Chapter 3 — Fake Kisses with My Ex's Best Friend

A week later, Khả Tâm returned to the office and informed everyone that his memory had "gradually recovered", although there were still some fuzzy spots. Lâm Bích Thủy, Director of Communications, personally called her up to the room to inquire, kindly advised her not to rush back to work right away, just to slowly get into the rhythm.

"Thank you." Khả Tâm bowed her head, "I think I'm fine, working is also a way for me to regain a normal rhythm of life," Bích Thủy nodded, looked at her for a moment, then added, her voice light as if unintentionally, "Are you and Thành Kiệt okay these days? I see that he and Bảo Ngân in the Sales department work together on a project quite well, the two of you always stay late."

Khả Tâm paused for a moment, then smiled wryly, "Yes, we're fine."

Her answer was just polite, but in her heart, each piece of the puzzle gradually fit into a picture that Khả Tâm did not want to look at directly.

That afternoon, she urgently needed to meet with the Sales Department to finalize the content for a joint campaign. Passing by the small meeting room area at the end of the hallway on the fourth floor, with the frosted glass door ajar, she heard Thành Kiệt's voice echoing out, small but clear enough in the empty space at work hours.

"I know, I know you're tired. But let me arrange it, wait for Tâm to stabilize. I can't say it right now, she's just been injured, saying it now is like killing someone."

Khả Tâm stood still right outside the door, her heart pounding, her hand clenching the document she was holding.

A girl's voice rang out, a bit harsh, "So when will it be? I've been waiting for you for half a year now, with one reason after another. If you don't say anything, let me tell you."

"Don't, Bảo Ngân, let me." Thành Kiệt lowered his voice, almost pleading, "At the end of this month, at the latest, I will talk about breaking up properly with Tâm. Once it's done, we can make it public, not because I'm afraid of losing face, but because I don't want her to be hurt more during this time."

"You keep saying that." Bảo Ngân sighed, her voice softened a bit but was still sulky." I don't want to always be the one standing behind like this. My uncle also asked me when I brought my boyfriend home to meet him."

"I know, I know." With the sound of a chair being pulled, maybe Thành Kiệt stood up and approached the girl, "Give me a little more time, okay? I promise, at the end of this month."

Khả Tâm couldn't wait to hear anything more. She stepped back, walked quickly, almost running, until she reached the emergency stairs before stopping, leaning her back against the wall, panting, holding her chest with both hands as if afraid her heart would break into pieces right there.

So there is a plan. It's not just a vague back and forth, it's not just a temporary crush. Thành Kiệt has set a milestone, "the end of the month", to officially end with her and begin to open up to others. Three years of love, for him, turned out to be just an item that needed to be settled on time, neatly, without leaving any trouble.

She didn't remember how long she stood there. She only knew that when she regained her breath, the sky outside the stairway window had turned the pale orange of sunset. She pulled out her phone and texted Nhật Hạ exactly one line: "I heard everything. At the end of this month he will say goodbye," Nhật Hạ called back immediately, her voice panicked, "Where are you? I'll be right over."

"No need, I'm fine," Khả Tâm replied, her voice strangely calming down, the kind of calm that only comes after the pain has gone full circle and begins to crystallize into a decision. "I just need to think for a moment."

She hung up the phone and stood silently in the emergency staircase. The memory suddenly pulled her back to the evening exactly one year ago, when Thành Kiệt knelt down on the terrace of a cafe and gave her a small silver bracelet to celebrate their two-year anniversary, saying that he wanted to go with her until they were both qualified to think about further things. At that time, she believed, believed beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she held a certain love, a future that was built day by day with the sincerity of both sides. Now, standing in the middle of this cold staircase, she wondered if at that moment of kneeling, was Thành Kiệt sincere, or was it just another role in a long series of roles he has performed over the past three years.

The most painful thing, she realized, was not that he had feelings for someone else. People were inherently susceptible to unwanted emotions, which she can learn to understand and forgive if he was honest from the beginning. But the way he chose to keep them both, chose to prolong the time that was beneficial to himself, chose to let her live in a peaceful illusion while silently preparing for a scheduled farewell, was what made her feel betrayed in the most profound and thorough way.

