A relationship such as friendship is still as fragile.

I fucked up. Big time.

Here I am, in this VIP ward, standing by the hospital bed, staring at the black and blue-faced Edgar that is sitting on the bed, who is also equally staring at me.

A concussion, a fractured nose, and busted lips. Edgar cut quite a sorry figure.

˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚

I was feeling guilty so much, I followed Devon and his boyfriend, Greg, into the car while clinging and muttering "sorry" incessantly to Edgar.

Now that it's calm and quiet, I can finally sort out my thought. It is only now that I realized the absurdity of my actions.

1. To lose it from Devon's random insult, as always, which I should've been used to since that was how he usually acts anyway.

2. To completely shed my identity as Aaron and proceeded to confront the "innocent" Devon. Even going as far as using my trademarked "this lady" to refer to myself, forgetting that my current self right now is a man. Resulting in my current situation, where I am about to be interrogated. I wasn't sure how much of our banter Edgar has heard, but even so, there's no way of telling whether or not that little devil Devon has explained the whole fiasco while I was forced to stay in the hallway during their talk.

3. Ruined my boss's, Edgar, handsome face.

What kind of bullshit do I have to cook up to get away from this?

Sigh.

"I'm really sorry, Edgar."

That was all I could say. I am genuinely sorry for ruining that perfect face of yours.

"...Is it really you...Dakota?" A deep husky voice echoed in the room.

"...Mm." An equally, although slightly softer deep hum followed after. That's right. It's me, yet not me. I can't really explain it either. It's ridiculous. Only my imaginary spectator found my rebirth amusing.

After being stared at for so long, I can't keep up the intensity of that gaze burning through my soul. so I decided to move my gaze onto the floor instead.

"...Are you" a short pause was heard as if contemplating on the next word, "...possessing this boy?"

Here we go. Should I say yes, or no? I'm really very conflicted.

It's nice to finally have someone who acknowledges my existence. One who knows me for me. Ever since my transition into this body, I have not had any proper human interaction for almost two weeks. The people in the hospital I was admitted to has been giving me cold shoulders. And the whole time I was there, no one comes to visit me.

Creak.

The door to the room opened and Devon and Greg came in with a take-away in hand. They acted like the master of the room and proceeded to serve the food on the dining table on the other side of the room. How big can a hospital room be despite it being a VIP room? Even if one speaks in a small voice from a corner, the other one on the furthest corner could still hear it.

This pair of shameless lovebirds! Don't you know what privacy means? Blame it on that devil Devon. It was probably his idea. Greg is just a whipped husband who can't say no to his wife.

I force myself to inhale more air into my lungs with the hope to douse this slowly arousing rage. It was then that I noticed there were only three servings on the table. But there's four of us here, though. Are you planning to send me away on an empty stomach?!

I can't help but give Devon an unsatisfied glare. As if expecting my reaction, Devon smirked. He then proceeded to fish out a box from another bag.

"..."

It was the spicy fried chicken he got for my dead self for the stupid prank.

ಠ_ಠ

He then places it on the table, and while looking at me squarely on the face, gives the box two pats.

ಠ▃ಠ

I can almost hear the words he's silently thinking, "Here's yours."

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Calm down, Dakota!

"D?" Noticing the attention on him has been diverted onto the food and Devon's provocation, Edgar called out my nickname. The volcano in me that was brewing hot lava, on the verge of erupting, suddenly cease its action. I finally returned my attention to Edgar. Meeting his burning gaze once more.

"You can only eat after you answer me. Be sure to be mindful of your words."

What? What is this feeling of being disciplined?

"Are you possessing this man?" Edgar asks again. This time, the words were spoken quite smoothly.

"...Yes." Averting his gaze, I decided to just go on with this bluff and get out of his radar.

"She's lying." Devon suddenly chimed from the other side of the room. "You have this habit of rubbing your thumb on your fingers and averting gazes when you're trying to concoct some bullshit."

My actions of finger rubbing ceased instantly and I send another blazing glare towards Devon. As expected of my personal nanny. Having been endlessly lying and making up excuses to his face for the pasts few years, he finally has a way to measure the truthfulness of my words.

I'm going to glare at you to your death! Stop digging a pit for me!

"I said to be mindful of your words. Are you possessing this man?" I can hear a small sigh coming out of Edgar's mouth.

What? What is this feeling of having let down my elder?

"...Not quite." I decided to answer vaguely.

"Explain." Edgar's tone was neutral. I can't detect any emotion behind that single word. Just a simple order of asking for an explanation.

"Um. I just...suddenly woke up in this body after my death." It's true to some extent. It's not a complete lie. I don't think I should explain the existence of System 666 to others. What if someone thought prying out my brain to look for this system is a good idea?

"...You really died?" Edgar's voice this time is a little small.

"...Yeah. I'm dead and not dead at the same time. Pretty neat, huh?" Edgar's eyebrows furrowed tightly at my reply.

"Are you going to be staying in this body from now on? Or, are you going to leave?"

"Stay. I don't think I can leave. Unless I die again. That time, I'll be dead for good. Haha...ha," My self-comforting laugh stops midway as I see a clear frown forming on Edgar's face.

"How...did you die?"

"It's just as the news said. Was driving then swerved into the cliff." I don't think I should rope anyone into my problem. Especially Edgar.

"Lie." Another devilish whisper echoed in the room. Damn you, Devon! What are you? A lie detector?!

This time I let out a long sigh. I stared into Edgar's clear eyes and swiftly uttered a word in a small voice, "Poisoned."

A look of disbelief slowly appeared on Edgar's face. His mouth left hanging open.

Clang! Crash!

The sound of a heavy object falling to the floor broke the heavy atmosphere.

From the direction of the sound, precisely at the dining table, comes a bellows of a furious man, "Who?! Who did it?!"

Devon's body was shaking heavily as he tries to suppress his raging anger. Gritting his teeth hard, he slammed his hand on the dining table and roared, "Who??!!"

What? What is this feeling of being protected by mother hen?

I can't help but tear up at Devon's sudden outburst. As much as I hate Devon, is as much as I love him. Our self-abusing, love-hate, superior-subordinate relationship is mostly just us bantering to amuse ourselves. It's only now that I realized, in my previous life, he was probably the only one who truly cherishes me.

A true definition of "tsundere".

I covered my face with my hands. I felt some pain in my left shoulder but the sudden onslaught of emotion numbed it mostly.

"E...Emma." I uttered between sobs.

Silence. Too silent that one could hear the sound of the needle being dropped on the floor should it fall.

A hand made its way to my right wrist and tugged it away from my face. I watch as Edgar's thumb caress my blueish knuckles. I flinched and hissed from the pain.

"Why didn't you get this treated?" He asks with a frown on his face.

I feel like crying even harder. "Because...this is a private hospital. And I'm...I'm a pauper!"

For a sheltered and spoiled young miss like me, to suddenly be thrown into the world of poverty, this certainly deserves an extra episode of breaking down.

In this private room, stood three acquaintances.

One whose interaction and relationship with me was strictly on a professional level.

One who finds annoying me to my death is amusing.

And another one acted as a backdrop and just follow his wife around every time we interact.

My whole life, every time I think of the people who will be with me in my time of need, it was always Emma. And later on, Chris was added to the list. But today, I learned the truth the hard way.

A relationship such as friendship is still as fragile.