|| Tuesday, early evening ||

A week later, Callum was on his way to the woods for an archery training session with Arlon alone. They purposefully hadn’t invited any of their other friends who liked archery because Arlon said that most of them were still annoyed by Callum’s absence throughout the week.

The few friends who didn’t mind didn’t like archery—or they weren’t good enough to join them on the chosen route through the woods.

It was a difficult route that even Arlon and Callum struggled with since they had not done it in a while. Trees were blocking most of their view, and the targets were located in areas that were difficult to reach.

It was almost a hike for them, but Callum liked the challenge. After winning a local tournament three years in a row, he needed to challenge himself to get even better and have a shot at winning the tournament again.

There were only three months left to practise, and with all the tutoring going on, Callum had to schedule practice, while before, he would just decide on going last minute.

There was an advantage to not asking Gio to join them, since he never wanted to take the route Arlon and Callum took that day.

But halfway down the route, Callum was aiming his bow and arrow at a tiny target over 100 feet away from him, when his phone started buzzing in the exact moment he released the arrow. He watched it zoom completely off target, disappearing into the vast woods surrounding the target.

“Damn it,” Callum cursed, while Arlon sent him a confused look.

“What the hell was that?”

“My phone disturbed my concentration,” Callum complained, taking the phone out of his pocket. It took about three seconds for his annoyance to disappear when he saw Elliot’s name on his screen.

“Hey, what’s up?” Callum happily answered the call.

“I know today is your day off from tutoring, and I know I’m probably interrupting you during your practice,” Elliot said. He sounded a bit off. Not as calm as usual.

“You kinda ruined a shot, but I don’t mind. Why are you calling me?”

“I felt weird all day, and I looked it up in that book you gave me, and it seems like I’m confused. I’ve never felt confused before, so this is… confusing? Does that make sense?” Elliot rambled, causing Callum to smirk. “Obviously it makes sense that I’m confused if I’m feeling confused. What I’m trying to say is that you caused this, and I don’t know what to do with these feelings.”

Elliot was cute whenever he talked about feeling something he didn’t recognise.

He always seemed a bit scared to feel new emotions, but Callum was happy Elliot was experiencing new emotions.

Even though Callum hadn’t expected Elliot to feel new emotions until they were weeks ahead in time. This was… early, and unexpected.

“Well, if you’re feeling confused, that means you developed your emotions,” Callum replied, grinning like a fool to nobody in particular.

Arlon was aiming his own arrow, but since he was taking a little longer to shoot than he normally would, Callum figured he was listening to the things Callum said instead of focusing on the target.

“But how did I cause it? By tutoring you? Are you confused about the homework I gave you?”

“No, Callum. You kissed me, remember?” Elliot said, still sounding confused. “I didn’t admit it right away, but I felt really weird after that kiss and I don’t know what it is. I can’t describe what I felt, and I tried to find it in the book, but I couldn’t.”

“Oh, really?” Callum frowned. This was a surprise. Callum hadn’t really seen any change in Elliot after the kiss they shared. He was just Elliot, showing no emotions. And now Elliot was telling him he did feel things.

What things? Callum needed to know. Where they good feelings? Positive emotions? Were they basics, mild, or strong? He needed more information.

“Yeah, so I was thinking…” Elliot started, clearing his throat before he continued. “We need to kiss again.”

Callum’s response was pretty embarrassing. He choked on his own breath, coughed for a good minute to regain control over his breathing and then answered with a sound that was somewhere in between a high-pitched yelp and an actual ‘okay’.

If Elliot wanted to kiss again, he wasn’t going to say no.

But then again, Callum realised all too well that he was the only one who actually felt all the emotions that came with being in love. To him, kissing was an actual way of showing those emotions.

Elliot, on the other hand, didn’t have those emotions. To him, a kiss was just a kiss. Or maybe Elliot considered kissing a trigger to feel the same emotions. Now that Callum had explained how triggers worked when it came to developing emotions, Elliot had started researching triggers that belonged to certain feelings he wanted to feel.

Of which one was love, after Callum had elaborated on why he thought love was the best emotion one could feel.

But it meant that Elliot couldn’t get his heart broken. There were simply no emotions that could be played with, there was no trust that could be betrayed. There wasn’t any emotion that could make Elliot feel shitty.

But Callum did feel those things, and if Elliot was simply using his kissing as a trigger, he could be the one left behind with a broken heart. If Elliot would start experiencing feelings and emotions that came with being in love, it still didn’t mean he was going to fall for Callum.

Still, Callum couldn’t turn him down. After all, Callum himself was the one that told Elliot about being in love. He was the one that kissed Elliot first.

“Okay,” Callum answered when he regained his posture. “Should I come today?”

“Yeah, I mean… I want to know what I was feeling, so I want to write it down right away and then look it up,” Elliot explained calmly. “But, I mean, only if you want to.”

“I’m okay with it,” Callum shrugged a shoulder, even though Elliot couldn’t see that. “I’ll come over to your house after practise.”

“Thanks, Callum,” Elliot said, back to his usual flat tone, no emotions noticeable in the way he spoke. “See you soon.”