Breeze.

The cold, acute breeze that seemingly originated from the ocean swiftly made its way through the silent group. I could see that it had the strength to send ripples through everyone's clothes, but I wasn't paying attention on that. My focus was on Raphael, who fell silent right after his announcement.

Everyone watched him as he attempted to speak out, but it seemed like he was having much difficult to reveal his feelings. He was particularly eyeing at me, which just made the atmosphere intense. He gripped his lips, and obscured his eyes behind his hat.

I moved another step back, making sure to keep an ideal distance from him. In no such way I would get closer, since he might have his scissors ready and strike anytime. I steadied my breaths, and pushed all prevailing thoughts of him attacking me away. If he did assault me, the entire group will know, and will be the witness to every of the scenes.

However... I swallowed my saliva that was building up inside my mouth. ...if the group sees this... they would know about everything: my problems, my... hallucinations... basically things that are better left unshared.

I have to be strong this time, and I couldn't let myself fall into a trance.

I have to learn how to overcome my fear of him. Right now, I sensed no repulsive vibes coming from Raphael, and it absolutely baffled me. The sight of him always sent me bonkers, eventually breaking into a panic attack, but this time, there was no reaction.

I had no idea what happened, but at least it brought some relief to my soul. No matter what, though, I didn't dare to lower down my guard. I simply prepared myself of what was to come, and stood upright.

I tried staring straight at Raphael, but I immediately refused, and instead gazed through his shoulders.

"Don't worry, I know you won't ever trust me again, but hear me out for a minute or two." Raphael began, murmuring under his shaky breath. "When we first met, I already expected you to be upset, so I never expected forgiveness from you. The moment you shrug me off back at the cafe, I understood your feelings. If I were you, I would do the same thing."

"... If you understand my feelings, why don't you leave me alone...?" Pushing all of the fears into the back of my head, I, at long last, found the courage to talk back. "Why do you have to come after me when you know I wanted to have a private time?"

"I never want to pursue after you," Raphael answered, while his head turned towards Seb's direction, "it was Seb. He thought that by having you and I alone, we can try sorting things out. Even I knew it won't work, I thought there's still some hope, but obviously, you know the results."

Seb didn't bat an eye at us, but I could see him stiffening his shoulders.

I said nothing, and just eyed at his shifting legs. I wanted to tell him, that he was responsible for all the shit I had been through: nightmares, panic attacks, and most of my hallucinations. Of course no voice came out from my throat.

"It's okay if you won't forgive me, Chris. I'm not going to force you." He continued. "Heck, who in their right minds will forgive someone whose clumsiness costs his friend one of his eyes? If I were more attentive, then all of this won't happen..."

He paused in the middle of the sentence. Before I could think further, he suddenly extended his arms towards me, and before I could react, he clamped both of his hands on my shoulders.

His touch made my heart stop beating, and dropped at a faster rate. I held my breath, abruptly stopping the oxygen supply from entering my longs. I immediately barred my teeth, waiting for him to pull out those scissors and thrust my eye. I instinctively shut my vision off and looked away.

Firstly, I thought that Raphael finally showed his true colors and that I was going to die. I quickly shut off the air from entering my nostrils, and as a result, I was feeling slightly drowsy. I clenched my teeth so tightly, ready for the excruciating agony to rock against my body.

...but nothing happened.

There was no pain at all.

Wha... What happened?

Even so, Raphael's clutch were still on me, and worse, they got even stronger. Formerly holding my breath, I was now hyperventilating, taking all the oxygen in to compensate the deprivation I had earlier.

At the same time, I took a peek, and the first thing I saw was a pair of glassy, brown eyes, darkened with devastation as it bored through my skull. I quickly realized that they belonged to Raphael, and I nearly yelped in surprise. My guts drove me to squirm out of his grasp, but before I could do it, he started confessing...

"Since that day, Chris, I couldn't fully enjoy my life like I used to. Guilt still lingers over me whenever I go, and at whatever I do." Raphael's grim voice broke apart. "Even when I moved to Minnesota, even when I tried busying myself, even when my therapist helped me out of it, the pain still remains... Even until the day I die, I will always remember... that my stupidity almost killed my best friend..."

I quietly observed as Raphael tried his best to hide his emotions from showing off. He appeared to fail big time, however, as consequently, his face grimaced in such a manner. At this point in time, I don't know what to react nor what to say.

"I was so scared." He babbled, staring hardly at me. "I was frightened that I would be labelled as a murderer, even when it was an accident, and you barely survived. It reached to the point where I didn't know what to do. The memory is still fresh inside my head, Chris, it keeps playing over and over again... It disturbs and haunts me, it turns me crazy..."

"Right now, I could clearly remember how I tripped over nothing, and how I..." Raphael didn't continue, leaving it hanging. He gradually took his hands off my shoulders, placing them on his face. Without warning, he jumped right back into where he had left out. "... shoved those scissors onto your eye..."

