Jealous? Maybe.

"Guys, listen up! Our retreat is scheduled next week along with our batchmates." Hanna announces as she scans the paper in her hand. "It's compulsory, so no excuses will be entertained." and everyone groaned in frustration.

When I say everyone, I mean literally everyone, including me and the rest of my friends.

"That's so annoying, I scheduled a massage at my favorite spa next week! My back is starting to hurt from doing all these schoolworks and now they still want us to go on a useless retreat? Boo!" And many other complaints that came from Shai as she gathered her things.

"Bobby and I made some plans already, but I guess we can just have our date there, right? At least it'll cost less." I raised my eyebrows when I heard that from Kiesh, it's so weird hearing her care about the amount of money she'll spend. Knowing my own sister, she has never ever added the word 'cheap' or 'inexpensive' in her vocabulary. "Why are you looking at me like that? You look so judgemental."

"I'm not saying anything though?" I replied and shook my head as I chuckled. She's being too obvious, "I just can't believe that I'm hearing you not care about money. I guess spending time with Bobby is a good thing, huh?" I teased her even more.

She was about to grab my hair when the topic of our conversation came strutting in, Bobby.

He immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders, so tight that if I was far I would've thought that he was choking her.

"Respect the single please." Shai murmured. "Did you forget that I'm still here?" She added.

"Just thank Kief that he's not here yet, if that happens you'll really be a third wheeler to two couples." Kiesha teased back. "You should say yes to Jayden if you really want a partner when we're going places." She added, getting too comfortable cuddling with Bobby in front of us.

Shai violently reacted at Kiesha's statement. Until now, we still can't understand why Shai hates Jayden to the core. Just like me last time, the only difference is they don't have any interactions at all or maybe we just don't know about it? Shai tends to be very secretive with everything.

"Anyway, babe, have you heard the announcement? Looks like our date in Zambales will have to be cancelled." Kiesha said.

He just shrugged and mindlessly said "It's okay, we can have our date there instead. It's cheaper anyway."

Shai and I were both dumbfounded with what we heard. It was like they already both plotted what they were gonna do or something. I don't know, it just amazed me that they're that connected.

I hope one day, me and Kiefer will attain that same bond. We are just so different from each other. Everyday, there would always be someone who gets pissed off or frustrated, but at the end of the day, he backs down once our argument gets very heated. I thank the heavens for that. When he senses that I'm starting to get upset, he swallows his pride and tries hard to understand, very far from the old Kiefer that I knew.

I guess, people do change over time, don't they?

The car ride home was awfully quiet. No one bothered to say a word or do anything, maybe we're just tired today so we held back the usual teasing.

"Hey, I'm not sure if you heard the news, but our batch's retreat is next week and it's compulsory, you'll come, right?"

"Next week?" He thought about it for a while before nodding "I think so since I have no scheduled meeting that week. Dad's secretary hasn't informed me on anything." I could only nod in response and there goes the silence again.

It's been a week since we started being this quiet. Maybe we're just really tired for the week, especially him, he's balancing making requirements and his training for their near game this end of semester. Only a few weeks now and we'll all finally have a break.

"Are you okay?" I asked him when we finally reached our unit. It's so unusual that he is this quiet because he mostly bothers the hell out of me everyday.

I checked his temperature using the back of my hand but he immediately held my hand and pulled me closer to him, "I just need a power hug from you. Sorry if I don't have time for you these past few days. I promise I'll make it up to you during our retreat. I'll make sure we'll spend every second together. I promise."

Well, promises are meant to be broken, aren't they?

Why?

So here's the thing, the moment we got to the beach resort, he instantly lets go of my hand and focuses on his phone. Actually, he was like that the whole ride here, he wasn't even paying attention cause he was busy playing Mobile Legends and when I was planning to lean on his shoulder cause I felt drowsy, l his teammates suddenly switched seats at the same aisle as us! The ending? They were too loud and I couldn't get any sleep or attention.

Now, whilst we're walking towards the hotel, he was busy talking to Bobby and Jayden. I was super left out to the point that I just wanted to crawl my way back to Manila and lock myself up in my room to go watch some netflix series.

