Chapter 20 — Fake Kisses with My Ex's Best Friend

The stage sound cut out. The main lights were still on, but no microphone was working. Lâm Bích Thủy signaled the security staff to take Thành Kiệt, Khả Tâm, and Bách Nhân into the small meeting room next to the banquet hall, where the program continued outside with a substitute MC trying to cover up the incident that had just happened.

The door closes. There were only four people left in the room: Khả Tâm, Bách Nhân, Thành Kiệt, and Lâm Bích Thủy standing at the door with stern eyes.

"Speak clearly," Bích Thủy said, her voice cold, "Right here. I don't want to hear any more rumors."

The small meeting room, usually only used to receive guests or have quick group meetings, now has an unusually stuffy atmosphere. The cold white light from the ceiling shined down on the four faces, there was no longer the warm yellow light of the stage outside to hide the nakedness of the emotions being exposed.

No one spoke for a few seconds. Then Khả Tâm stepped forward, stood straight, looking straight at Thành Kiệt.

"Yes. I asked Bách Nhân to pretend to date me. To make you jealous. To make you regret betraying me," she spoke, each sentence short and decisive. "I'm not ashamed of it. I was hurt. I needed a way to get my self-esteem back."

Thành Kiệt did not respond, just stood there, his shoulders slumped.

"But." Khả Tâm turned to Bách Nhân, her voice softened, "the plan is just the starting point. Not the ending point."

Bách Nhân looked at her, silent. The question from that night, the question he had never dared to ask directly, was now time to be answered.

"Kiệt told me," he said slowly, each word heavy, "you thanked him. Said that without that, you would never have found yourself again. I need to know. What does that mean?"

The whole room was silent. Thành Kiệt raised his head and was a bit surprised to hear Bách Nhân repeat the verbatim.

Khả Tâm took a deep breath. "It means it's exactly what Kiệt said. Not a word is wrong." She looked straight into Bách Nhân's eyes and said, "I'm thankful that happened. If it hadn't, I would never have seen you this way. I would never have known that a person could quietly bring coffee to a desk without being thanked, or remembered exactly what tea I like and what smell I hate. This isn't a thank-you for leaving Kiệt. It's a thank-you because that painful path eventually led me to you." She paused for a moment, then continued, her voice trembling but without hesitation. "I asked you if I'm just a means. No. You're the reason I still believe in love. If you don't believe in me, I don't blame you. Kiệt cut that sentence out of everything behind it, right when I was most vulnerable. But I won't let a garbled sentence determine the whole truth I've lived for the past two months."

Bách Nhân stood still, his eyes stinging. He turned to look at Thành Kiệt, his voice was now completely cold, no longer the respect of ten years of friendship.

"You know exactly what's missing in that sentence. You deliberately only told half of it. Why?"

Thành Kiệt did not answer immediately. He looked down at his hands, his voice hoarse as he finally told the truth he'd been avoiding for weeks.

"Because I don't want to lose either of you," he said, "I know I no longer have any rights over Tâm. But looking at the two of you happily, looking at you standing up to protect her in front of the whole company, I realized that I had lost you too, the only friend who had been by my side unconditionally for ten years. I didn't want to believe that truth, so I found a way to make you doubt, so that at least, you would have to stop, need me a little, like I always needed you."

That confession laid bare the deepest selfishness in Thành Kiệt's heart: not that he still loved Khả Tâm to the point that he couldn't live without her, but that he couldn't stand the feeling of standing on the sidelines, watching the two most important people in his life build happiness without him.

"Since childhood, I've been accustomed to having to keep everything under control," Thành Kiệt continued, his voice lowered, revealing for the first time in this long story a real weakness, not just drunkenness or impulsive jealousy. "My parents divorced when I was young. I grew up with the fear of being left behind, of not being good enough for someone to choose to stay with me. So I learned to always have a backup plan, always keep a way out, another option, so that I never had to feel empty-handed like my father did that day. He didn't say anything. That was my excuse. I just want you two to understand that this was not a decision I coldly calculated from the beginning. It was a habit of survival that I never had the courage to give up until it destroyed the most precious thing I ever had."

Khả Tâm heard those words and felt a little soft-hearted, but she knew that understanding the cause does not mean eliminating the consequences. "I understand, Mr. Kiệt. But understanding why someone hurts you, doesn't mean you have to continue to stay and endure that hurt more." Thành Kiệt nodded, there was nothing left to refute. He looked at Khả Tâm, then at Bách Nhân, his eyes stopped at the two people's hands holding each other tightly, and in that moment, he realized more clearly than ever that he had truly lost everything that once belonged to him, not because of ironic fate, but because of his own selfish choices over the past many months.

"You want to keep both," Bách Nhân said, his voice was no longer angry, only a heavy disappointment, "Not because of love or friendship. Because you couldn't stand the feeling of being left behind. You did it with Tâm, when you kept her and Bảo Ngân at the same time. And now you do it again, with our friendship."

Thành Kiệt did not object. I can't. All excuses are exhausted.

Lâm Bích Thủy, standing at the door, broke the heavy silence. "Thành Kiệt, I will have to report tonight's matter to the board of directors. The behavior just now is unacceptable at an official company event."

"I know," Thành Kiệt replied, his voice empty.

Khả Tâm looked at him, no longer angry, only a faint pity. "Brother Kiệt, I hope you find what you really need. It's not me, it's not Bảo Ngân, it's not anyone you can keep as a backup option. It's about learning to accept loss, without having to drag others down with you."

She turned to Bách Nhân, her hand finding his. "As for me, my answer is still the same. From the night on stage last week, to today, and forever after. Do you believe me?"

Bách Nhân looked at her for a long time, then squeezed her hand, a squeeze that erased all remaining doubts. "I believe. I'm sorry for letting a clipped statement sway you, even for just a few days."

"No problem." She smiled, tears finally falling, but this time they were tears of relief, "As long as in the end, we still choose to speak frankly to each other, instead of letting others speak for us."

Bách Nhân raised his hand to gently wipe away the remaining tears on her cheeks, a gentle gesture that was in complete contrast to the tension still covering the room. "From now on, if there is anything that makes me worried, I will ask you directly, and won't let it fester in my heart like just now. I promise."

"Me too," she replied, holding his hand, "Let's not hide anything from each other anymore, no matter how difficult it is to say." Lâm Bích Thủy, witnessing the entire confrontation, sighed, her voice softened a bit as she looked towards Khả Tâm and Bách Nhân. "I have no right to judge the matter between you two, and to be honest, after everything I just heard, I think you two have nothing to be ashamed of. But tonight, I still have to handle it according to the correct procedure because this is an official company event. You two go home and rest first, I'll take care of the rest."

"Thank you," Khả Tâm said, her voice full of relief.

When the meeting room door opened, Nhật Hạ and Gia Kỳ were waiting right outside, both of their faces full of worry. Nhật Hạ rushed to hug her friend, unable to say a word, just tightening her arms as if to convey all the comfort she could. Gia Kỳ patted Bách Nhân's shoulder, his eyes could not hide the admiration mixed with sadness for the ten year friendship that had just witnessed an irreparable rift.

"Let's go home," Bách Nhân said, putting his arm around Khả Tâm's shoulder, leading her out of the hotel hallway, leaving behind a Gala night that will be mentioned for a long time in the history of Hưng Thịnh Creative, but in a completely different way than what Thành Kiệt had planned.

Outside the meeting room, the music of the Gala continued, but in this small room, another chapter of the story had just closed, not with revenge or humiliation, but with the truth told completely, no longer half-hearted, no longer truncated, strong enough for what is truly important to stand firm against all challenges.