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Apart from Julian and Kaylie standing five feet away from each other on the pathway, the roads were pretty much empty. It was eerily hushed, the kind that would make you want to move quickly to your destination and off the vacant roads.
For Julian and Kaylie however, they were unnerved. Because at that moment they saw nothing but each other. They remained there for a good five seconds, eyes fixated on the other.
"Kaylie." It was Julian who broke the silence. Before she could open her mouth, Julian continued. "Kaylie, Kevin is in love with you. He loves you so much. It's so blatant the way he looks at you. And I-"
He didn't realize the lump in his throat was rising. He wasn't prepared to choke on his words as he faced the woman he had grown so fond of. The woman he had grown to love.
"I'd never want to get in the way," the words came out in a near whisper. He tore his eyes away from her, directing his gaze to the ground as he took a few breaths.
Kaylie shook her head, "you're not, Julian. Everyone is telling me about how my life was. About what I did, what I loved, who I loved. But then you came along. You never cared about what my life used to be. All you cared about was the me now. The me that I know and that I want to be."
At that point she couldn't even look at him. Tears were threatening to pour from her eyes and she knew that if she met his, it would be an endless waterfall. Julian, in contrary, couldn't look away.
Because as much as his conscious begged for her to be wrong, her words were anything but. "And because of that I've-I've fallen so hard for you, Julian Draxler."
Julian had never experienced a heart-stopping moment in his life, aside from some exhilarating suspense on the pitch. In that instance however, not only did his heart skip a beat, but time seemed to stop too.
He couldn't find his voice. And he could have sworn he heard the sound of muffled sobbing from her. All he wanted to do then was wrap her around his arms. Tell her that everything would be alright. But he was completely frozen.
"I'm sorry, Julian," she mumbled, quickly wiping her cheeks with the back of her hands. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess. You don't deserve this. Neither does Kevin." Kaylie didn't cast him another glance.
She hugged herself, as if her confession had garnered the chills, before hurriedly walking away in the direction she had come from. Julian could only watch as he tried to gather his own thoughts. His feelings.
The pair were lost in their own worlds, so much so that they didn't notice the lone figure in the shadows, watching them from across the road.
---
"We should never have let Kevin follow her," Marco uttered in annoyance over the phone. "I mean if we tried to stop him, he would have known for sure," Giovani responded, running a hand threw his hair.
It had been twelve hours since they last saw Kevin. After Kaylie had told them she needed to get something at the shops too, she had run off without another word.
Marco remembered the look on Kevin's face. He couldn't quite read it, but he knew it lay somewhere along the lines of confusion and suspicion. He had left in Kaylie's direction telling them he wanted to grab something too.
Marco knew he was lying. But what could he do?
"Maybe he already knows," the Italian sighed. Giovani, sprawled on his sofa as he made himself comfy, knitted his eyebrows together. "Are you walking to his place right now?"
A hum escaped Marco's mouth and he nodded, despite knowing Giovani couldn't actually see it. "Good luck bro. You'll need it," Giovani chuckled. Marco rolled his eyes. "Why do I have to be that friend that is thrown into this chaos because I care about them?"
Giovani nodded from his end this time, agreeing, "crappy, I know."
Marco finally arrived at Kevin's place. He stood before the door, mumbling something about checking on Julian before hanging up the phone. His knuckle rapped on the door. It didn't take long for Kevin to open up.
"You knew?" Kevin's tone was flat, unemotional. He didn't bother waiting for an answer. He simply left the door and walked back his kitchen counter. Marco closed the door behind him as he entered, digging his brain for the right words to use.
He watched as Kevin settled on his stool behind his counter, where a small curious red box sat. "How could I have been so foolish not to see any of this? Why did I still believe that she could ever love me again?" Kevin lamented, mostly to himself.
Marco hoped he wasn't expecting an answer. In fact he just wanted Kevin to speak his mind, release his emotions and let it all out. That was what he needed. Because what could you say to someone who had watched the love of his life confess her love for someone else?
"I don't know Marco. I don't know if I can move on," Kevin's hand reached for velvety the red box. And Marco found himself staring. He couldn't put a finger on what it was that made the box so familiar.
But when he met his teammate's eyes, it all seemed to fall into place.
"Kev, you were gonna-you were gonna ask her to marry you?"
---
so i realised i haven't thanked you guys much as of late for reading my book SO THANK YOU EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU FOR READING ILY ALL SO MUCH ❤️❤️❤️
