Kairos stared at Nicole blankly, while she began hesitating. If she just tightened her grip a little more, then his head would end up popping off, then there would be nothing more. However, she couldn’t do it while Kairos was staring right at her like that.
After a few seconds, she slowly let Edward go.
The other four were still holding up their weapons threateningly, gripping them so tightly that they trembled slightly. As for Edward, he coughed a little and stumbled backwards, but after that, he stood up normally once more. If it wasn’t for the torn skin around his neck and bloodshot eyes, it would’ve looked like nothing actually happened to him.
Nicole looked at her with a frown. It almost seemed like she was on the verge of bursting into tears.
“Why are you here?”
Edward looked down at the ground.
“I’m not entirely sure myself.”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“…What the hell are you guys talking about?”
Edward blinked a few times. He responded, but didn’t turn to face him.
“Well, I made a promise, then ended up breaking it. So that’s the position we are in right now.”
Kairos sighed.
“Didn’t I tell you before you shouldn’t ever make promises?”
Edward chuckled.
“Well, turns out you were right.”
Nicole clenched her fists.
“Why are you taking this so lightly, Edward? The only reason you’re not dead… is because… because Kairos is here. I wouldn’t have given you a second chance otherwise.”
Kairos let out a sigh.
“Why are you trying to kill him in the first place?”
Edward spoke up weakly.
“Because that was her promise.”
Kairos massaged his temple with the tip of his index finger.
“…And what exactly is this promise?”
Edward remained silent, while Nicole looked down at the ground.
“…I-I guess I can tell it.”
Nicole spent a few seconds recollecting her thoughts before eventually retelling it from the start.
She always knew that her relationship with Kairos and Edward wasn’t as close as what the two had. That was simply because the two of them had spent more time with each other, and something that couldn’t be helped.
Though Nicole was just a tad bit jealous most of the time, she suddenly realized that Edward seemed to be avoiding them. It was quite easy to notice, since they had essentially played with each other every single day. So when it was only her and Kairos, she felt that something was off.
While Nicole had no issues with just being with Kairos, she still wondered what was happening. On top of that, Kairos definitely seemed quite different from normal.
He simply looked more despondent than usual. Keeping his head down, and showing none of the previous enthusiasm he previously had. They went to do the same things we usually did, but it was all so different. It was almost like Kairos had transformed into a completely different person.
Despite asking about it, Nicole didn’t get any straight response.
At first Nicole thought he might’ve simply had a bad mood over something small. Perhaps waking up on the wrong side of the bed. But the changes that happened to Kairos seemed permanent. Because as the days dragged on, he didn’t change at all.
It nearly made Nicole despair. She wondered what it could’ve possibly been, then connected the dots. Realizing that the change happened when Edward had originally left.
She brought this up to Kairos, trying to be subtle about it. But either because she was too subtle, or Kairos refused to talk about it, she got nothing out of him. This eventually led her to try and find Edward to speak to him.
Nicole didn’t think that Edward was a bad person, so she thought that there must have been some sort of misunderstanding or extenuating circumstance. And so she tried asking, and did so quite bluntly.
Though, her first few tries weren’t that successful. Nicole was quite confused since when Edward avoided her, he seemed more frantic than anything. It wasn’t like he did anything wrong, but more like he was afraid of something.
Nicole continued to press him both out of wanting to know what happened to Kairos and also out of concern for Edward.
And eventually, Edward ended up telling her a story.
About how the two of them were threatened by a wolf. He was scared for his life, and in the end, he ended up letting Kairos take all of the heat from the wolf. In other words, he had turned on his friend.
Nicole was a bit shocked, as she never imagined it was possible that Edward could’ve turned on him. She continued to press for details, since Edward had left it incredibly vague. She thought that maybe it wasn’t really Edward’s fault and that they could all reconcile.
But regardless of how much she asked, Edward would never budge on the details. In the end, she was never able to find out what had actually happened.
However, if Edward had no intention of clearing his name, then that clearly meant he did something terrible and admitted that he turned on Kairos out of guilt. In other words, whatever happened, it had to be Edward’s fault.
Nicole had already given the benefit of the doubt for too long and refused to continue doing so. She thought that she might’ve been able to let it be, despite how painful it was when she looked at how Kairos was acting. But one day, when the two of them crossed paths, they just looked at each other.
Edward broke off the gaze without saying a word, then promptly left. Kairos did the same. Nicole felt anger burn within her once she saw that. Just the simple sight of Edward was enough to hurt Kairos.
She later confronted him once more and made him swear to never approach Kairos ever again. Edward was reluctant to do so, but Nicole was quite violent and fervent when she said that. She threatened him multiple times and continued to do so until he agreed to the terms.
And Nicole swore that she would make him regret it, should he ever break that promise.
