For the next few days, Armin and Eren avoided me. They stayed cramped up in their room in the boys' cabin. Armin just slept. He felt miserable and as if he never wanted to wake up again. His true love was ripped from his very own hands. He was certain he'd die alone now. Eren tried to get him to eat but he refused. He wanted to just starve himself. I knocked on the door to their room and Armin walked up and opened it. "Y-Y/N?" he whispered. "Move, Armin," I demanded, "where's Eren?" I barged in, pushing Armin to the side. Armin just stood at the door in shock, not even turning back to look at me. Eren was relaxing on the bed, so I jumped on and lay down beside him. I grabbed his arm and he violently pushed me off of the bed. "Eren stop, you're not usually like this. Did I do something wrong?" I asked. 

I got bad onto the bed just to get pushed off by him, again. He looked at Armin who had dropped to his knees, still at the door, and started crying. It annoyed me to see him like that. I asked him if he could leave so that Eren and I could have some space and he obeyed. He ran to an empty room down the hall and sat down on the floor, weeping. His knees rest on the ground and he used his hand to muffle his cries. It didn't help much, though. I was beginning to lose my temper. I just wanted a moment of peace with the boy I loved and I felt like he was ruining it. I left Eren's room and walked down the hall to the empty room Armin was in. I knocked on the door and asked if he could be quiet. Eren ran out behind me and yanked my arm. He pulled me into the living room area of the building.

"What the fuck is your problem? Have you completely lost your mind? Even the old you wouldn't be this insensitive. Leave him the hell alone, I don't want to ever see you talking like that to him again. You broke his heart and you're just rubbing it in, at this point. If I see you hurting him again I, I don't know what I'll do," he yelled. I tried to respond but he interrupted me.

"Sit the hell down so I can get this through your thick skull."

I felt hurt by the words he was saying to me. How could he have changed so much? I sat down on the beige couch beside us and he did too. "I'm sorry for losing my temper. You have to understand that he's my best friend so it hurts me to see someone hurting him so badly. Y/N, you're not in love with me. All those memories you think we had were not with me. As much as I do think you're physically attractive and probably a nice person, I wouldn't go for you. We've almost never gotten along. We used to bicker and so it feels so wrong for you to think you love me. You love Armin. All those romantic things you did were all with Armin. He was the one who ran down and found you when you fell, not me. Look, you're wearing his blouse and dress pants," he insisted. He grabbed my wrist and showed me the engraving on my silver bracelet.

"Both of you have these," he told me, "the A stands for Armin and the Y/I stands for Y/N. You guys got these as a way to symbolize your relationship. You guys promised to stay together and love each other. Right now, you're breaking that promise and it's broken him. That hurts me." I felt so confused and betrayed. How could Eren, the boy I loved, be lying to my face like this too. Was this some kind of sick prank? I started to cry. 

"Eren, our memories are so real, you can't just replace them! I was never with Armin, he's not my type and you know that" I rebuked.

Eren was furious. He got up and left the room, demanding that I stay there. He went to the spare bedroom where Armin was and grabbed him, forcibly pulling him back into the living room. Armin begged him to stop but Eren didn't listen. Eren shoved Armin onto the couch, right beside me. "You two work things out. I'm sick of this shit. I'm not going to get involved in your relationship, it's exhausting. Y/N, I don't like you like that. I don't love you. Stop saying you love me, it's creepy. I don't even care if you have to fall in love again! Just make up and move on! I hate seeing you two apart. You're both miserable without each other, whether you realize it or not," he yelled. 

Armin was curled up at the other side of the couch, cowering in fear. I watched Eren and tried to speak, but he interrupted me. "And you," he said to me, "don't you ever think of leaving until you believe him and have made up. You move and I'll never talk to you again. Not in a million years. I'll never forgive you." Eren stormed away through the halls of the building and slammed his room's door shut. The sound echoed through the building. I sat there, looking at Armin. I was in such an awkward position. 

"Y/N, I know you don't believe me but that's okay. I just want you to know that no matter what I'll still love you and I'll wait for you to recover your memories, if that ever happens. I could never break my promises to you. If you regained your memories someday and I'd moved on, I don't think I could ever forgive myself," Armin explained. He didn't look at me, not once. I felt conflicted. He and Eren appeared so genuine in what they were telling me. I mean, it could make sense. I could have lost my memories during the fall, but could I really have swapped their images in my mind? I asked him, "Armin, do you swear I actually loved you? You have to understand that this is all so hard for me to believe and I honestly feel like I'm being lied to, right now." He nodded and showed me his bracelet. I looked at mine. It gave me a kind of nostalgic feeling. His and mine were the same. Did we really have something special? I felt like Eren and Armin wouldn't go to the lengths of creating matching bracelets for Armin an I, if this was just a prank. I felt like I needed to put my trust somewhere. I needed to either fully believe in them or believe in what I thought was reality. I made up my mind. 

"I-I'll put my trust in what you're saying, Armin. Although I don't fully believe it myself, right now, I want to be able to know the truth. I feel like you and Eren are honest people who wouldn't lie to me and I want to believe that. I just hope I won't be betrayed, in all of this. I'm putting all of my faith in you. I can't promise that everything can go back to what you remember, especially if I never remember the supposed memories we had together, but I'm willing to start fresh as friends, if that's okay with you," I suggested. I shuffled over to his side of the couch and put my hand on his leg, rubbing it gently. 

"I'm not going to stop you from caring about me and you can try to get my memories back if I really did lose them," I said, looking at my wrist. Touching him felt so familiar. It reassured me that my decision to trust what he was saying was right. I undid the clasp of my bracelet and I placed it in his hand. He looked up at me, making eye contact. There were tears in his eyes. "Please keep this until I love you again, okay? I don't know if I ever will because I sure as hell don't right now, but if I do someday, I might want this back. Keep it safe for me," I told him. He nodded and wiped away his quickly reappearing tears. He held onto my hand. 

"Y/N, I won't give up on you. It'll be so hard for me to treat you as nothing more than a friend, but I'll try. I'll miss hugging you and kissing you. I'll miss all of the little things we've had. I'll keep all of those things as memories while I work on gaining your trust and help you regain your memories. I can even try to find out if any well-known doctors have dealt with something like this before. Maybe we could find some kind of treatment. I mean, that's all stuff to figure out when we get back to the base but I'm so grateful you're at least alive right now."

"Thank you. I don't mind hugs as long as you aren't too clingy. I'm glad we've at least gotten to this point, though. Are we good?"

"Y-Yeah. For now, this is a bit better," he replied. We both got up off of the couch, standing in front of each other. I walked over to him and gave him a warm hug. He held onto me tightly. He was really warm and comfortable. I zoned out for a second. Again, his touch felt so familiar. I especially noticed his scent. He smelled like flowers. It was all a flash of nostalgia, but I still couldn't grasp onto any memories of him. I believed that I definitely had something with him before, but, right now, I felt like Eren was the one for me. So that's who I'd care about. We went our separate ways. I went back to the nurse's cabin and Armin to his room. Armin told Eren about the deal we'd made and Eren was pleased with it. Armin sat down on his bed and looked at the bracelet in his hand. He put it in his pocket, for safekeeping.