Speak up already - Phan

Chapter 8

The next school day, Dil left earlier than usual, not wanting to bump into Ryan. He hadn't told Kei, but another reason why he was so hurt-now more annoyed with Ryan was because of what had happened a few years ago.

Ryan had confessed all that time ago, but Dil rejected him since he really didn't like him. So instead, Ryan decided to stay by his side as a friend.

But then one night at a party, Ryan got drunk. And he started touching Dil inappropriately. That was the memory he pushed out of his mind, but when Ryan kissed him, all those memories came flooding back. It made him want to vomit.

But then after that, Ryan vowed never to do anything like that. It took a while for Dil to be okay with him casually stroking his hair or being close, because Ryan was that kind of person. But ever since that incident, Dil could never have feelings for him.

Dil had already texted Megan and Lissa what happened earlier this morning. Ryan didn't hang out with them today. Not all day. He avoided them. Dil felt sick whenever he came close so it was a good thing too.

At work later on, Ryan appeared with a smile. But Dil could tell that it was his usual fake smile. Dil huffed, walking past him and going off to change into his work uniform in the back locker room.

He turned and felt himself jump when he saw someone open the door. Jin appeared with his usual smiley self but that soon turned into a frown when he met eyes with Dil. He shuffled closer to Dil, suddenly embracing him in a tight hug moving quickly side to side. "Are you okay?"

"What do you-"

"I was in the shop yesterday too you know. I saw it too. Want some ice cream? Or chocolate?" Jin asked, stroking Dil's hair out of his eyes. "My poor little bunny."

"You treat me like a child." Dil smiled.

"You're the youngest out of us, I mean look at you! Since I'm the oldest I have to protect you at all costs." Jin stated.

"O-Oldest?!" Dil exclaimed, taking a step back.

"Yeah! Kei's a few years younger than me. Why is that surprising?" Jin laughed.

Dil quickly shook his head. "N-Never Mind. Sorry if I just made everything awkward from yesterday..."

Jin ruffled Dil's hair. "Hey. Don't say that. Just please keep this civil for work. If you can. If not, we can make some adjustments for-"

"I'll try my best!" Dil smiled, nodding. "Where's Kei?" He bit his lip.

Jin smirked at Dil, raising his eyebrows. "Why?"

Dil's cheeks quickly turned light pink, hiding his face in his hands. "Never mind!"

"He's out to do some errands. Stacking up on supplies for the shop." Jin explained.

"When will he be back?"

"Soon? He needs to drop some stuff off and then go get more. It's a slow day today so you can go with him if you'd like. Not yet, he'll come back, you two work for a few hours and then go."

Dil nodded enthusiastically.

~

Dil was still on a course to learn to do nails. He started to daydream about his story however when reading the text books given on nail care. Lately, his story had taken a small change of course.

Now he finally changed the character names and added more features.

*