17.

THEODORE.

What in the actual fuck am I doing?

I have sunglasses on and I'm decked out in full black.  With a cap on. In broad daylight. Under a killer heat.

Cue full on stalker mode.

I really wanted to face palm myself. I even took a day off just for this!

Alright, so current situation status report. I am hiding in a corner, just across the street from where Daniel says he stays. I only can roughly gauge where he lives because I have never stepped foot into his apartment.

I've been waiting her for at least 2 hours and gotten word from his staff that he was supposed to end his shift about 1 hour ago.

Target has yet to be spotted.

I can assure you. People walking by me are on full alert, thinking which maniac is this standing by the corner. Pretty sure someone must have thought of calling the cops to check up on me. Even I think I look dangerous.

You may be thinking that I'm weird or that I could put more trust into him. It's not that I don't trust him. It's more like me making sure that my hunches aren't wrong.

Or it's just my excuse for being that person who thinks too much and doubts everything.

Am I being too much now? To be honest with you, I'm not too sure myself. It's the year 2020, yet here I am. Physically spying on someone that I know won't do anything out of character. I mean, I could just stalk him on Instagram or Twitter. Ugh, what am I even saying?

This is fucking stupid. I shouldn't even be doing this.

I took off the disguise that I had put on, and stood by the corner a little longer before making the decision to leave and head home.

That's why I saw Daniel carrying his gym bag. He headed for one of the apartment complexes and opened the door.

So that's where you live.

I noted the building that he entered, thinking that maybe I could surprise him later by dropping by. But that would get me busted for stalking, wont it? Alright, no house visits then.

I don't even know which floor he stays on. I'm such an idiot.

I shook my head at myself. Put more trust in Daniel, Theo. He's not that kind of person to hide anything for too long anyway. Just wait it out a little, don't push too hard. He will share with you whatever you want to know sooner or later. I tried to convince myself as I started to make a move.

As if on cue, I saw Xander walk down the street. Out of everyone in the world.

I internally prayed that he would just continue walking straight down but when do wishes ever come true in the real world?

He made a left turn and walked into the same building that Daniel did. Doesn't that building have a security code or something? How can he just strut in like he owns the place?

I took out my phone and quickly dialed Daniel's number. He picked up on the fourth ring.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing really. I was just wondering if you're free today? Maybe we could hang out at your place or something."

"My place? That's a first."

"There's a first for everything , isn't it?" I was trying so hard to hide my anxiousness. Could he hear it?

"I guess it's okay. Let me send you-"

Knock, knock, knock was heard from the other side. The sound of the door knob turning as evident. "Daniel?"

"Uhm, look. I'll have to do a rain check on you. Something just came up. Talk to you later."

And the line went dead.

That was not what I was expecting. An idiot would be able to tell you now that my mind went into panic-overthinking mode.

Okay. Calm down, Theo. It might be what it seems to be. Daniel wouldn't do anything stupid. He wouldn't, right?

At some point in my overthinking state, common sense drove itself out of the garage. My feet started to move by itself towards his apartment building. It went from walking, to maybe walking a little faster, to straight up bolting. I stopped in front of the gate to rethink my choices. I don't even know which unit he stays in! How would I find him in a building that has so many copy-and -paste apartments?

I'm sorry, I spouting nonsense at this point.

Then, I thought of this ingenious solution. We Asians take off our shoes went entering someone's home! I just have to walk up and down to corridors and find that asshole's shoes!

And that's exactly what I did, walking up and down the corridors at different levels to find Xander's shoes. It took me awhile and fuck, was I out of breath but hard work pays off. I did find that asshole's shoes.

Or at least I think I did.

I calmed down my racing heart and wiped my sweating palms on my pants out of nervousness. Was this the right place? What did I expect to see when the door was opened? Why was I becoming like Daniel and over-analyzing things?

Fuck it, I'm going in.

I knock on the door 3 times and waited. I tried to calm myself down in preparation for the two possible outcomes. It was either I got the right place or I would be werido knocking on the wrong door and looking like an idiot to the person that would be staring back at me.

It didn't take long before the door swung open and I saw a familiar face, something I was not sure to be relieved or angry about.

"What? How did you...."

"I'll explain later," I answered. "Can I come in?"

Daniel scratched the back of neck. "Now is really not a good time."

I wanted to rebut and question him on why I wasn't allowed in but I couldn't do it in time because I saw a hand snake into Daniel's shoulder. I swear to god, my blood was boiling when I saw the person's face.

"Why not? Just let him in," Xander said.

"What the actual fuck is he doing here?" I barely managed to ask through gritted teeth. Daniel probably saw the fire in my eyes because he quickly held my hand, probably in hopes of trying to calm me down.

"Theo, it's not what it looks like."

I swung his arm away from me so hard, I could feel the pain in my bones from the force. Was I that furious? "Then what does this look like to you? You have another person in your house! You won't let me in, and you've been acting weird lately! Only an idiot would think that everything is alright!"

Daniel quickly pulled me into the apartment. Xander stepped back and was smiling widely, clearly trying to hide his laughter.

"It's not what it is, Theo."

I crossed my arms, preventing myself from grabbing whatever that was within reach and swinging it across the room. "5 minutes. Explain. Now."

Daniel sighed. "You see, he's..."

—————————————————————————

A/N: Hey hey hey, cliffhanger! Let me leave you guessing who Xander actually is.

I actually went to google a little about wearing shoes in the house. I'm Asian and to my knowledge, if I were to wear my shoes in the house, I would get killed by my mum/ the adults. Straight up murder 😂 what about your family? Do you wear shoes in the house?

See you all in the next part!

- heavily unedited -