Zack opened the door to his new apartment and carefully balanced four paper bags and a grocery bag that was beginning to turn his index finger purple onto the counter.

"Hah…" He let's out a loud gasp as he puts the food on the counter. "Geez. Think I overdid it with the shopping?" He says to himself.

"Yup."

"Holy fu-" Zack spins around to see V leaning against the wall with a smile of his face. "You!… V how long have you been there?"

"Long enough to see your face get all red as you tried to put all that stuff on the counter."

"You could've helped you know…"

"I know." He walks forward and starts to take out the groceries. "It was just too funny not to watch. In fact." He pulls up his phone.

"You took a picture?" Zack sighs as he puts the oranges in the fruit bowl.

V starts to laugh as he looks at the photo and shows Zack. Sure enough his face is all red, his cheeks are puffed out, and he looks like he walks with bricks in his pants. Zack can't help but laugh with V. He looked pretty ugly in the photo but it was pretty funny. "Well I'm glad my tomato face pleases you."

"T-tomato face! Yeah you do look like a tomato pfft ha ha ha."

Zack smiled fondly. It was rare for it to happen but when V laughed it was as if all the fear Zack harbored melted away. This relationship was complicated. After his first RFA party Zack and V had accumulated quite the friendship. They trusted each other and told each other, privately, their biggest fears. They both agreed that they would live together, in V's apartment, and be there for each other. As friends. Except only V saw their relationship as a friendship.

Zack however, it was painful. He loved V, romantically, but he never dared to tell him. What if that ruined their relationship? The person he only knew for 11 days, the person he knew was his soulmate, had sold his soul to someone else. Someone Zack could never be. He watched from afar as V dealt with his pain for Rika. He sat there comforting V when he cried for his lost love and Zack sat there digging his nails into his skin trying to stay strong. Then they would say goodnight, V would always say "I wish I didn't bring nothing but sadness to you", and in his room Zack cried. He cried that the person he loved would never love him back. That the person that he loved only thought of himself as a burden. But that was okay. Just being by his side was all he needed.

"I'm sending it to Luciel."

Zack tossed rolled bread at him. "Don't. He'll show it to everyone else. He'll make it both his profile and banner photo. His caption will be something like, 'ERROR Human tomato attacking town.' Or something."

"Ha ha! He will!"

Later that evening V went on a walk to take some local photos as Zack stayed behind to cook some dinner. Normally they went together talking about their surroundings or their day or something Jumin said about his cat. V was pretty good at impersonating him. He looked around the apartment. V's photo's were pinned all over the wall, in fact most of the things in the house were V's. Zack liked displaying V's things photo's. V had a real talent for this and each one moved any person who looked at them. Normally when he looked at V's photos he felt this overwhelming feeling of calmness and love. Except for one. One that was displayed in V's room.

It made him feel angry, pissed, and jealous. Zack wanted to destroy it. Burn it and throw the ashes into the wind. But what kind of friend would he be if he did that. Friend. "Ow!" He looked down to see he had cut his finger. The blood poured out onto the white cutting board. "Dammit." He ran into his bathroom. "Bandages, bandages. Where are they?" He sighed and ran into V's bathroom happy to find anti-bacterial, water resistant, with extra aloe oil band aids. "Always prepared." Zack chuckled as he cleaned off the blood and wrapped his finger with a blue bandage. He walked out into V's room and froze. There it was. A picture of Rika wearing a blue dress with a blue sunhat and sunflowers's in her hay colored hair. Zack stared at it picking up the photo and staring at her face. She was beautiful. She had a kind smile. She looked like she told the funniest stories and care for every person she met. This photo that V would smile at before he left the ouse. This photo that he looked at first thing in the morning and was the last thing he saw at night. This photo that he cried over whenever he told Zack about his pain. This photo that he cherish-

RIPRIP
RIPRIP
RIPRIP

Zack's hands started to shake as he realized to late on what he had done. "Fuck…" His eyes were watering. On the floor were shreds of the photo. Torn so finely you couldn't even put it back together if you tried. He collapsed like a rag doll onto the hard wood. "Oh my god…" He brought his trembling hands to his head. "What…did I just do?" He felt panic run up his neck. "Oh fuck…god why…why did I do that?!" His eyes were burning as hot tears rolled down his cheeks. This was…the last photo V had taken himself of Rika. One that hadn't been destroyed.

The front door unlocked and Zack felt his stomach tighten. "I'm home." V's gentle voice called out. "Zack?"

No…don't say my name. It sounds so caring from you. I'm the worst. I'm a monster. He heard footsteps and then something plastic fell to the floor. Zack couldn't look up. He just stared at the ripped up photo, in complete disbelief for what he'd done. His whole body was shaking and he moved to his knees hugging himself in a sort of upward fetal position. Strangled sobs were being choked out as Zack tried to apologize. The footsteps grew closer.

Yell at me! Hit me! Throw me out! Please just say something to me! V had dropped to his knees. Just say something to me! He squeezed his eyes shut and waited…

V moved and suddenly his arms were around Zack's shaking body. "It's okay…" V said soothingly. "I know… I know why you did it." Zack gasped his eyes watering more as he looked at V. He was gently smiling, his teal colored eyes looking straight into Zack's blurry blue ones. "I must have angered you whenever I talked about her. The things I said made you see that I was suffering. You were just trying to protect me. I'm sorry I did this to you." V's voice was so caring and forgiving. Zack choked back another sob.

No…I didn't do this because I was hurt for you. I did this out of jealousy because I-

"I'm not mad Zack. I want you to know that." He petted his hair gently. "It's okay to cry. You don't have to feel bad."

It's okay to cry…I want to cry so badly. Zack put his arms around V. It hurt. It hurt so much to hold him like this. He wanted to tell him how much he cared. How much he cherished his presence. But the only thing that came out were loud sobs as his body shook in anger and sorrow.

"V…" Zack mumbled. I'm sorry that I love you.