Chapter 10 — Fake Kisses with My Ex's Best Friend

Tưởng Bách Nhân realized his true feelings for Khả Tâm on a very ordinary afternoon, nothing special, no romantic moments worth remembering. He was sitting in the meeting room, listening to her present content ideas for a new quarterly campaign to the entire cross-departmental team, and suddenly realized that he was no longer listening to her for work reasons, but simply because he liked to see the way she was passionate about what she believed in, the way she defended her point of view with solid arguments but still maintained the necessary softness when there were opposing opinions.

He was startled by his own thoughts, trying to put it aside, telling himself it was just normal admiration for a capable colleague, nothing more. But that feeling did not disappear, but became clearer and clearer with each meeting, each text message exchange, each small moment the two people spent together as a fake couple.

He realized he was starting to look forward to the "drama" dates more than necessary for the plan. He realized that he noticed that Khả Tâm liked to drink peach tea instead of traditional milk tea, liked to sit in a corner of the shop with natural light instead of a hidden corner, and had a habit of lightly tapping her fingers on the table whenever she was thinking about something important. He didn't deliberately remember those details, they were naturally engraved in his mind like a reflex.

One evening, when the whole design team stayed late to urgently complete a presentation for a client, Gia Kỳ, during a break, suddenly asked directly, half joking and half serious.

"Mr. Nhân, I'm serious, are you and Ms. Tâm just 'acting'?"

The question made Bách Nhân stunned, his hand typing on the keyboard paused for a beat. "Why do you ask that?"

"So I see... you two look so real, so real that I doubt if they are acting for real or..." Gia Kỳ left her sentence unfinished, her eyes examining her friend.

Bách Nhân was silent for a moment, not knowing how to answer without betraying his promise to keep secrets from Khả Tâm and without having to blatantly lie to his close colleague. "Don't think too much about me and Tâm."

"I don't think too much, I just think you're different these days," Gia Kỳ said, his voice more serious than usual, "I've never seen you proactively care about someone to the point of paying attention to every little detail like that. If it's acting, then you're so good at it, so good that I can't even tell the difference."

Bách Nhân didn't answer, just turned back to the computer screen, but Gia Kỳ's words kept echoing in his head all that evening. If even outsiders recognize the difference in the way he behaves, then perhaps he himself cannot continue to deceive himself that this is simply a role.

That night, after completing the presentation, the group went out to a sidewalk restaurant near the company for a late night snack to relax. Gia Kỳ, after a few bottles of beer, talked more and more, pulling Bách Nhân to a separate corner, his voice already a bit tipsy.

"Mr. Nhân, I'm telling the truth, if you really like Ms. Tâm, then don't hide it forever like that." Gia Kỳ patted his friend's shoulder. Even though he was drunk, his eyes still had a rare seriousness. "How many times in your life do you meet someone who really cares about every little detail like you and her? Just keep it in your heart. If later on, people misunderstand and leave, you won't regret it."

Bách Nhân was silent, just clinking his glass with his friend, neither denying nor confirming, but Gia Kỳ's words, even though they were just drunken gossip, stuck deeper into his heart than any serious advice he had ever heard before.

But every time he was about to admit his true feelings, even if it was just in private thoughts, the image of Thành Kiệt appeared in his mind, accompanied by a feeling of guilt that was hard to name. Ten years of friendship was not a small number. He and Thành Kiệt had been through so many things together, from their poor student days to their stable careers at Hưng Thịnh Creative. No matter how wrong Thành Kiệt was in love, he still cannot deny what his friend once did for him, the times Thành Kiệt was willing to help him without calculation when he was in trouble.

If he admits that he has true feelings for Khả Tâm, it means that his original revenge plan will no longer simply be about helping his friends, but will turn into a true betrayal of that friendship, even though he himself had no intention of betraying anyone in the first place.

He decided to keep quiet, telling himself he would control his emotions and not let them affect the way he treated Khả Tâm within the framework of the agreed plan. But that decision, no matter how determined it was made, was not as easy to implement as he thought.

A few days later, one evening, the two of them stayed at Gió Sông restaurant after work, discussing plans for an upcoming internal event that they were both assigned to organize. Khả Tâm accidentally mentioned the future, her voice light as if she were chatting.

"Mr. Nhân, after this plan ends, we'll probably go back to being normal colleagues, right? It's a pity, I've gotten used to having you by my side lately."

That careless statement made Bách Nhân's heart clench. He wanted to be honest right now, wanted to say that he wasn't sure he could still see her as just a "normal colleague" after everything he'd been through, but in the end, he just smiled and replied with a safe sentence.

"Yeah, sure. But still good friends, right?"

Khả Tâm nodded, not realizing the slight awkwardness in his voice, continuing the conversation to another topic. But Bách Nhân, sitting across from her, felt a vague sadness creeping into his heart, the feeling of someone trying to bury an important truth just out of fear of the consequences it could bring.

He watched Khả Tâm diligently note down some ideas for the upcoming event, the yellow light of Gió Sông restaurant cast a soft halo on her face, and he suddenly realized that this simple moment, the two of them sitting next to each other discussing work, with no one else witnessing, without having to act for anyone to see, was what he treasured the most during the past time, much more precious than the times they held hands in front of their colleagues.

Because of realizing that, he saw more clearly that he was standing at an important crossroads. If he continued to stay silent, he can keep his current safety, keep his friendship with Thành Kiệt from being damaged further, but at the same time he can lose the only opportunity to pursue something genuine that he had never had for many years. If you admit it, you would have to face consequences that you had not fully anticipated.

That night, after saying goodbye to Khả Tâm, he drove through a few streets before returning home, not because he was lost, but because he needed time to sort out the confusing emotions in his heart. He wondered if he should continue to stay silent forever, or at some point, the truth would find a way to reveal itself, no matter how carefully he tried to hide it.

Returning to the apartment, he turned on the computer, intending to finish some unfinished work, but sat idly in front of the bright white screen for a long time without being able to type a word. He thought about Gia Kỳ's words just now, about Khả Tâm's eyes when he mentioned "becoming a normal colleague in the future", and about himself, a person who had always prided himself on his ability to uphold principles, now found himself teetering between reason and emotion like never before.

He opened his desk drawer, took out a small notebook he used to sketch out work ideas, flipped to a blank page, intending to write down his thoughts to see the problem more clearly, a habit he learned from many years of working as a designer. But the first line he wrote was not about work, but a simple question: "If it wasn't for Kiệt, would I dare to admit this feeling?"

He looked at that line for a long time, then closed the notebook, turned off the desk lamp, went to bed in the dark, carrying that question into his restless sleep.

The next morning, when he arrived at the office, he still didn't have a clear answer for himself, but he knew one thing for sure: no matter what the final result was, he couldn't let himself continue to live halfway between his role and his real feelings any longer. It's just that he hasn't found the time to tell the truth yet, and while waiting for the right moment, he chooses to continue to be silent, taking each step carefully, as if he were walking on a thin rope where if he were to slip, everything precious he had would immediately crumble.