"True…" Elia agreed softly. Then he turned to Kael and asked, "Hey, Kael—I've been wondering this for a while. All this caretaking… is it just from friendship? Or… is it something more like love?"
He asked it cautiously, worried about what it might mean if it was romantic.
"No, I care for him as a friend," Kael said clearly. "But I don't have any romantic feelings toward Raffy. No offense to him, but I've got younger siblings myself—so I just kind of see him like a little brother, that's all."
"Hmmm," Elia responded, sounding unconvinced.
However, realizing that it would get unnecessarily complicated if it really was romantic affection, he chose not to press the matter any further.
Then Kael added, "Besides, even if I did have feelings like that, I wouldn't have the confidence to win against Senior Thomas. So it'd be a lost cause from the start," he said with a sigh.
"That's true!" Elia agreed, finally satisfied.
