I turned my head away.
"Feyza… please…"
After placing the phone in my hand, she squeezed it gently and, in a voice low enough that the others wouldn't hear, said, "Trust me. You need to see the way he looks at you."
With a tired sigh, I raised the phone to eye level.
My finger hovered over the play button, but I couldn't gather the courage to press it.
I'd rather lie in bed with a forty-degree fever than face those careless eyes again.
While I stared at the screen in hesitation, Demir asked Feyza,
"Did they fight again?"
"Yes, unfortunately."
When I started coughing again, Aylin came over and guided me back toward the bed. I went along with it.
"You're late for your medicine. Your breakfast is still sitting on the plate. Eat something first, then take your medicine and rest, or you'll get worse, Duru."
"Okay, okay."
With my exhaustion growing heavier, I leaned my back against the headboard, and Aylin placed the tray in my lap.
"We should go now. Get better soon too—we still need our rematch race, Red."
When I smiled at Demir, Bora came over and pinched my cheek.
"I didn't like seeing you like this. Take care of yourself, Sugarflake."
"I will, Bora. And you can take your phone too."
"Good point. I forgot." Grinning, he took the phone and walked out with Demir.
This time Nil came up to me.
"Get well soon, honey. If you need anything, call me. It doesn't matter what time it is, okay?"
I squeezed her hand and smiled.
"Thank you."
When Feyza left with them to pick up some things from home, Aylin and I were alone in the room.
As I tried to swallow the food I was forcing down, my friend sat beside me.
"Duru?"
"Mmh…"
"Don't you think it's time you told me?"
"Told you what?"
"What's going on between you and Kerem."
Hearing his name made me pause for a second, but then I put the bite in my mouth and asked calmly,
"What exactly do you want me to tell you?"
"You can start with why you've been lying to everyone about being a couple."
I couldn't swallow. I coughed and took a sip of the juice on the tray. Trying not to show how unsettled her words made me, I turned to her with a small smile.
"What lie, babe? Where did you get that from?"
"You might fool the others, but I know you, Duru. There's something else between you and Kerem that you're hiding from all of us."
I looked away, breaking the food on my fork into dozens of tiny pieces while trying to decide what to say.
I was truly tired of lying, but telling the truth could hurt Kerem.
And when the person in question was the man you loved, you didn't really have the option of being selfish.
Besides, I still didn't even fully know what our big secret was.
When I felt her hand on my shoulder, I lifted my eyes from my plate to her and sighed tiredly.
"I can't tell you why, but you're right about what you think. Just… don't let the others know, okay? I know how it sounds, but this isn't something that only concerns me, Aylin. And things got this messy because I'm terrible at lying. I don't want to put him in an even harder position. Please… let it stay between us."
"You're in love with him."
At her shocked words, I closed my misty eyes and nodded faintly. I wiped the tear sliding down my cheek, and when she hugged me, I hugged her back.
This was exactly what I needed right now.
"Don't worry. I won't tell anyone. And don't be this upset, Duru. I'm sure he feels something for you too."
Because I knew it wasn't true and she was only saying it to comfort me, I didn't comment. I just held her tighter.
After sitting like that for a while, we pulled back. She tucked my hair behind my ear.
"Take your medicine and sleep a bit, honey. If you rest, you'll feel better."
I did as she said and took one of each pill from the pile beside my bed, while she lifted the tray from my lap.
"Sleep well, love. If you need anything, call me. I'll be in the living room."
"Thank you, Teresa. For everything."
Smiling, she left the room and closed the door behind her. I lay back and pulled the blanket over myself.
Just as my eyes were about to close, a message notification chimed from my phone. I reached for it on the nightstand and picked it up.
It was from Bora.
"The most romantic short film of the year. If you watch this, you'll get better way faster, Sugarflake."
Laughing, I tapped the play button above the message, and the sea view that appeared instantly made me regret opening it—but I couldn't close it now.
Because on the screen was the man I'd missed like crazy, even though I hadn't seen him for just two days.
The video started right at the moment he draped the jacket over my shoulders, and judging by the voices behind us, Demir had joined them at exactly that point.
As always, Aylin and Demir were throwing jabs at each other, but the moment Kerem cupped my cheeks, everyone fell silent.
And I watched us with the same thrill, just as focused as I'd been that night.
At first, watching myself kiss someone felt a little weird… but after a second, I realized I liked it.
When we pulled apart, we reached the moment I'd been waiting for before I could open my eyes—only this time, there was a difference.
I rewound it a bit, zoomed in, and played it again.
When Kerem pulled back, he wasn't smiling like I'd thought.
He wasn't smiling at all.
He was looking at me with complete focus, like he was trying to figure out whether I was real.
Then, hearing Bora quietly but excitedly snap at Demir for stepping back and cutting off the shot, he turned toward the camera.
After rolling his eyes, he looked back at me again, smiling this time—
And right at that moment, I opened my eyes.
When I set the phone down on the bed, my head filled with dozens of images, the words I'd said to him, and a pile of unanswered questions.
But keeping my eyes open was getting hard, so there was no way I could reach any conclusion right now.
The only thing I was sure of was this:
In this world, the person with the worst timing in all of history had to be me…