The two girls kept staring at each other, blue eyes on blue eyes.
If the blue in the black-haired girl's eyes was as cold as the color itself, then opposite her, the walnut-haired girl's seemed on the verge of tears.
"Have you come to gloat?" Kaija muttered flatly, eyeing Marja's teary blue eyes with utter disdain.
That matching deep blue shade was the very reasons why they had bonded so easily in the first place, back in elementary school.
Kaija remembered feeling like Marja was her missing half the moment she saw Marja.
No other kids had eyes like theirs, so she had come over, and said, "Hi."
Looking at them now, all she felt was loss, and regret.
"No, Kaija... I... " Marja murmured, her voice small, guilt written all over her face.
Had it been like before, maybe she would have come over to comfort Marja at the sight of that expression, but right now, even Marja's gorgeous face felt unbearable to look at for her.
She walked past Marja, swiped the key card at the door, muttering coldly, "Just leave, Marja, I don't have the mood for any mushy talk today. I had a shit day."
"Kaija, please, I want to talk to you!" Marja pleaded, her eyes already glistening. "I won't take long! Just give me a moment."
Kaija sighed, crossing the threshold and leaving the door open.
Here she went again, the same mellow voice, the same bunny rabbit pleading tone.
"Five minutes, then get out of my sight," she muttered, kicking off her heels.
Marja slipped in without hesitation, the door clicking shut behind her in a timid sound.
Once inside, Marja easily found where to put her shoes, where the table they usually sat at was. She quickly found her usual seat, graceful at ever, though her face was still drenched in regret.
"Your five minutes is ticking," Kaija said, settling into the seat opposite her. "Start talking."
"Kaija..." Marja started, her tone nervous, gaze cast down. "I want to tell you that I'm sorry. I'm terribly sorry."
"And?"
"And I want you to know that I don't want to lose you!" Marja's voice pitched. "To lose us! What we had!"
Kaija raised an eyebrow back at her. "Us? So you didn't want to lose me, yet you still decided to scoop up my boyfriend anyway?"
"It's not like that!" Marja leaned forward, her tears already spilling. "Niklas was hurt when you insisted on taking that job. I only wanted to comfort him, to help the two of you make peace."
"Look how effective you were with that," Kaija replied, raising a brow at Marja's streaming tears.
"It was because…" Marja sobbed, "things just got out of hand, Kaija. I'm terribly sorry. It's just... I've never felt that way with anyone before. The way Niklas made me feel…"
A long exhale slipped out of Kaija.
"Wait until you go against his will, and you'll see," she thought.
But maybe she was no longer in that best friend position to give Marja any relationship advice anymore.
"What do you expect then?" She gave Marja a weary look. "That we pretend nothing happened and just let it go? You want my blessing?"
Marja leaned forward and slammed the table, her voice trembling. "Kaija, I'm pregnant!"
Kaija stared at Marja, completely lost for words.
She'd been with Niklas four years, completely unscathed. And her? Five months in, and she's pregnant already?
"You...you're pregnant?" Kaija stuttered. "With Niklas?"
"Of course it's him!" Marja exclaimed, wiping her tears like a wounded cat. "I still haven't told him. I didn't know what to do when I found out. I have no one to tell this to but you, Kaija. I don't know what to do about it!"
Kaija ran a hand down her face, slapping it a few times.
Great. This wasn't just her traitor best friend anymore.
It was a pregnant young woman. Better not provoke her.
"What do you want to do?" Kaija asked flatly.
Marja hesitated, then admitted under a small voice, "I… I want to keep it."
"At least tell Niklas first," Kaija said. "It's his child too, anyway. Talk to him, see what he wants to do. Then the two of you can decide. Like real adults, you know?"
Marja turned those glistening eyes on her again. "And will you… forgive me?"
Kaija stared at her, almost laughing in disbelief.
Forgive her? No fucking way.
"I forgive you," she said with a faint smirk. "Just be happy. Do whatever you want, and don't ever come bother me again."
Marja's shoulders shuddered at the ice in her friend's tone.
"Alright... if that's what you want, then..." she sobbed. Then another though suddenly hit her mind. "
"There's... one teeny tiny problem that I'm having, though," she said, as if Kaija hadn't just rejected her cold. "What should I tell my parents, Kaija? They would definitely kill me, if they found out that I'm pregnant, while I have never told them about any boyfriend before."
Dark lines slid down Kaija's face.
"Ha... right," she muttered, "how could I possibly forget that your parents were no ordinary people?"
Though she and Marja had been best friends for most of her life, she had only ever seen Marja's parents once on the day she first met Marja, back in elementary school.
They were both too busy, too out of touch. After all, they were the owners of Ralpha, the largest luxury goods company in S Country anyway.
Marja, being their only daughter, and a supermodel herself, was the face of Ralpha.
Every luxury brand owned by this luxury giant had her face plastered across its ad campaign.
A shocking news like this, that their precious daughter-slash-brand-ambassador getting pregnant out of wedlock, would drive Mr. and Mrs. Ralpha absolutely insane.
"Funny how you and I even got to be friends in the first place, considering how you came from such a glittering, untouchable world," Kaija commented blandly. "My mom must have been so out of her mind back in the days to pick up three jobs at once, then forced me to study in that prestigious elementary school of yours for just one year."
"Come on now, Kaija! This is no time to talk about that!" Marja shouted, a sulking pout already forming on her face. "Please! You're the only one I trust to share this problem with! You must think of a way to help me!"