For no reason, my nose had refused to breath up air, so I was forced to use my mouth. Gasps soon came in and out of me, as if I was having asthma. What was worse, I felt like they were getting louder. Just like usual, the same, bloodied scissors that had always daunted me returned to torture me further.

...Ugh... My head's spinning... I shook myself continuously, as to clear off those thoughts. I slowly stepped back, distancing myself a bit from Raphael, who now looked at me blankly.

"I know how you feel, Chris. Just like you being afraid of getting hurt, I'm afraid of hurting someone again... Seeing the aftereffects and the pain I had caused on you.... it just makes me feel worse..." He looked away. "If only there's something that could... at least heal us all..."

Simply hoping on it won't solve anything. No matter how old the accident was, I never lost sight of it, and I was sure I would be bringing it to the grave. People would remember me as the guy who survived most of his life with only one eye. The scars that he had etched on me would not heal, and would remain forever.

"That is all I want to say, and I'm much more relieved now. You still can hate me Chris. I'm fine with that. If you... kinda changed your mind... well, I'm glad." Raphael forced his lips into a tiny smile, but it reminded me of his... disturbing grin. I quietly retreated back towards Rena without any word. I still couldn't find reasons to trust him, especially when he had been continuously tormenting me, day and night.

Of course... the worst of all was his drawling, intimidating voice.

"They said that blue eyes are the prettiest, you know." The moment it echoed across my mind, every hairs on my skin became upright, as chills ran across my back. Stop thinking about it, Ed. You're going to make a scene with your stupid panic attack-

"Mind if I take over?"

Yet, a voice cut through the air effortlessly, which got the attention from everyone in no time. We all simultaneously glanced at Seb, who had finally found his time to speak up. I couldn't read the expression he had on his face, as it was difficult to read. The only clue to what he was thinking was his gloomy eyes that told me... he had secrets to disclose.

Raphael silently nodded, and from the corner of my vision, I watched as he stepped back. He must have known something about Seb... Well, he's here before me, after all.

Seb soon walked over, leaving Florence behind, coming towards my way. I narrowed my eye, and straightened up my mouth, as a basket of questions started swirling all over the place like a tornado. Honestly, out of all people here, Sebastian was the most unpredictable. I had not a fucking clue what was he going to reveal.

"I have a lot of things that I should let it out. I can't keep it down anymore." Seb grunted lowly, as he kept his gaze fixed on me. "I'm sure that if I decide to bottle it up, I'm going to explode."

The air grew thicker and cold all of the sudden, devouring all of us. I also took notice that we each had our own businesses. Rena was still comforting Alyssa from her recent meltdown, Raphael was just staring blankly at the ocean, Florence was just hanging around doing nothing. Now it was Seb's turn to speak.

"Honestly, I never expect you to hide something from me." I remarked, keeping my hands balled on my sides.

"Look at the mirror and see who's worse, then come back to me." Seb retorted, and a tinge of annoyance quickly flowed through my veins. I subconsciously gripped my jaw, and was lost for words. To admit, he was right; I was worse than him, but this wasn't about my situation.

"Well, it's your show now." I replied, sighing. "You're the one planning all of this, so I guess you do have something to tell."

"I don't care if you're trying to make fun of me." He glowered at me.

"I'm not insulting you, Seb. I'm just stating the facts." I sneered, clearly seeing that he was out of his mind. I wasn't even calling him names or roasting him like I always did whenever we met. I mentally rolled my eye and simply shrugged the thought off.

Silence was his sole response, although for no reason, the intense atmosphere pressured me even more. Probably it was because Seb was supposedly the loud one of the group, but now he was acting out of character. He was never this... quiet, and for reasons I couldn't describe in words, it bothered the hell out of me.

All I know is that he's obviously not fine.

I have to at least initiate the conversation as to keep things going, or else, this won't go anywhere. Seb seemed to be waiting for me to get started as well, so I slowly opened my lips to utter out.

"So... what are you going to-"

Before I managed to finish my sentence, I was distracted by Seb startlingly lunging at me. Even if his actions were unpredictable, I have to be downright thankful to my reflex. It was fast enough to made me sidestep, preventing him from getting too close.

Even if I had a quick self-defense mechanism, I was too immersed in my own thoughts rather than minding my surrounding. Seb was quick enough to snatch my wrist and forcefully dragged me towards him.

He pulled me with so much force that I immediately lost my balance, causing me to fall the ground. My back quickly collided against the concrete, and instant pain mercilessly rocked my body. It caused an inevitable yelp to break free from my mouth.

My teeth clenched tight as a pair of hands pressed against my collar bones. The moment I fluttered my eye open, I saw Seb's formerly straight face had  broken down. It was replaced by a look of distress and... pain...?

"You always think I'm alright, do you...?" Seb muttered. "I bet you're thinking that I'm all rainbows and sunshine just because I annoy you every single day."

