"Don't you have anything to say?" asked Walther, breaking the silence.
Noel was somewhat taken aback, his eyes immediately looking at Walther's figure who was approximately one meter in front of him. Noel said nothing but was at a loss for what to say.
Was this a coincidence?
Or was it fate?
A man whose presence he had always avoided was now in front of him.
Fifteen years is not a short time, but it passed in a flash. Just as the Earth continues to revolve around the sun, so does fate lead to their bond. Traveling through time, fate eventually brought Noel back to Walther, for he was the axis around which he could see him again, hear his voice again. However, everything is not the same as it used to be, as it was when the man was not yet his nightmare.
"What do you need to see me for?" A flat intonation sounded out from Noel's lips.
Walther smiled slightly. "If there's no need, can't I see you?"
Noel didn't respond, he ventured to look into the man's cold eyes and waited for what Walther would say next.
"What is it that makes you avoid me?" Walther asked at last.
"Nothing," Noel denied.
However, his reflex pulled both sides of Walther's lips up a centimeter even though that answer was just an alibi. And Walther was able to dismiss Noel's alibi.
"If it's true that you didn't intend to avoid me by going to New York, why didn't you come home a long time ago?"
Noel was silent.
"Or is it because of the journal that you're avoiding me?"
Noel's eyebrows knitted together, what journal was this man referring to?
"You don't have to worry about me taking it away from you. I have no interest in it." After a deliberate pause Walther continued. "You better be careful, someone might be after it."
Noel still didn't understand what Walther meant, but Noel answered with conviction. "Thanks for the reminder, but I've been keeping that thing in a safe place." After seemingly dwelling on Walther like a statue, Noel stood up from his seated position to leave.
Walther also stood up and grabbed Noel's arm and pulled him close as soon as he knew the man intended to leave.
Noel, who was not expecting Walther's sudden action, jumped in surprise, causing his body to sway backwards so that his back collided lightly with Walther's front body.
Taking this liberty, Walther hooked his arms around Noel's shoulders from behind as he whispered something into Noel's ear. "Don't think you can just walk away from me." Walther's warm breath tickled Noel's entire body, making his body freeze as if from the cold air that the drop in temperature continued to produce.
"If you don't remove your hand, I won't refrain from breaking it," Noel threatened coldly. Inwardly, however, he was wary of Walther getting provoked and doing something sudden.
"You still haven't changed, huh?"
Without a fight, Walther immediately let go of his hands, turning to face Noel, or what he knew to be Nate.
"You too, still the same old, same old, like the Joker wearing Batman's mask," Noel retorted without looking at Walther.
Walther flinched a little at what Noel had just said, but he returned his expression to his face. "If I'm the Joker, then what are you?"
Noel didn't answer, he was trying to cover up his stiffness. As a pair of dark eyes stared into his eyes.
"Nate, instead of you constantly being Killer Rabbit, how about you just be my Harley Quinn?" Walther offered, lifting the chin of the man in front of him, looking at him intensely.
Heartbeats raced in tension as their eyes met. Noel could see a gleam in the man's eyes, the way Walther looked at Nate was the same way the man had looked at him in his previous life. When Noel didn't know who Walther really was. Had Walther forgotten him?
Noel felt his heart ache. What had happened to him? He should have been happy to be forgotten by someone like Walther, but why did he feel the opposite. If there was a feeling that could describe his feelings towards Walther right now, it was probably a feeling of hatred. Yes, hatred was appropriate for a man like him.
Noel clenched his fingers. "Joker and Harley Quinn, huh? In your dreams."
Walther remained silent as his hand was swatted away by the man in front of him. Already dismissed, the man walked away from him, heading for the door. While he was still glued to the figure, and ....
The sound of the door slamming became Walther's companion in the silence that followed Noel's departure. The man did not pursue, just stood where he was with his eyes still staring at the closed door as the silence returned.
*
Noel Baluev ran to look around in case someone was following behind, once it was safe, the man entered the apartment and closed the door and locked it.
"That was close, horrible, really horrible." Noel stroked his chest with trembling hands.
Noel didn't know what Walther would do to him if he found out about the Nate who wasn't the real Nate. Armed with Gregory's notebook of Nate, Noel acted like the real Nate and it fooled Walther.
Between Walther and Nate, what is their relationship? Does Walther want Nate to be treated like he was?
No, that's not possible.
Noel and Nate are as different as an outcast kitten and a lion ruling a pasture that stretches for miles.
The Joker and Harley Quinn, Noel had read stories about them, maybe that was the kind of relationship Walther wanted with Nate.
*
Unexpectedly, the snow stopped falling after midnight. However, the breeze was still blowing like it was herding winter into spring. Tonight didn't get what he wanted. Nonetheless, he had gotten what he had long wished for. A glimpse of a soft smile crossed his lips along with the dim moonlight that had been covered by thick clouds since the beginning of the night entering the glass window.
"I saw him this morning, and I deliberately bumped into him so that he would greet me first. But he didn't recognize me."
A teenage boy spoke as he approached Walther. He was the one who had accidentally bumped into Noel this morning, or rather deliberately bumped into Noel.
"He's changed, hasn't he, Dad?"
Walther Zwick carved a lopsided smile. "Yes, you're right, he has changed."
[]