SUGAR & ICE. － lbc

° twenty-four °

Tin was at a loss.

He was taking his turn on the sitting stool at the café whilst Rain went around, cleaning tables and throwing away trash that customers had left behind. Now that the rush hour was over, he had nothing to distract himself with and his mind apparently loved making him suffer by forcing him to think of Can.

Can was odd. What kind of person refuses designer merchandise being given to them for free? Could it possibly be a ploy to trick Tin into believing Can wasn't interested in his money? Or maybe, Can was different.

Impossible. Humans are all the same. Fake and hungry for fame, wealth, power. All anyone wanted was his money and that was all he had ever known. Can wasn't different from the rest. He couldn't be. He was a human like the others － like Tin.

As expected, not an hour later, the very boy occupying his mind entered the establishment, round eyes shyly meeting Tin's before he turned away and went over to his table, setting his bag on the floor beside his chair.

Tin pushed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, rolling it in thought.

Whether Can was pretending to be uninterested or not didn't matter, he decided, for in the end it was him playing the footballer, not the other way around.

It would be Tin to break his heart and it would be Tin to betray him.

The idea didn't entice him, rather it set off an unease within him that made him squirm, and yet he had already settled on following through with the plan, right? He had already put in so much effort.

Glancing over at a busy Rain, he steeled himself prior to pushing his body off of the stool and onto his feet, striding out from behind the counter and towards a clueless Can.

"Hi."

The boy's head shot up, surprise evident, but he gave a nod of acknowledgement anyway.

"Hello, Ai'Tin."

Tin took the polite response as a positive signal and sat down in the seat opposite the other, clasping his hands together upon the table top.

"How are you?"

"I'm okay, I guess," Can replied, shifting almost uncomfortably under the taller's hard gaze, "Not to be rude, but why are you trying to be nice to me all of a sudden? I forgot to ask you last time and it's been bothering me a lot, so I would like to have an answer."

His jaw tensed, a light wrinkle forming between his eyebrows.

"I don't hate you."

Can let out a noise to show his lack of understanding, but Tin pretended to have not captured it and proceeded to change the topic.

"I'm sorry for what happened. I really meant no offence when I offered you the gifts. I only wanted to give you something."

Perhaps saying sorry wasn't so hard, but his palms were sweating and he couldn't tear his eyes away from Can, something which ultimately made speaking harder for him.

"I understand," the student across him replied, gaze flitting around the café as if to avoid Tin, "but those were too expensive. We probably wouldn't even have anywhere to wear stuff like that to."

Tin gave a nod, comprehending only partially what the other was trying to say, for he still couldn't see it as a good reason to deny the gifts.

Abruptly, Can's eyes landed on him, a subtle smile forming on his lips.

"If you want to buy us something, I can show you were we usually go to get stuff."

Tin said nothing so Can went ahead, voice sounding happy as he set his palms on the side edges of his seat, and gently swung his legs beneath the table.