Current time: 10.27 pm

"Yes it's clear. It will get subtracted when it goes on the other side, so the answer is 7. Got it." Adalyn said as she made a note of the answer.

"Correct, the next part is also to be done similarly." Mr. Parker, the maths teacher said. Adalyn was attending her online class.

"For the next one, the answer is 34.5 right?" She asked her teacher through the screen. He looked down in his book for a second. "Yes." He said, confirming Adalyn's answer.

"It's been 30 minutes now. You can leave. You are making real progress Ms. Henderson." He said.

"Thank you Mr. Parker." She smiled.

"Have a good time in London."

"Of course." Adalyn smiled before leaving the zoom call. After disconnecting the call, she stretched in her position and dropped on the bed next to Coco, who was completing her assignment.

"You done?" She asked Coco.

"Just this last one." Coco said. Within a few minutes, she closed her binder and dropped it on the bedside table making a loud sound. Adalyn looked up from her phone to see Coco smiling to her.

"So, what now?" Adalyn asked, keeping her phone aside. Coco didn't say anything, she picked up two controllers.

"Fifa. It's on." Adalyn said as she took one controller from her. After four intense games, with both of them winning two each, both of them went to sleep at 11.30 pm, completely tired out but extremely happy after having so much fun together.

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Day IV of the internship; October 15:

"Adalyn, can I borrow that?"

"Of course. You don't have to ask."

It was 8.30 am and Adalyn and Coco had freshened up and were getting ready. Coco wanted to wear Adalyn's rings, so she asked her for it.

"They look great on you." Adalyn complimented, looking at Coco's fingers, gleaming with beautiful silver rings.

"Thanks. You can always borrow jewelry from me too." Coco said.

"Thanks." Adalyn smiled.

"Addie, everything is alright between you and Ruel right?" Coco asked worriedly as she sat down on the bed. Adalyn sat down besides her.

"Yeah." Adalyn said. "I think." She sighed.

Coco sighed after her. "What happened? You can always talk to me."

"I don't know. I thought forgetting that night's events will help the both of us, but I was wrong. It's breaking me inside." She said. "I've never had a boyfriend before. So I don't know if I'm doing everything right or not. I don't recognize these feelings I'm feeling. It's all so," Adalyn paused, "confusing."

"Such things are apparent, considering the fact that you are new to everything. But, think of me as your friend and not as the sister of the boy you're in love with-"

"I'm not in love with him."

"Yeah sure. I'm saying that don't put boys first. Put your career and passion first. Okay?"

"Yes." Adalyn nodded.

"'Great. Don't stress much about him. I get it that things aren't exactly alright between the both of you, but you're here to achieve your dreams." Coco said softly.

"You're right. I shouldn't stress much about this. I'm not here to get along with him anyways." Adalyn said.

"Perfect. Let's go for breakfast now." Coco said as she got up from her position.

"Yeah let's go." Adalyn said as she copied her actions. Both of them picked up their necessary things and made their way to the restaurant.

"Good morning guys." Coco greeted everyone.

She received different responses from everyone varying from 'hi', 'good morning' to 'sit down and have breakfast'.

She and Adalyn sat down next to each other. Ruel and Adalyn were sitting on either side of Coco. Adalyn began loading her plate with pancakes and began eating those.

"Coco, Ruel," Kate called out to her children, which made both of them look up along with Adalyn, "FaceTime your dad and Sylvie please. It's been long since you both talked to them."

"Okay, we'll do it after breakfast." Ruel said after which he continued eating his toast.

"Alright mum. We'll do it." Coco said.

"Great." Kate said as she continued her conversation with Chelsea.

After breakfast, Ruel and Coco went to Ruel and Kate's room to FaceTime Ralph and Sylvie. Adalyn went into her room only.

"Hey dad." Ruel greeted as the familiar face popped on the screen.

"Hey Ruel, hey Coco. How are you?" Ralph asked.

"Great." Both of them said in unison. "How are you dad?" Coco asked.

