Winter break ended in a swift and the festive holiday was great as usual since Mom and I got to celebrate it with Leon's parents, Katherine and Paul. This morning, Mom woke up earlier to prepare breakfast for me before sending Cotton and I to the airport. We stood in front of the departure gates and she hugged me tightly while sniffling, "Take good care of yourself, my baby girl."

I wrapped my arms around her and noticed that she cried this sadly when I first left for college months ago too. Even though it was also hard on my end to part with everything here and return to where I was supposed to be, I braved a smile and assured, "I'll be alright, Mom. I'll call you often."

Looking towards her reddened eyes from all the tears, I waved at her and she watched as I walked through the departure hall. For a moment, I stayed on the other side of the glass and mouthed an 'I love you, Mom' before I headed towards the designated flight gate and waited for my flight to Boston.

-

I placed my luggage and Cotton back into my own apartment before heading towards Leon's apartment and it was almost like a déjà vu once again when there wasn't a reply after I rang the doorbell. Looking down at the various bags that I was holding, it would've been trouble to bring them home with me so I decided to try the doorbell again. Still, there wasn't a reply.

Out of curiosity, I walked close to the door, attempting to stare into the door's peephole while I wondered if Leon really wasn't home.

Honestly, curiosity really kills a cat.

The door was pushed opened suddenly and I didn't have time to dodge, ending up impacting on my forehead hard. Dropping whatever stuff there was in my hands, I crouched down as my hands raised to cover the part of my head that contacted the door.

My god, that fucking hurts.

"Oh fuck." A familiar male voice cussed. "I'm so sorry, Rachelle. Are you okay?"

Then, I heard hurried footsteps stomping from within the house towards the door. It was another familiar male voice that demanded, "Move it, Ty."

Leon crouched down in front of me and held onto the back of my arms. Concern filled his tone when he asked softly, "Rae, you okay?"

Honestly, it was so painful, but I raised my head to face Leon while bursting out a laugh. The man in front of me frowned, perhaps thinking that I might've knocked myself stupid. Even so, I couldn't hold back the fun when I held onto my sore forehead and joked, "I'm still waiting for my accident-prone award. I think I really deserve it."

"Seriously—" Leon chuckled, unable to finish all that he wanted to say. Leaning forward towards me, he placed an arm under my knees while the other wrapped around my waist to hoist me up in his hold.

"Hey!" I called out in surprise but instinctively folded my arms around his shoulder and firmed myself in place. After being rammed by a door, I didn't need another unnecessary injury like falling from mid-air and crashing to the ground. Flustered but decided to be obedient, I allowed Leon to carry me into the house and he placed me on the couch. Behind us, Tyson picked up the things I had dropped on the floor outside the house.

"Thanks, Tyson." I muttered.

"No biggie, little lamb, I'm still sorry about your forehead. I'm a fucking klutz," Tyson apologized.

"Stop cussing like the grandma next door!" Leon growled.

"Hey, don't be mean. Nonna next door is hilarious as fuck," Tyson blurted out again and Leon shot him a look. Tyson's definitely a habitual cusser.

I giggled as Leon walked towards me and pried opened my fingers. I heard him inhale when he mumbled something to describe how red the patch on my forehead was. Gently, he placed a bag of ice on my forehead and I shrieked at the cold. He was slightly taken aback and asked, "Sorry, does it hurt?"

"No, but it's really cold," I complained.

Leon cooed, "Just bear with it for a while, alright?"

Standing by the couch, Tyson pointed to his chest and teased, "Aw, Leo, it hurts here too."

Leon opened the bag and took one ice cube from it, throwing it at Tyson as he said, "Ice it."

"What an ass," Tyson laughed, dodging the ice that was thrown at him. "Little lamb, how did you even put up with this dude for so many years?"

"Ignore him," Leon addressed to me, massaging my forehead with the ice bag while I stared at him a little too intensely. His shoulders were a lot broader and his features a lot sharper. The boy in my memories had grown up, and he wasn't the skinny boy that only stood a few centimetres taller than me. Dimples appeared on each side of his cheeks and he chuckled, "I'm going to be shy if you're going to keep staring at me like that, sweetheart."

