“Hey, is Non really that busy?” Ashley asked, craning her neck to catch the eye of our server. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen him.”

  Cody’s attention was too preoccupied with perusing the menu options for him to chime in and agree.

  The diner, packed with students, was filled with loud chatter that melded together into a buzzing noise. I almost couldn’t hear myself think, which was a good thing because I didn’t want to think. I especially didn’t want to think about the question that Ashley had just posed.

  “Yeah, he couldn’t come today,” I said. “He’s rushing an assignment that’s due tomorrow.”

  While that was technically true, it wasn’t the main reason he wasn’t here with us right now. Non always managed to make time for anything he wanted to do. Since that day in the dining room, he had been avoiding going pces with me where many people could see us.

  All of a sudden, he was too busy to accompany me to get dinner or meet me after any csses I had that ended in the evening. It was fine for me to drop by his dorm room to study together, though.

  It seemed like it had become unspoken between us that our days of acting like a couple in public were over.

  We didn’t sit down and have an actual talk about it. We hadn’t kissed in two weeks, not even when we were alone. While he hadn’t tried to initiate since, I had also been too fearful of rejection to kiss him myself. The st thing I wanted was for him to turn his face away or pull back, wrecking the pathetic sembnce of whatever retionship we had left.

  If we couldn’t be a couple in public, and we couldn’t be one in private, what were we anymore?

  I didn’t want to think about this.

  “That sucks,” Cody said, setting down his menu. “Maybe we should get dinner again next week. You know, find a date when he doesn’t have anything on.”

  “Yeah,” Ashley chirped, her eyes practically sparkling at that suggestion, “that’s a great excuse for us to hang out again.”

  I snorted. “Since when did we need an excuse to hang out?”

  “She has a point,” Cody said to Ashley. “We could meet up every day if we wanted.”

  “Do we have the time to all meet up every day?”

  A fresh surge of anxiety made my mind prickle, tugging my focus away from the conversation to my own internal thoughts.

  What would happen when we graduated?

  Could I introduce Non to any future friends I made with him still looking like a teenager? Did I have the guts to introduce him as my boyfriend? What would going on dates with him be like in a few more years? Would it be like what we were doing now—barely touching or looking each other in the eyes? Could those even be considered dates anymore?

  It felt like, whether we verbalized it or not, we were over.

  If you couldn’t envision your future together, wasn’t your retionship basically over?

  I was such a sucker for whipped cream on French toast drizzled with maple syrup and topped with strawberries. I didn’t even care that it wasn’t a ‘dinner’ meal. The tension in my body dissolved as I dug into the almost cloying sweetness of the dessert.

  It made the awkward silence hanging over us almost bearable. Across the table from me, even Non even appeared a bit more rexed as he watched me scarf down a strawberry.

  We had just found this café while on a zy evening stroll outside. I had just been in the mood for something sweet, and there weren’t many people inside, so it was perfect that we’d stumbled across it.

  “Can I have a bite?” he said, startling me.

  “Um…”

  “A small bite’s fine,” he said. “You know mints are fine for me. The strawberries look nice. I’m curious.”

  That was true. As long as it wasn’t more than a tiny morsel, he wouldn’t become ill from eating a bit of food. Non looked genuinely interested in what I’d ordered. Of course, I couldn’t bme him. It was the first illustration on the menu I’d been drawn to.

  “Sure,” I said, scooping up a smaller strawberry.

  Meaning to feed him, I raised the spoon. However, Non merely reached over with his hand to take my spoon by the handle.

  “Thanks,” he said.

  “O-oh. Yeah, no problem.” I mustered a small smile as I got my spoon back.

  “Hm? Is something up?”

  I mentally kicked myself. Of course it wouldn’t occur to him that I was trying to feed him. What was I thinking?

  “Nope.” I shook my head.

  This winter break, it was my turn to accompany Non on his visit back home. Mr. Lawson made time to have dinner with us, although Non refused to eat in front of me. He would always excuse himself an hour before to get his own meal. When he came back just in time for dinner, he would join us at the table and sip at a gss of water while we ate.

