Almost ten minutes had passed since the car Rey was driving pulled away from the Der Beste clubhouse.

But Pedro still seemed content to sit where he was before, with the beer can almost empty now. Enjoying the afternoon breeze, the fighter even shuffled his feet and sank into silence.


Until the faint sound of a woman he recognized made him turn his head and meet Valerie's beautiful bead.

The woman looked charming, with a pair of jeans combined with a ribbon-patterned blouse that reached the lower abdomen. Even her white skin was faintly visible when she moved.

"Have you arrived?" Valerie drew closer, with her three-centimeter-high wedges serving as a beautiful pedestal for her slender legs. "By the way, have you seen Luana? She said she wanted to go to the park earlier, but where is she?"


Pedro painted a faint smile and raised his head.

"She was just picked up by Rey," he informed. "I arrived a few minutes ago, and was chatting with Luana here earlier."


Valerie stopped walking slowly and took the seat that Luana had been sitting on.

"Really?" Her eyeballs widened. "So he went home? Ah, that's too bad. I wanted to give her something."

Glancing at a grocery bag right beside them, Valerie opened it to check. "Did you buy beer? It's unusual to have a beer on an afternoon like this."

Pedro of course heard what Valerie said. True, he usually didn't drink beer before six o'clock, but this time he felt the need for the liquid.

Grabbing a half-cold can, Valerie opened it and took a sip from the edge of her lips.

"What's wrong?" she asked, opening their conversation. "You've been looking rumpled lately. Is there something bothering you?"

As someone who knew Pedro Viscout, Valerie naturally found something wrong with the man's behavior.

His presence in Munich alone was a big question, when he was supposed to be focused on growing the family company in Heidelberg after being away for a year.

But look at how the man had now joined a club in Munich, using Valerie's name as the reason for his presence in the city, of course.

"Val."

Pedro's voice was low, almost carried away by the stronger wind.

Valerie cleared her throat. "Hmm? What's wrong? Do you want to tell me?"

If people thought their relationship was just friends because of a family arranged marriage, then they were wrong. Because Valerie and Pedro had more than that, although no one had ever mentioned love between them.

It took a few seconds before Pedro opened his lips again, to ask a question that sounded 'not really him'.

"What if you liked someone you weren't allowed to like?" he asked with a nod of the head to Valerie. "What would you do?"

Letting the two pairs of eyes collide slowly, until Valerie looked a little surprised now.

"Someone you shouldn't like?" Valerie repeated. "Like for example, she already has a lover?"

Pedro raised the corners of his lips in a tight smile, followed by a nod of his head now.

"Something like that, roughly," he replied then. Fixing his sitting position more relaxed, he continued. "I want to hear from your side. How would you deal with it, if it had happened to you. Would you give up?"

Valerie didn't answer immediately. Instead, she raised her hand to take another sip of her beer, staring at it for a moment.

"You know, Pedro," she paused her sentence for two seconds. "Sometimes, we can't choose who to fall in love with."

Pedro remained silent, trying to listen carefully to every word Valerie had to say. Really, he needed all the enlightenment he could get today. This afternoon. Right now.

"Sometimes, we don't even realize it's there because it's just there." Valerie looked dreamy with a smile on the corner of her lips. "Maybe time brought us together at the wrong time, but we were still attracted."

That's right, because ever since that meeting in Heidelberg, Pedro have been drawn to her.

"Without knowing whether she had a lover or not, we let her stay in our memories," Valerie continued. "With her charm she takes over our minds, again without us realizing it."

Right, because from that moment on, Pedro kept thinking about her. Without knowing who she was, without knowing where she came from.

There was a sigh from Valerie when the woman spoke up again.

"Circumstances are sometimes that funny to us, Pedro," she said. "It's as easy as that, now we know that we can't take a liking to her because of the suddenly revealed fact that she already belongs to someone else."

Oh my, Valerie. She seem to be able to read Pedro's mind.

Pedro still pursed his lips tightly, still choosing to be a good listener.

Valerie turned around this time, tilting her head to give her friend a meaningful smile.

"Do you like someone?"

What a frontal question, and right in front of the man's nose. Valerie might have forgotten that they were actually supposed to be married years ago. But look at how these two are now discussing feelings for other people.

Pedro nodded.

"I guess," he said with a heavy sigh. "I think, Valerie, and I have made the wrong move."

Valerie wet her lips with beer for the umpteenth time, followed by an equally heavy sigh.

"Then let go," she advised. After all, she did not want Pedro to be in a difficult situation.

Pedro blinked twice. Looking at Valerie with a more serious gaze now, he seemed to be asking if she was sure of what she had just said.

"You will torture yourself with your one-sided love, Pedro," Valerie said again. The woman's tone was starting to sound different, with the volume also getting lowered.

"Do you think so?"

Pedro got a nod for his question just now.

"Let it go," Valerie said confidently. "One-sidedness will never work, trust me."

Pedro took Valerie's words to heart that afternoon, and considered exactly what she had suggested.

He knew what Valerie was saying was true, because his love for Luana should not be left unchecked.

Regardless, Luana was now under Rey Lueic's command. No matter how curious and interested he was in Luana, she was still someone else's legal wife.

Pedro didn't want to mess anything up, not after he found out that Luana wasn't the single girl he thought she was when they first met.

But sometimes love is this painful, because it wasn't easy for him to move on and erase her face from his mind.

Until he finally found out the facts that had stunned him a few hours ago, namely the facts about who Luana really was and what happened between Luana and Rey.

Facts that also finally made Pedro waver to give up, and began to think about whether he should survive.

There was no sound for a while, until finally it was Pedro who looked back at Valerie intently.

"How can you give such clear instructions, Val?" he asked suddenly. "Are you the goddess cupid? Or have you actually experienced something like this before?"

Valerie was heard to let out a crisp laugh, followed by the last two gulps from her beer can.

"I've been in that position," Valerie replied honestly. Her eyes wandered over the flowers and trees in front of her, as her voice sounded very soft. "I've been in the same position. That's why I can give you an answer. No, let's say... enlightenment."

This time Valerie turned back and gave Pedro a gentle pat on the shoulder.

"Let it go," she repeated. "Don't play around with wishing for something that won't happen, because that would be a complete waste of your time."

Pedro could only nod vaguely, though his mind still felt spun like a twisted thread. So many things were coming in and out, and he needed to sort things out properly this time.

"Thanks, Val. I understand now," Pedro said positively. Valerie's advice did have a point.

Another pat landed on the fighter's shoulder.

"I knew you could do it," Valerie whispered softly. "You are Pedro Viscout, nothing is difficult for you."

Valerie's words brought a smile to Pedro's face, which turned into a chuckle later. Placing his firm hand on the back of Valerie's hand that was still on his shoulder, Pedro rubbed her hand gently.

"I didn't know you ever liked someone who already had a partner, Val," Pedro said suddenly. "Who is he? Is he really ignoring a Valerie Genneth?!"

Pedro's contrived tone of voice succeeded in making Valerie smile broadly this time, before she got up from where she had been sitting.

"There was someone who made me that way," Valerie replied quietly. "Someone who taught me that one-sided love can only bring deep pain, so I don't want you to feel the same way."

Pedro looked up to look more closely at Valerie, letting the two beads still shine deeply on him.

"It's a secret."

"Tell me. You know I'm the best secret keeper."

Valerie leaned closer, then bent down to whisper something in Pedro's ear.

"I once had a crush on Gosse, my own brother-in-law."