Read The Cheating's Mutual | Tapas Web Community

Friday nights in Kota Kinabalu always smelled like salt, perfume, and bad decisions.

And this Saturday night particularly, the music was loud, fun and wild.

Qinny Edam checked her reflection in the restroom mirror for the third time, though there was nothing left to fix. Her eyeliner was sharp, her curls still holding, her dress flattering without trying too hard. She looked like a girl going on a date with the man she had loved for six years.

Which, technically... she was.

Around her, the women's restroom pulsed with club noise seeping through the walls, bass heavy enough to shake the mirror, laughter too loud to be sincere, heels clicking over tile like tiny weapons.

Her phone buzzed on the sink.

My Love ❤️
Where are you? Miss you already.

Qinny smiled despite herself. Typical of her boyfriend, Brennen Singh.

She typed back.

Coming~ Reapplying my lippy for you 😉

Three dots appeared immediately.

Alrighty babe, can't wait to wipe it off .... again 😜

She rolled her eyes, slipped the phone into her clutch, and reapplied her favorite lip gloss. Six years together, and he still texted her like a clingy first boyfriend.

It was comforting.

Predictable.

Safe.

She didn't know yet that some things only feel safe right before they break.

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The restroom hallway opened into the main bar in a wash of light and noise.

Neon signs glowed pink against dark walls, ice clinked in glasses, and someone screamed the lyrics to a song they definitely did not know. Bodies moved everywhere, all sweat and shadows and expensive cologne.

Qinny scanned the room automatically, searching for Brennen. She found him near the back wall, eager to be back in his arms, but then stopped walking. At first, her mind refused to understand what her eyes were seeing. Brennen stood close to a girl she didn't know.

Too close.

One hand was braced against the wall beside her head. The other rested casually on her waist. They were laughing. Qinny's heart stumbled once.

No, relax. You're just seeing things.

Brennen was many things; charming, impulsive, too handsome for his own good, but not cruel.

As she convinced herself her mind was playing games, he then reached up, curled two fingers under the girl's chin, and kissed her.

Not an accidental brush.

Not confusion.

Not club stupidity.

A full, deliberate kiss.

The girl kissed back instantly, as if his lips were already familiar to hers.

Qinny was definitely not seeing things. She stood frozen in the hallway while the world kept moving without her. The music became muffled. The lights too bright. Her pulse loud enough to drown out everything else.

Brennen.

Her Brennen.

The boy who held her hand after SPM results (*Malaysian High School Diploma).

The boy who met both her parents and remembered their birthdays.

The boy who promised last month, laughing over mamak fries at 2 a.m., You're stuck with me forever.

His mouth was on another girl's mouth.

"...Ouch."

The voice came from beside her.

Qinny turned so sharply she nearly lost balance.

A man leaned against the wall near the men's restroom entrance as if he'd been there all along. Tall. Broad shoulders. Black button-up with sleeves rolled to the forearms. Hair slightly damp, like he'd run water through it. Annoyingly handsome in the effortless way some men should be taxed for, which almost distracted her from reality.

He looked from the kissing couple back to her.

"Your boyfriend?"

Snapping her back, Qinny's surprise and grief found anger immediately.

"Excuse me?"

He lifted one hand lazily.

"The girl he's swallowing alive?" he said. "Mine."

Qinny blinked in confusion.

"Wh- What?"

He displayed his phone to her, showing his lockscreen wallpaper. His lockscreen was a selfie of him and the exact girl currently attached to Brennen's face.

He tucked the phone away.

"See?" he said. "Matching trauma."

Qinny stared at him, then at the couple, then back at him.

He grimaced thoughtfully.

"Brutal timing, though. I took thirty seconds to empty my can." He glanced over again. "Came back and now their tongues are wrestling quite aggressively."

Despite everything, despite the shock, the humiliation, the sensation of her ribs caving inward, Qinny made a strangled sound that might have been half-laugh, half-sob.

Then the sob won.

Tears spilled before she could stop them.

"Oh," the stranger said, straightening.

"Right. Human feelings."

He looked past her shoulder. His expression sharpened.

"Damn."

Qinny, sobbing, muttered "What?"

And the beautiful stranger panics, "They're looking this way."

Before she could react, he caught her wrist and pulled her down the side corridor.

"What are you doing—"

A door opened. Shelves, boxes, cleaning supplies.

A storage room.

He tugged her inside and shut the door just as voices passed outside. Darkness swallowed them, broken only by a thin line of light beneath the door.

Qinny yanked her hand free.

"What is wrong with you?" she hissed. "We're not the ones cheating!"

He leaned against a shelf, completely unbothered.

"Congratulations," he said. "Would you like a certificate?"

Qinny was dumbfounded at this man but kept her mouth shut, as her gaze dropped.

"How could he?" Her voice cracked on the last word.

The anger vanished as quickly as it came. She slid down the wall, clutching her bag to her chest like it might keep her together.

"How could he do that to me?"

