen slumped into the chair and brought his hands up to his face.
'I need you so bad.' He thought to himself.
A deep and tired sigh emerged from Aelise as she slumped on the couch. Her eyes were fixated on the ceiling as she thought about random things, then closed her eyes for a while until a velvety voice spoke. It was smooth, however, it still made her jolt from her position. "Tired?" She looked up to see who the culprit was. It was just her brother, Yuichiro. Sitting straight up from her position, she shook her head as a 'no' and spoke."I just got home from shopping, so yeah. Anyways, I got you guys something." Her hand lifted as she pointed at the paper bag on the table that contained certain food. He thanked her and sat with her as well.
"Hey, can I ask you something?" Aelise rolled her eyes and sarcastically spoke. "You already asked me something." With that, she received a playful smack on her head. She let out a laugh and waved her hand at Yuichiro. "I'm just kidding. What is it?" The following question made the atmosphere really gloomy. "Are you dating Zen still? Or is it Ace?" She tensed, then frowned upon hearing his question, her smile completely vanishing into thin air.
"What made you ask that?" She asked coldly, Yuichiro rolled his eyes in response, not fond with her attitude while talking about this at all. He just decided to suggest things to her. "You should check your social media accounts." He sighed. "And you should stop changing the subject." He facepalmed at her stupidity. "Just check it."
Aelise rolled her eyes and she pulled her phone out and opened it. She opened Instagram first. "I see nothi- holy shit." Her jaw dropped as she looked at her Instagram- not just that, but her whole social media was blowing up with notifications. Some of it were just people following her, mentioning her, and such. She looked at her brother who had a straight face, in horror. Not long after, she knew why the hell it was blowing up. 'Ugh, I shouldn't have taken off that stupid mask of his.' She cursed at herself for literally the millionth time now. The next thing that came into her mind was-
Ace.
Just the thought of Ace hurting her again sent a shiver down her spine. She held herself back from crying so as to not let her family worry. Aelise shook the thoughts off and immediately checked her messages with Ace. He had just sent a message to her a few minutes ago. It just worsened the fear she was having at the moment. But she sighed in relief that his message wasn't about Zen and her. It did help. Just a bit. She gulped as she read it.