Pitbabe S2, Chapter 23 pg 5

 Pitbabe S2, Chapter 23 pg 5

   It felt like I was talking to myself.

   “Why’re you quiet now? See, I’m speaking your language.”

   The two of us are so strange.

   Sometimes it feels like we love each other deeply, sometimes like we don’t love at all. Sometimes we speak the same language, sometimes we’re in completely different universes. Sometimes I understand why I love him, sometimes I don’t get it at all. In my mind, love and understanding should be a spectrum, continuous like the colors of a rainbow. But my love with Babe is two extremes—black or white, low or high, left or right, heaven or hell. Maybe that’s why we can never meet in the middle.

   “I just know I can do it,” I said flatly. While Babe tried to speak my language, I responded in a language hundreds of times worse than his usual one. “Maybe not today or tomorrow, but it’ll happen. Because I won’t stop until it does.”

   “And until that day comes, what’ll happen to you?” Babe pressed on relentlessly. If you pictured us right now, it wasn’t a debate show—it was an interrogation room. “If it’s not today, but two years, three years, four years from now, will you still be stubborn enough to hold out?”

   “I know Jeff’s sense has a stronger effect than others, but don’t forget it took over twenty years—his whole life—for it to get this bad. No matter what, I’ll succeed before then.”

   “And what guarantees that what’s happening to Jeff will be the same for you?” Babe wasn’t backing down, and the darkness and eerie silence of the hospital at night seemed to fuel this endless war of logic.

   “Jeff only has one, but how many do you have? From what I know, it’s already a lot, and there’s probably more I don’t know about. It took twenty years for Jeff to show symptoms, but for you, it could be twenty days. What makes you so sure you’ll be fine?”

   It felt like my defeat was imminent. In the past, when we fought with reason, I won every time. It’s not that Babe is irrational—he has his own logical way of thinking and arguing, but it’s usually rooted in emotion, which makes it easy for me to find gaps to counter. This time, though, he wielded my own weapon against me with swift and cunning precision. Before I knew it, the proud warrior had fallen off his horse.

   “If Jeff stays like this, I won’t be able to focus on work,” I finally said, grasping at the only excuse I had left. It wasn’t entirely an excuse—it was genuine worry, affecting my heart and mind. But it probably wasn’t strong enough to stand up to Babe’s reasoning. “I get what you’re saying, but I can’t stand seeing my Phii like this. I’m really sorry.”

   Babe let out a scoff, like he’d truly run out of words, which was a relief for me. If he hadn’t given up, my only option would’ve been to play crazy.

   “But you can stand seeing me like this, right?”

   “Babe…”

   “No matter what I say, you’re never going to change your mind, are you?”

   I had an answer in my head, but the simmering anger on Babe’s face and the look in his eyes made me think of something utterly insane.

   “I might change my mind.”

   “Seriously?” Babe narrowed his eyes, skeptical. “You don’t listen to anything, and now you’re saying you might change your mind?”

   “Could you give me a quick kiss?”

   Babe’s jaw dropped. He froze, as if his entire body had been flash-frozen, only his eyelids blinking rapidly in bewildered confusion at my out-of-nowhere request. I knew doing this made me seem like I’d lost my mind, but what could I do? Right now, I just thought there was no harm in taking a gamble. In Babe’s eyes, I’d already been acting like a lunatic for a while—things couldn’t get much worse.

   “There’s gotta be something wrong with your brain,” was the first thing Babe said once he snapped out of it.

   “Is it that weird? We kissed earlier today, didn’t we?”

   “Yeah, because the situation was exactly the same,” Babe said sarcastically. He looked at me like a dog covered in mud, ready to pounce on him. As someone who doesn’t get along with cute things like kids or pets, I bet everyone can imagine the expression on his face.

   “Stressed out so much your brain’s gone backward?”

   “Does that mean it’s okay?” I asked with a straight face.

   “I haven’t answered yet.”

   “So, does that mean it’s okay?”

   “Are you a bot or something?”

   “So, is it okay or not?”

   I tilted my head, resting both arms on the edge of his car door, staring at him hopefully. I don’t know what Babe saw in me at that moment, but my intention was to be an adorable little puppy—so cute that even someone who isn’t fond of four-legged pets would melt and want to cuddle me.

   It might be a bit out of place, but right now, I was flirting with my ex.

   “I hope someone secretly films this and posts it online, and by tomorrow morning, you’re trending number one.”

   “No need to wait till tomorrow,” I replied with a laugh. It seemed Babe had forgotten what he stirred up earlier today. In the hours since, he hadn’t checked online to see that I’d already become the “hopelessly lovesick hunk” paired with him, the “beloved ex.” “But saying that means you’re agreeing, right?”

   “Are you always this dramatic?”

   Not letting my favorite ex tease me any further, I leaned down toward the driver’s seat and pressed a firm kiss on his lips from the very first second. The soft, tender sensation was exactly as I’d imagined, but tasting it felt a hundred times better. I cupped Babe’s cheek with one hand, while he grabbed my neck, tilting his head to deepen the kiss. The strange gentleness we were sharing was a stark contrast to earlier in the day. This kiss wasn’t fiery or aggressive but carried a flavor that seemed to pull us both back to the days when our feelings were still unclear. The excitement, hesitation, and fear coursed through every breath. It felt overwhelming and far from comfortable, but there was no denying it was a memory we could never recreate.

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