Chapter 202. Frustrations
Evelyn didn’t respond right away. She didn’t need to.
She just stared at him with a calm, almost serene expression—a gaze too peaceful for the storm of grief clearly buried beneath it. Then, silently, as if her body could no longer hold it in, the tears began to fall again. Her already puffy, red-rimmed eyes welled up, and streams ran quietly down her cheeks.
Art didn’t need to hear a word. He understood.
She loved him. She had always loved him—deeper, far deeper than she’d ever dared to show.
He let out a small, breathless laugh. It was just... tired. His head tilted back, eyes scanning the sky above as though he expected the sky to offer some twisted form of wisdom.
"Hah... love’s such a messed-up thing, isn’t it?" he murmured, the corner of his lips twitching upward, a crooked smile forming from pure exhaustion. "On one side, you want to be with the person you love, cling to them, claim them as yours. But on the other... you’d do anything for their happiness. Even if it rips you apart. Even if it kills you inside. You’re the second kind, aren’t you, Evelyn?"
There was a long pause. He let the moment hang, not rushing her.
Then he turned, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Tell me one thing, Evelyn. How long?" His voice dropped a bit, and this time, it was serious. "How long have you been in love with that bastard?"
Evelyn sniffled. Her lips trembled, her throat burned, but she found the strength to speak. Maybe she needed to. Maybe the words had been waiting to break free for years.
"Since we were kids," she whispered, her voice hoarse. "Even before he and Amelia became a thing. Before any of you became my friends. He... he was my first friend."
She looked down at her hands, clenched in her lap.