CHAPTER 018.
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This is certainly strange.

Despite the matter occurring half an hour ago, Dark could still feel his heart thunderously hammering against his chest, never showing any signs of calming any sooner.

If this wasn't so much a familiar feeling, he would have thought that he was suffering a heart attack at the moment.

However, that likely couldn't be so when he was still sitting here on his chair. Alive. Nonetheless, he still found the current situation strange.

Because why?

Why is he suddenly experiencing this right now? Why is he suddenly feeling this way about her—with her, whom he had sworn would be his love rival? It shouldn't be like this at all. His heart was only supposed to beat for Star. Yet why did it suddenly turn like this?

Since that girl returned from the restroom, right after she stepped inside the room, and his gaze fell over her, something just changed within him. Something just spread, and he had no idea what it is. One thing is for sure; he felt like he's going insane.

Because why does he suddenly found her so beautiful?! Didn't he find her plain earlier? Ordinary? Yet as he stared at your flustered expression right now, he felt that he was just being blind all along and you were in fact beautiful.

He was momentarily dazzled, and he could have stayed in that position permanently if you only didn't call his attention and snap him out of it.

It was even more insane how he was even filled the urge to snatch you at the moment and possess you, desiring to be one with you.

When he realized that, he was completely taken aback. He couldn't dare to look straight in your eyes again, afraid that he'll be caught in this sudden wave of emotions and lose touch with the actual reality.

He was rattled.

Why did his emotions suddenly turn a hundred and eighty degrees? He was only supposed to despise her—to be wary of her? But what is this?! Just a word from her, and his heart would pound so bashfully, so erratically.

He tried to stabilize his emotions, to fix this ridiculous mistake by thinking of Star. He filled his thoughts of the actor, who was far more noble compared to her. Yet his heart remained resistant, endlessly throbbing for the small presence before him.

He only dared to look at you again to confront you when it dawned on him that it wasn't only him who was feelimg this way.

Suddenly, after you gave yourself a break, there seemed to be a number of people kissing her feet. Unlike him, who forced to rid himself of these infuriating emotions, they indulged themselves in it, allowing it to fully seize their senses and drown themselves with the thoughts of you.

It was as if there was suddenly an outbreak; people were unconsciously being bewitched by you; and it terrified him that even his being caught this virus.

While he might be aware of it now, he couldn't tell if he'll be able to maintain this consciousness later on. What if—like them—he'll also submerge in this spurious emotions; and he'll forget Star in the process?

It's for this reason he didn't chase her when that girl chose to run away.

There's no denying that he didn't have an impulse because he really did feel the need to take her away. But he wasn't that irrational yet. And he couldn't just allow this to thing develop.

Whatever curse you bestowed on him; it must be stopped. It sickened him that he even had this attraction for you—an attraction that was entirely baseless.

Dark unconsciously taps his index finger on the table, staring at the air before him.

The table wasn't cleaned yet, and there were still several platters of meal before him. Untouched, as it was initially meant for the girl who had invaded his thoughts earlier and is invading it again.

His forehead wrinkled as he slapped his hand over it, riled by whatever is messing with him.

"Sir...?"

It was then someone suddenly tapped over his shoulder. Albeit, the sensation was almost like a brush of a feather; it was enough to disrupt his thoughts of you for a second.

Ironically, instead of being pleased, it brought him a different reaction.

He could not help but feel extremely angered. This feeling of unwanted rage spontaneously filled him, and he instantly tilted his head to glower at that buzzing insect.

"What?" Dark demanded.

The waiter jolted from his hopeless daydream, and his freckled face immediately turned red from being caught in his stupid daze. He lowered his head, shy and still trying to appear courtly.

In all honesty, it was not really part of the restaurant's protocols for the waiters to engage themselves with the customers with leisure talks, but he couldn't resist himself.

He had to approach the idol and ask about the girl he assisted earlier to the restroom. Because even though he already shamed himself in front of the apple of his eye, can't he still at least try to learn her name?

When Dark perceived the waiter's apprehensive appearance, he was only angered more as he was instantly reminded of how (Y/N)'s type.

Doesn't this waiter fit her taste? The waiter wasn't exactly attractive, but—he felt a bile rising in his throat as he likened the person to that specific trait—but this waiter acted cute.

There was an impulse to take the fork before his form and lash at this insect.

No!