"I'm fine. Oh Sylvie come here." He called out to her.

"Hey guys, how's London without me?" She asked with a cheeky smile.

"It's amazing without you." Ruel sassed.

"Agreed." Coco said.

"Oh shut up." Sylvie said.

"How's the intern like?" Sylvie asked, changing the subject.

A weird silence fell between Ruel and Coco.

"She's amazing." Coco said. "We became good friends."

"That's great." Ralph remarked.

"And don't even get me started on her photography, it's breathtaking." Coco remarked dreamily.

"I wanna meet her too." Sylvie pouted.

"She's seriously so nice." Coco continued.

"Ruel, how's your relation with her?" Ralph asked.

Ruel took a pause before speaking. "It's nice. We get along alright." He lied.

"That's great." Ralph said. "What do you have to do today?" He asked further.

"I have an interview with Cynthia." Ruel said.

"Okay, best of luck." Ralph said.

"Thank you Dad." Ruel said.

All of them continued talking. They talked about Ruel's tour in London and Ralph and Sylvie told about everything that was happening in Sydney. After talking for a few more minutes, they all said their goodbyes to each other and disconnected the call. Ruel kept his phone aside and saw Coco looking up to him.

"What?" He asked.

"Are you alright?" Coco asked.

"Yeah why do you ask?"

"Are you happy with the decision you and Adalyn made?"

Ruel's expression turned to a frown.

"Yes, now go."

"Ruel, I'm your older sister. I know you aren't happy. Talk to me." She said softly.

"Okay I'm not happy. I know I decided not to fall in love again after Olivia, but Adalyn, she's so nice and kind-hearted. The kisses we shared were one of a kind. When she suggested that we forget all of this, my heart dropped. How can I forget one of the most blissful night of my life?" He asked as tears welled up in his eyes.

Coco's mood became sad. Even though she and Ruel fight a lot, he's still her younger brother and she cares a lot about him.

"Aww Ruel. Come here." She said opening her arms for him. He hugged her back. After a few seconds, he pulled back.

"Ruel I care so much about you. Please don't let some feelings come in the way of your career. In the morning I talked to Adalyn about this. It's a little hard for her too, but she's decided to focus on her photography. I want you to focus on your music, okay?" She said.

Ruel nodded.

"Don't think I'm trying to separate the both of you. I think you both are adorable together. I mean, I would love Adalyn to be my sister-in-law." Coco chuckled which earned her a slap on her arm from Ruel. "I'm only doing this because you both are here for your passion, not to get along with each other. I know it must be hard not being able to be friends and talk to each other, but don't forget, you have to keep music first, okay? Just like she's keeping photography first. Maybe in the future, you both can consider dating."

"You're right. I won't mope about her anymore. It sucks not being able to be friends, but I can't let her thought distract me." He said.

"That's great!" Coco said as she high-fived him. Ruel got up from his position and sat down on the desk.

"What are you doing?" Coco asked, walking up to him.

"Writing music. Now go." He said, scribbling notes on a piece of paper.

"Fine." Coco said as she made her way out.

"Thanks for the help dork." He said.

"No problem loser." Coco said as she walked out and closed the door.

"Hey Co." Adalyn said as Coco entered the room.

"Hey." She greeted back as she sat down with her on the bed.

"How's your family?" Adalyn asked.

"They're fine. Dad and Sylvie were asking about you."

"Oh really? What did you say?"

"I complimented your photography a lot. Sylvie really wants to meet you."

"Aww, I wanna meet her too."

"You'll meet her when you come to Sydney after the internship."

"I would love to visit, but don't think I'll most definitely be there."

"Oh you'll be there, and I'll make sure." Coco sassed.

"Okay." Adalyn laughed.

"Addie I talked to Ruel about the both of you."

"Oh, what did he say?"

"He isn't exactly happy with the decision, but like I told you to focus on photography, I told him to focus on his music. You both need to prioritize what's more important."

"You're right. While you were gone, I did some more editing."

