Define The Relationship Novel - Chapter 92

With a subdued face, Ash looked down at him. His deep blue eyes and grey eyes flickered unsteadily. With the repeated rejections, Ash looked deeply hurt.

“If you don’t tell me why you’re doing this and push me away like this, I might get upset too. So, will you tell me why? Did I make a mistake?”

Even though he seemed angry, Ash was calm. He didn’t push Karlyle away immaturely like Karlyle had, and he was trying to hear his reason. But Karlyle had no composure left in his heart. Faced with the fact that the person he loved most in the world seemed to have had someone more precious than him, he couldn’t make a rational judgment. Even as he constantly blamed himself, his heart wouldn’t follow. It was unlike him, who was always restrained and never acted childishly.

“With someone named Hazel…”

Karlyle finally brought up the name. Ash’s eyes widened at the name that had escaped his lips.

“Were you planning a future?”

His heart shattered. Karlyle’s eyes twisted. It felt so pathetic to say those words himself.

“If she was someone so precious that you were even bonded… I think it would have been better if you had mentioned it to me.”

It felt like nails were being driven into his ribs. His eyes grew warm. Moisture gathered in his reddened eyes.

“I don’t understand why I have to keep hearing her name from other people.”

Karlyle paused, exhaling a wet breath. Ash rushed towards him.

“Wait a minute.”

He shook his head. He pushed away Ash’s arms that tried to embrace him. When he pushed hard, Ash stumbled back.

“I know Ash has a lot of experience, and has loved many people. But Ash, it’s not pleasant to hear all your friends talking about her.”

Biting his lips until they turned white, Karlyle confessed his true feelings to Ash in a tearful voice.

“Lyle, please. Will you listen to me for a moment? We weren’t like that.”

Ash, his voice desperate and almost frantic, tried to close the distance between them. But if he faced Ash like this, he felt he would blurt out harsh words.

“I don’t want to hear it right now.”

He kept shaking his head. Ash looked at Karlyle with a hurt expression. He looked utterly helpless. Karlyle politely gestured towards the door. He avoided Ash’s gaze.

“I would appreciate it if you would leave. Later… I want to talk.”

Silence fell. Ash stood stiffly, looking at Karlyle as if he had been slapped. His arched eyebrows held both apology and pain. After a few minutes of silence, Ash raised a hand and ran it over his face. Then he slowly spoke.

“Alright.”

Karlyle saw Ash stepping back. He watched him with a pained heart, then slowly gripped the doorknob. Ash’s gaze fell on his hand.

“I won’t talk to you until Lyle wants me to.”

His voice was small and faint, like a dying flame. It was so clear that he had hurt Ash, Karlyle even wondered if it wouldn’t be better for him to simply disappear from the world.

“I’m sorry.”

His pained lips uttered an apology. Karlyle, who was about to close the door, looked down. He saw Ash’s bare feet, who had come to find him without even wearing slippers.

“I’m sorry for making Lyle feel this way. I was wrong. I should have told you beforehand. I shouldn’t have impulsively created such a situation. So Lyle…”

Ash smiled with a tearful face and pleaded with him.

“Just don’t cry alone when I’m not around.”

The moment he heard those words, he felt like crying. Everything was a mess. He had ruined a day that should have been perfect, from beginning to end. Overwhelmed by unbearable self-loathing, Karlyle closed the door. The soft click of the door closing filled the hallway and room with an unusual loudness.

He didn’t hear footsteps retreating. Karlyle quietly rested his hand on the door and roughly wiped away the tears that had gathered. He didn’t deserve to cry.