Chapter 108: Luna and Yume’s Most Difficult Conversation.
"Would you ever accept sharing Noah?"
Yume was completely stunned upon hearing those words and said nothing, while Luna held her gaze.
Yume blinked a few times and then her expression changed completely.
"What?"
"You heard me."
"I want you to repeat it."
Luna understood that it wasn’t because she hadn’t understood, but she did it anyway.
"Would you accept sharing Noah with me?"
Yume opened her mouth slightly, closed it, and then looked at Luna again.
Now everything fit for her.
The meals, the messages, the walks, the movies, the way Luna looked at Noah, the way she reacted when other girls got close, and even that time she had said in front of Mirai that she could support Noah on her own and that she didn’t want to share him.
Yume pressed her lips together.
"You like him..."
Luna didn’t answer, so Yume continued.
"You like Noah."
Luna knew that denying it no longer worked.
"Yes."
Yume kept staring at her, because even though she had suspected it for quite some time, hearing the confirmation was different.
"Since when?"
"I don’t know exactly."
"That doesn’t answer anything."
"It was gradual."
Yume pressed her arms against her body.
"And now you come to ask me if I want to share him?"
"Yes."
"No."
The answer was immediate, and Luna remained still.
"No."
Yume repeated.
"I don’t want to."
Luna had expected that answer, but hearing it still wasn’t pleasant.
"I understand."
"So are we done?"
"Not yet."
Yume frowned.
"I already answered you."
"I want to explain myself."
"It’s not necessary."
"Yes, it is."
Yume watched her and Luna continued before she could interrupt.
"I don’t want to take you away from Noah."
Yume let out a small humorless laugh.
"How considerate."
"I mean it."
"But you want to be with him."
"Yes."
"Then you do want to change our relationship."
"If you put it that way, yes."
Yume looked at her in disbelief.
"At least you’re direct."
"I’m trying."
Luna breathed slowly.
"I don’t want Noah to stop being with you."
"That doesn’t make me like the idea."
"I know."
"Then what do you want me to say?"
"I want you to consider that it wouldn’t necessarily have to be something bad."
Yume narrowed her eyes.
"For you it would be excellent."
Luna didn’t answer.
"You’d get what you want."
Yume said.
"You’d be with Noah."
"Yes."
"And I’d have to accept seeing you kiss him, hug him, go out with him, and act like his girlfriend."
Luna stayed silent because that was exactly what she was proposing, except that some of those things were already happening.
Yume took a small step toward her.
"What do I get out of it?"
Luna answered after thinking for a few seconds.
"You wouldn’t lose Noah."
"I wasn’t planning on losing him."
"I could help you."
"With what?"
"Protecting him."
Yume frowned and Luna continued.
"You know perfectly well that Noah attracts problems."
"That’s true."
"He’s been kidnapped."
"I know."
"He’s been attacked."
"I know that too."
"There are organizations looking for him."
"Luna."
"And several girls are trying to get close to him."
Yume looked at her with greater annoyance.
"Including you."
"Yes."
Yume clenched her fists, but Luna continued.
"I can protect him."
"I can too."
"I didn’t say you couldn’t."
"Then you don’t need to become his girlfriend to do it."
Luna fell silent, because Yume had hit exactly where she expected.
"That’s not really the reason."
Yume said, and Luna didn’t answer.
"Don’t tell me you want me to share him because you want to protect him."
Yume kept her eyes on her.
"You want me to share him because you want him."
"Yes."
"Then don’t use his safety as an argument."
Luna accepted the criticism.
"You’re right."
Yume found the response surprising and Luna continued.
"I want him."
She didn’t try to soften it.
"I want to be with him."
Yume looked away for a moment.
"Well, I don’t want to share him."
Luna tightened one hand slightly.
"Why?"
Yume looked at her again.
"Because no."
"That doesn’t explain..."
"Because I want to be selfish."
Luna stayed quiet and Yume seemed annoyed, but now she was also being completely honest.
"I want to keep being his only girlfriend."
Yume said.
"I want to be able to text him and know he’s talking to me, I want to invite him to my house without thinking that afterward he’ll go see another girl, I want to go out with him without wondering if he’s comparing our date to another one, I want to kiss him and not have to think that you also kissed him that day."
Luna felt her throat tighten and Yume continued.
"I already know that sooner or later I’ll have to share Noah."
Yume shook her head.