"Seb, what are you-?!" Behind my best friend, I could see that Raphael had snapped out of his trance, his eyes were totally round. He was about to make a fast approach, but Florence quickly used her arm to blocked his path.

"Don't." The green-head firmly ordered, which stopped Raphael in place. The irritating look that plastered her face was nowhere to be found, replaced by some softened features.

"Huh? But, Seb..." His voice trailed off.

"Let him be. This is his only chance, otherwise he would get even worse." She lowered her volume on the last two words, as her hard, icy blue eyes glittered with empathy, which was surprising of her. I knew that she must have known something wrong about Seb far earlier than I and the others did.

"I'm sure you want to know real truth, right, Ed?" He began. "You thought I'm always happy with my life? You thought I'm doing my job right and finish them on time? You thought I'm having fun everyday? Guess what, none of them true."

I was speechless, because I couldn't find the right words to construct a proper sentence and reply to his story. After all, if I did reply something, it would just make me a hypocrite as well.

...but lies... all of the things that he had been doing were lies.

The Sebastian that I had seen from the outside was simply a mask...

"You probably thought I had moved on from Lynn's death... do you?" He continued, his hands started shaking, but he pushed them hard against me. "...but guess what, Ed? Those are lies as well..."

He grabbed a fistful of fabric of my hoodie and using such grasp, he pulled me up. I soon was drawn closer to him, and from here, I could take a good look at his eyes, which were clouded and glassy. My heart immediately swayed when I only saw was nothing but immense pain. There was no sadness, anger, fear or disgust.

Just... pain.

Something moist started dripping into my cheeks, its coldness piercing against my skin. It didn't seem to come from my eye, as I felt that it was completely dry and that there was nothing to hold back. Then, I heard faint rack of sobs, and I was sure it didn't originate from the bottom of my throat. When I looked at Seb for explanation, it seemed that I quickly found the answer.

He was crying.

Sebastian Allington, my cocky and obnoxious best friend, was bawling his eyes out.

I blinked countless of times, making sure I wasn't hallucinating or daydreaming. The tears that trickled down his cheeks and dripped off his chin still existed, proving that he was... genuinely crying.

"I'm still not able to get over Lynn's death just like you do... and every time you remind me of her, it drives me crazy. Before she died, I didn't have any last words for her, and unlike you... she had no final words for me. When I realize that, it breaks me even more..." He whimpered. "That's why I forced you to forget about her so that I didn't have to be reminded all over again..."

I didn't know whether I should feel bad or not, but I was leaning more to the former.

He released his grip off me, and had I not taken control, my head would have instantly hit the ground. I watched as he struggled to stand up and turned around on his heels. I noticed that he used his arms to rub the tears decorating his eyes, and faced towards Raphael and Florence.

"I'm such a selfish liar, am I, Ed?" He muttered. "I haven't even had most of my work done, and most of them had been past my deadline. My manager had been complaining so much, so I told him to shut up. I'm so stressed out right now, but I just covered it up so  you won't have to see it..."

He paused as I stood up, brushing off the dirt off my clothes. Rena and Alyssa approached me, and I could tell they were ready to help, but I refused their offer.

"... I'm sorry." I addressed him quietly, with a half-hearted tone. The same with Alyssa's situation, I literally didn't know what to do other than to apologize. Regret washed through me as I thought over what had happened these days.

I was too self-centered about solving my internal conflicts, I didn't have the time to notice that Seb was going through a lot of things as well. There were some moments where I suspected him, though, but he just smiled and shrugged it off, so I always thought that he was just fatigued and tired. Now, I was aware that there was always secrets hiding behind a smile.

"Just like how Alyssa was with Ren, I was so fed up with you being the one there for her... now and even back then. I genuinely hate how close you two have been. I'm jealous of you." He disclosed. "I shouldn't be feeling that way, though. I wanted to see Ren happy, but she's the happiest when she's with you, so I paved her the way, but it hurts so badly..."

"Seb..." Rena tried to console him. She then approached him, but before she could wrap her arms around him, he began to wander off.

Even with Rena repeatedly called for him, he didn't take heed of her, ignoring her like she wasn't there at all. He just kept walking, his retreating figure growing far from me.

"Are you satisfied now?"

When he passed by Florence and Raphael, he drew his body near the green-haired girl and whispered into her ears. She threw a faint, frustrated sigh as a reply, and didn't bother to turn around and stop him while he strolled away. Eventually, Seb's figure grew smaller and finally disappeared into the distance. Meanwhile, Florence crossed her arms and brushed her hand through her ponytail.

"You're not stopping him?" Despite her hoarse voice, Alyssa managed to question her.

Florence didn't respond immediately. Her fringes hid her eyes as she shook her head.

***
A/N: I feel really bad for Seb. He really bottled his feelings so much that he finally exploded :(

Hope you like the chapter though! Please don't forget to leave vote and comments.

See you next week!

- Tara