While back in the room, after the trio left, Arwen didn't speak anything. She just stood there as if giving a chance to Ryan to initiate the conversation.
Ryan who still stood at the door, stared at her as if trying to find even the slightest shadow of her past self but no matter how long he looked at her, she didn't look the sa. She looks different —very indifferent.
Or, was it his guilt that was making her look like that?
"Arwen, why did you say it like that? I might not have been the best but I was —" Ryan tried to begin it, but as if growing impatient, Arwen spoke, interrupting him.
"Mr. Foster, I am not sure about you, but I am married. Please don't say or do anything that would make people misunderstand with you. I might not mind it, but I won't be comfortable if any misunderstanding makes my husband uncomfortable."
Her words ca frad so well that it instantly made Ryan feel guilty. "Husband?" he repeated.
And staring into his eyes, Arwen nodded, humming. "Yes, husband. Did you not know I am a married woman already?" she then frowned slightly and added, "How co? I have made sure that everyone knows it well. Especially the ones who know even the slightest."
"Arwen," Ryan felt getting pressed under the burden of her words. "Can you not make a compromise seem so real? It's just infuriating. How can you ntion your relationship with so pride when it's sothing that would be heavily slighted in our society?"
Arwen frowned. "Sorry, Mr. Foster. I am sorry, I don't think I understand whatever you are saying. Are you saying that my legal relationship with my husband is sothing people will rebuff?"
"Do you think they won't?" Though he was trying his best to ignore it, still Arwen's tone of indifference seed to be killing him inside. "Arwen, you married soone you shouldn't —a man of age that's not compatible with yours. You know that alone is frowned upon, yet —"
"Mr. Foster," Arwen interrupted again. "This story is sothing that I have already explained to Mrs. Quinn recently. I am not going to pull the sa show again and clarify things for you because you are no one who needs to be clarified. But if you are still adamant about getting one, you can reach out to Mrs. Quinn and go again to discuss what I said to her. Don't bother to explain it again."
With that, she was ready to walk past him, but just when she was about to pass him, he held her arms, stopping her at his side. "Arwen, I ca to explain things to you."
Arwen trained her gaze on his hold over her arms, her expression hardening slowly. "Mr. Foster, if you not know them let tell you. I am slightly mysophobic, not too cool to stranger's touches. So, it would be better if you could keep your hands off ."
Saying that she harshly shrugged her arms off his hold before stepping back to create the distance between them.
Ryan was taken aback. The way she looked at him was alone enough to tell him that she was repulsed by his touch.
How could she hate him like that?
Didn't she love him just a few months back?
"Stranger's touches?" he asked. "You think I am a stranger, Arwen. We had an engagent and I …" He couldn't say more as his voice grew heavy and the words felt heavier.
"There is a big difference between had and have, Mr. Foster. The difference that's between us too. So, it would be better for you to understand it as well." She paused for a brief second and then said, in a much calr tone. "Mr. Foster, we were engaged once once. But no one would know better than us that the engagent ant nothing. It was just a burden put on our shoulders that neither you nor I wanted."
Ryan shook his head, trying to refuse her, but Arwen didn't give him any chance. She continued, "While you were repulsive of it from the very day it happened, I grew repulsive of it over ti. And now that it's gone, I am relieved and so should you because, at the end of the day, it was nothing but a burden. One that was stopping you from being with the one you always wanted to be."
"That's a misunderstanding." Unable to take it any longer, Ryan said. He felt like if he delayed explaining his mistakes any more, Arwen would even pull off the last string of familiarity between them. And that would mark an end between them, leaving him with no light of hope. "Arwen, you and everyone have misunderstood, the relationship that I share is nothing like what you all think. I am not in love with her and never was."
Maybe that ca a little too suddenly because, at the sound of it, Arwen paused. And seeing him stunned for a mont like that, Ryan's anxious soul eased.
Nodding, he continued, "Yes, that's true. There is nothing between and Delyth. I am not in love with her, I never was. To , she is just a responsibility —one that my dying friend, Zeke handed over while leaving this world. I was just taking care of her on his behalf. You misunderstood, everyone did and —"
"Then what about the grand confession you made during the university?" Arwen interrupted to ask, her brows drawing in confusion, one that was mixing all her emotion on her expression. "I an, you did propose her as a man —very grandly with hundred dozen of roses and what not. What was that?"
Ryan smiled weakly as if he was wronged by wrongly presud. "That was just a way to keep her comfortable and away from unnecessary ss. You know how were boys those days. They wanted to date and she wanted to stay away from all of it so I was just helping her out, pretending to be her lover."
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