From there, Kairos ended up spending most of his time with Nicole, especially because she was practically always at his side.
After slowly processing everything that Nicole said, Kairos couldn’t help but chuckle.
“…Didn’t I tell you making promises would never be worth it?”
Edward sighed.
“I didn’t exactly have much of a choice there, now did I?”
Nicole furrowed her brow.
“How… how can you still talk with him so easily?”
Kairos raised an eyebrow.
“Which one of us are you talking to?”
Nicole clenched her fists.
“Both of you! But… mostly you. How could you just forgive him?”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“Well, because there isn’t really anything to forgive him for. Though I did wonder why he had such an exaggerated reaction whenever the two of us got close. It seems like that explains it.”
Nicole’s mouth opened and closed.
“What? But Edward must’ve done something to you! He must’ve done something terrible!”
Kairos smiled bitterly.
“Is trying to protect my life something terrible? I’m not saying that it isn’t, but at least speaking from my point of view it’s a pretty good thing.”
Nicole looked between both Kairos and Edward
“B-But Edward said that he… he abandoned you!”
Kairos rolled his eyes.
“Well, he’s a liar then. I was the one that pushed him aside and… fought off the wolf.”
Nicole shook her head.
“What? If that’s all it was, then why would all of that happen? That doesn’t make any sense!”
Edward spoke up softly.
“I wouldn’t exactly say I lied. After all, even as I watched you fight that thing, I just stood by. I was too scared to do anything. At that point, I had essentially abandoned you.”
Nicole looked flabbergasted.
“What? I’m… so confused…”
She looked like she was having trouble breathing, and from how she was having difficulty in keeping her balance, it seemed she was quite dizzy as well.
“All this time, was it just because of that?”
Kairos blinked a few times.
“To tell the full truth, it’s because I showed something to Edward. Something that I probably shouldn’t have shown.”
Nicole didn’t look any more sure, and was awaiting his explanation. As for Edward, he had turned away, looking off in the distance as though there was something interesting there. The other people around were simply looking at this scene strangely. Although they had some details, they were also getting quite confused about what they were talking about as most didn’t have proper context.
Some of them didn’t even understand whether or not Kairos and Edward were enemies.
Kairos spoke softly, just barely loud enough for Nicole to hear.
“I showed him a bad side to me. A part of me that was probably a little scary.”
At this point, Nicole walked past Edward and up to Kairos, staring at him as though he was the only thing that existed.
“What do you mean?”
She slowly reached out with her hands, lightly grasping onto both of Kairos’ hands.
“What bad side?”
Kairos blinked a few times. He thought back to when he was fighting the wolf. It was quite far back, but despite the fact, his memory of it was hardly muddled. In fact, it would be better to say it was a memory that would be difficult to forget.
At the end of the fight, he didn’t look all that bad. Although his hands were burnt and he was covered in some wolf blood, the wolf itself hadn’t landed a single attack on him. However, that obviously wasn’t the full story. No matter what, Kairos was still a kid.
He couldn’t move faster than a wolf, that much was a fact.
And to top it all off, Kairos was actually just as scared as Edward. If anything, he was less brave, because Edward was able to bring himself to get in front of him.
The reason why Kairos had acted in the first place, was because he saw Edward’s head get torn off by the wolf’s jaws. Seeing such a sight made the restriction from fear immediately disappear, thus making him push Edward out of the way.
After that happened, he constantly felt the wolf tear into his flesh in his future vision, but he made sure to dodge it in reality before the wolf could kill him. Kairos’ body had been filled with adrenaline, and the stimulation going to the brain was practically making him go crazy.
In fact, he couldn’t stop himself from laughing when that happened. Kairos didn’t really understand why he himself was laughing, as he definitely didn’t find the situation funny. It seemed that the stimulation was just far too much, and had to go out in some way.
And that way ended up being laughing.
Kairos’ memories of the actual fight were a little blurry, but that was mostly because his senses were hardly cooperating with him. Though one thing he was confident of was that he had been laughing psychotically for a very long time.
By the end, he checked on Edward, who looked terrified.
However, what he was looking at wasn’t the wolf, but rather him.
The sudden alienation wasn’t the only thing that caused Kairos to change so much. After being attacked by that wolf, nothing seemed to really matter to him anymore. Everything just felt dull comparatively.
Kairos smiled bitterly as he stared at Nicole’s pleading eyes. She desperately wanted to know what he had meant by bad side.
“You can tell me, please! I won’t judge you for it.”
Kairos nodded.
“I know. I don’t think you are the kind of person that would. Though, it’s not very easy to explain. To do it in a way that would satisfy your curiosity, but also fit the current situation we’re in, I’ll just say this.”
He smiled.
“I probably like killing too much.”