Regardless of the troubles of his heart, it's a busy time for him.

He just grits his teeth through the work.

Sage doesn’t say anything, just raising a brow as she gazes at him with intensity. Her expression isn’t malicious, but her gaze feels as if she’s scanning his entire person for something.

“You seem oddly chipper. Aren’t you mad at Holly, that freeloader?”

Aloe doesn’t feel comfortable with these types of conversations. 

He knows that one way or another, it ends up reaching the ears of the other party, and it’ll just wind up causing some sort of trouble for him. Sage seems like a nice girl, but he’s seen enough arguments in his three years of university that he can’t let his guard down.

“She must be busy. Graduating students usually are, no?” Aloe replies, trying to defuse the situation as best as he could.

Sage, however, just groans in response. “Doesn’t mean she can blow us off like this. We’ve got stuff to do, too, you know? I say we just threaten her that we’re kicking her out if she's a no-show.”

“Um, I think…Wouldn’t that be a bit too much?”

“If we don’t put our foot down now, she’ll walk all over us for the rest of the semester. It would be fine if this group were a one-time thing, but we’ll be stuck with her for a while.”

“Still…”Aloe fidgets with his thumb.

He’s unsure of how else to respond. Holly is rather infamous for being confrontational, and Aloe just doesn’t want to get on her bad side.

How could he possibly ease the tension now, so that things can just smoothly go over?

“I can just cover more of the work in the meantime. So let’s just—”

Aloe stops midway when he realizes Sage just continues to stare at him intensely.

Did he perhaps make the situation worse?

At that thought, he starts feeling familiar anxiety bubble up in the pits of his stomach. With the way things are going, he doesn’t think he can finish the tea and pastry he ordered.

“Won’t your boyfriend be mad if I end up taking too much of your time with this group work?”

Aloe nearly chokes on his spit.

Huh?

Huh?!

“Huh?!”

Sage takes a small sip of her iced fruit tea, uncaring of the flush on Aloe’s cheeks and the panic on his face. 

“What? Isn’t that blonde guy—Basil was it? Isn’t he always following you around? Last time we met, he picked you up for dinner, didn't he?”

“As friends,” Aloe corrects her. “As friends, Sage. We’re both guys, so how on earth did you come to that conclusion?”

“Well, he’s a pretty clingy friend, if you ask me,” She replies, swirling the contents of her drink. “Let me guess, after this, you’re going out for dinner again?”

“I…”

Actually, they weren’t.

Lately, they haven’t been hanging out all that much. Especially at night. And when he thinks back to that mark on Basil’s neck, it’s easy for him to understand why.

“Ugh, can we just drop the subject? It’s not funny.”

Sage hums in thought, and for a minute, Aloe expects her to keep prying into his business. But she doesn’t.

She turns back to her work, occasionally stopping to curse out Holly, their missing groupmate, but has ultimately forgotten about the subject.

At least, he thinks so.

Aloe was sure that Sage was just teasing him, but his reaction must’ve made her more suspicious. He just wants to hit himself for being so obvious and stupid about his emotions.

This week continues to be terrible.