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Chapter 11: Silent Devotion

They were there before Crystal could even focus on what is happening. The roles of either gangs are different, so she'll probably won't encounter them until a little while later.

Brian and all others where dressed in their disguises, leaving only her and Aeon for a different task, "You two keep on the lookout. If anyone finds you, you know the drill—"

"We know," she wanted to shout at him for reminding them. To make the most obscene show so that others on patrol won't find anything too suspicious. Brian nods at Aeon and runs in with the other gang members.

"Who knew we'd have the perfect role for this," Aeon chuckles, and was then again ignored. He knew how much Crystal hated the idea of them marrying, and he knows she doesn't like him like he does with her. Over the past two years, he strived so hard to win over the marriage topic from his dad and Brian, and all these years he couldn't stop thinking about her even when they were just kids back then. Aeon thought they were meant to be together at some point, but seeing her fully uninterested with him and everything he had done pains him to the core. But despite all that, he was willing to find anything that would make her happy, and right now Crystal is looking at her watch in worry.

"We still got time before they come back. Wanna go for a quick stop at the theater?"

Her head snaps in his direction for the second time that day, "Why?"

He scoffs, leading the way to the car so that the girl had no choice but to follow, "From the way I see it, it'll take them at least forty minutes. Let them wait unsuspectingly. Besides, I think you're a little compressed on time so we better rush."

Crystal looks to the way they've came then to the van. If Aeon can make this work, then they'll have enough time to go back and forth to accommodate both scenarios at once.

Crystal closes the door with a loud smack and stood in front of the theater, unable to hear a groan from inside the van as Aeon begrudgingly hoped that his precious van is okay.

"I knew I should've practiced," she fumbled with her phone to try and find the right song. The boy stood there waiting for her to enter, but it seemed like she's too much into her music that her feet walked side to side in jitter. As her mouth lip synced the lyrics with a bit of taps from her heel, he knew he had to step up this time and get her to go.

"It's not showtime yet, is it? What are you gonna sing there, anyway?"

Crystal forcibly yanked her earphone in irritation, but she was not about to lose it, not yet at least, especially since he's merely asking an innocent question. "Just a song that Buster Moon picked."

"Oh? Are you gonna dance there too?"

She huffs, "And why would I...." her eyes stared blankly into space at a stroke of realization, but shook her head anyway, "No. No, I'll won't dance."

"What's the title?"

"What's it to you?"

He shrugs. Crystal gave in after just a few seconds and shows him her phone where the title 'Halo' was stuck on the screen at play.

"Yo!" he lightheartedly laughs, "That's like the song we've used to practice dancing when we were twelve. How nostalgic is that?!"

"What? Twelve?" He's not wrong, she did attended dance lessons with this particular song on loop for one particular school play her mother wanted her to perform before. "You were there too?"

"You didn't remember me?" Aeon puts two circular hand signs over his eyes with a dumb look on his face, "Skinny A?"

"That boy who dropped me from a dance lift?!"

"And because of that, we've changed partners. I'm surprise you'd remember that version of me."

"Of course, my mom was so pissed she had to scold my new partner until he bawled his eyes out."

"His mom and your mom had a catfight outside the studio," another laugh escapes his throat at the memory. That was too hilarious for him to take.

"And here I thought that boy would become the skinniest male alive," she does a double take on him at how dissimilar he was when he was 12. His body changed drastically, even Aeon was embarrassed being reminded of his old weak self.

"Since you've literally practiced it already, why don't you give it a shot and do a bit of both? Sing and dance?"

Crystal worriedly pauses her phone, "Impossible. It needs two people for that choreography." Then again, they did learn the same thing after all, "Come to think of it, Mr. Moon didn't lay out any limitation on how to do the performance either." She quickly grabs his wrist and drags themselves inside the theater.

"Hold on, what? What's going on?" he asks, though he refused to believe she's thinking what he's thinking, even if it is in fact the same.

"Help me get through this dress rehearsal."