Chapter Five
Still humming softly under his breath, Genrou stepped into the lift and pressed a button, leaning softly on the back rail. The numbers on the top row lighted up as the elevator ascended, and he thought about what else there would be. He had made reservations at a small restaurant tonight, a private affair, just him, Houjun and nobody else. Smiling to himself, he stood and jingled his car keys absentmindedly.
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He blanched.
"What?"
She stepped closer, with determination and hope so clear in her eyes he began to feel trapped. "I mean it, Houjun. I've been with Hikou for so long…but when I heard you were back in town, and living here with your—your boyfriend, I couldn't hide it anymore. I—I love you, Houjun."
He was feeling slightly breathless now. "There—there's nothing I can do about that, Kourin."
Disappointment and hurt flared in her face, and he regretted what he said almost immediately. "I'm sorry."
Tears welled up in her eyes as she moved in front of him, and darted so quickly in front of him he barely had time to register her proximity. "No. You don't understand, Houjun."
And before he could reply to that, she took that final step and kissed him just as the elevator doors behind her opened.
His blood froze as his eyes met amber ones, shock and horror in their fiery depths.
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What…?
He stepped back into the elevator, numb at the sight that had greeted him, his keys clattering to the floor. In that one split second, his heart shattered, and he stumbled backwards and fell to his knees just as the lift doors slid close. He looked up, staring at the two who were locked in an embrace, and a kiss. His eyes met Houjun's, and held the accusation as plainly as though he had shouted, before he choked, a single sob that wracked his body as he moved forward and blindly pressed the button.
I have to get out of here.
The lift began to descend.
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His mind screamed shrilly at him, and with an ungentle nature he had never known he possessed, he gripped the slim arms of his friend and shoved her backwards, hard. She was shocked, and genuinely pained; he could see it in her expression, her eyes, the limp way she slid to the floor, gazing at him with tears on her cheeks. But he couldn't stop to help her, now. Without a backward glance, he raced out of the apartment and jabbed the lift buttons, his eyes fixed on the glowing numbers that went down, down to the ground floor. The other lift chimed, and he bolted into it, praying for it to go faster as his heart thudded dully in his chest.
The lift doors opened, and he rushed out just in time to see the taillights of the red Alfa Romeo pull away into the night with a screech of its tires.