Content Warning: This chapter has a few sensual scenes that may not be suitable for younger audiences. Kindly skip this chapter if you're younger than 18 years old.

"Even kids in their neckerchiefs know better than to go to Station 6 alone! What has gotten into you, Pia?" Agui said as he was pacing around my room, his fists clenched and his face sour.

"I wasn't alone, you know. I was meeting up with my matches," I whispered as I looked into my bare feet hanging off my bed.

"And that makes it worse, you know?" Agui exclaimed, his voice echoing through my room. Just as his voice rang through my ears, I felt a sharp pain at the back of my neck, which I instinctively rubbed to ease the pain. I felt a squishy material stuck on it, and a lingering coldness of whatever it was crept into my neck as I pressed on the gel-like material that it was made of.

"You're meeting up with strangers in the most dangerous part of Tanglawan, and now you're shrugging it off like it was no big deal."

"It was a big deal," I murmured, still pressing on the gel-like substance at the base of my neck. "You don't have to rub it in."

"Oh really? Then why did you keep going to that place despite knowing its dangers?" Agui said, raising his voice again.

At that moment, I decided to look up at him, expecting to see his angry face, but all I could see was concern etched on his face. I opened my mouth to speak, but decided against it and just continued pressing on whatever it was on my neck.

Agui made a half-kneeling position in front of me and leaned over in response. His face was so close that the tip of his nose ended up touching mine. I dared not blink as I took in his features, now more mature than the last time I saw them up close. I felt him grab my wrist and said, "That's a medicated patch; stop pressing on it or it will lose its effect,"

He then stood up while still bending over, hand still on my wrist, and proceeded to pin me over my bed. He now held both my wrists and placed them over my head, and I could not fight him, nor I wished to fight him, for I longed for us to do this even before.

"You should've just called me over and had this done over with if this was what you were after in Station 6," he said, his intense eyes boring into mine. I never felt so naked until this moment, even more naked than when I was being intimate with all the strangers I have met in Station 6.

Agui's wet lips met mine, his tongue hungrily thrusting against mine as he pressed on me more deeply, his hand not letting go of my wrists. I met his hungry kisses with the same desire, for I have longed for him to do this even after our first kiss.

He moved my hands on top of each other, his one hand pressing on them, the other tracing the edges of my jaw, then my neck, all the way to my breasts, which he started to fondle. But that act extinguished my fire, my passion left in a snap, and it was as if I suddenly gained the power to push him away from me when I remembered the touches of Manisilat. My body reacted to Agui's touches in the way it will react with an assaulter, and I do not blame it for doing so.

"I-I'm sorry, I can't do this," I told Agui as I curled into a ball, my face turned in his direction, but my eyes looking past him.

"N-no, I should be the one to say sorry. I just couldn't fathom the idea that you have to go to other people when you could've just asked me for it," he said as he threw himself on my bed, just a few inches beside me. I tried not to be touched by him as he did it.

"And commit a sin with you by letting you cheat on Dian?" I said as I raised my chin, trying hard not to let my tears fall, but they streamed down cheeks and pooled in my ears, anyway. "You already rejected me, and I don't want to get into your Dian's bad side."

"I only got together with her because you went away," Agui sighed.

I wiped my tears from my eyes and ears from what he said, and looked at him who was already looking in my direction while laying down. I creeped over to get a little bit closer to him, still shaking from what happened earlier, but definitely determined to know more about what he had to say.

"I didn't go away," I retaliated. "I was left with no choice because you rejected me, anyway."

"I rejected you when?" he said, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"I-in JUICE, Co. Hub. You said you liked a girl with high compatibility with you, and you want to ask her out," I stammered, but I felt so relieved to let everything out. "And you asked her out, right? That's why you got together with Dian."

"No way. I was just kidding back then," Agui answered, almost with a snort.

"W-what do you mean? I took it seriously, you know!"

"Yeah, I didn't know you took it that seriously," he answered as he got up and cupped my face. "And it wasn't even Dian who I was referring to back then.."

"Y-yeah," was all I could let out from all these dizzying revelations.

"No, but really. I was just poking fun then. It was you that I loved, and I still do, until now," Agui said while still cupping my face, before he kissed my forehead. "But anyway, maybe this is for the best."

"W-what do you mean?"

"I don't think we can be together," Agui said, fear now creeping over his previously serene face. "Not now, at least in this lifetime."

"You can always break up with Dian if it was what you're being scared of."

"N-no, this is different. We really can't be together," he said, now letting go of my face and going straight towards the door.

"It's not just my relationship with Dian, that's the problem. I'm sorry, but we really can't be together. Just... take care of yourself."

Agui practically dashed as he moved away from me, banging the door of my room as he went away.

"I'm sorry," I heard his voice say in a robotic voice through the exoMail.

"Coward!" I shouted on top of my lungs as I threw my pillow towards the door where he left me hanging again.