special brew. | BrightWin

9.

*This chapter contains a slight mention of bullying, please scroll to the bottom if this is a trigger for you. There is a TL;DR so that you won't miss out :)*

W

I felt like I was a secret agent carrying out a top-secret mission as I hid in the corner of the lift lobby.

I even held my breath as I was scared that even the sound of it would expose my whereabouts, and only breathed normally when I was sure that Bright had went back into his apartment. I had waited outside to make sure that he takes in the food I brought before leaving, but also to take a peek to see how he was doing. From where I was, I could see that he seemed a little paler than usual and he was coughing, which made me a little worried.

He told me that he'd be able to take care of himself and I'm sure he can, but I just couldn't dismiss the thought that it may be better for someone to be with him for now. From what I knew, he lived alone with his cat, so there was nobody else to look after him.

I checked the time on my watch and realised that I had to leave right away if I wanted to make it back to the office on time. I told Dew that I had an errand to run, but he doesn't know where I went.

I managed to catch the bus just as it arrived and hopped on. It's fortunate I've got long legs, which I can use to my advantage when I'm chasing after buses. I don't have a car, neither do I plan on getting one because I'm not fond of driving.

"One minute away from disaster. It's a record, my friend." Dew says as I walked over to my desk, huffing and panting as I ran all the way up the stairs to the office.

"You keep track of my timings?" I say as I glance up at him from my glasses.

He was giving me a sly smile as he leaned on the barrier between our desks. "Of course. Your previous record was a few months ago, when you arrived back just two and a half minutes away from the limit because of-"

"Shhh, stop talking about that. I made it back in time now didn't I?"

"Sure did. But where did you go though?"

"I'm not telling you." I said as I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Tch, so stingy."

"Get back to work."

He laughed and shook his head as he sat back down on his seat. He's my best friend, but there are just some things I'd rather not tell him. If he knew that I used my lunch hour to bring food to Bright, he'd tease me to no end about it. But he knows not to pry when I don't want to say anything, which is why I love him even though he's so annoying.

The time seemed to pass by too slowly. I was fidgeting a lot and kept getting distracted from my work. I couldn't stop thinking about Bright and wondering whether he was okay. I even checked my phone constantly in case he texted me.

When the time came to knock off, I immediately started packing my things and was eager to leave. I promised Dew yesterday that I'd buy him dinner today, so when that's settled I wanted to make my way to Bright's again to check on him.

"So excited for our dinner date already?" Dew raised an eyebrow. I usually don't notice when it's time to go unless I have something urgent, so Dew is always the one telling me it's time to knock off.

"Yes, of course."

"Well I'm honoured." He chuckled. "Let's go."

We headed to Dew's favourite fried chicken place, which he never seems to get tired of. He told me all about how him and his girlfriend were planning to move in together soon, and he seemed pretty excited about it. They'd been together for a few years, and I was happy that he had found someone who made him feel happy and carefree.

"She's a nice girl. I'm glad you're happy, bud." I said as I munched on a chicken wing.

"Thanks, I'm glad I found her too." He said while blushing. "Enough about me. When are you ready to open your heart to someone new again?"

"Well..." I hesitated, not knowing how to answer. "I'm still not sure if I'm ready to date yet. I don't want to put any emotional baggage on anyone."

"Of course, take your time. But I really hope you'll be able to move on and accept someone new into your life someday." He says thoughtfully. "I still hate her for cheating on you though, that was terrible."

"Yes, I'm well aware you still hate her very much. Even more than I do."

"If someone like her ever comes near you again, they will be seeing my toilet plunger in their face."

"That's...a bit much." I laughed. He'd always been supportive and protective of me, and even got beaten up back in university because he stood up against some bullies who were hurling insults at me.

"It's not much. Or would a broom be better?"

"We're not stuffing anything into anyone's faces, my dear friend." I say as I put a piece of chicken into Dew's mouth. "Come on, let's finish up. It's getting late."

"Fine, so much for being your protective best friend." He says as he rolls his eyes and takes a bite of the chicken.

"Love ya~"

"Bleh."

When we were done, Dew went off to get his car while I went to the bus stop. I rode a few stops down to a place that has really good soup noodles and bought some before continuing my journey to Bright's place.

-

TL;DR

Win waits outside Bright's apartment to quietly check on him and to make sure he retrieves the food before heading back to the office. Win is constantly distracted during work and keeps worrying about Bright. After work, Win and Dew get dinner together. Dew says that he wishes Win would be able to open his heart up to someone new again, and it is revealed that Win had an ex who cheated on him. Dew vows to protect Win against bad people. When they were done, Dew heads home and Win takes a trip down to Bright's place again after getting him some soup noodles.