Terres and Meru's actions were bringing some attention but the undisputed center of the attention was the hostess of the party, Horianna.

While blushing cutely she was entertaining the crowd of admirers surrounding her. 

Of course she spotted the pair and barely held back the smile – they already seem to be quarreling even though she had yet to do anything.

What a splendid course of action.

"Miss, we all heard about how amazing you are with ballet. Would you be willing to grace us with a performance?"

One of her most hardcore admirers asked loudly, just as she instructed him beforehand, and others applauded the proposition.

"Oh! I wouldn't dare! I'm not that good anyway..."

She said with false modesty and glanced to the side to check if Meru noticed.

Her not being good was a complete lie, she was a true prodigy, her performance could captivate even monarchs of each and every country ever since she was twelve.

Horianna plan was simple, since even kings couldn't tear their eyes off of her while she danced, wouldn't it be perfectly reasonable to assume that a young man such as Meru would have no choice but to fall for her?

Of course she expected Terres to get mad jealous and expose his ugly side, that Horianna had no doubt the pipsqueak had, and made Meru leave him.

...Although having the meek boy fall for her too wouldn't be so bad either, he was incredibly cute after all...

Well... not as cute as me though!

Horianna thought to herself forcing down a cheeky smile.

"Miss Horianna, please!"

The audience was making enough noise for everyone else in the tearoom to take notice and look at her with curiosity.

"Ah, well, if you all want me to dance that much..."

The girl fidgeted shyly and finally agreed.

She 'just so happened' to wear a clothes that were perfectly suited for ballet too...

What a coincidence...

Louds gasps of awe and adoration came from the other part of the room made Meru took his eyes off of Terres to see what's the deal is.

As he moved his head Terres's reaction was quite funny.

You see, the delicate boy was doing his best to completely ignore his black-haired friend but as soon as Meru looked away from him, Terres flinched and made a panicked expression.

"...!"

Terres opened and closed his mouth but Meru was tilting his head and frowning wondering what's the big deal about the host of the party spontanously starting to dance all on her own.

Terres bit his lip and clenched his fists.

He took one glance at the dancing girl and let out extremly annoyed sigh.

The alcohol that he drank for the first time clouded his judgement and pushed him to do something that he wouldn't even consider doing in public otherwise.

He put his feet back on the floor and stood up so agressively that his chair almost fell over.

That alone was enough to make Meru look back at him but it wasn't enough for Terres.

Just as the black-haired boy was turning back with a worried expression, angry Terres outstretched his hand and grabbed Meru's face.

"Mheh?!"

Meru exclaimed surprised as Terres squished his cheeks together and make him pout his lips.

"Why aren't you looking at me?"

Terres asked with accusation looking down on Meru with an icy stare.

"Hwat...?"

Meru asked but Terres wasn't really waiting for an answer.

Instead the sickly boy took a step forward so that his torso was touching Meru while still holidng his face and looking down at him.

He doesn't understnd how I fell abut him at all!

Terres thought to himself and his lips quivered.

"Tehhes, hwat ish...?"

Meru was giving his best to act rationaly.

Well, rationality wasn't really on Terres's mind now though...

"Poopy-head."

Terres groaned, let go of Meru's face, and...

Straddled him.

"Wh-wh-what are you...?!"
It was so sudden and unexpected that Meru instantly got extremly embarasssed.

He grabbed the feeble boy to pull him away, since they were now hogging all the attention of the room – even Horianna stopped dancing and was glaring at them – which was problematic to say the least, but Terres wasn't even considering to comply.

Instead he wrapped his arms and legs around Meru hugging him as tightly as he could.

"Terres, what are you doing?!"

Meru panicked and tried to pry him away.

But ashe touched him, Terres body shook with a sudden cry.

"No...! You are mine! I won't let someone else take you away!"

"T-take me away...?!"

Meru froze, but even still, Terres continued to cry pitifully.

"It's always like this! We are alone, we only talk about school, we play together, you always stop yourself, I ki-kissed you and you didn'teven realize~!"

"!!!"

Meru flinched and quickly pressed Terres's head to his neck but it was far too late, all the eyes were glued to them.

"Stupid Meru... Bully... Poopy-head... Why do I love you so much...?"

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!

Meru panicked and with Terres still clinging to him like a koala bear he sprung from the chair and dashed through the crowd straight to the door.

