A half-naked man was displayed on the large monitor.
"It's gotta be the back. Look at the thickness of those lat muscles."
"I get it, but for me, it's gotta be the abs. Look, right here! The obliques when he twists his body!"
"Oh, not bad."
"And the shoulders are hard to ignore too."
"Agreed."
(...I can't really keep up with this.)
Back in the living room, we were engrossed in a discussion about Shahzad while watching clips of him.
Since we were keeping our relationship with him a secret, we spoke purely as fans.
(To be honest, there's no real need to keep it a secret anymore...)
Now that I knew about Riya's background, staying silent even felt a little wrong.
(But she said she didn't want to meet him...)
In the end, I never found the right moment to tell her, and here we were.
"What do you think, Keya?"
"What do I think about what?"
"Look, right here!"
Nadia paused the video.
On the screen, the title appeared:
[Shahzad Clip] Forgot to End the Stream, Shahzad Looks Thinner in Clothes [Warning: His Muscles Are Too Sexy For Girls!]
"I'm telling you, it's all about the abs."
"I'm not really knowledgeable about muscles..."
Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.
"We want a beginner's opinion."
Even Riya was getting into it.
(A beginner...? Are they professionals or something?)
"Uh... maybe the butt?"
I said it just to go along with them, but both of them turned red.
"Keya, you..."
"...You're so indecent."
I didn't understand their standards.
Besides, his firm, toned butt was pretty cute, in my opinion.
[A/N: Ummm... I can explain that guys...]
The two of them kept talking about Shahzad, leaving me a bit out of the loop.
I mostly just nodded along.
"Haha, yeah, Shahzad does have that kind of vibe."
Calling him by his name felt strangely new.
"...Hey, Keya."
Riya peered at me curiously.
"What is it?"
"Do you like Shahzad too?"
"Huh?"
The two of them were the ones getting excited. I had barely contributed to the conversation.
So why was she suddenly asking me that?
"Why are you asking that out of nowhere?"
"Because when you say his name, it feels like there's a sweet scent in the air."
Nadia's gaze made me a little nervous.
I waved my hands.
"No way. I mean, I'm a fan, so if you're asking whether I like him or not, sure, but not in *that* way."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
Riya didn't look completely convinced, but she nodded.
The conversation kept flowing, and before we knew it, the sun had set.
"Oh, right," Riya suddenly remembered something.
"Didn't you say you ordered a cake?"
"Oh!"
Nadia and I exclaimed at the same time.
"Crap, the store's gonna close!"
We hadn't even started cleaning up yet...
The mess in the living room was enough to make me dizzy.
"It's fine, it's fine. Neha will clean it up."
"Who? Who's Neha?"
Riya practically shoved us out of the hideout.
"But still, we should at least clean up..."
"Neha doesn't need that kind of consideration."
"Who is Neha...?"
That was more worrying than anything.
"It'd be sad not to have a cake on birthday."
"Well, that's true, but..."
"Hey, Riya," Nadia joined in.
"Why don't you come have cake with us? You should come over."
"Oh, thanks, but I'll pass. I think things like this are better with just friends. Sorry for dragging you both into this today."
"What are you talking about? We're already friends, aren't we?"
Riya's eyes widened in surprise.
Then, she smiled back happily.
"Thanks. But I have plans to meet someone after this."
"Neha?" I asked.
"Yeah, exactly. So don't worry about me."
Riya offered to get us a car, but we declined and hailed a rickshaw instead.
"Hey, are you sure about this?"
Once we got into the rickshaw, I asked Nadia.
"About what?"
"Inviting Riya over."
"Well, after hearing that story, how could I not? I want her to meet my insecure and anti social brother."
"...Yeah, you're right."
"But we exchanged contacts, so there'll be plenty of chances."
"...Sorry, Nadia."
"Huh? Why are you apologizing?"
I felt ashamed that I hadn't fully trusted my friend.