"You okay?" Kiesh asked when she noticed my sudden change of mood. Before we left the campus, I was full of energy and excitement, but now I'm so dull and quiet, it's like all the life in me was sucked out.

I looked back at Kiefer and she understood my point right away. She held my hand and gave me a smile. "He promised you that he'll give you his time, right? Maybe they're just discussing some family matters and issues." She stated.

Hmm, here we go again with our test of patience.

When we finally reached the lobby—which I felt like we walked to for a long time—he finally gave me his attention. He clasped our hands together that resulted in another comotion of whispers.

"Okay, we'll be grouping you into groups. We decided to have you all mixed up to ensure that after this retreat you're all gonna be good friends with each other, same section or not." The guy with a microphone announced. Some students had no problem with it and some did.

He called out our last names one by one, and unfortunately, I wasn't grouped in with Kiesha or anyone I know, even Kief was far away from me and he ended up being grouped with one of the girls I hate in our batch besides Hanna—Gianna, his ex.

"I'll be fine, really." I assured him when we got instructed to go to our designated groupings. He was hesitant about walking away and as I watched him do so, I suddenly felt scared at what might happen for the next few days that we're here.

This is like deja vu for both of us. This was exactly what happened years ago and I'm scared that it really might happen again.

"You trust him, right?" Startled, I turned to the guy talking beside me. I don't know who he is, but his face is familiar like I already saw somewhere before, "I hope you don't mind, but I noticed that you looked uncomfortable and worried since earlier. I'm Sef by the way."

"Well, I do trust him, but not that girl that he's talking to right now." I sighed. "I don't want to stop him from doing anything. I don't want to tell him what he can and can not do because I don't think I have that right." He looked shocked at my statement, so I only gave him a smile. "Now, where's our group's room again?"

I spent my whole day not talking to Kiefer nor any of my friends. I was stuck with this group of people that I encountered for the first time ever in my entire student life in Uni. And I just can't help but to thank Sef for accompanying me this whole time.

We were happily telling each other stories when my phone suddenly received a notification, my eyes almost swelled up as I saw that it was from Kiefer.

'Looks like you're enjoying his company, so sweet.'

My brows stitched together as I read his message over and over. I couldn't even properly react because of how bafalled I was from it!

'Are you even serious? He was just being nice.'

I replied, it didn't take long for him to reply.

'Nice, okay.'

I was so pissed off at his reply that even Sef noticed it, he stopped talking and only gave me a worried look.

"Are you okay?" He asked, even our groupmates looked worried as they saw me shaking.

I don't know what happened to me, I just remember feeling cold as everything slowly turned black.

"What exactly happened?" A familiar voice asked, I'm sure it's Kiesha from the timber of her voice, I'm sure of it.

"She didn't tell anyone that she was feeling sick and that she was already burning up. She just randomly went pale and fainted on the spot." A guy explained to her, which I'm sure is not Kiefer.

I tried to slowly open my eyes while praying that this was all just a bad dream.

And to my disappointment, it seems like everything is real.

He wasn't even there.

"Are you sure that you'll go back? Keira, you're still ill!" You could clearly hear the frustration in my sister's voice as she watched me rip off the dextrose attached to me. "Wait a minute, I just realized, how come Kiefer never came to visit you?"

She stopped when she noticed my eyes were watering while staring at the blood slowly flowing out from where the dextrose was minutes ago. It's like I've gone numb again and the only thing I want at that moment is to talk to Kiefer.

I want to explain to him, I want him to know that his idea of me and Sef was so wrong. I want to hug him and tell me that I will choose him over and over again even if it means I'll end up being hurt.

I want him to know that I'm ready to look and become stupid for him.

"Is everything alright?" She asked full of worry and held my face in her hands, "Looks like it's a no. Kei, for once, listen to me, okay? Stay here, I'll talk to Kiefer myself."

Kiesha stormed out and called a nurse to tend to me and the only thing I could do was burst into tears, tears I've been holding in for the whole day.