The V-tuber Who Became Obsessed With Me

Chapter 100: Painful confrontation

( this is a continuation from the previous Chapter and still told from raina’s pov )

The door swung open.

"Come in."

Ethan stepped aside without meeting my eyes.

I swallowed the knot in my throat and stepped inside.

The apartment was dim, the curtains drawn tightly across the windows until only narrow bands of morning light slipped through the gaps. Dust drifted lazily through the pale beams, settling over a room that felt strangely unfamiliar despite how many times I’d been there before.

It wasn’t the furniture that had changed.

It was everything else.

My gaze settled on the couch.

A blanket had been tossed carelessly over one end, and an untouched mug of coffee sat on the table beside it. The coffee had long since gone cold.

He’d slept there.

Or maybe he hadn’t slept at all.

Neither of us spoke.

Ethan crossed the room in silence and lowered himself onto the couch. He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees, his hands clasped loosely together as he stared at the floor.

For several seconds, he didn’t move.

When he finally looked at me, the breath caught in my chest.

He didn’t look angry.

He looked exhausted.

Not the kind of exhaustion that disappeared after a night’s sleep, but the kind that settled somewhere much deeper, where rest could no longer reach.

"What do you want, Raina?"

His voice was quiet, stripped of almost everything I had come to associate with him.

I tightened my grip on the strap of my bag.

"I came because I owe you the truth."

A humorless smile touched his lips.

"A little late for that."

"You’re right."

The words came out barely above a whisper.

"I should have told you from the beginning."

"You should have."

There was no accusation in his voice.

Just a simple statement of fact.

"I thought Felix was gone," I said after a long silence. "When we met again, I believed that part of my life had ended. I convinced myself I could leave Himari behind and start over."

My eyes drifted to the floor before I forced myself to meet his again.

"I wasn’t trying to become someone better. I was trying to become someone who wasn’t haunted every time she looked in the mirror."

His expression didn’t change.

"I thought if you knew who I was, you’d never give me the chance to be Raina."

He let out a slow breath and leaned back against the couch.

"Do you hear what you’re saying?"

I fell silent.

"You keep talking like telling me sooner would have fixed everything."

He shook his head.

"It wouldn’t have."

He stood and wandered toward the window, stopping with his back to me.

"I’ve been awake all night."

His voice remained calm.

"I kept replaying everything."

"The day we met."

"The day we found each other again."

"The café."

"My mum insisting you stay for dinner."

"Nathan embarrassing me with stories from when we were kids."

"My nephew refusing to let you leave until you’d helped him finish building his dinosaur."

A faint smile crossed his face before disappearing just as quickly.

"The warehouse."

He rested one hand against the window frame.

"I keep asking myself the same question."

He turned to face me.

"Which parts were real?"

The question hurt more than I expected.

"They all were."

The answer came without hesitation.

"When your mum taught me her curry recipe, that was real."

"When your nephew dragged me onto the living room floor because he wanted one more game before bedtime, that was real."

"When your family made room for me at the table like I’d always belonged there..."

My voice faltered.

"That was real too."

I took a cautious step closer.

"I didn’t fake those moments, Ethan."

"I couldn’t have."

"I loved them."

"I loved all of you."

His eyes searched mine for so long that I almost believed he was looking for a reason to forgive me.

"I want to believe that."

His voice cracked so softly it barely reached me.

"I really do."

He looked away.

"But every memory I have of us comes with another question now."

He laughed once under his breath.

"My mum still asks about you even though she is miles away ."

The words landed like a punch.

"She thinks you’re the best thing that’s happened to me in years."

He met my eyes again.

"Nathan’s family loves you."

"My nephew talks about you all the time."

His jaw tightened.

"What am I supposed to tell them?"

"That the woman they welcomed into our family never trusted any of us enough to tell us who she really was?"

Tears blurred my vision.

"I never meant to hurt any of you."

"I know."

He nodded once.

"I don’t think you set out to hurt anybody."

His voice remained painfully gentle.

"But you still did."

Silence settled between us.

"I defended you every time something didn’t make sense."

"I trusted you."

He stopped there, as though nothing else needed saying.

Because it didn’t.

I lowered my head.

"I broke that trust."

"You did."

There was no anger in his voice.

Only grief.

"I’m sorry."

The words felt hopelessly small.

I didn’t try to explain them.

I didn’t try to make them enough.

They never could be.

After a long silence, I took another tentative step toward him.

"I’m not asking you to forgive me."

"I know I haven’t earned that."

"I just..."

Without thinking, I reached for his hand.

He drew it back before my fingers could touch his.

The movement wasn’t sharp.

It wasn’t angry.

It was almost gentle.

That somehow made it hurt even more.

He looked at me for a long moment.

"Can I ask you something?"

I nodded.

"If Felix had never woken up..."

His eyes held mine.

"Would you ever have told me?"

The question hollowed me out.

I opened my mouth.

No answer came.

Because I didn’t know.

And we both knew that silence was an answer all by itself.

( to be continued in the next Chapter)