This was bad, seriously bad...!

The son of a general declaring his love to the adopted son of a ruler of the enemy country?!

Terres could get in so much touble over this!

"We went to a party together but you only chased after senior Golger...!"

Completly unbothered Terres was continuing to talk while Meru was carrying him.

"It's not like that stupid...!"

Meru groaned through his teeth.

"No, you...!"

Terres sobbed in response.

"You look at girls even though I am right here...! You've said that I'm pretty! Am I not pretty enough for you? I can grow my hair out... I-I can even start wearing women's clothes...! I will be the prettiest and cutest one! Even though I hate it when others think I'm agirl... I will do it for you! I will! So... So just start loving me already...!"

"You...!"

"Meru...! My heart hurts so much when I speak about it...! I'm sorry, I'm sucha bad friend...! I don't want to be just friends with you! I'm sorry! I love you too much...!"

Finally Meru got to an empty hallway and leaned his back against the wall while breathing heavily.

Terres was sobbing at his shoulder drenching his shirt with salty tears.

"I'm sorry, Meru... I'm so awful... It hurts...!"

"Shhh..."

Meru started patting his head and and gently hushed him.

"You aren't awful at all, silly."

He slowly sat down on the floor and finally properly returned the hug.

"Wh-who's silly, you are the silly one...!"

Terres sobbed, even though it was Meru who did all the running, Terres's breathing was almost as fast as his, even the green spirit Trispi emerged and was dancing around the sickly boy like crazy.

"Oh, shut it. You're definitely the silly one. You don't have to change anything or do anything that you hate. You are perfect the way you are! And, well, I might be a bit of a, what you called me...?"

"A poopy-head..."

It was uncertain whether he was answering him or just calling him names again.

"Yeah, I might be a poopy-head myself after all..."

In the end that didn't bothered Meru.

Two boys embracing each other could feel their heartbeats mixing together, two hearts beating like crazy in this tension full of excitement and expectation.

"What I want to say is... Well..."

Meru pulled away for a moment and reached for Terres's face.

He grabbed his chin and make him look up.

"Well... You know... I also..."

And while looking into each other's eyes Meru finally said it.

"I love you too, Terres."

"Ah!"

The sickly boy gasped with his eyes full of ears, his heart was beating so loud that it seemed that it wanted to bust out of his chest, even Trispi was dancing faster and faster as if it too was overwhelmed by the situation .

The two leaned in...

And their lips locked in a gentle kiss.

Terres body shook as he meekly gave his all to Meru and even the battle hardened Meru became light headed.

It was...

A truly special moment.

"Wow... well... Whoa, hey, Terres, so... are we now... you know... a couple...?"

Meru blushed shyly and started awkwardly rubbing his neck.

Terres was trying to calm his rugged breath but there was no use, a sudden panic started settling in.

"M-Meru... There... there is a problem..."

He said, his face went deathly pale, even his lips became a bit bluish.

Trispi was dancing...

No.

Trispi was desperately darting around him, almost as if it was panicking too...!

"Problem? Oh, you mean that you confessed to me at a tea-party and you admitted that you've kissed me? We'll figure something out, in the worst case we'll ask that gold-hungry... T-Terres...?"

Meru's words got stuck in his throat.

While Terres was still holding on to him with his right hand, his left arm have gone completely limp and the sickly boy could barely breathe choking on tears.

Terres was crying, his face twisted in despair.

That... is not possible...

Not possible...

He wanted to deny what was happening with all his might but even his tongue went numb.

"Terres...?! TERRES!"

This is... How...?

Trispi seemed to have gone mad, it was circling around its master so fast that it became just a green blur.

The green spirit was desperately trying to keep its master alive.

How can it be...?

But suddenly even Trispi stopped in midair.

A large crack appeared on its surface...

And just like that the spirit shattered and crumbled into green dust.

This is...

This is Terres's...

BAD END

"TERRES! TERRES SAY SOMETHING?! TERRES!?"

Meru was screaming his lungs off, he got up and started running to get some help, someone, anyone who could help Terres.

But it was too late.

Where once were two heartbeats mixing into one, there was now only one.

The other went silent.

Meru was running, holding Terres close, but there was no response from the sickly boy, his limbs were swaying along to Meru's movement, making hi look like a puppet with its strings cut off.