The breakup with Regulus still lingers in your thoughts, despite the time that has passed. You loved each other but there was always a wall around him, a coldness he refused to crack.

He has never opened up. He has never said what he felt.

It was always as if you were loving someone who wasn't quite there, and eventually that emptiness wore you down.

That night, standing by the lake at the party, it felt like the past was a lifetime ago.

You hadn’t meant to show up. You didn’t even know he would be here. But somehow, fate had conspired to put you both in the same place.

Again.

He was exactly how you remembered him—distant, brooding, and impossibly handsome.

It was then that someone suggested Spin the Bottle. You didn't even want to join, but when you saw Regulus sitting down to join the game, you moved before you realised.

The bottle was placed in the centre and the game began. With each spin, the knot in your stomach tightened, knowing that he would eventually spin the bottle as well.

And then, it was his turn.

The bottle spun and you couldn't look away. The spinning slowed and your heart beat faster. You knew where it was going.

It landed on you.

The silence that followed was deafening. You felt all eyes on you, but your gaze never left him. Regulus’s eyes met yours, and for the briefest moment, you thought you saw something flicker behind them—something that wasn’t cold. But then it was gone, replaced by that same guarded expression you had seen so many times before.

You took a breath, stood up and walked towards him, trying to avoid his gaze.

And then, without another word, he leaned in, just like the old times.

But the kiss was different now. It wasn’t the desperate, hungry thing it had been when you first kissed, not the one where you both got lost in each other’s arms, hoping to make sense of the chaos between you. No, this time, it was careful. Tense.

Like two people who once understood each other completely but now were strangers in the same skin.