Cermin could not believe how unreasonable his friend was acting. It was so unlike him!
"Zeriav, if you just wanted to talk to me, why do you have to bring a storm all of a sudden!? Look at what you did to Mari! She lost her veil!"
"I have bigger matters to worry about than some priestesses' veil." Zeriav answered coldly.
He was blocking the door with his large figure, his eyes furrowed.
"She's not just some priestess to me! You have made her really upset, and she's out there shivering from the cold!"
Cermin tried to get past him, but Zeriav wouldn't budge.
"I need to go to her, Zeriav. We'll talk later---"
"No! We talk now!"
He pushed Cermin back, but ended up putting too much strength into it and sending him tumbling down the floor.
Zeriav's eyes widened, and he helped him up. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to---"
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Cermin pushed him back.
"You're not acting normal! The Zeriav I know wouldn't be such a jerk and bring a whole storm just to talk to me!"
"But if I didn't, you'd never listen! You will keep on chasing after that priestess' dress!"
He grabbed his shoulders, gripping it tightly to keep him down.
"Cermin, you are forgetting your purpose in this Temple! You are forgetting your purifications, and letting the demons come to you while you are off-guard!"
"That priestess is destroying you, don't you see!?"
Cermin was aghast. "What!? That doesn't make any sense, I am still doing the rituals everyday like you want me to----"
"See!? You think it's only me that want the ritual now, when you were the one who asked for it in the first place!"
Zeriav's eyes were bloodshot, as he delivered his ultimatum with his friend that was slowly being estranged with him.
"The ritual would not work if you do not put any meaning to it! It would be like farming everyday and plowing without giving it any water!"
"The ritual lost meaning to you, Cermin! You have changed, it's like you do not care anymore---"
"So what if I don't care!? The daemon doesn't possess me anymore, and I am safe as long as I do it, no matter how I do it!" Cermin retorted.
"That's all that matters to me since the start, Zeriav! Not the meaning of the ritual, but the fact that I stay safe and purified by your side!"
Zeriav seemed to be shocked by this, his grip loosening.
His face turned from shock, to disbelief... to being hurt.
"So... You were using me to stay safe? You were only my friend, you were only by my side... Because you needed my protection?"
Cermin seemed to have also realized now what he just said, and immediately shook his head.
"No, I didn't mean it like that! Zeriav... You really are my friend no matter what, and I enjoyed your company---"
"How? You never talked to me besides the your worries and troubles. You never let me speak about myself, or get to know me---"
"That's because you stay quiet!"
"And you let me stay quiet! You never prompt me to speak because you enjoyed that I was quiet, and my attention was to you even without being reciprocated!"
Ronin listened in to this drama, thinking. 'Ah, there it goes.'
'It used to be an outsider problem, that Marigold was the one destroying their friendship..... And then it revolves to the flaws of the friendship itself.'
'They'll start questioning if it was even real in the first place, haha!'
Cermin shook his head in disbelief, his eyes tearing up.
"That's not true at all. And I'm sorry that you felt that way, but I need to return to Marigold now. She needs me---"
Zeriav caught his wrist.
"I need you too."
He was breathing heavily, and Cermin was getting scared. This look, this kind of desperate look....
He heard that voice in his head again.
"Min Cheng, don't leave me! I need you! Please!"
It seemed to double over Zeriav's own voice.
That person's face was too blurry, only appearing like a shadow over his own heart that never leaves. And yet despite him not recalling the face clearly.....
It was enough for Cermin's mind to feel like it was being torn apart.
That person needed him too much.
It was suffocating, really. For someone to just hold on to you...
"Cermin, I really need you. All our other friends are gone. You and I only have each other."
For them to have their whole world revolve around you.
"Please..... I think I'm losing my mind at the very thought of losing you because of her. Why can't we be just like before?"
For them to flood you with so much affection until it overflows and now you are drowning in it.
"Stay. Please. If you don't, I won't be able to bear it."
Cermin broke away from his grip. "Let me go!"
Zeriav was now the one pushed away with much force, and he wasn't able to retaliate as he was just so desperate that time for Cermin not to leave.
But the golden boy never looked back at him, opening the door and slamming it shut!
"Cermin! Come back!"
But he didn't. As soon as he opened the door, there was no one else in this Temple.
He breathed in and out, gripping the beads around his neck tightly. And then....
This large, scary man could only fall to the floor and cry.
"What have I done? What am I doing.... I don't like being like this...."
He just loves his friend very much. Just like an elder brother that could not bear watching his younger one go.
And that brotherly love had become so convoluted in his mind, that he more wanted to attain him rather than have him by his side. He wanted to own him.
There can be no other friend for Cermin, no other companion.
A shadow passed by to leave this crying man, wearing a wide grin.
He had successfully poisoned their friendship. Left it as a carcass of what it once was.
All that was left was to dispose of that carcass.