Lounging on his balcony with a glass of wine in hand, the air held an undercurrent of tension as Terrence leisurely drank while seething inside with rage. That little thwart was taking things too far and he was struggling to prevent himself from doing anything drastic.
***
Although Terra's appearance had become a recurring issue. Terrence was pretty much fine with it as long as she didn't intrude on his relationship with Elara… Or so he thought.
Although she never intruded, every other thing she did infuriated him to no end.
Not only did she have Elara wrapped around her finger, making her have little to no time for him at all, the rumors she incurred with her clinginess were a different breed of problem.
Her excessive display of affection, which she couldn't be bothered to mask even when coming to Elara's workplace, had pretty much established her identity as Elara's girlfriend. And although Elara made sure to deny every allegation when asked she couldn't care less about the rumors causing them to spiral out of control.
To worsen everything, one time during Terra's visitation, when asked about her relationship with Elara,Terra shamelessly admitted to being her girlfriend, further solidifying the rumors.
So now not only was she recognized as Elara's girlfriend, but an entire romance story perfectly explaining everything, including why Elara always denied their relationship had been spurned, and even he was surprised by how perfectly made the plot was when he heard it.
He was torn between being annoyed by the writers' department or impressed by their imagination.
The CP shipping between the two was so popular it had exploded to other departments, and now Elara had become something of an idol.
Despite everything, the most frustrating part of it all was when the chocolate he sent to Elara was credited to Terra after they misinterpreted 'it's from a friend' to 'it's from a girlfriend I don't wanna admit is mine.'
And just like that he somehow worsened everything.
The more he thought of it, the more mind-boggling he found it. Had he fallen for Elara, by chance? Even he wasn't sure himself.
One thing he was sure of was that he disliked the idea of Elara being seen in that way with someone who wasn't him. Thinking about it more clearly, could he be jealous? Probably! But justifiably–he was platonically jealous!
***
After dressing up for bed, Elara lay beside Terra only for her to roll over and wound her arms around her in a tight hug.
Elara sighed in defeat after trying to no avail to escape the female's iron grip.
"You're too clingy, Terra; you should act more your age," Elara complained to the female, who pretended to have suddenly lost her hearing, shamelessly holding on tighter despite Elara's complaints.
Elara groaned in defeat, feeling like a mother whose child clung tightly to her hips and wouldn't let go no matter what. Only, this particular mother was a little too soft-hearted, and the kid was sneaky enough to use it to their advantage.
"We should visit a pet store tomorrow," Terra suggested.
Today was a Friday night, and after a whole week of work with her spending barely any time with Elara, Terra was determined to have as much fun as possible with Elara tomorrow before leaving the next day.
However Elara's next words made her mood sour, "Can Terrence join us? He's being all moody because we haven't hung out for a while now."
"Nope," Terra rejected without hesitation.
But—"
"I am going to leave soon; why not let me have this one?" she said with pleading eyes, leaving Elara completely dismantled.
She pouted defiantly leaving Terra swooning on the inside.
"Next time, okay?" she coaxed softly.
"Okay."
Terra sighed internally in relief; she was glad Elara did not press further if she did… With a little bit of coyness, she'd be completely defeated.
Remembering the blonde-haired male, Terra felt infuriated. Two years! Just two years! That was all it took for this obliviously cute weirdo beside her to make friends with a fucking CEO and not any CEO—but the upcoming world richest!
All this while, she had never once felt someone could ever rival her, not only because she took pride in her worth but also because of how difficult it was for Elara to accept anyone inside her circle, proven by the fact someone as social as her only had three friends.
Thinking back, it was way worse back then, she didn't have a single person in her circle and drew a stern line with everyone.
But somehow, Mister Perfect stumbled in and easily got everything they had worked hard for years. Indeed, he was the perfect rival, with great specs, and was already within Elara's circle!
She felt like a farmer who had painstakingly grown a lovely cabbage, only for a pig to sneak its way into her farm trying to steal her cabbage!
Hearing Terra groan in exasperation, Elara asked worriedly, "What's wrong?"
Staring into the innocently oblivious round eyes sparkling like gems she felt all her annoyance varnish.
Leaning into Elara, she kissed her forehead with a chuckle, "Nothing, let's go back to sleep, hm?"
Elara shrugged internally, "Okay then."
***
"Hello~! Is anyone here?! We made a reservation!" Terra exclaimed as they walked into the store, leaving all eyes on them, making Elara chuckle awkwardly, always loud, this one.
Inside the pet store, Elara was fascinated by the amount of animal lovers inside either having fun with their animals or with the ones in the store.
She observed in a daze while Terra confirmed their reservation.
Suddenly, a hand grasped her, snapping her out of her daze, and Terra, with a toothy grin, led her away, saying, "Come on, we have so many animals to see! Perfect place for de-stressing after the exhausting week you had."
"Alright, alright," Elara replied while giggling as Terra led her away.
Firstly, they went to the mammal category, petted and cuddled with a bunch of dogs, puppies, cats, and kittens, and Elara even fed a hamster. Next, they went to the bird category, where Terra ended up having a face-off with the parrots, causing Elara to leave her to pet other birds.
At the reptile section, Terra was almost bitten by a gecko for constantly troubling the poor thing, while Elara nearly fell into the trap of purchasing a turtle because of how cute it was.
Fortunately, her remaining rationality stopped her; this wasn't a plant; if she neglected it to its death, she'd probably never forgive herself.
Eventually they went to the fish section to watch fishes.
"Blob, blob, blob, blob…" Elara, who had entered into a peaceful mind space by simply mimicking the goldfish blobbing about, continued in a daze.
Terra, who had finished feeding another goldfish and took some pictures, came up to her, "Wanna take more pics?"
"Na, I'm fine, we have like five pictures of every animal we've seen already," Elara replied nonchalantly.
"Well, it's essential, one for the animal only, two for us and the animals, and the rest for either of us with the animal."
"Yeah, I just want to stare at the goldfish this time."
"Fine~" Terra groaned in displeasure, "Can I have your phone, though? Let me take more pictures."
"Sure," Elara responded, handing over her phone to Terra casually.
While taking pictures, Elara's phone rang, and on seeing the caller, Terra frowned. Without thinking twice she cut the call and decided to temporarily block the caller.
***
Meanwhile, Terrence was fuming at home. He and Elara had made plans to hang out today, before Terra arrived, since Elara said she'd be very busy through the week. However, not only did Elara stand him up, but she also cut off his calls and blocked him.
The former was possible as Elara was still human in the end and could have simply forgotten, but the latter? He would have to be dumb to not be able to tell when a certain peachy nuisance was being naughty.
Merlin?" he called out in a deep voice reflecting his boiling rage underneath.
"Yes sir."
"Prepare a car, we're leaving," he ordered moving into his room to dress while Merlin dutifully followed.
"Where sir?"
"Hah," Terrence scoffed in annoyance, "to crash a goddamn date."