After the day Freya gave him a pouch of cookies, the girl kept coming and giving him more cookies almost every day. The teachers began to worry about Arcane's current situation.
But the man maintained his composure, showing no sign that he disliked the cookies or had anything bad to say about the student who kept bothering him. In everyone's eyes, Arcane was a very good teacher. Even to problematic students.
However, what they didn't know was that Arcane never ate any of the cookies and immediately threw them away in the toilet. Not only the school toilet, but sometimes he threw them away in the toilet at his house.
He never once tasted the cookies.
Like that afternoon, he had just come home from school and put the cookies Freya gave him on the table. He left the cookies there and went to his room to change his clothes.
Julian, who had just come out of his room, didn't know anything about the cookies on the kitchen table.
"Oh hello, how did these cookies get here? They look very sweet, heart-shaped with pink cream. Did Arcane bring them home?" he muttered in confusion.
He looked around, thinking that Arcane wouldn't see him, and intended to taste one cookie. Just as he opened the cookie package and was about to take a bite, Arcane suddenly appeared.
"Don't you dare eat those cookies. Why are you touching something that isn't yours?" he asked in a serious voice.
He startled, reflexively put the cookies back in the cookie bag. "You scared me! Besides, I only asked for one. Is that wrong?"
"Yes, it's wrong." He walked closer and took the cookie pouch rather roughly from the table. "First, you touched something that wasn't yours, and second, you took it without permission."
The young man fell silent immediately, because what he said was true. But why was Arcane so serious just because of cookies?
Usually, he let Julian take a piece of food if he wanted to.
He then took the cookies away, followed by Julian who was curious. "Where are you taking those cookies? Are you going to eat them all by yourself?"
He didn't answer, Arcane just went to the bathroom and crushed the cookies as usual. He threw them into the toilet, which was quite shocking to Julian.
"Why did you throw away the cookies? If you didn't intend to eat them, you should have let me do it!" he protested.
"I don't want to eat something I don't know what's mixed in these cookies. I won't let you do it either," Arcane replied.
He explained that the cookies were given to him by Freya, the girl who was terrorizing Julian. Arcane didn't know what Freya had mixed into her homemade cookies, but he was certain there was something in them.
"That's why I won't let you eat those cookies."
At first, Julian thought Arcane was being stingy with him, but it turned out he was just trying to protect him. Protecting him from something they didn't know about. But he was sure this was concerning enough.
Somehow, this became a concern for Julian, who felt that Freya had crossed the line by giving him something that looked suspicious.
He had once read a comic book in which a woman put her 'love liquid' that come out from her private area into food she made and gave it to the person she liked, believing that it would make him love her.
Moreover, the liquid was now inside the man's body.
'Just imagining it makes me want to vomit. Could Freya have done the same thing to those cookies and given them to Arcane?' he thought, his face turning pale.
He had held the cookies and almost eaten them. Reflexively, he immediately washed his hands, his body shivering.
"Next time, don't put food from her on the table. I almost ate it!"
Arcane chuckled, saying that he only intended to leave it for a moment to change his clothes. But Julian, who was greedy, intended to take the cookies without his knowledge.
"So next time, control yourself and your greed," replied Arcane, pinching Julian's cheek to tease him.
He pushed his hand away and rubbed his cheek, which hurt so much. Even so, he knew that he had to be careful and not eat anything he didn't know about.
After dinner, Arcane worked on a PowerPoint presentation containing mathematical formulas and solutions on his laptop to teach his students at school tomorrow.
Julian, who was sitting next to him watching TV, glanced at his laptop, and the man frowned when he saw the many numbers on the laptop screen.
"Do you understand everything you're typing there?"
"Of course, I understand what I explain to my students. How can a teacher not understand what he teaches?" Arcane asked back, shaking his head.
Julian's head ached every time he looked at all the complicated formulas on the screen. He was grateful that he had graduated from school before having to learn all that stuff.
Feeling that he was being watched, Arcane turned his head, causing their eyes to meet.
"Don't keep staring at my laptop like that. I might get jealous because you keep choosing to stare at my laptop screen instead of me," said Arcane, which surprised Julian and made his face redden.
He didn't understand why his husband had suddenly said that, but it succeeded in making his heart beat faster.
"What the hell? Are you saying you're jealous because I keep staring at your laptop screen? That's ridiculous!" Julian replied indignantly, even though he actually felt something inside him.
Happy? Confused? Amused?
Whatever it was, he couldn't describe it. But this feeling made his heart unable to calm down. Added to that was Arcane's direct gaze at him when he said those words.
Seeing his reaction, Arcane just laughed as he ruffled his hair and returned his focus to his laptop screen. It seemed like he was just joking around, which made Julian feel a little disappointed. But why should he feel disappointed?
Arcane himself felt that what he said wasn't 100% just a joke. Maybe he spontaneously felt it, which is why he said it reflexively.
In front of others, Arcane might put on a fake nice face, even though he didn't really like it. But when he was at home with Julian, he felt he didn't need to do that because he felt safe with him.
That night, Julian did not leave Arcane's side as he worked on his lesson material alone all night. He stayed with him so that the man would not feel lonely like before.
"If this isn't love, then maybe it's part of my role as a husband. Just like what he does for me."
"But... will this role become even more real someday?"