"I've never had real friends"

"Will that guy really steal the spot of your best friend from me?"

He looked pleadingly at Willow. His eyes were dejected as he muttered, "Will, you know you're my only friend. Now, even you'll go away."

Willow could almost see droopy ears on his head as he looked down, depressed.

Even if the one feeling sad was Charlie, Willow felt an unexplainable pain in his heart when he saw him like this. Well, since he already befriended this socially challenged guy, he's going to take responsibility till the end. Grabbing his shoulders, Willow looked at him firmly and said, "Who said I'm going to leave you? Of course I won't go away."

Charlie still didn't believe him. "But that blond guy said you were best friends before. What if you become like that again? I won't even be able to do anything."

"You know I'm cold and don't talk much. I'm sure I'm not even fun to be around," Previously, Charlie was acting to entice Willow's pity, but even he didn't notice when the act vanished and the emotions he locked up inside came tumbling out. His insecurities, his worries, all those things he wanted to lock up inside himself, rushed out of his mouth.

"I've always been socially awkward. People just assume I'm aloof and don't talk to me. If they do, it's the usual flattery due to my family background. You're the only one who reached out to me for me, Willow. Not for Charlie Taylor. You're the only one I have today, and it's going to be the same in the future. Will, your world may have many people, but mine-" He paused for a moment, "-Only has you."

"Do you remember when we first met? You were the only one who took the initiative to greet me," Charlie smiled as he recalled, "You even chatted for a bit."

Looking at Willow straight in the eye, Charlie continued softly, "You might not know, but you were the first one in school to ever talk to me, not Charlie Taylor," His last words were said very lightly, almost a whisper.

Willow stared at Charlie in shock. From what the system told him, the first time they met was in the middle of 7th grade. It was a PE class of the two sections combined. Willow, who was obviously jealous of Charlie getting all the attention, approached him. He said hello and a few perfunctory words, but it was quite obvious that they were spoken mockingly. All in all, it wasn't a meeting a normal person would remember as a 'pleasant' experience.

Charlie stopped, staring at his confused expression. When Willow still didn't say anything, he sighed lightly, "I know, at that time, you didn't like me. But still, you became a person special to me."

Willow felt something wasn't right. "W-Wait, Charlie...You said I was the first person to ever talk to you without any ulterior motives?"

Charlie nodded. Willow was lost in thought as he muttered, "That means..."

"Yeah. I've never had real friends."

Before Willow could even think about it, his hand was already up to caress Charlie's cheek. He didn't care about anything else right now. The novel, the points, all of them can go to hell. All he wanted to do right now was to cheer this person up. If there's one thing he was sure of, he couldn't bear to see him sad.