E T H A N

A few days had passed and I was finally discharged from the hospital.

My sister drove us back home and the car ride was too silent. Everything felt heavy. There was this bad aura lingering in the air right now and I wasn't comfortable having a little chit-chat with Yen. She will probably scold me if ever I did since she'll bring up the mountaineering trip that we had.

As soon as I was supposed to take a quick nap inside the car, my phone rang loudly. Yen wasn't looking at the mirror, but I could already feel that she was trying to see and listen if ever I accepted the call. Taking the phone right beside me, I saw Benedict trying to contact me.

"Who is it?" I heard my sister asking as my eyes shot right up in her direction. She took a turn to Starbucks, stopped there to park the car, and decided to take a turn to face me.

Gulping, I replied shortly. "Oh, it's Benedict. He's probably just checking in if I'm feeling alright."

"Go answer the phone then," she told me as I wanted her to repeat what she just said. She wanted me to answer. She probably wants to listen to us on speaker.

Nodding without hesitation, I answered the phone. I didn't want to make my sister much madder than she already is at me.

When I finally answered, I was already bombarded with questions and even complaints. Most of them were about the restaurant's payment back then and mostly all about my teammates worrying about my condition.

But one, in particular, had made me go stiff.

"I also told the girl that you should meet up with her."

Yen's ears almost perked up as I tried to put it off speaker and answer. "Are you crazy? You know that girl is mad at me for almost killing her every time we encounter each other."

There was no way that I would meet up with that girl. I'd get killed on the spot as soon as she sees me.

"And now you want me to meet her? That's the last thing I want to do. The first thing on my list is to run to another country, if possible." Benedict sighed right on the other side of the call and possibly even facepalming himself.

"Look, Ethan, running away is not the best option right now."

"And do you really think seeing her would be the best one? Oh, come on, Benz. Just stop."

There was a bit of a silent pause so I could already tell that he was trying not to scream back at me. I guess he wasn't expecting me to avoid the situation at hand. Well, I can't do it. It's going to be awkward at its finest.

"Well, what do you want to do then? You're both at the same university. The best thing you could do right now is to make peace," Benz tried to convince but I kept on telling him that it wasn't a great idea to do this.

Before I could even apologize, I'm sure that girl would be throwing daggers at me. Not by her looks though, maybe it'll be literally.

"I think we both have a different meaning of peace. Peace to her is all about not ever seeing me again," I replied as Yen gave me a raised eyebrow. She then told me to put it back to the speaker so she could know what we were discussing.

No, I don't think that would be a great idea. She'll tell me to do it just like Benz does.

I signaled her to go and order since there were already people looking at our car. I guess they were confused as to why we parked our car if we weren't going to order. My sister probably felt a bit embarrassed so she gave me a look before leaving the car.

As soon as she left me behind, I put Benedict back on the speaker. "I just don't think it's the best option right now, Benz. Sorry."

"You're overreacting right now. Just accept it and make a call. I'm sure she won't do anything bad to you." If only I could tell this guy what incidents I caused. My lips were sealed shut as he continued to persist.

I still wasn't sure if she was the type of person who would do the same thing I did to her for Karma to work out in her favor.

"Are you sure she won't run me over with her car?"

"Why would she even do that to you?"

"Just cause."

There was another pause before a long sigh had come out from Benedict. My gut feeling tells me that he won't back down on this one. He would keep on pushing his idea until I agree on his terms. "Look, just make the call. I'll send you her phone number."

"There's really no talking to you out of this, huh?" My sister then came back with two orders I then heard pure silence from the call. My eyebrows furrowed before trying to call out his name again.

"Hello? Benz?"

There was no response for so long so I could already tell that he hung up on me. My lips pursed as Yen took a sip of her salted caramel cream cold brew drink and smiled. "What did he say?"

A glare was the only thing I could give to her right now. I then heard the sound of notifications on my phone and I noticed that Benedict already gave me the number I was supposed to call.

A bit nervous to call, I hesitated at first before trying to contact her. There was a faint noise in the background so I assumed that she was already there, waiting for me to say something.

"Hello?"

A female voice then answered the call and even replied. But, judging on the voice of her tone, she wasn't too happy to hear me. "Let me guess, this is Ethan."

"Benedict gave me your number." She wasn't answering at all. I figured that she wanted to hear me out first so I continued, "I want to apologize. About the incident that happened before."

"And?" she asked me, her tone a bit too bored already. So, I decided to cut it to the chase.

"And I want to meet up to pay for all the trouble I made."

Her voice suddenly got a bit loud as she tried to argue about what I said. "Wait, that wasn't part of the deal. I don't want to meet up with you—"

I cut her short enough just so I could end the call quickly.

"Let's see each other tomorrow."