Chapter 11 — Fake Kisses with My Ex's Best Friend

The more he saw Khả Tâm and Bách Nhân bonding more naturally each week, the more Thành Kiệt could not control the feeling of uneasiness growing in his heart. He began to lose sleep, often waking up in the middle of the night with random thoughts about whether he was losing something more precious than he thought when he decided to go back to work with Bảo Ngân. During the day, he still tried to act normal in front of his colleagues, but those closest to him, like Bảo Ngân, began to notice a clear change in his mood.

No longer satisfied with just finding an excuse to stop by the Communications room or randomly appear at Gió Sông restaurant, Thành Kiệt began to think of more proactive ways to insert himself into Khả Tâm and Bách Nhân's lives, with the vague hope that if he could create enough situations that made the two awkward, the relationship between them would crack, and everything would go back to the way it was before, even though he himself wasn't entirely sure what "going back to the way it was" meant in the current situation.

One night, he lay next to Bảo Ngân in her apartment, but his mind wandered about what Bách Nhân was doing right now, whether he was texting with Khả Tâm, whether the two of them were laughing and joking somewhere out there. He blamed himself for those unreasonable thoughts, but couldn't stop them, like a smoldering addiction that he didn't even want to admit.

The first opportunity came when the company organized a two-day and one-night team building trip at a coastal resort, for all employees of both Communications and Sales departments to strengthen cohesion before the peak year-end campaign season. Thành Kiệt, as the leader of the Sales team, proactively proposed to Lâm Bích Thủy to divide teams to play group games in the form of random drawing, instead of letting everyone choose their own groups as usual, a proposal that sounded fair at first glance but was actually carefully calculated to increase the likelihood that he and Khả Tâm would fall into the same team.

His plan was somewhat successful. On the first morning of the trip, when the teams were announced for the obstacle course on the beach, Thành Kiệt and Khả Tâm were in team four, while Bách Nhân was placed in team two at the other end of the field.

"What a coincidence." Thành Kiệt smiled, trying to appear natural as he stood next to Khả Tâm waiting for his turn to compete, "It's been a long time since we've done anything together with the team."

Khả Tâm glanced at him, unable to hide her wariness, "It's probably just a coincidence."

During the competition, Thành Kiệt found every way to stay closer to Khả Tâm than necessary, from proactively letting her go first in competitions that required coordination, to intentionally holding her hand longer than usual when helping her overcome rope obstacles. Each time, Khả Tâm skillfully withdrew his hand as soon as necessary, but the intentionality of his actions did not escape the eyes of Bách Nhân, who was playing on another team but kept glancing at the other side of the field.

In the evening, when the whole company held a campfire party on the beach, Thành Kiệt tried to sit next to Khả Tâm, using the excuse "the seats are too crowded, let's just sit here for now",Bách Nhân, sitting not far away with Gia Kỳ, observed the situation, quietly stood up, walked over, sat down on the other side of Khả Tâm without saying a word, just lightly put his arm around her shoulder as an implicit affirmation.

Thành Kiệt glanced over, his face slightly uncomfortable but tried to keep calm, "Bách Nhân, we haven't talked in a while, you've been so busy lately."

"Yeah, I'm quite busy these days," Bách Nhân replied briefly, his voice not very enthusiastic, clearly not wanting to prolong the conversation.

Gia Kỳ, sitting next to Bách Nhân since the beginning of the evening, gently nudged his friend's hand, whispering loud enough for only the two of them to hear, "Mr. Kiệt is so strange today, it's like he's deliberately trying to annoy someone."

"Leave him alone," Bách Nhân replied, his voice still remained calm on the outside, but the hand on his knee had tightened without realizing it.

The atmosphere between the three people became so awkward that Nhật Hạ, sitting nearby, had to proactively create some gossip to break the awkward silence. But Thành Kiệt still refused to give up, continuing to talk about old memories between him and Khả Tâm, recounting a beach trip they took together three years ago, his voice full of nostalgia.

"Do you remember that time, we almost got lost in the crowd at the night market, and ended up having to call and find each other for an hour?" Thành Kiệt smiled, looking at Khả Tâm meaningfully, "It was really fun back then."

Khả Tâm did not respond to the story, just smiled politely and then turned to talk to Nhật Hạ, deliberately ignoring Thành Kiệt's attempt to evoke old memories. But he still did not give up, continuing to tell a few more stories, until Bách Nhân, unable to hide his discomfort, interrupted.

"Kiệt, I think those things should be left in the past. Tâm has her own life now."

That straightforward statement made the atmosphere around the campfire calm down for a few seconds. Thành Kiệt looked at his friend, his eyes mixed between anger and a bit of shame, then finally remained silent, not mentioning the old memories anymore, but all that evening, he still found enough excuses to sneak into conversations with Khả Tâm participating.

That night, when everyone had returned to their rooms to rest, Khả Tâm went out to his room's balcony to breathe the sea air before going to sleep, when he received a text message from Bách Nhân: "Are you okay? Kiệt is a bit too much today."

She texted back, "I'm fine. Thank you for intervening earlier."

"I don't like the way he acted today," Bách Nhân continued to text, "If he continues to bother you, just tell me, don't try to endure it alone."

Reading that text message, Khả Tâm felt a strange peace of mind, a feeling she had never felt when she was with Thành Kiệt, even though they had been together for three years, he always said he would protect her. She realized that, between flowery promises and silent but steadfast actions, the gap is sometimes much greater than what people think.

She stood leaning against the balcony railing, looking out at the dark night sea with only a few lit of fishing boats in the distance, unconsciously comparing the two men who had appeared and were appearing in her life. The Thành Kiệt of the present, with his roundabout and calculating words, was completely different from the Thành Kiệt of the first days of love that she was passionate about. And Bách Nhân, who was originally just a supporting character in her love story, had now gradually become the person she trusts and looked forward to being with the most every day.

She typed another message to Bách Nhân before entering the bedroom, "Thank you for always being there, even if it's just a plan." After sending it, she realized that the last two words, "even if only", sounded bitter, as if she herself was no longer sure whether this was really just a plan or not.

The next morning, before the group got on the bus to return to the city, Thành Kiệt tried to talk privately with Khả Tâm again, when she was standing alone in the hotel hallway waiting for Nhật Hạ to pack her things.

"Tâm, I know I don't have the right to say anything else, but I'm really worried about you," he said, his voice a bit urgent, "Bách Nhân is my close friend, I understand his personality better than anyone. He is not someone who opens up easily. Are you sure he is sincere with you?"

Khả Tâm looked at him, her eyes cold, "Mr. Kiệt, you have no right to doubt other people's feelings while you yourself can't decide between your two choices. If you really care about me, it's best to worry about your current relationship first."

She turned away, without waiting for him to respond, leaving Thành Kiệt standing alone in the hallway. His face gradually turned into an indescribably gloomy expression, both angry at being rejected outright and confused because he realized that the more he tried to intervene, the more he pushed Khả Tâm away from her, and made her even closer to Bách Nhân.

On the car back to the city, Thành Kiệt sat next to Bảo Ngân but almost didn't talk the whole way, looking out the window, his mind still lingering on Khả Tâm's cold words. Bảo Ngân, realizing the abnormality, softly asked, "What's wrong, is something wrong?"

"Nothing," he replied, his voice forced, but in his heart, he knew clearly that he was lying to both the people next to him and himself. The two-day, one-night trip, instead of helping him calm down as he had hoped, only deepened the growing insecurity in his heart, an insecurity that he knew, if not controlled in time, would push him to increasingly reckless and thoughtless actions in the coming days.