"That's great. And I also want you to know that I'm not trying to separate the both of you. Its just that, he means so much to me and you do too, so I want you both to focus on what you do the best. He has concerts so he needs to be at his top game and you are interning under Michelle, so you need to be on your top game too. I hope you understand."

"Of course! I completely understand your intentions. It's nice to see how much you care about me and Ruel." Adalyn smiled.

"Thanks. I think you both can consider dating in the future. I mean, you would be an amazing sister-in-law." Coco winked which made Adalyn gasp and throw a pillow at her. Coco kept that pillow aside.

"Show me the edited pictures." She said.

"'There you go." Adalyn handed her her laptop and she began scrolling through them, complimenting her frequently.

______________________________

Meanwhile in Ruel's room:

"And done." Ruel said, picking up the paper and viewing it.

"This is one of my best works yet." Ruel said as he went through the lyrics he wrote. The lyrics, they were very similar to the feelings he was feeling about their decision. It helped him to produce a very beautifully written song.

"I'm going to call it Distance." He said as he wrote the name of the song on the top. "I have to show it to Chelsea once." He got up and went out his room and knocked on Chelsea's room.

"Hey Ruel." Chelsea greeted.

"Hi. I wrote a song." He said excitedly.

"Ooh come in." Ruel walked in and sat with Nate on the bed.

"There you go." Ruel handed the paper to Chelsea and she and Nate began reading the lyrics.

"Ruel this is amazing!" Chelsea exclaimed.

"I agree, it's beautifully written." Nate complimented.

"Thanks guys." Ruel smiled.

"Do you want to work on it now?" Chelsea asked.

"Maybe not now. After a few days? Preferably when we go back to Sydney only."

"Yeah that's alright." Chelsea nodded.

"I wanna show this to Coco too." He said as he took the paper back from them and went to Coco's room.
He knocked on the door and Coco opened up.

"What's that?" She pointed to the paper.

"A new song." At this Coco's eyes widened.

"Come in, and show me." Ruel came inside to see Adalyn working on her laptop. He handed the paper to Coco.

"Addie, Ruel wrote a song. See it." She said to Adalyn.

"Sure." Adalyn kept her laptop aside and peeked at the paper. It had beautiful lyrics written on it. As it came to an end, Adalyn realised that the feelings being depicted through the lyrics are familiar to the ones she's feeling.

Well, I don't wanna say that this was hard, it was
Trying not to stay but that just made it worse
I've been keepin' my distance
Well, I just wanna know what you're thinking
I just can't explain the way it hurts
Now that what we had is gone
I don't have the words, I'm so bad at playin' along
Saving my feelings
I've been keeping my distance

"Ruel it's beautiful!" Coco exclaimed.

"Thanks Coco." Ruel smiled.

"It's wondrous." Adalyn smiled.

"Thank you." Ruel replied. They both made yet another eye contact, and suddenly everything became clear to Adalyn.

"He isn't exactly happy with the decision."
Coco had said.

The sadness in his eyes was crystal clear to her and she knew what the song is about. He isn't happy about the decision and the distance they both have to keep from each other isn't the most fun thing they had to do. Even though they both had decided to focus on what they're good at, it wasn't easy and it was apparent through those lyrics about how hard it is for Ruel.

Ruel dropped their eye contact. He understood in an instant that Adalyn knew exactly what's up and he won't be able to hide it from her.

"Well, I'm gonna go now." He got up and went out of the room, leaving Adalyn doubting the decision, not for the first time, but the second.

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Author's note
I apologize if this chapter is very messy. I'll try to improve and make sure that it won't happen again.

For this please assume that Ruel hasn't released any ep this year. I know that he wrote all of the songs of Bright Lights, Red Eyes last year, but in this story it won't be like this.

And Coco isn't trying to separate them!

Please don't forget to press the star and to follow me for regular updates! And also don't hesitate to give constructive criticism, but hate won't be appreciated.

With love through health and sickness
Keziah