  It was still kind of weird to sit across the table from my former school principal. To his credit, however, Mr. Lawson never acted awkward about it.

  I had still never gotten to see Non eat his own food, but I sort of understood where he was coming from. I wanted to think that I wouldn’t have any kind of strong reaction or think any differently of him if I saw him eating a live squirrel or something with my own two eyes.

  If I were Non, though, maybe I would have reservations about letting anyone else see me eat. I could see how it could be as private as toilet business, considering his current diet wasn’t of his own choice, so I never pried.

  Somewhere behind me in the café, someone ughed loudly, in a cute and girly way. If Non hadn’t snapped his head up to stare past me, over my shoulder, in the direction of that ugh, I wouldn’t even have given it a second thought.

  “What’s wrong?” I looked back to see what—or who—it was that had caught his attention.

  There weren’t many people here. While there were two other tables that were occupied, one was taken by a middle-aged couple who were quietly sipping at their coffee while using their own respective ptops.

  A petite girl who looked like she was in high school was seated at the other one. She wore an oversized lic pullover and skinny jeans. Her shoulder-length dirty blonde hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, and her huge, thick-rimmed dark blue gsses framed her face, making it look even smaller.

  The boy, who also looked about high school age and who had made my cappuccino earlier, stood by her table as they conversed. In her hand was a bright pink heart-shaped straw with two heads, the kind of novelty straw that would be used in a couples-only meal set during Valentine’s Day.

  She inserted it into the huge gss of iced tea on her table and tipped one head of the straw towards him. I couldn’t quite catch what she was saying to him, but the barista’s ears turned pink. He said something back, eliciting a pout from her. Then she leaned down and sipped from the end of the straw that was facing her. They exchanged a few more words before he, too, bent forward to take a sip from the other end of the straw.

  Okay, so they were flirting. It was kind of cute, although it wasn’t any of my business.

  Upon turning around, I was greeted with the sight of Non’s hands on the table curling into fists.

  Non wasn’t the type of guy to gawk at other girls with me around. Actually, I was pretty sure he didn’t even gnce at other girls regardless of my presence. I didn’t think he was staring because of wandering eyes. However, I’d never seen anyone who could draw this kind of reaction from him.

  “What’s wrong?” I repeated in concern.

  He didn’t take his eyes off her.

  “Eri,” he said tersely. “That’s Eri.”

  What?

  My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t whip my head around fast enough.

  The girl who had turned Non into what he was today was sitting just two tables away, giggling happily at something the barista was saying to her.

  I found myself scrutinizing her appearance, taking everything in.

  The confidence she exuded as she leaned back in her seat, while reaching out to tap the guy on his wrist, was almost palpable. I caught a glint in her dark amber eyes before she pushed her chair back and stood.

  I couldn’t stop staring. I couldn’t move.

  Still grinning at him, she took a few steps back. Was she already leaving?

  My eyes nded on her barely touched gss of iced tea, with the two-headed straw still resting in it.

  Eri made her way to the door and fshed another winning smile at the barista before pushing the door open. He blushed a little and waved. Then he picked up the unfinished beverage and headed back to the counter.

  At the loud sound of chair legs being dragged across the floor, my attention snapped back to my own table.

  Non was already standing.

  “I’ve got to go,” he said. “Wait here for me. I’ll call you.”

  “I’ll go with you,” I said, jumping to my feet.

  There was no way I could let Non go to meet her alone. I mean, sure, technically he was likely just as strong as she was now, so she wouldn’t be able to overpower him as she did before, but how could I just let him go alone?

  Besides, what was he pnning to do? I couldn’t imagine any kind of confrontation going well. I couldn’t sit here imagining all kinds of scenarios that could potentially go down while not knowing what was happening in real time.

  “No,” he said, already striding towards the entrance. “You should stay here. I’ll be back.”

  The gss door was just closing. Non caught it by the metal handle and yanked the door open, practically flying out after her.

  My hesitation sted a split-second—and then I ran after them.