His Muffin

Chapter 7: The bad guy

Tristan POV

Holding a glass in my hand, my eyes were staring at the stage, watching her entertain the audience with her sweet voice. Eventually, after a few songs, she ended the performance with great applause from the crowd. A big grin surfaced on her face, and I bet the positive response from the audience satisfied her.

After waiting a couple of minutes, Scarlet reached for her phone. "I got a text from Trisha." She told Cassandra, but I heard it too.

"Is she coming?" Cassandra questioned Scarlet.

"She has to leave early tonight but she promises to join us next time."

"I guess she hasn't fully recovered yet," Scarlet answered.

I listened to their conversation silently on the couch while staring at the now-empty stage. As I laid my drink on the table, I walked away from the couch and was about to leave the place before Manuel stopped me.

"Are you leaving?" He looked at me with an odd look on his face.

"Yeah, I gotta go. See you guys tomorrow." I sauntered away from my seat, heading towards the stairs.

"That fast?"

"There is something I must take care of."

"What it's? You finally have a date?" I ignored the nosy guy, don't have any intention to respond to him.

"Damn! That cold guy ignored me repeatedly." I heard he complained. He will never get mature, and the best way to deal with him is with ignorance.

"You earned that." The rest of them added fire to the oil, taking advantage to piss him. I could hear their laughter as I was slowly descending the stairs towards the exit door.

In a short time, I reached the destination that popped up in my head since I heard they were talking about her. I suspected that not feeling well might be her excuse to avoid meeting people.

I parked my car at the roadside. Then, walking slowly toward the bench, my eyes caught sight of a figure seated there. Although her back was facing me, it was enough to assure me that she was the person I was looking for.

"As expected, not feeling well is an excuse," I murmured, secretly taking place on an empty bench chair located near to her.

I witnessed how her mouth inhaled a deep breath and breathed a sigh desperately a few times. At this moment, I wish I was gifted with the ability to read people's minds, or to be specific, her mind. She must have been upset about something.

Her following action unexpectedly caused me to ball my fist. It was obvious that she struggled hard to keep the tears wetting her cheeks. Without hesitating for a moment, I approached her and grabbed her chin, making her lay eyes on me.

"It's okay for you to cry out loud. It's not a sin and no one will judge you. Stop torturing yourself to be strong. You're allowed to cry."

"Tristan? " She gawked at me with her teary eyes. Her face looked clueless with my sudden appearance.

"Glad you still remember me."

She pulled away from my hand. I put my hand in my pockets, still standing beside her.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you afraid of getting caught again?"

"Nothing. I want to rest for a moment before heading home. Don't worry about the guys, they might assume I'm not going to show up in this place again because they found me here once. So, to conclude it, this is a safe place for me."

"Smart girl," I whispered in a low tone.

"Hold on, I should be the one to ask you that question. Why are you here?"

"Hmm, I figured this is a good place to be alone." Her eyes squinted, eyeing me with a suspicious look.

"This is a big city. Why did you choose this place?"

"Maybe this place had something that other places don't have?"

"What is that something?"

"Nothing you need to know." I refused to tell her the details, and she shrugged with my response.

"You told the girls that you weren't feeling well, but looking at you enjoyed the night view here, I suppose that's not the case."

"You know about it? Don't let them know. I don't want anyone to worry about me."

"Okay, but with one condition," I responded without glancing at her, but I could feel her eyes were looking at me, expecting me to elaborate about the condition I mentioned.

"Now we are talking about a condition again? You're unbelievable. Tell me what it is this time?"

"You should go home now."

"Why?"

"You still have the flu. It's getting cold here. If you don't want to get sick again, you should leave this place and rest at home."

"This place is safer than my house." She uttered in a low tone, but I heard her.

"Pardon?" I pretended not to hear her.

"Nothing."

"Let me send you home."

"It's all right, don't worry. I can go back on my own."

"I am willing to do it."

"What?"

"Come, follow this way."

"Tristan, I can handle it." Her words caused me to close my eyes briefly, lazy to repeat the same thing. Instead, I gripped her arm, eventually forcing her to follow me to the car.

"Tristan-"

"Treat me like I'm your brother. I want you to be safe."

Trisha POV

"Brother? " I doubt my hearing. He pulled me as I suddenly halted my step. I followed him from behind since he left me no choice. For a normal person who only met three times, the way he cared for me was extremely weird.

I drifted into my thoughts, and I didn't realize when he buckled the seat belt for me. As I returned to reality, I noticed that we were in the car, on the way to my apartment.

"Tristan, I got a question."

"Shoot. " He answered coldly while his eyes concentrated on the road.

"Are you treating everyone nicely like this?"

"Am I supposed to be a bad guy to you?"

"No, no, no, don't get me wrong. I mean-" I sighed before I could complete my sentence.

"Nevermind, just forget about it."

"Finish what's on your mind. Otherwise, it will bother you." He didn't spare me a glance. His eyes were too busy focusing on the road.

"I mean, we just met three times. So, I wondered why you're helping me."

"Is that your answer for my assumption earlier?"

"Eh? " I don't understand his point.

"I'm supposed to be the bad guy." He reminded me.

"Let's drop this topic. You made my head hurt." I squinted my eyes while observing him from the side. If I'm not mistaken, I saw a smirk appeared on his face earlier. Does that make sense?

"Thank you for sending me back."

"Don't forget to take your medicine." I gazed at him as if I heard the wrong thing.

"Did you hear me clearly?"

"Yeah, I got it. Bye." I instantly jumped out of the car and rushed to my apartment without looking at him.

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