"But I don’t care about that now."
Luna watched her and Yume lowered her voice slightly.
"I like that Noah is my boyfriend, only mine, so I don’t want to give that up."
Luna felt the immediate impulse to tell her, to reveal everything.
To tell her that it had already happened, that Noah had already accepted her, that they had already gone out together, kissed several times, and even been together in a way Yume hadn’t considered.
The truth was about to come out.
"Yume, I..."
Yume looked at her and Luna stopped, because she couldn’t continue.
’No, not without Noah present.’
They had agreed to talk to her and not drop the truth in the middle of an argument, and besides Luna knew that part of that conversation was already unfair.
She was asking Yume if she would accept something that, in secret, had already begun, so that planted a seed of guilt she preferred not to analyze too much.
Yume waited.
"What?"
Luna closed her eyes for a second and then shook her head.
"Nothing."
Yume frowned.
"You were going to say something."
"It wasn’t important."
"I don’t believe that."
Luna didn’t answer, but Yume kept her gaze on her.
"Is there something I should know?"
Another opportunity, another chance to confess it, and Luna felt the impulse again, but she stopped herself once more.
"No."
Yume didn’t seem convinced and Luna didn’t feel good saying it either, so an uncomfortable silence settled in.
From another building the voices of several students could be heard and there was still time left in the break.
Noah still hadn’t appeared and Luna wondered where he was, probably stuck in some problem, which was the most usual.
Yume sighed.
"Then you already have my answer."
"Yes."
"I don’t want to share him."
"I understand."
"And I hope you respect that."
Luna lowered her gaze slightly.
"I’ll try."
Yume frowned.
"You’ll try?"
Luna looked up.
"Yes."
"That’s not what I wanted to hear."
"I’m not going to lie to you by saying I can turn off what I feel."
"But you can choose what you do."
Luna remained silent, because Yume was right and that made the conversation even more uncomfortable.
"Yes."
She finally answered, so Yume relaxed her shoulders a little.
"Good."
Luna looked toward one of the hallways.
"I guess we’ll keep looking for Noah."
Yume did the same.
"Separately."
Luna looked at her.
"That doesn’t increase the odds."
"I don’t care."
Luna almost smiled.
"You’re still jealous."
Yume looked at her immediately.
"You admitted first that you are too."
"Correct."
"Then you have no right to bother me."
"Probably not."
Yume sighed and for a few seconds it seemed the tension had lowered, though it hadn’t disappeared, but at least they weren’t arguing anymore.
Yume started walking, but before moving away, she stopped.
"Luna."
"What?"
Yume didn’t look at her immediately.
"Thanks for telling me."
Luna felt a small discomfort because she hadn’t told her everything.
"It was nothing."
"Yes it was."
Yume finally looked at her.
"I don’t like what you told me."
"I know."
"But I’d rather know."
Luna stayed silent while Yume walked away.
Luna remained where she was for several seconds, looked at her phone and there were no messages from Noah, so she thought about texting him, but in the end she didn’t.
’I failed.’
Her attempt to convince Yume hadn’t achieved absolutely anything.
Worse still, now Yume knew for certain that she was in love with Noah, so that probably meant she would start watching their interactions much more closely.
Luna leaned her back against the wall.
"She doesn’t want to share him."
It was exactly the answer she expected, but she had wanted to try anyway.
She closed her eyes, remembered Yume’s words that she wanted to keep being the only one, and Luna understood that feeling perfectly, because she also wanted Noah for herself.
The difference was that she had accepted sharing because that was the only way she saw of being able to be with him without trying to destroy his relationship with Yume.
Even so, there was a much more serious problem, which was that Yume believed she was still Noah’s only girlfriend, which she wasn’t.
Luna opened her eyes.
’We have to tell her.’
It couldn’t keep being postponed, because every day that passed would make Yume’s reaction worse.
Luna started walking.
First she would find Noah and then she would have to talk to him because they had already tried to avoid the problem long enough.
What Luna didn’t know was that, at that same moment, Noah was quite far from there.
Surrounded by Ren, Iris, and Aria and facing a completely different discussion.
Luna sighed.
"I hope he’s not doing anything problematic."
In another sector of the high school, Noah would probably have considered that sentence deeply unfair, but Luna still didn’t know it.
For now, she only had one certainty.
Her first attempt to convince Yume had failed completely and the next conversation would be much harder.