The stranger's face changed, sighed, then crouched in front of her. For the first time, he looked his age; young, tired, and hurt in a way too familiar to hide.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Sucks for us, huh..."

Qinny wiped at tears angrily.

"Was I boring?" she asked. "Did I do something wrong? Did I become one of those long-term girlfriends men complain about?"

His jaw tightened.

"No."

"You don't know me."

"I know enough."

He reached into his pocket, produced a clean handkerchief, and offered it to her.

She took it automatically.

"If they cheat," he said, "they cheat. Don't hand them your value too."

Qinny looked up.

His eyes were dark, steady, and far kinder than his mouth.

That made her cry harder.

"Oh shit," he muttered. "I made it worse... Umm..."

He hesitated for abit, scratching the back of his head, before opening his arms.

Qinny looks at the stranger before her, sharing the same hurt. She could have refused that hug, but didn't.

She leaned forward, clutching the front of his shirt, and let herself fall apart against a complete stranger while club music thudded through the walls. His arms around her, one patting her head gently, and the other caressing her back.

Not taking advantage.

Not flirtatious.

Just there.

After a while, the sobs quieted into hiccups. She became aware of everything all at once.

How close they were.

How warm he was.

How humiliating this was.

She pulled back abruptly.

"Uhh, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he said.

She realized that she was literally still in his arms, as if cradling her, and they were in the cramped dark, facing each other, breathing the same thin air.

Then his mouth curved.

Small. Dangerous.

"So," he said.

Qinny narrowed her swollen eyes. "So?"

"Want to make it equal?"

She blinked at him. "...Huh?"

He inched closer, just enough for his voice to drop into something quieter, sharper.

"They wanted excitement."

A tilt of his head toward the door.

"Let's give them something worth collapsing over."

Qinny let out a short, disbelieving laugh. "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

"Correct."

Closer.

Now he was close enough that she could feel the heat of him. Close enough that it was suddenly very hard to think.

"Are you in?"

She should've said no.

Every logical part of her was screaming no.

She had known him for what, seven minutes?

Her boyfriend was outside.

Her dignity was probably dissolving somewhere between cleaning supplies and regret.

But then...

Brennen's hand on another girl's waist.

The way he smiled.

The way six years meant nothing in a room full of strangers.

Qinny's jaw tightened.

And when she looked back at the guy in front of her; He looked just as wrecked.

Just as reckless.

Just as done.

"...Screw it," she breathed.

His brows lifted slightly, something flickering in his eyes.

"Oh, that enthusiastic?"

"Shut up," she muttered, grabbing his shirt. "Less talking."

And then she kissed him.

Hard.

For a split second, he froze. Caught off guard.

Then he kissed her back.

And it was... Not gentle.

Not careful.

It was heat and impulse and something dangerously close to anger.

His hand found her waist like he already knew where it belonged, pulling her in just enough to erase the space between them.

Qinny's fingers twisted into his collar, holding on like she needed something solid to ground her.

His thumb brushed against her side, just once, and it sent a sharp, unexpected spark up her spine.

Her breath hitched.

He felt it.

She knew he felt it.

And that only made it worse.

Or better.

She couldn't tell anymore.

The music outside pounded through the walls, but it felt distant, like everything had narrowed down to just this.

This mistake.

This moment.

This-

Too much.

Too fast.

Too real.

The bass dropped suddenly, loud enough to snap the moment clean in half.

They pulled apart instantly.

Breathing uneven.

Too close.

Still too close.

Qinny pressed her fingers to her lips, eyes wide. "Oh my God."

He dragged a hand across his mouth, smearing the faint trace of her lipstick, and let out a quiet exhale.

"...Well," he said, voice lower now. "That escalated."

"What did we just do?"

"The thing with the lips? Oh, tongue olympics, i think?"

She smacked his chest, "Quit it! Oh my God, i made out with a hot stranger."

"Back at you, stranger."

He smirks while she rolls her eyes at him. Dusting himself off the floor, he helps her up as she tidies herself.

He cracked the door slightly, peered through, then closed it again.

"The deed is done, time to leave separately."

He pointed at her face.

"And try to look less i-just-made-out-in-a-storage-room."

Qinny's jaw dropped.

"You are insane."

"And yet," he said chuckling, opening the door, "you kissed me first."

He winked.

The audacity of him.

"Alright, go ahead. Coast is clear."

And so she slipped out of the room, turning back to look at the stranger one last time.

Though he bore a smile, it was clear in his eyes that he was hurt.

After pushing through the crowd, she manages to reach her table where Brennen rushed toward her immediately, concern painted across his cheating face.

"Babe! Where were you?

"Toilet. Someone vomitted so I was just there... for the drama."

"Haha! You're so silly- Eh, why do you look like you were crying?"

Qinny looked at him.

Then past him, where the beautiful stranger stood several feet away, face was clear of her lip gloss, while the other girl clung to his arm.

He glanced back once.

A tiny smirk.

Qinny faced Brennen again.

"Allergies," she said.

And for the first time in six years, she lied to him smoothly.

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Hey guys~!