She didn't go home right away. She wandered around the area near the Hưng Thịnh building, without a specific destination, until she accidentally stopped in front of Gió Sông cafe, where she and Thành Kiệt had visited a few times when they first fell in love, hidden in a small alley about a five-minute walk from the office, much quieter than the noisy cafes nearby.

She walked in, ordered a cup of warm tea, sat down at a wooden table close to the window, looking out at a small alley with a few potted green plants from the shop owner displayed on the porch. Don't cry right away, just sit quietly, letting the swirling thoughts in your head gradually calm down.

She thought about the three years of love, about the times when Thành Kiệt was gentle and thoughtful, the evenings the two of them studied for exams together, and the future plans they discussed. All of that, now, she doesn't know whether to believe it's real or has already become fake without realizing it.

She also thought about the memory loss drama she had created. At first it was just a test, a way to see the truth clearly without a direct confrontation. But now, when the truth was exposed so cruelly, she wondered what she should do next. Immediate exposure, direct confrontation? Or continue to "don't remember", to see how far Thành Kiệt will continue his own drama, to reveal all the layers of mask with his own hands?

The cup of tea has long since cooled, and she hasn't taken a sip yet. Tears finally fell, without noise, just quietly rolling down, falling onto the wooden table, leaving small streaks on the dark wooden floor.

She didn't know that, sitting at a table hidden in the corner of the shop, not far from her, there was a man quietly observing, holding a cup of black coffee that had long since cooled, his face mixed with surprise and a feeling of guilt gradually growing in his heart.

That person was Tưởng Bách Nhân, Thành Kiệt's best friend since college, who used to visit Gió Sông shop every Friday afternoon to sketch out some design ideas alone before going home, a habit he had kept for many years as a way to clear his mind after a week of work.

He recognized Khả Tâm as soon as she walked in, his best friend's lover, someone he had met no less than a dozen times at meetings and company parties, always smiling, always with something straightforward and endearing in the way she spoke. But he had never seen her like this, sitting quietly crying alone in the middle of an empty cafe, her shoulders shaking little by little even though she tried her best to suppress it.

Bách Nhân knows about it. He knew that Thành Kiệt was going back and forth with Bảo Ngân, and had known for more than a month now, when Thành Kiệt himself, while drunk after a company party, accidentally confided half-heartedly and then moved on to other things. He hesitated whether he should tell Khả Tâm or not, telling himself that it was his friend's private matter, not something he should interfere with. But looking at the scene before him, his long-standing silence suddenly became as heavy as a sin.

He put down the coffee cup, his hands shaking slightly, wondering whether he should come closer or not. In the end, he still sat in place, not wanting to make her more confused by knowing that someone witnessed this moment of his weakness, but also could not look away, as if he himself was bearing some part of the pain that was showing on that girl's face.

Outside, the sunset finally faded away, giving way to the street lights that began to light up. Khả Tâm wiped her tears, stood up to pay, and walked out of the restaurant without knowing that she had just been silently watched by someone all afternoon, someone who was about to enter her life in a way that neither of them anticipated.

Bách Nhân sat for a while longer after she left, looking at the empty table with the remaining cold cup of tea, his heart heavy with a feeling that was hard to name. He wondered what he should do with what he knew. As Thành Kiệt's close friend, he should have stood by his friend, or at least kept absolutely silent so as not to interfere in other people's love affairs. But looking at the way Khả Tâm endured alone in the middle of an empty restaurant, he could no longer convince himself that silence was the right choice.

He ordered another cup of coffee, sat back until it was completely dark, thinking about what he should and shouldn't do. In his mind, the image of Thành Kiệt from ten years ago, the boy who stayed up all night with him to prepare his graduation project, kept mixing with the image of Thành Kiệt of the present, who was leisurely weighing the interests between two women as if it were a normal business decision. Those two images don't match each other, and Bách Nhân doesn't know which is his friend's true self.

The owner, a middle-aged woman who had known the customer for a long time, walked over to clear the table. Seeing him sitting thoughtfully, he asked a few polite questions. Bách Nhân just smiled lightly, shook his head and said it was nothing, then paid, walking out of the shop when the small alley had a warm yellow light, completely contrary to the chaotic thoughts swirling in his heart.