Chapter 21

Sitting on one of the tables in the cafeteria, Theodore stared at his food as he played with the slice of meat on his plate. He has been flipping it on its sides and making it roll around his plate as if it was some kind of toy.

"Theo, did your mom ever tell you not to play with your food?" Chesca said as she watched her cousin playing with his food.

"Dunno. It doesn't even feel like I have a mom..." Theodore mumbled as he blankly stared at his plate.

Chesca stood up from her chair as she held onto her fork and stabbed the meat on Theodore's plate. "You're hella helpless. What's gotten into you?" she said as she lifted her fork and put the meat inside her mouth.

"Dunno..." Theodore said and sighed. He leaned his back against his chair and started spacing out once again.

Chesca couldn't help but feel frustrated as she watched her cousin stare blankly into space. The Theodore she knew never acted like that.

"What's up with you, Theo? You've been acting weird since the beginning of the school year. Are you really not gonna tell me anything?" Chesca sighed.

She's already have had enough of Theodore's weird attitude that she's already getting tired of it. 'He used to tell me about things that bother him, but now he's suddenly keeping quiet about it,' she thought as she stared at Theodore, who seemed like he didn't hear anything that she just said.

"Theo, you know you can talk to me about anything. If you don't want to tell me anything, you know you can talk to my brother, right?" she continued, still talking even if Theodore wasn't listening to her at all.

Chesca kept trying to make Theodore realize that there are people he can talk to if he was having a hard time. Theodore, on the other hand, was still stuck in his own world.

'What's wrong with me...?' he thought. 'This weird feeling... What's this?' the alpha thought as he let out a shaky breath.

"Also, I noticed that you especially hate Yuri. Why—" Chesca was cut off when she saw Theodore flinch at the mention of Yuri's name. She paused for a while and observed her cousin's face.

Theodore's ears perked as soon as Yuri's name was mentioned. He looked like he had just heard someone say something that shouldn't be said out in the open.

"Why are you acting like that towards Yuri?" she asked.

Theodore remained silent. He tried to think of a reason as to why he's still acting like that towards the omega, but he couldn't seem to think of any.

At the back of his head, he already figured out that Yuri wasn't the same as the person he expected him to be.

He expected Yuri to be someone who just befriended Chesca because she's an online celebrity, popular, and is from a wealthy family. He used to judge Yuri, thinking that he's only befriending Chesca with ill intentions. However, since the time they went to the mall, he found out that Yuri did not even want Chesca to pay for even a single item he bought. Although Chesca paid for it in the meantime, he promised to pay her back once his allowance comes in.

"I..." Theodore swallowed hard as he felt a huge lump on his throat. He couldn't bring himself to speak another word.

He knew that no matter what he says wouldn't make any sense.

Chesca sighed and smiled. 'I think I see what's going on here. If what I think is right, then I guess I'll just let time decide for him,' she thought.

"It's fine. You don't have to explain anything to me. If you were listening to what I said earlier, then you probably already understand that you have to talk to someone if something is bothering you too much already. It's not good to keep things to yourself and suffer alone," Chesca said and stood up.

"I gotta go back to the classroom now, Theo. You go back, too," she said as she walked from her chair towards Theodore's and patted his shoulder.

Theodore remained seated even after Chesca left. Most students already left the cafeteria to go back to their classrooms and prepare for their next class, but the alpha still seemed so out of it.

"Man, my mom would be so disappointed in me if he finds out I'm picking on someone..." he mumbled to himself and let out a soft chuckle.

Yuri's upset face flashed on his face. The way he looked earlier when he said that he's not gonna eat with them made him feel all weird once again.

He felt incredibly guilty because he knew that it was his actions that caused Yuri to make that kind of face.

'I should stop,' he thought as he sighed, finding himself stupid for nitpicking on Yuri every single time.

He stood up from his chair and took Chesca's tray with him. It has been his routine whenever they eat lunch together, so Chesca instinctively left without her tray, expecting Theodore to put it away for her.

After putting the tray away, Theodore left the cafeteria while still thinking about how he should act around Yuri from now on.

While walking with a preoccupied mind in the hallways, Theodore didn't notice the other students greeting him and just walked past them.

'I was really rude to him... I should apologize, shouldn't I? But... how am I supposed to do that?' he thought as his face turned dark while thinking about it. To Theodore, it was almost impossible for him to apologize to someone because all his life, he lived as if he was always in the right.

It was no different when it comes to his friends. He doesn't like apologizing to them even if he knows that he's in the wrong.

Strangely, he feels the obligation to apologize to Yuri even though they barely even know each other.

As he walked, he immediately snapped back to reality when he spotted Yuri on the other end of the hallway. The alpha immediately panicked and started turning his head to his sides, unable to decide whether he should just go to some random room or just run back to the cafeteria.

Theodore ended up opening the door to the room next to him, and he hurriedly went inside so Yuri wouldn't see him.

He leaned his back against the door and let out a breath of relief when he succeeded in getting away from him.

'Haaa... I can't believe I feel this relieved. I could seriously ask the same question Chesca asked me,' he thought as he massaged his temples and sighed.

'Why am I acting like this towards Yuri?'