How To Turn Down The Vampire Ex-Best Friend

Under the subtle light of the lampshade, Charlie looked at Alex with passionate eyes. 'How unfair it is to become the best friend of such a beautiful man,' she couldn't help but wonder.

For years, she tried to restrain herself.

To not think of him as anything more than a friend has been repeatedly echoing in her head for years; it even became life's motto. But now, Charlie is not confident she could live by those words.

Not when Alex looks at her with genuine eyes and pulls her close, almost desperate.

"Charlie, I'm in love with you. What else should I do to make you believe me?" Alex told her pleadingly.

Feeling her defenses melting, Charlie bit her lips, "I—asdafgghgrrvcxdff."

"I— damn, I really can't picture them ending up together," Cedric Lim exasperatedly sighs as his busy fingers drop lifelessly on the keys of the keyboard.

His tired eyes scoured the screen to look for the word count, and he couldn't help but be more depressed when he found it. 300 words. Cedric only managed to write 300 words out of the 1500-word chapter he planned for his new novel.

As an established romance writer for 10 years, it's so unbecoming of him to be this sluggish writing. His average word count during regular days was 1000 words per hour, 1500 words, or an entire chapter when he's motivated and in the mood.

But now, to say that he's experiencing writer's block is an insult to anyone genuinely experiencing that.

Cedric Lim is at the crossroads of his career, where his past and present mix together to create the most venomous and terrible poison for him.

"Best friends don't end up together. They either watch each other go and live their separate lives or grow apart," Cedric begrudgingly buried his face on the keyboard as he swallowed their own sentiment.

If it weren't for his editor pushing him to try the best friend-to-lovers plot, he wouldn't dare write his current novel.

"Challenging new story plots and going out of comfort zone, my ass." Cedric stared at the messy string of characters that got added to his last typing and inwardly cursed.

From where he stands, he is more like challenging his own past and principles.

Cedric should be writing about unsuccessful unrequited love since he is more experienced in that topic! The frustration, pain, loss, and betrayal from helplessly falling for a ruthless best friend were more familiar to Cedric, this mess he is writing!

The frustrated writer closed his eyes as though he had accidentally hit the autoplay button, his dark history playing at the back of his head.

Ring!!! Ring!!

"Shit!" Cedric cursed vehemently when he grabbed his ringing phone beside his computer monitor.

It's nine in the evening now! Who is calling him this late?

"Hello?"

"Hello, Cedric! I'm sorry. Did I disturb you?" His close friend for years, Kelly, immediately greeted him with her usual warm, motherly voice.

Cedric cleared his throat and quickly adjusted the tone of his voice. "No, I'm just staying in my place, finally realizing how bad my decision was from ages ago."

Kelly laughed, "I guess that is your cry for help, huh? Go to my fried chicken restaurant. We have the place for ourselves, and Charlie is here, inviting us for a drink."

"Hello! Mr. Virgin Smut Writer!" Cedric heard his other annoying friend in the background.

He reflexively rolled his eyes. 'Virgin, my ass.'

"I don't think staying out of relationships for five years makes someone a virgin," Cedric said sarcastically, earning a loud laugh from the other line.

"Come, Cedric, and put Charlie in his place. I missed hearing your banters."

A nostalgic smile bloomed on the writer's face.

Seriously, though. Cedric thinks he badly needs a breather, especially now that he is slipping into memory lane. He needed a distraction, and drinking with friends might just be it— or so he thought.

"Oh, so you're fucked," Charlie told him without blinking his eyes once their drinking session started to catch heat.

He was here to forget his worries, but who would have thought that besides tasty chicken wings, he and his friends would also chew on his problems?

However, on second thought, this is also a good way of releasing his stress.

Charlie, Kelly, and Cedric go all the way back to their college days, a time when it was easy to be friends with everyone at the university but, at the same time, difficult to really connect with anyone.

