"Do you have sowhere you need to be?" Coco asked, walking through the gates.
"Except for having these dried out once I get back? No, not really, I have nowhere else to be." Jonathan answered truthfully as he looked ahead of their path.
The noises of the villagers around them were loud and clear, their eyes wide and judging as they watched— Coco and Jonathan were talking, walking side by side as if they were old friends.
"Look at them, whispering among themselves because they don’t have anything better to do." Jonathan comnted, seeing the villagers talk to the people beside them as they give Jonathan a stink eye from his peripheral vision.
"Don’t mind them." Coco humd out, keeping the smile on her face as she nudged Jonathan using her elbow, "Anyways, would you mind having dinner with ? Let’s do a quick catch up."
The man raised an eyebrow and glanced at his friend. "Dinner? At your house? I don’t think your husband would want another diator invading their space."
Coco’s eyes widened in disbelief, her mouth falling open in shock.
The scarred man, Jonathan, was a diator? Him? Like Renaldo? It was sothing she had never expected— his muscular fra and scarred face the last thing one would expect in a diator— but it’s not unwelcod.
However, her mind raced with questions and amazent as she tried to make sense of this sudden revelation.
Coco stared at Jonathan in shock, her mouth agape as the mancasually revealed that he was a diator.
Well, she had never expected him— or Renaldo— to be a diator because his muscular form and scarred appearance did not fit the typical image of a male diator.
She could sohow not believe what she was hearing, her mind struggling to comprehend, but she can’t just think of sothing like that, right?
Her erald eyes flicked over her muscular and scarred friend, trying to reconcile what she had always believed about diators and had always seen with this man who was walking beside her now.
Jonathan noticed how his friend had a look of surprise, her eyes wide with shock and confusion.
He chuckled softly, clearly amused by her reaction and finding her look of shock adorable. "You didn’t expect to be a diator, did you?"
He had always been slightly offended by the reaction of people when they found out he was an actual diator, the sharp gap between his strength and his gender always managing to surprise people.
However, Coco was different.
His eyes twinkled with amusent and he couldn’t help, but find it funny to see the disbelief on her face.
Coco tried to form a response, she truly did, believe her— she really tried to, but her mind was a jumble of confusion and shock.
She opened her mouth, but her words just seed to lodge in her throat.
Her friend’s revelation had taken her completely off guard, her mind spinning with questions and she couldn’t seem to make her mouth form any words; it was as if her brain had temporarily short-circuited.
Which.. It certainly did.
It was a good thing that they were walking at a very slow pace because Jonathan didn’t know where she was planning to go.
He was not much of an outdoor person so he wasn’t aware of Coco’s usual places around the village.
It took Coco a few monts to recover from the shock, her mind reeling with the information, but she eventually took a deep, shaky breath, her hand massaging her forehead as she tried to drill the information she had just heard in her brain.
Renaldo and Jonathan are diators.
The tension slowly drained from her body as she slowly ca to terms with the truth, her expression becoming more focused as the shock wore off.
"I’m glad you’re a diator and my friend." Coco spoke up after a few monts of silence, "Being a diator has nothing to do with our friendship. I befriended you because you’re you, not because I thought that you’re not a diator."
Jonathan blinked and glanced at Coco, eyebrows raised to his hairline.
"I thought you befriended because I’m not one?" Jonathan’s tone was casual and lighthearted, giving away that he doesn’t mind the topic they currently have.
Coco shook her head. "Whatever you are didn’t even cross my mind when I first t you. I only thought ’oh, this one wants to find true love.. That’s so adorable! I want him to be my friend!’ and boom, you’re my friend now."
Coco let out a huff through her nose as she made hand gestures to emphasize the word ’boom’ in her sentence, making Jonathan laugh.
"That’s such a Coco thing to do." The scarred diator laughed and shook his head.
"It is?" Coco raised an eyebrow, "Well, whatever you ant by that ans that it’s good, right? After all, I’ve got a beautiful friend now."
Jonathan flushed with embarrassnt as Coco called him beautiful without missing a beat, his cheeks reddening at the complint.
He knew that he was far from a traditional beauty for diators, the nurous scars on his face, arms, and body, even his muscular physique were a constant reminder of that fact.
He was used to being looked at and judged by others, and he always braced himself for the pity or disgust that usually accompanied it.
However..
"I’m serious, Jonathan." Coco said as she stopped walking for a mont and stared at the taller diator, "You are a beautiful diator, and no one can change that fact, okay? Say it, say that you’re beautiful."
The seriousness and sincerity of Coco’s complint caught him off guard, his mind struggling to accept the unexpected praise.
"Right, right.." Jonathan looked away from her and reached out to grab her arm, "Let’s just go, you want to have a quick catch up, right? It would be best if we start early, don’t you think?"
Coco frowned and let the diator drag her. "You’re truly a beautiful friend, Jonathan."
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