46 Settling Our Differences

The next day, Emily met Aiden in GCA. \"Hey, Aiden! How are you? How was your night?\" Emily waved at Aiden from afar and came jogging in his direction. She was as happy as a lark. Aiden waved back as well, \"Hey, Emily! I'm great.\" They started walking towards the class together. \"Aiden, I was just wondering...\" She paused for a moment, before continuing, \"I haven't seen Cyril lately. Do you know about his whereabouts?\" Hearing Cyril's name, Aiden scoffed. \"Hmph. No.\"

Emily looked towards Aiden, who was looking straight ahead. His expression stern. \"Aiden?\" Emily called out softly. \"Huh?\" Aiden turned towards Emily. She was looking at him with her doe eyes. \"Do you really hate Cyril that much? Like you guys don't even bother to look at each other, let alone speak.\" Emily asked cautiously so as not to upset him. Since she had a good relation with Cyril and Aiden, it was weird for her that the two of them did not get along.

Aiden kept silent for a moment, pondering over what to reply before Emily asks again, \"Uhm... I mean, don't you even want to try to get along with him?\" Aiden sighed. Although, hate was a strong words, like wasn't acceptable either. There were many things which happened in the past between them, which caused their friendship to end like this. Aiden did not feel that he would be able to explain anything to Emily related to their past right now.

Maybe... He could try to push aside those differences and have a new start? He did not want to, but... Since, Emily has asked him to at least try, why would he not? Aiden exhaled again deeply, \"Huh... Maybe, I could, just try...\" \"That's really nice!\" Emily grinned. \"Let's try to find him during the break in the canteen.\" Aiden indicated a thumbs up and they entered their class.

~During lunch break~

Some of Aiden's friends gathered around him when he and Emily were going to the canteen. \"Yo, Aiden, have you forgotten about us?\" \"Hey, why have you been ignoring us?\" They started chatting with him. \"Uh, guys, I'm really sorry, but I'm kinda busy right now. I'll catch up with you all later.\" Aiden tried to escape but they grabbed him and started dragging him along with them, \"Nope, no excuses. Today you will have a match with us.\"

Emily was upset. They had to come right now? Aiden signaled her to move on. Emily shrugged as she went to look for Cyril. Just as she entered the canteen, a whiff of cooked food entered her nose and her stomach started rumbling. Grabbing a tray of food, she spotted Cyril sitting in a desolate corner in the canteen. She casually walked up and sat right next to him, \"Heya! Long time no see. Did you miss me?\" Emily chuckled as she filled her spoon with fruit salad and then shoving into her mouth.

\"Eh? Who on earth would miss you?\" Cyril mocked as he ate his cracker. Emily pouted and playfully hit his arm, \"Don't think that I missed you either. Hmph!\" Emily sulked. \"Then why did you come here searching for me?\" Cyril smirked as kept his gaze on his food and ate it slowly. \"I- I just saw you and thought I'd pass by to say hello.\" Emily rebuked. \"Haha, obviously because you had been missing me!\" Cyril broke up in laughter. \"I hate you!\" Emily whined.

They chatted for a while, until Emily decided to bring up the topic regarding Aiden, \"Why hasn't Aiden came back yet?\" She glanced at Cyril, who frowned slightly hearing his name. \"Uhm, Cyril?\" Emily muttered.

\"Hmm?\"

\"Don't you like Aiden?\" She asked. \"Heh... Yes, and no.\" Cyril shrugged. \"Uhm, why is that so?\" Emily tried to probe a bit further. \"Well... Long story short, we used to be friends but had our differences and finally ended our friendship. On, uh, not-so-good terms.\" Cyril rolled his eyes, thinking about the past and got up. Emily also followed him, \"So... I was just wondering. If... By any chance, you'd like to patch up?\" Emily mumbled, loud enough for Cyril to hear.

They continued walking in silence, left the trays at the counter and left the canteen, towards the main ground. It was complete silence. Walking a bit through the ground, Cyril stopped, so did Emily. Following his line of sight, he was looking at Aiden playing basketball with his friends. Emily started to get nervous. Finally, Cyril spoke up. \"Hmm... Maybe, I can give it a try.\" \"Yeee!!!\" Emily jumped in joy. Cyril shook his head and smiled.

They waited for a while until Aiden had finished playing. When he spotted the two of them standing under a shady tree, he directly walked towards them. Aiden finally topped in front of them. The two men glared at each other for a while. \"Eheheh... Now, now. Let's forget the past. Shall we? And have a brand new start?\" Emily popped in between them.

Cyril huffed and extended his hand towards Aiden. Aiden sighed as he tightly grabbed his hand for a handshake. Emily quickly hugged the two of them. \"Yayyy! Group hug!\" She squealed happily. Hearing her cheery voice, their hatred faded for a while as they enjoyed the group hug, awkwardly.