Chapter 58: 56 | Discomfort

"Oh, my God..." Blue said with the urge to hide inside his walls and run away from the shame he was feeling.

How could Winter clean up his room?? Blue looked inside his bathroom very well. The things in his mirror cabinet were arranged in order of use. He walked out to see that Winter had reorganized his drawers and done his dirty laundry.

Blue dashed to the living room. That was when he lost his senses. His house was literally sparkling clean like the interior of those clean houses one would see in cartoons. The piles of rubbish that were always littered about the place and the messes he would sweep under the chairs or rugs... they were all gone.

It wasn’t real.

Blue had to check out everything in the house, in fear that Winter had just wiped everything down and hid them inside a closet. But there wasn’t anything like that. Winter had truly cleaned up after him.

And it was frightening.

Blue didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. Why would Winter do something like this? Was it to make him happy or to emphasize on the fact that he was a slob who couldn’t put his things together well?

Suddenly, Blue grew angry.

"I never asked him to do any of this." Blue said through gritted teeth, grabbing the edges of the counter in the kitchen.

"Who does he think he is?"

Just because they’d done some things didn’t give Winter the right to clean up after him. What kind of message did that send? That Blue was a dirty slob and that Winter was a clean and pristine guy who didn’t like messes.

The more Blue thought about what Winter did, the more annoyed and angered he grew.

In fact, he grew so angry that he decided he would give Winter an earful the next time they met. However, truly, deep down, Blue was just upset that Winter had cleaned up everything and left without saying goodbye...

***

Blue was headed towards Dot’s Café to meet up with Oliver and Adam. Since they decided to postpone their ’talk’ from the other day, it was scheduled to happen today, three days later.

Blue was not in a good mood as he walked into the café. Reason, his editor had contacted him and told him to change the ending of his novel. An ending that he had long since plotted from before he even began the novel.

"I’m here." Blue said, sitting down on the table that he saw Adam already settled in.

Adam lifted his head to look at Blue and smiled, saying, "Hey. What’s up with all of this?"

There was a puzzled look on Adam’s face as he took in Blue’s appearance and gestured to his outfit. Reason being that it was hot as fuck, yet Blue was covered up completely from his neck down to his feet.

Normally, Blue was the type who would only wear long pants when he wanted to present himself formally—which was rarely and only during important activities in the Empowerment club. On regular days, Blue wore shorts. He liked to wear shorts.

But now, he was wearing a cream turtleneck with long brown pants. Adam couldn’t help but question Blue’s choice of clothing as Blue, himself, also seemed to be sweating from the heat.

"All of what?" Blue questioned, then called for the attention of a waitress to get him water.

"It’s like 100 degrees. What are you doing with a turtleneck??" Adam asked Blue.

Without answering, Blue’s cheeks tinted red. He was covered up from head-to-toe because the reminders of his activities with Winter were still pasted all over his body.

His neck, chest, hands... Even his legs. Blue couldn’t wear shorts, lest Winter’s handprints and the hickeys all over his legs show. Because of these things, Blue had been wearing strict clothes to leave his house. It was truly infuriating.

"It’s nothing. Where’s Oliver?" Blue smoothly redirected the topic of discussion.

"He should be here soon. He said he’s bringing Sydney along." Adam casually responded.

Blue wasn’t aware that a frown had settled on his lips when he heard the name, Sydney. The first thing that came to his mind was to ask who Sydney and the second was the reminder of who she was.

She was apparently a female Beta who’d managed to catch Oliver’s eye and was in the process of getting chased by Oliver with a high chance of being caught.

Blue couldn’t explain why he was not in any way excited to meet her.

"I heard he finally asked her out and she agreed." Adam added to his previous statement.

"What?!" Blue’s voice unconsciously went an octave higher as he almost choked on the water he had just been served and was drinking.

Oliver had a girlfriend now???

So where did that leave him? Yes, the kind of relationship Blue shared with Oliver was not in any way romantic. Blue and Oliver had even agreed that whenever one of them was able to get a partner, they would call off their benefit relationship.

In fact, this wasn’t the first time that Oliver had gotten hooked up with a girl and their relationship would be put on a pause. Blue had never had a problem with it.

However, this time, Oliver didn’t even inform him of anything. Doing this was just like springing up the fact that he no longer wanted to be entangled with Blue but in the worst possible manner.

’Why didn’t he tell me anything?’ Blue asked himself.

And now, Oliver was bringing the girl over to intrude on the conversation they were supposed to have and introduce her to him. What kind of image was Oliver trying to set up?

Blue started to feel uncomfortable. He didn’t want to see this Sydney girl that caused the good thing he had going on with Oliver to get called off. Blue could understand that he couldn’t control Oliver and his emotions. But the least that Oliver could have done was inform him about the entire thing.

Especially now that Blue’s heat cycle was less than two weeks away.

"I’m sorry, I don’t think I can stay here anymore. I need to leave—" Just as Blue was saying these words with a low voice and rising up from his seat, Oliver and a short girl made their way towards the table.

Blue’s stomach coiled with discomfort. Adam rose up from his seat, but not to say anything to Blue. He actually stood up to welcome Oliver and Sydney, seeming not to hear a word of what Blue spoke.

"Hi! Hi! Hi!" Adam said with an extra-friendly tone, dishing out hugs to Oliver and Sydney.

"Hey, man." Oliver greeted Adam.

"Hi." Sydney said with a smile that revealed her full set of teeth.

She was pretty, no doubt about that. And she had a very friendly face with an energetic aura. Blue didn’t like Sydney. He was starting to feel really uncomfortable. Maybe it was the heat finally turning against him or it was the fact that the back of his neck was starting to itch him.

"... And this is Blue, right?" Sydney said, turning to focus on Blue, directing Oliver’s and Adam’s attention towards him.

"Yeah, hi." Blue said with a lackluster tone, in contrast to the bright and excited tones that everyone had just been making use of.

"Nice to meet you." Sydney said, stretching out her hand for a shake. "I’m Sydney Towers."

Blue did not take in her hand for a shake, causing an obvious shift in the ambient mood.

"Let’s sit. There’s a set of pastries up for sale, why don’t we—"

"Actually, I need to head out right now." Blue said, already feeling the pre-symptoms of his gland-hurting fits.

But to everyone else, it sounded like Blue was making an unnecessary excuse after meeting Sydney, indirectly making them think that for some reason, Blue didn’t like Sydney.

In all honesty, Blue actually didn’t like Sydney. However, that was not the main reason why he wanted to leave.

"But you just got here. And they just got here. Why do you suddenly want to leave?" Adam questioned with a concerned tone.

"None of your business." Blue instantly responded with a defensive tone. He immediately wanted to take his words back after seeing the hurt look on Adam’s face, but he couldn’t bring himself to do so.

"I need to- I need to leave." Blue said with a disoriented tone and left the three people in a hurry.

Just as he was about to walk out of Dot’s Café, he bumped into someone and almost fell to the floor after the impact.

Author has something to say: I want to let it be known that Winter has a long way to go in the field of character development and this is not the arc of him falling in love.

This is the arc of him realizing that Blue is actually a person and not a sexual object. No matter what Winter does, DO NOT BE DECEIVED THAT HE’S A CHANGED PERSON JUST YET.

Anyways, his real character development comes up in volume 2. This volume is all about Blue falling love, learning to accept himself, and his backstory.

Volume 2 is going to be about keeping the love that he found with more of Winter and his background and backstory.

I was thinking of naming that ’Seasons Of Winter.’ What do you guys think about it? Let me know. Thank you, guys. 💜

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read