Maybe the way Yui had stood out from the rest of her class had made her seem mature and elegant to Ted. And although they had been in different classes, he’d always stuck his neck out, trying to help her get along with the other girls. That was probably when she’d started seeing him as a friend.
That had been in the fourth year of elementary school...and Ted had spent the whole time since, right up until his rejection, convinced that he was the one Yui had feelings for. Love could be blind.
Blessed with talent and good looks, he’d been positive that the only reason Yui never called out to him was that she was shy, or that she was worried about how the other girls might look at her. He’d been so lovestruck that he’d forgotten Yui had another childhood friend: Ado.
Perhaps he was just vain, or perhaps he was arrogant.
Eventually, though, Ted had learned that his crush had been one-sided the entire time—and worse, that his crush saw him as garbage, and worse again, she’d already been making plans to tie the knot with the other guy. All things considered, you could start to see why Ted might have struggled to recover.
The worst part of all was that Yui hadn’t even been trying to hurt him. She’d meant every word.
But her flippant rejection had been like a knife to his heart.
Yui had been Ted’s first love. He’d been genuinely head over heels, and...then she’d told him he wasn’t even on her radar. It had apparently been shocking enough to turn him into a traumatized recluse.
“Erm, Yui?” Zelos paused. “You might’ve been speaking from the heart, but...”
Ado nodded. “Yeah... If I heard someone I was crazy about say that stuff, I don’t think I could recover.”
“Listening to someone you don’t even like confess their feelings is such a hassle, though, don’t you think?” Yui said. “Speaking of which, I don’t even remember Ted’s real name—just that he was younger than Toshi and tagged along with him everywhere.”
Ted, you poor guy...
It seemed like she’d completely forgotten that Ted had been her own childhood friend at one point.
Clearly, she saw any guy who wasn’t Ado as an extra.
The problem wasn’t just that Ted had seen their relationship as something more than it had been—it was also that his feelings had been completely unreciprocated.
Yui had only ever been interested in Ado, shutting out every other guy from her mind. And Ted hadn’t just failed to get into a relationship with her; he’d completely self-destructed.
Sure, Yui could’ve turned him down more gently, but she hadn’t broken the young man’s heart out of malice. She’d meant every word, but that’d also made it clear to Ted that he’d never had a chance to begin with.
You still had to feel for the guy, though.
And with the way Ado had gotten harassed in Swords & Sorceries in the aftermath, you had to feel for him too.
“Um... Yui? Don’t you think you could’ve chosen your words a little more delicately?” Shakti said.
“Are you suggesting it was my fault?” Yui responded. “I just told him how I felt, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, maybe, but, uh...wouldn’t ‘Sorry, I’m into someone else’ have been enough?” Lisa said.
“You say that now, but do you know what he actually told me? ‘Your childhood friend will never fall for you. If you two are as close as you say you are, he probably sees you more like a little sister. Just give up on him.’ It made me so mad that I just couldn’t help but snap back...”
Ted’s own words had come back to bite him. Sure, Yui did have a childhood friend she never would’ve been lovers with, but it wasn’t Ado...
Ted... I know that’s a common thing, but you can’t expect it to apply to every childhood friend, Zelos and Ado thought. And it looks like it blew up in your face.
It sounded like Ted had handled things poorly too.
He’d probably spoken out of desperation, but from Yui’s perspective, he’d been sticking his neck into something that was none of his business. Her getting pissed by someone not even on her radar trying to lecture her made sense.
Her cruel honesty was understandable, then—even if it had ended badly.
“I wish the guy would stop dwelling on it. I mean, just get over it already, dude,” Ado sighed. “And why does he have to take it out on me? That’s not even fair, right?”
“Of course it’s not fair,” Zelos agreed. “He probably still has feelings for her, though. He’s not the type to throw in the towel easily, and I’d assume that includes Yui. So all he can do is get angry about it, I bet. And then he directs that anger toward you.”
“It’s so annoying. All I did was turn him down when he asked me out!” Yui said. “That should’ve been the end of it!”
“Oh, absolutely,” Zelos said. “But... Hmm. It’s hard to put my finger on, but something just doesn’t sit quite right with me.”
Neither side was completely in the wrong, and that made it feel so unsatisfying. When both parties shared fault, it was hard to root for either one of them.
Sure, there was nothing between Yui and Ted, and any potential had vanished the moment she turned him down.
At the same time, you could see things from Ted’s perspective. People’s hearts didn’t always listen to reason—and Ted putting off confessing for so long in the first place was human nature too.
Either way, Ted had ultimately become a recluse.
Uru suddenly entered the room carrying a teapot and some teacups on a tray. “Are you done?” he asked, beaming. “I’ve made some tea, if you’d like.”
“O-Oh. Thank you.”
Uru’s return had cleared the awkward fog hanging over the room, even if only temporarily.
The group sipped tea and caught up with one another.