They all met in one fateful group project, and since then, they have bonded together through the woes of thesis writing and the joys of finally graduating. Now that they are adults and have become somewhat successful in their chosen life, they stay as close as ever.

Considering all the experiences they shared, it is not an exaggeration to say that Cedric is presently in a place where he can show his authentic self. These two also know his backstory, as if he were their favorite novel.

"What else should I say? Bingo? You got it correct?!" Cedric replied, half sarcastic and half surrendering.

"Why don't you ask your publisher to scrape the entire project? Like, tell them it's affecting your mental health," Kelly joined in from the restaurant kitchen. She's holding a bowl full of fried chicken wings. "You're their star writer. They should listen to your opinions from time to time."

In their trio, Kelly has been the mother figure since time immemorial. She's the most caring and thoughtful girl they've ever met. Oh, she's also good-looking, too. Which is why it is not a surprise that her first boyfriend immediately married her.

Cedric still hadn't asked if Kelly's husband knows that she's a BL/Yaoi lover, but considering that she's close with two homosexuals, he must have known that she's a rotten girl.

"Don't you know, Cedric? He's the most stubborn bull in Seoul," Charlie reached out and held Cedric's face by the chin. "This pretty face would rather suffer in silence than retreat from challenges."

"Stop touching me," Cedric pulled away, smiling mischievously.

From the cute, youthful face that aligns well with idols and Charlie's short and petite body, Cedric swept them with his scrutinizing eyes.

"In case you still have the hots for me, I'm telling you. I don't dance with a self-proclaimed top who looks and acts more like a bottom than me."

"Excuse me?" Charlie exaggeratedly bulged his eyes and playfully reached out to pull a handful of Cedric's hair.

He is not a self-proclaimed top! He is a top!

"I'm kidding!"

Charlie and Cedric's start was fascinating.

Intelligent, serious, yet approachable, these are the good qualities of Cedric that shined brightly during their college era. Many flocked around Cedric because of his reliability and undeniable good looks, it didn't come as a surprise that many admired him.

Charlie happened to be one of them.

"Shit! I really regret making a move on you when we first teamed up in a group project!" Charlie screamed in a shrill, embarrassed voice. "I never expect you will still use that against me even after years!"

Cedric hid his playful smile behind his fist and repeated the words he once said to his friend, "I'm sorry. I don't think we will work. I am a solid bottom, too."

"Ahhh! My dark history! How dare you assume that I am a bottom!" Charlie grabbed a chicken drumstick and waved it to Cedric like it was some sword. "You should at least assume that I am versatile, you bitch!"

"Oh my gosh! I remember that!" Kelly laughed loudly. She raised her cup of soju and clinked it with Cedric. "The way Charlie's face quickly blushed was iconic!"

"Right! Since you're writing about best friends and lovers, Why don't you imagine yourself together with Charlie? I think it will turn out to be a good rom-com story. Like the one of your successful works that turned into a drama series."

Cedric automatically shook his head at Kelly's proposal. "I don't see it ending well. It will be like Romeo and Juliet, in my opinion."

"That tragic?"

Charlie rolled his eyes, "Only your poor taste in men sets us apart, so I don't think we can call ourselves star-crossed lovers."

Cedric flashed an enigmatic smile, "No, that's not why I said we will end tragically."

"Then why?"

"Because the story will end the moment we kiss each other. We are both bottoms, so we are poisonous to each other."

Kelly and Cedric were thrown into fits of laughter. "You're crazy, Cedric! I so missed you!"

Charlie watched the two with sharp eyes. He then huffed arrogantly and straightened his back.

He smirked, "Happy? So, going back to the main topic, how will you continue writing your story when all you can think about is your hot, manly, and tanned playboy best friend from high school who also happened to be your first love and heartbreak?"

"Ohhh," Kelly carefully leaned her back on the backrest and carefully looked at his two gay best friends.

Cedric was caught off guard by the sudden boomerang. Constantly spitting the facts straightforwardly, are we, Charlie?