"Ah, I'm sorry, I was in a daze," I uttered. Right Rachelle, you totally weren't staring.

"Why are you here today?"

The question definitely reminded me of my purpose of heading here at the immediate moment. Pointing towards the bags that Tyson had brought in earlier, I grinned, "Here to deliver your presents."

Then, the doorbell rang and Tyson was the one to get the door again. Though this time, he pushed on it slowly and carefully, in case he injured another visitor with his recklessness. Leon turned around to see who walked through the door, while I leaned slightly to the side to look. My heart sank a little when it was the beautiful lady that I saw the other time when I visited his apartment.

Mabel stared at me while Leon held onto my head with one hand and an ice bag with the other. Her blue eyes squinted slightly at me, allowing me to feel the slight hostility from her end towards me. Unexpectedly, Leon moved to block her gaze on me and I could no longer see the expression of the lady except hearing her curt words, "I didn't know you made friends with 'wrong doorbell'."

Oh no.

Leon spun around and looked at me, with something incomprehensible surfacing within his hazel eyes. I simply smiled awkwardly and shrugged my shoulder. The question I had expected came eventually when Leon asked, "So, it's really you that time?"

"It wasn't a big deal," I tried to play it off cool. "I just showed up when you had guests, so I decided to return home."

"Why did you return home, little lamb?" Tyson added from the side. "We wouldn't mind having you around."

"What—" I choked at my own realisation that I had gravely misunderstood the situation. This is so darned awkward. Unsure how to continue this conversation, I simply stared at Tyson and hoped that he could just do something random and divert everyone's attention away. Yet, that dude was a hell lot dense and at the end, all the attention fell back on me.

"Why did you lie, Rae?" Leon asked softly but his tone was sharp and dangerous, causing me to panic internally. Knowing him for so many years, the things he hated the most were lies. Nothing pissed him off more than lies and I was terribly guilty of it, considering the number of lies I came up with up till now.

I swallowed nervously, "I guessed I didn't want to trouble you when you're busy."

"Not good enough of a reason to do something you know I hate the most," Leon pressed, almost trying to force the truth out of me. I could only turn my face to the side and avoid his interrogative stare because I couldn't find any more words to excuse myself.

In silence, Leon tugged on my arm and walked towards the entryway. I stumbled off the couch and followed clumsily behind him. I didn't even have to look straight at him to know that he was mad at me.

"Where are you going?" Mabel asked, stopping Leon by holding onto his arm.

"I'm not obliged to answer," Leon warned. "Stay out of it."

Is this where I die in this story?

Leon took my coat from the entryway hanger and helped me into it, wrapping a thick scarf around my neck before grabbing a coat for himself. He turned to his side and told Tyson, "I'll be back in a bit."

"Easy there, lion," Tyson tried, also reaching out to hold onto Leon's arm. "You're scaring her."

"Stay out of it, Ty," Leon said curtly.

I was guided out of the door and as the door closed behind us, I looked into the house and saw Tyson shaking his head towards me, making a sign of the cross. I mentally gasped because I knew that trouble had crashed towards me like a relentless tidal wave.

Leon swiftly picked out his car keys and strode towards the driver's seat. Fear was everything that kept me from running as I obediently sat in his car and he sped off. Literally, sped. The whole journey from his apartment to mine, I gripped so tightly onto the safety belt for my dear life. Even when I knew that Leon could drive well, he was driving a lot faster through the roads as though the speedometer was an indicator of how frustrated this guy beside me was.

When the car finally screeched to a halt and was pulled over, I finally let out the breath that I was holding all along. Leon unbuckled his seatbelt and spoke in an oddly calm voice, "Let's talk upstairs." 

✿

What kind of angry are you?

(a/n: just a fun fact. rachelle means 'little lamb' and leon means 'lion'. that's why tyson calls them that.)