Chapter 23 Sweet
Chris immediately looked at me with a puzzled look, as his eyes flashed with questions.
He glanced at me, stared at me for a while, his eyelids narrowed. His nose wrinkled and he tilted his head as if he had just heard the strangest speech in the world.
"What's bothering you? bad rumours? reporters pushing you? or something else? if you need something isn't it better to talk about it than to suddenly ask for something silly like this?"
I could pick up on Chris's annoyance. It was only natural, because we had just made up after the incident that almost happened to me the day before yesterday, and now I had said something that might surprise him.
"It's nothing."
Stupid.
That's the one word that best describes me right now.
How could I not? From the many and long series of explanatory sentences in my mind, all that could come out of my mouth in the end was just that one sentence.
I'm a coward, too afraid to speak up. In fact, I often get angry when other people are not honest about their feelings for me.
But, honestly, I find it hard to do. I hesitated, doubting if I deserved to explain that.
"It's okay, it's not like you. It's so embarrassing, your lies really do look like lies."
I snorted in amusement. Even though Chris was teasing me playfully, I still didn't have the energy to respond to his joke with laughter. My feelings were mixed, I felt disappointed and sad, but I didn't know who to blame. Who is at fault here? And I'm still asking about it.
"Hey, I'm not lying. Why is it so hard for you to believe me? I said that just now just because I suddenly thought of it. And... anyway, you should always be prepared if I'm suddenly called to be the president's personal assistant. Just so you know, I'm an important person." I joked while patting my chest proudly.
Chris rolled his eyes lazily, then stood up from his seat and walked over to get something.
I didn't care and didn't know what the boy was picking up until I saw a navy-coloured ring box with a velvet cloth outside.
The contents of my head had already dismissed that it was for me more than five times until Chris opened the box right in front of me at that moment.
"Wow, nice bracelet. You're going to give it to your mum?"
"My mum wouldn't wear a bracelet fit for an 18-year-old girl."
I glanced at Chris and the bracelet in turn. "Oh, what grade is that girl in? I think she'll fit the bracelet perfectly. You have such a good sense of fashion."
Chris rolled his eyeballs and chuckled lightly. "Hold out your wrist, don't make me wait too long."
I frowned, before I could ask a question, he had already grabbed my hand and then a silver-coloured bracelet with a beautiful diamond ornament was placed on my wrist.
"W-what's this? What's this bracelet for?"
Chris looked at me casually and then shrugged his shoulders. He simply uncovered the sleeve of his hoodie and showed me another silver bracelet, more plain, yet elegant and masculine.
"A couple's bracelet. People wear them with their partners."
I froze.
Froze for a while, with a stupid expression that I didn't know what to do with. Fuck after this Chris is going to make fun of my face. But all my consciousness of paying attention to my expression was gone and replaced with overwhelming confusion at Chris' super sudden sweet gesture.
"Don't think too far ahead. Didn't we agree that we should look exactly like our partner? PR will nag again if we don't look or feel like a couple at all."
I didn't know how to react, just nodded silently while oohing and ahhing. My embarrassment doubled, because I had reacted confusedly like a girl who was really surprised by her crush.
Gosh this is so embarrassing.
Wake up, you're stuck in a PR-relationship-with-F1-driver.
It's appropriate to have various kinds of disguises, especially having a pair of things like this bracelet, for example.
"Oh, right. That's a good strategy. So far, we don't have anything that shows we're really dating," I said.
I looked down. Damn it! What is this feeling of disappointment? Why am I suddenly feeling discouraged, disappointed, and other strange feelings like this?
For some reason after that no one spoke between the two of us. We were both lost in our own thoughts. Both were silent, and neither of us knew why we didn't continue our conversation earlier.
"Ah?"
My chin was lightly pinched, my face lifted so I could see Chris looking at me. There were no words, just silence and we exchanged glances for a while.
"The bracelet suits you. Don't carry any baggage when you wear the bracelet, don't care what the public says, just think of it..."
Chris suddenly let go of his touch on my chin, averting his gaze, his eyes as if he was searching for vocabulary lost in the air.
"Think of it as a cooperation bracelet."
"Woah, good idea. Yeah, I hope our cooperation will always be good."
I extended my hand to Chris. He was shocked, I was shocked at the same time. What kind of stupidity is this? I'm suddenly acting like a child character in a romance film who made a promise with a childhood friend who will be his soul mate in the future.
"Ah! uhm... sorry--"
Chirs' hand immediately grabbed mine. "Promise to continue being my partner."
Partner.
That can have several meanings. Haha, why do I always expect that. Wake up, Rachel... The partner Chris is referring to is in the sense of a co-worker.
"Well, I think I'm still not full."
"Huh?"
Chris then pulled my hand. "Let's have dinner."
"Are you serious? After all we ate just now, are you a rubber belly?"
"Tsk, don't pretend. You can still eat, right? Let's eat again, let the paparazzi see our moment together. We need to show people a lot of things. Oh! And I'm hungry too."
I chuckled softly. Well, if he really wants to play a charade, then I'll go along with it.
At least we're living it like real lovers.
Regardless of our actual status.
While I still can, I'll enjoy it. The world is crazy, and I'm a part of it.