Chapter 180: Chapter 180: Besties for Life
Chapter 180: Besties for Life
The silver-haired girl stood in the night breeze, her hair moving softly around her shoulders like something out of a dream.
She looked at Elias. The turmoil in her eyes slowly settled.
Her lips parted. "It should have..."
She stopped.
What Giselle wanted to say was, It should have ended a long time ago.
But the person in front of her was Elias.
Because it was Elias, the words picked up another meaning the instant they reached her tongue. Would that sound like blame? Would he think she was scolding him for not ending things sooner? His feelings were already too sensitive right now. If he misunderstood, it would only hurt him again.
So Giselle swallowed the sentence.
Elias saw straight through her.
He looked at the beautiful girl in front of him. No one would have guessed that beneath that frost-cold face, she was thinking something so considerate and careful.
How sweet.
How innocent.
So sweet and innocent that it made a person want to shatter her even more thoroughly.
Elias let confusion surface in his eyes, clean and bewildered, like a newborn deer that did not understand the world yet. "It should have what?"
"Nothing." Giselle shook her head slowly. "It’s good that it’s over."
Elias nodded. A loose strand of black hair shifted with the movement, soft enough to make someone want to touch it.
"I’m sorry," he said again.
Giselle’s brows drew together, so Elias hurried to explain. "No, listen to me. I really do owe you an apology. You were only trying to help me. You tried to stop me for my own good, and I didn’t listen. I made you angry. I fought with you. I said so many awful things. I really..."
The skin around his eyes reddened again, as if tears were about to spill over.
Giselle stepped forward almost on instinct.
Her cool fingers brushed the dampness from the corner of his eye. She looked at him seriously, her blue eyes steady.
"It’s okay. I don’t care about that."
"Thank you..."
Elias broke into a smile through the tears, bright and faintly alluring at the same time.
"Giselle, I have a request. I know it’s selfish, but I still hope you’ll say yes."
Naomi’s entire spirit snapped awake.
Here it came.
This was the show Elias had promised her.
Giselle paused. "Tell me."
Elias tilted his face up. His eyes held something tangled and hard to name as he said softly, "I want to be with you..."
A confession.
Naomi’s eyes widened.
So this was it. He was finally going to take Giselle Frost completely?
Of course. That had been his goal all along, hadn’t it? Getting Giselle was the kind of thing countless boys dreamed about but would never dare imagine seriously.
Still, watching it happen, Naomi only felt a little surprised. Most of it had been within expectation.
In short, she had two words for it.
How boring.
Naomi shook her head lightly. It looked like even the god of fake innocence had only so many tricks. Once you got used to the routine, you could guess where it was going.
Then Elias finished the sentence.
"I want us to be together as Besties for life... Is that okay?"
Naomi, who had been half crouched by the wall, almost lost her balance and went down on one knee.
She slapped one hand against her side and sucked in a breath.
Damn it. She had nearly thrown out her back.
She could not even blame herself for being shocked. Elias’s move had blown straight past her expectations.
Besties?
Wasn’t that exactly the kind of relationship people used when they wanted to keep things hazy between a man and a woman?
It sat one step above friendship, close enough to justify touches, hugs, late-night calls, little acts of intimacy that absolutely did not belong between ordinary friends.
But it also sat one step below dating, which meant neither side had a real title. No claim. No authority. No right to ask where the other person had been, who they had kissed, or whose bed they had crawled out of.
On paper, that kind of relationship should be equal.
Naomi thought until her brain hurt, and she still could not imagine a single way Giselle would use that label to get anything from Elias.
Elias, though?
Elias was different.
Once he had that label, he could flirt with other women right in front of Giselle and still act wounded if she questioned him.
At this moment, Naomi actually started thinking from Giselle’s side.
She could not agree.
This was a pit trap with silk pillows at the bottom.
Then, in the next second, Giselle answered.
"Okay."
Her voice.
It was Giselle’s voice, but there was no trace of the usual ice in it. It was soft, like snow melting at the edge of spring.
Naomi stared.
Hopeless.
Completely hopeless.
No one could save her. Victoria Frost could come herself and still fail. God herself could come down, and Giselle would still walk into the trap with both eyes open.
Elias continued his performance.
His face filled with disbelief, as if he thought he had misheard. Even his parted lips trembled faintly.
"Really?"
Giselle said, "You know I won’t lie to you."
"That’s great. That’s really..."
Elias’s voice thickened again. His eyes filled with mist, but his face was bright with happiness.
He slowly opened his arms and asked in a low voice, "Then... can I hug you?"
Even after receiving confirmation twice, he still looked cautious. That careful, fragile hesitation exposed the unease in his heart.
Giselle sighed silently.
She understood.
After breaking with Serena, Elias had lost the place he had leaned on, so he urgently needed another bond to fill that hollow place inside him.
The only thing Giselle could do was become that support.
That was all.
Of course she knew the answer to Elias’s question. She knew who Serena had been looking at through him.
But she could not say it.
That truth involved the deepest secret in her heart. If she spoke it aloud, it would most likely hurt Elias. It might also affect Lucien.
The thought flashed through her mind, then Giselle locked it away.
She would bury it forever.
Let it rot inside her where no one could see.
Giselle did not say anything more. She only opened her arms to Elias.
Neither of them knew who stepped forward first.
In the next moment, there was no distance between them.
Silver hair shifted in the wind, spilling strand by strand over Elias’s shoulders, as if it were gently wrapping around him.
Elias leaned into Giselle’s arms, his cheek pressed against the softness of her chest, his expression peaceful.
Giselle lowered her gaze to the boy in her arms.
The last bit of hesitation in her heart vanished.
She could not give Elias too much.
Not promises.
Not love.
Her heart already held someone else.
But if it was only the relationship of Besties, only a warm hug, what did it matter?
Buried against Giselle, Elias murmured, "I should have realized sooner..."
"Every time you got mad at me, it was because you cared about me, right?"
Before Giselle could answer, he continued speaking to himself.
"When you don’t care about someone, nothing they do can affect you."
"I should have realized..."
Giselle sensed him slipping into a dead-end thought. She lifted her hand and patted his back gently.
"It’s all over."
"Mm..."
His reply was softer than a whisper.
Then he slowly raised his head.
Their eyes met.
Their faces were very close, so close that their breaths seemed to mingle.
The air between them gradually warmed into something intimate.
