"I think it's time for us to talk."
Charles' brow furrowed. He crossed his arms, standing stiffly by the door. "About what?"
Jacques leaned back, resting his head against the wall. He studied Charles for a moment, then shrugged. "You and Mourice."
Charles' expression darkened. "What about it?"
Jacques' eyes narrowed. "Don't play dumb. You've been hanging out with him a lot lately. Laughing. Smiling. You never smile like that when you're with me."
"Smile like what?! That's how I smile normally. If you're wondering why I never smile when I'm with you, then maybe you're the problem!" Charles snapped back.
"Oh, I'm the problem now? What did I do?" Jacques left the bed, angry. "I wake up all night traveling miles away to study how to fly the spacecraft, how to fix them, and even how to build them, so we can have a safe trip through space together, just like our dreams!"
Charles scoffed, caught between laughter and disgust. "Our dreams, you said?! This is why you are the problem!"
"I fight for us! Why am I the problem? You don't need to do anything!"
"You are the problem because I never had that dream! You were nothing more than a delusional, pushing me into a dream that was only meant for you, without even considering how I feel!"
"You agreed with me! You said you were coming with me!"
"I never said I'm coming with you to outer space, living a childish dream!! Once again I told you..." Charles shoved Jacques, but Jacques stood firm. "You are fucking delusional! That is your problem!"
Jacques could not say anything else.
Because Charles was right.
He had probably been lying to himself when he believed that Charles wanted to go fly with him into outer space as a star voyager.
But this hurt too much, and he hid it beneath the anger he showed on his face.
And Charles? He rubbed salt in the wound deliberately.
"No one wants you!"
Charles grabbed his jacket from behind the door and walked out of the dorm room, leaving Jacques stunned and alone in the room, sinking in thousands of thoughts as he awakened to the reality that Charles was never on the same page with him.
***
No one holds him back now—Jacques is out of the picture and knows his place. In the classroom, Charles moved his seat far away from Jacques, but not too close to Mourice either—just to prove a point that Jacques's accusation wasn't real.
Charles found himself in the library more often than ever, and somehow, Mourice was always there too. Their conversations flowed so effortlessly that neither of them noticed the hours slipping by.
"Come to think of it, some of those prostitutes are actually single mothers who desperately need money to feed their children, and some are even victims of scammers. Do you think it's still fair for the law to penalize them? I mean, maybe that's the only way they can earn an income." Mourice leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back legs, smirking as he watched Charles scribble furiously in his notebook.
"I'm saying it makes sense logically, not morally," Charles corrected, glancing up just long enough to shoot him a look. "You're not even paying attention, are you?"
Mourice grinned. "Oh, I'm paying attention. Just not to the book."
Charles blinked at him, unsure of what to make of that statement. Before he could respond, the librarian cleared her throat from across the room, signaling that it was time to leave.
Charles blinked at the clock, shocked. "It's that late already?"
"Guess time flies when you're having fun," Mourice said as he stood. He looked down at Charles, eyes glinting with something unreadable. "I still want to argue to you about that, how about you?"
"It was nice to talk to you," Charles scoffed. He still can't believe that he's able to talk to Mourice, the most popular guy in academy! Well, maybe he's a bit exaggerated about it, but, he's hot, yeah.
"Is that a sign to stop seeing each other?" Mourice narrow his eyes, looks like he doesn't like the idea.
Charles chuckles, "no, of course not, I mean we can meet in classroom."
Mourice nods, "you're right. We both are in dorms, aren't we? Let's walk together."
Charles shocked, Mourice!? He?! Want to walk with me?! What???
As they both walk out the library, Charles still trying to reason why Mourice want to stick with him like they glued together.
Since Charles is bad at reading body language, he doesn't realized the real attraction, sparkles from Mourice's eyes. He think it's just how normal people behave when they enjoy the conversation, not about attraction.
Charles would return back to his dorm feeling sad, laying on his bed, thinking Mourice just being really nice guy who is being nice to everyone, and he is just lucky enough to get to talk to him.
There's no way he would love me back. I'm just a socially awkward boy with zero friend, Charles told himself in the mirror. But on the next day when he left the dorm and meet Mourice at the academy corridor, his smile flashes naturally. He feel even happier when Mourice actually respond to him, and walk with him to the class.
They would talk again in cafeteria, eating lunch together.
Eventually, being together becomes a habit, Charles is drifted away from Jacques, and Mourice spends time more with Charles than his girlfriend.
One night, Mourice lay on his bed, texting with Charles, giggles at Charles's cluelessness about his flirting attempts.
And then Danielle text him "helloo? are you alive? It's been a long time since we've talk."
Mourice smack his lips and he told Charles, "brb"
Then he call Danielle, "hey, baby, how are you? I missed you so much. Been studying hard lately, I'm sorry if I left you abandoned."
"It's okay, I know you've been studying hard lately. You've been talking to that nerd boy more often," Danielle said, her tone casual but laced with something Mourice couldn't quite place.
"Yeah, he wants to learn a thing or two about the subjects he's not very good at," Mourice replied smoothly, his voice sounding perfectly normal, effortlessly controlled.
"Oh, so you're a mentor now?" Danielle asked, a hint of mockery in her voice.
"Hell yeah, I'm basically a teacher at this point," Mourice laughed, playing along, though his mind was elsewhere. He glanced at the time, subtly checking how long he'd been on the call. When is she going to get bored or sleepy?
He kept up the conversation, but all he really wanted was for Danielle to hurry up and hang up so he could go back to talking to Charles.
Danielle talked for the next two hours, and Mourice did his best to keep his voice neutral, making sure he didn't sound as impatient as he actually felt. He had mastered the art of sounding engaged while his mind was somewhere else entirely. And right now, all he could think about was Charles.
He glanced at the clock again, suppressing a sigh. How much longer is this going to last?
"Babe, it's 9 p.m. now," he said casually. "Isn't it time for you to sleep?"
Danielle scoffed. "What do you mean? "It's only 9 p.m., don't sleep too early", You used to tell me that and then keep me awake until 2 a.m. Why are you in such a hurry for me to go to sleep now? So you can talk to your nerdy new friend?"
Her voice held a teasing pout, but Mourice could hear the hint of suspicion underneath.
He forced a chuckle, stretching his legs out on the bed. "Come on, babe, you know I care about your beauty sleep. It will be exam in near future, we need to reserve our energy for what truly matters."
Meanwhile, his phone vibrated with a new message. He knew exactly who it was. And that was the only conversation he actually wanted to be having right now.
"What is that? Did you talk to someone just now?" Danielle assertively pushed Mourice.
"No, it's just advertisement spam... I need to cleanse my phone from malware soon," Mourice tried his best to sound as normal as he could while checking the notification to see Charles's text.
Charles had written, "I'm off to bed, see you soon!"
Mourice rolled his eyes. Shit! and then pressed his phone back to his ear, responding to Danielle while trying to sound as sweet as he could.
Life would be much easier if he could just be honest with the world about his sexuality. But the world wasn't as accepting. Let alone his father—that chief commander in the Intergalactic Law Defender Force. Yep, that one powerful man with high ranks. He had a reputation to protect. Having a gay son would make him feel ashamed and would probably result in Mourice getting kicked out of his home.
As Danielle yapped about her daily struggles, Mourice's mind wandered. How could he keep Charles close, even when Danielle interrupted like this?
Suddenly, he came up with a plan.