Dark shook his head. No. These weren't his thoughts at all. He is not angry right now. No. Not at all. He breathed in, breathing out. Exhaling all these traces of killing urges within him.

"Her name, you say?" He glared at the waiter, eyeing him from top to bottom and bottom to top as if scrutinizing him if he's worthy.

A scoff leaves his mouth as he didn't see anything else. It was just an insect buzzing around, a cannon fodder in this novel world. Someone meant to appear once in the text before being totally forgotten by the audience in the outside world.

"And why should I tell you her name," he venomously spat out as he pushed the chair away from the table and stood up, preparing to leave. "Should you care about her name? If you're interested with her, you'd better give up. She's taken by my friend Nyx."

He drew out a smirk as he saw the waiter automatically froze from the revelation. Trembling. His eyes leaking tears from its corners.

"Nyx? She's taken by Nyx?" he dolefully whispered; the words echoing his soundless mind.

The information is not something he's exactly expecting, and it's not something he even like to hear. Anything but this—anything but this.

He felt the world around him seemed to crumble as the heart that had been supposedly taken by his beloved was actually still inside his chest, just currently breaking into tiny pieces and stabbing his guts inside-out.

Dark didn't even bother to confirm it. His words should be enough to put that insect back into his place. Wiping off an invisible dust off his lap, he then callously left the VIP room.

It was only when he entered his car that he realized that he had been grinning all these time.

Looking at the side mirror, the handsome face that was usually mired with indifference had a trace of a smile on his lips.

It looked beautiful yet severely demented. Something that he was awfully familiar with because he only usually brought it out at the thought of his beloved actor.

The smile was instantly replaced by a cold frown. His dark-grey eyes, slowly dimming, at the realization that you were truly gradually replacing Star in his heart. No, was it even gradual? It was happening in a rate that he couldn't keep up at all.

And he didn't like it. Not even a single bit. And he should probably do something about this. Right? After all, for Star, he won't let anyone and anything hinder their love. Not even by you and whatever hex you threw over him. He will do anything to stop this. Even if it takes a murder to stop this bullshit.

✭ 𝕬𝖉𝖉𝖎𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖆𝖑 𝕾𝖈𝖊𝖓𝖊 ✭

It had already been an hour since the idol left the waiter, but the poor man hadn't left his position. He just stood there, silently crying. His mouth would heave out a sob every now and then as his hand would repetitively knock the chest that confined his broken heart.

As if severely crushed, there was nothing that could be done for him. The other waiters had already tried to coax him out of this sobbing mess as they also wished to know of their beloved's name, but they received nothing, just the sound of sniveling and snuffling.

His being had been totally snatched from reality as he could only recall the words that had been discarded by that cruel man. Unknown to them, his sanity was also gradually slipping as the purpose of being hers seemed to be meaningless after all.

What's the point of having this heart? He knocked himself harder in the heart. What's the point of having this heart when he can't even offer it to you? When you don't even need it?

He knocked himself harder and harder, hoping to smash this useless heart. Hoping to destroy this fucking useless heart.

He knocked it until it came to the point that the skin under his suit started to bruise. He knocked it until the physical pain he felt resembled the emotional pain that he was currently feeling.

All the surrounding waiters were startled and confused, but they didn't really bother to call anyone for help. They just aggressively tugged on his arm, desperately asking about your identity.

"What did you hear? What did you hear?!" the waiters cried, as the fear within them grew and viciously choked their souls.

Did something happen to you? Are you in danger?

Even though they had no idea what this freckled waiter heard, they can suddenly understand why they felt like they wanted to hurt themselves too. The thought of you being in danger was enough for them to feel like they wanted to self-harm too.

The freckled waiter let out a somber smile.

"Do you really want to hear?" he asked in a quiet, woeful whisper. His gaze drifting to a steak knife that was resting on the round table. His fellow co-workers thoughtlessly nodded, just wanting to ease themselves from their inner predicaments.

Never really predicting that his response would only turn out the opposite for them and instead amplify these self-harm instincts.

A suicide massacre would then soon be heard to occur, lavishly staining the fancy VIP room that you had once dined in with blood brought about by these waiters' anguish and longing—brought about by the intense love that they had for you who just chose to selfishly abandon them.

"Meow."

A black cat stood from a distance, curiously staring at the bodies that had decorated the velvet-carpeted floor.