“A roommate?” The cashier asks, finally ringing up your lunches. “In that tiny apartment?”
Wow, nosyandjudging.
Also—wait—how does he know how tiny your apartment is!? Creepy…
“Roommates with benefits,” Ziros adds with a smug smirk, and now you swear he’s doing this on purpose to get to the cashier.
How does Ziros even know what ‘with benefits’ means? Must be a magic thing. The thing where words just come to him.
The cashier glares, finally handing over your food as Ziros tightens his arm around your shoulders.
“Here’s your receipt,” he says, and you swear you can still feel his glare following Ziros all the way out the door.
Wow.
That was…weird.
And Ziros still hasn’t removed his arm from around your shoulders. Not that you really mind. There’s something safe and warm about his arm around your shoulders.
A warmth that echoes through your body as you step outside.
It’s a nice day out, so you head to a park bench near the street corner to eat. Only then does he finally let go.
“Why did you say you’re my boyfriend?” You ask once you sit down.
“Oh, I don’t know.” His smirk grows into a smug grin. “I seem to remember you put my name in your phone as ‘Hot Book Boyfriend’.”
You freeze midway through unboxing your sandwich.
Heat rushes to your face.
Oh. My. God.
“You…you saw that? How did you see that?”
Ziros just laughs as he digs into his food. “How could I not? I possessed your phone. It was all right there.”
A small group of pedestrians passes by on the street, and you wait until they’re gone before you whisper, embarrassed, “That was just a joke, you know. I was just messing around.”
“Suuuure,” he says. “And that kiss was just a joke, too.”
You blush.
“It was.”
He just laughs, going back to eating. Like he doesn’t believe you.
And he shouldn’t.
Because it wassupposedto be a joke.
But now…you absently touch your lips, the memory still haunting you. The good kind of haunting.
That kiss was no joke.
Ziros
There was something off about that cashier.
