[4] Asymmetric

"Good afternoon, Sho."

"Giya!"

He hugged her as soon as the door opened, squeezing her in a comfortable warmth.

"I got you something."

"Already?"

Three days after they started dating, Sho wanted to go on a date, and he was already giving something to her. In front of her door, he dug into his backpack and unearthed a crumpled ball of black wrapping paper. Giya smiled at the mess of a thing.

"I um... didn't have time to wrap it."

"I don't mind, Sho. It was going to be unwrapped anyway."

She carefully peeled away the paper, planning on reusing it for later. Inside of the paper lay a pair of necklaces, one black and the other silver, pendants matching to create a perfect circle. Her heart swelled.

"You didn't have to."

She turned the pendants around.

"... 'Best Friends'?"

She inquired, eyebrows raised and lips upturned in amusement.

"It was the nicest looking one! You don't want to see the other choices."

"If you say so," she drawled. She noticed the price sticker, and it was not cheap, but not too expensive either. A couple necklace of typical quality.

'This is a symbol of his affection.'

"Thank you, Sho. You really, really didn't have to."

His eyes glittered at her, expression warm. She must have smiling the way he liked.

She was glad she could give him that joy.

"Can I put it on for you?"

"Of course."

He asked for the necklaces, ripped the treated paper that held them, and lifted them up in one hand.

"Oh right, which one do you want?"

She thought the black one would last longer, the faux silver apparent, so naturally...

"I'll take the silver one."

"Eh? But your favorite color is black.."

"So I can't choose it?"

"No... I also know the silver one will rust, so I want you to have the better one."

His green pleading eyes echoed his sincerity. Giya sighed in resignation.

"Alright then. You did buy them."

"Yay!"

He quickly took the black necklace with his other hand and walked behind her. Giya lifted her ebony hair up and looked down, mindful of how tall Sho was compared to her.

His hands were respectful, looping the necklace from the front around her neck, struggling a bit to fasten the clasps, before circling back in front of her. Giya pulled it forward to look down at it. The black one was the one that said 'Friends'.

She looked up to see Sho putting his on as well. After he did, their eyes met and he flashed her such a precious, toothy grin.

"Thanks, Sho. You're the 'Best.'"

"Hehe! I lo- um..."

"What was that?"

"N-nothing! Let's go," Sho said, gently taking her hand in his and starting to walk, unable to meet her eyes.

Giya smiled at his reddened ears.

"Sho, you're too fast! Slow down, long legs."

"Oops, sorry!"

_______________________________________________

2 months later.

"Good afternoon, love."

"Love..."

His hug was a bit stiffer and colder. Clingier.

Giya wanted to probe carefully.

"Darling?"

She looked up, and saw him looking down at her with glassy eyes. He wasn't looking right at her.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry."

The last two denotative words made the world stop.

'Something happened.' But what?

It wasn't beyond her many ruminations. He could have forgotten something, lost something, needed to leave, no longer have feelings for her...

... and she would smile, be understanding, and let it be.

Her imagination was no match for the world's vastness, but she could choose how she would face it.

"My necklace..."

Giya's eyes traced his neck, and the rusted chain was indeed nowhere to be seen.

"What happened, love?"

"My... my ex, she snuck up behind me at work and snapped it off..."

"Oh, goodness."

His ex-girlfriend was not unfamiliar to Giya. Sho himself mentioned her multiple times, about her combative attitude and domineering personality that slowly became toxic and controlling. Since they worked in the same department at the same company, they clashed often.

Giya didn't know that people could act that way, but it was not outside the realm of the radical human nature, she supposed. Her eyes drooped solemnly, though she kept her calm smile and stroked his back.

"It's alright, love. You're still the 'Best' to me."

"But, all we have is 'Friends' now!"

She took the hand not stroking his back and lifted the pendant from under her shirt for both of them to see.

"And I will not lose it. Don't people say that friendship is forever?

"But I don't want to be just friends with you. You know that I love you."

He was always so quick to say those powerful words. Giya wondered if it was conviction or his emotion talking.

"I love you too, Sho. See? You are the 'Best,' and you don't need the necklace to prove it."

She must have smiled that way he liked, because after a moment, he put one on too, but his eyes didn't sparkle. She chalked it up to guilt, but that would pass.

"Thanks, love. You bring the 'Best' out of me."

_______________________________________________

The scenes replayed every time she held the pendant in her hand, the necklace safely nestled in her wallet.

Somewhere along the way they were no longer the 'Best' for each other, but where? When did her calculations go awry? She thought they were doing just fine, but perhaps their combination needed better. The 'Best,' but she didn't know what it was anymore.

Her scenarios prepared her, but not him. She was certain he didn't take the same caution as she did, but this made him warm, sensitive, and spontaneous; things that she wasn't quite.

She thought they would find ways to click together despite being so different, but perhaps the disparity was too much.

Opposites attract, but the dog and cat don't just lie together.

Giya checked her phone.

On Nstagram, Sho posted a picture.

His face held up by an elbow on the desk, rusty necklace in between his lips.

The caption: 'One thing from your ex that you just can't seem to throw away.'

[ Hi, Sho. I thought you lost it. ]

[ Yeah, I lost the one between us. I still had another one. ]

[ Let's just say that the couple necklace wasn't my original idea. Kinda got the idea from someone before. ]

Giya noted that.

[ Ah, I see ]

Everything is a little bit clearer now.

Maybe they were never the 'Best' for each other.