He sighed and leaned towards the table while considering the question.

"I don't think it is right to call him my first love since I am not sure if I was really into him back then," he defended.

"Oh, honey. But isn't he the reason for the teardrops on your guitar— I mean, journals?"

Kelly clapped, "I love that song! So nostalgic."

"I cried before because he avoided me like a plague right after I told him that I'm gay and I'm attracted to guys," Cedric explained like this is the first time he's telling his friends about it even though the story was already an old tale for them. "And I hadn't even confessed to him that I KIND OF like him, so imagine the hurt and betrayal I felt then. We've been friends for years. I've been there to support him when he ran into all sorts of problems in his family, and I might as well add that I am the one handling the girls whose hearts he broke."

"So, yeah, I am angry that when I just spoke to him about my truth, he suddenly distanced himself and disappeared from my life without saying any word."

"I believe… I am entitled to shed a few tears."

This time, Kelly and Charlie gave him a look that clearly said: "And you still deny that he isn't your first love?"

Charlie poured Cedric's cup with alcohol and continued, "Okay, fine. But we all agree that he's your first heartbreak. The reason why you get into novel writing. You can't deny that. You even said in an interview that you were unaware you were working on a novel when you first wrote a story. In your words: I'm just pouring my heart out to overcome the first heartbreak my once trusted friend caused."

He put down the glass with a click.

"I work in the PR department of an entertainment company, so take time and imagine if I "ACCIDENTALLY" leaked to the journalists I'm in contact with that Cedric Lim, THAT well-known writer, lied in his interview about how he found himself into novel writing."

Cedric stared at his friend sharply. Now, he's regretting digging up the past with Charlie. His dear friend dragged him to the hot seat, and he's doing it based on his style: your word against you!

He quickly took his shot and down it in one gulp.

"Gaaah!" He groaned as the liquor hotly slid down his throat.

"Fine! He's my first heartbreak and has contributed greatly to everything I have. But you all know how the story went, and it's understandable why I am still on edge about it."

"Yeah," Charlie responded, taking a quick shot of the soju bomb that Kelly had prepared for them. "Thank you, mommy."

Kelly just nudged him with her eyebrows, which meant to continue pressing Cedric.

So, Charlie continued matter-of-factly, "We know how your story with him went. You came out to him months before your senior year in high school ended. However, you didn't expect that by doing so, he, a real alpha male who dates girls left and right— according to your word, will avoid you throughout the school year."

"Don't make it sound like he's that horrible. And also, he's not homophobic."

"Ugh, last time I checked, he is. He wouldn't avoid you otherwise."

Kelly, on the sidelines, could no longer hold herself back. She jumped into the chance of grilling her best friend.

"Cedric, you're smart, and if you could hear yourself now, you would realize that we are just going in circles." She stopped Cedric's hands from taking another shot of soju. "You were madly in love with him before and still have him in your heart now. Why would you defend him and say he's not homophobic? You—"

"I'm not defending him. I'm correcting a wrong notion that he's— the man has a history of defending a gay classmate. That surely meant something, right?" Cedric sounded frustrated. "And even if— let's say, I was in love with him before— which is absolutely not true. It's been more than a decade, there's no way I'm still into him."

"I swear, I can punch him in the face if I see him. Right now." Cedric said firmly.

Kelly and Charlie looked at Cedric, lost for words.

"Oh my god, you really need to finish that book," Kelly said after some time. "You're in real need of self-discovery."

"You know what," Charlie started off. "I hate and love you as a friend, and right now, I pray to the heavens that you meet that Dylan Kim once again."

Cedric involuntarily jumped on his seat. The three of them vowed never to mention the name!

"I would love to see whether your smartass would sucker punch the man in the face or kiss him in the face. He has bruises on his cheek," Charlie clicked his tongue. "My goodness. I am so happy I didn't date you back in college. You're such a hot mess!"