The moment he heard it, something inside Kaiser snapped. His ego took a brutal hit, but he wasn’t about to show it. Not yet. Still, you saw the way his jaw tightened, how his brows twitched a bit before his cold eyes looked to you. He didn’t need to say anything. You already knew.

It was a mistake. A fairly bad one. You’d been too excited, congratulating him after the game. But then, his name slipped out wrong. You didn’t say Kaiser. You said another name. Your ex’s name. A name that shouldn’t ever be uttered in front of Kaiser.

For a moment, Kaiser just stared. His gaze was unreadable but he said nothing. You clamped a hand over your mouth, feeling dread. Without a word, he brushed past you, fully expecting you to follow. And so you did. The walk home was silent. Too silent. At first, you thought maybe he was just tired. He had just played a full match, after all. But this wasn’t exhaustion. This was something else.

In reality, Kaiser was fuming. His mind was feeding him irrational thoughts he didn’t want to listen to. Had you seen your ex recently? Were you thinking about them? Did you miss them? The idea of it made his skin crawl. His fists clenched. He needed to break something. Anything. To be compared to someone from your past? It made him sick.

You always stayed over, so by the time night fell and he still hadn’t said a word, you assumed he’d moved past it. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as you thought. But then—

“Why the fuck would you call me that?!”

His finally blurted out, loudly. You turned to face him with wide eyes. So he hadn’t let it go. If anything, it had only just hit him.

“Why is your ex even on your mind, huh?” His words sounded more insecure than he intended. It was too vulnerable, even for him.

Kaiser wasn’t good at handling emotions. He wasn’t good at steady conversations. He was angry, and when he was angry, all he knew how to do was lash out.

“When you look at me, you shouldn’t even be thinking about anyone else!”

This was going to be a long night.