CHAPTER 346: AS A FRIEND

"What are you three so happy about?" Alhai couldn’t help, but voice out his concern.

"Happy?" Zaque hums, wiping the freshly washed plates with caution, but the excitement was evident in every fiber of his being as he saunter across the kitchen with a skip towards the cabinet, storing the plate inside.

Heiren faced away from the sink and turned to Alhai, wiping his hands over the apron he was wearing and quirked up an eyebrow.

"Is there a problem with us being happy?" The second husband asked, taking off the apron because he had just finished washing the dishes and pans he used to cook Coco’s breakfast.

Alhai slowly shook his head and placed his teacup down to the saucer, the bottom of the cup making a clinking sound as it made contact with the small plate.

"There’s no problem, but.. You guys looked incredibly happy for someone who was mad at Coco for not saying anything about the second stage of the examination." Alhai said, shooting a blank stare at Zaque’s way.

"I was talking to him, specifically." Alhai quickly added, nodding his head towards the first husband.

"Who wouldn’t be upset if you found out that the person you like— who you are married to, if I may add— was taking a very important examination and didn’t tell you about it?" Zaque countered back, picking up another plate from the dish rack.

"Surely, it’s not me." Alhai said, shrugging his shoulders before he picked up his teacup. "I’m not dramatic."

"You’re not dramatic because you don’t like Coco." Heiren pointed out and jabbed a finger towards Zaque’s way, "Unlike him, who very much likes that woman."

"Yes, that’s true, but that didn’t answer my question." Alhai stated, a deadpan expression on his face, "And what’s wrong with Quizen? Why is helping with the preparations of the lunch? Doesn’t he dislike touching onions and garlic?"

At Alhai’s question, Heiren couldn’t help, but let out an undignified snort. "That’s because Coco invited him to stay with her inside her room."

Alhai was in the middle of sipping his tea, the warm liquid barely went down his throat when Heiren answered his question and when he heard the answer, the tea went down the wrong tube.

Alhai let out a series of coughs, frantically putting the teacup down on the saucer before patting his chest with his other hand curling into a fist and coughing against it.

"That would be my reaction, too, you know? If Coco invited me to stay with her while I was drinking something." Quizen casually commented, her grip on the knife tight and easy, slicing the onions to tiny pieces.

"Cut some ginger after that, okay? Oh, and add a couple of tomatoes as well." Heiren told Quizen, walking over to the refrigerator and pulling out the tab filled with tomatoes.

The three of them ignored the silver haired mediator who was coughing by the table and continued working in the kitchen, each of them helping each other so they can take a bath in their personal bathrooms and go to Coco’s room as soon as possible.

"Wait, wait, wait—" Alhai coughed, clearing his throat with his eyes narrowed, tears welling up by the corners, "Stay in that woman’s room? She invited the three of you?"

"She invited me, but I don’t know about them." Quizen said, pointing the tip of the knife towards Heiren’s and Zaque’s way, "I asked her if I could stay and she agreed. After that, she offered to move the desk she doesn’t use beside her bed so I can work beside her."

"Which was surprising." Zaque said with a sigh, "But at least she didn’t scream when she saw me beside her this morning."

"No." Alhai hissed, standing up abruptly, making his chair screech loudly against the kitchen floor, "What do you mean she let the three of you stay in her room? With her? And you three are okay with it— to stay with her?"

"It’s exactly what we meant." Zaque stated bluntly, shrugging, and placed the cup he finished drying inside of one of the cabinets.

"We asked and she agreed." Quizen backed Zaque’s statement up which was soon followed by the sound of the knife making contact on the wooden cutting board that echoed audibly inside the room.

"Does this mean that you two also like her?" Alhai asked, hissing the question out.

The question made Quizen freeze on the spot, the motion of cutting down the garlic into pieces stopping as he let the words sink in.

Heiren, too, froze in the middle of wiping the counter top.

"Do you like her the way Zaque likes her?" Alhai followed his previous question with a clarifying question, "Or do you like her as a friend?"

Zaque could feel the tension rising inside the room, the atmosphere suddenly growing cold and quiet as Heiren and Quizen continued to ponder about the question— not that he cares, but at this rate, an argument will break out.

"Alhai, drop it—" Zaque started, but was immediately cut off by Quizen’s answer.

"I do like Coco." The blue haired mediator mumbled, the words were barely above whisper, and tightened his grip on the handle of the knife as he repeated what he said, but much louder. "I like her."

A look of hurt crossed Alhai’s eyes, accompanied with an unreasonable emotion.

"But no, not the way you think it is." Quizen soon added to his answer, "I like her because she’s a good person, but I don’t like her enough to trust her fully— and I haven’t forgotten what she did to me or to you, Alhai."

"So, you like her as a friend?" Heiren asked, wanting to clarify Quizen’s answer.

There was a pause before Quizen nodded his head to answer Heiren’s question. "Yes.. Just as a friend. Nothing more, nothing less."

"Coco probably thinks the same." Zaque said, hoping that it would ease the tension between them.

However, that sentence made Quizen’s heart squeeze painfully inside his chest.