# Chapter 10: The Seed of Envy
Yunar left Eren's apartment without another word.
The night was cold. The wind cut across his face as he walked through the empty streets toward home, hands shoved in his pockets, shoulders slightly hunched against the chill. The streetlamps flickered irregularly, some burned out, others casting yellow halos over the damp pavement.
Yunar's thoughts were still trapped in the image of the dead man at the top of the mountain. The blood. The lifeless eyes. The last words that hadn't quite made sense.
*"This is the only way. You cannot escape lo—"*
Lo what? Escape what?
The unfinished sentence echoed in his mind like an unsolvable riddle. And those fragments — the glowing triangles in colours that shouldn't exist together. The ancient grimoire with its dark warnings.
*Their existence will be erased from reality.*
Yunar shook his head, trying to push the thoughts away. But it was useless. The image was seared into his mind, as vivid as the moment it happened. When he finally got home, all he could do was collapse onto the bed, still dressed, and stare at the cracked ceiling until sleep finally came and took him.
---
Meanwhile, Eren was heading in another direction.
He walked through streets lit by amber streetlamps, phone in hand, occasionally checking the location Sara had sent. A small restaurant in the city centre. Not far — maybe fifteen minutes on foot — but each step felt heavier than the last.
*Sara.*
Just thinking of her, something tightened in Eren's chest. Something he couldn't — or didn't want to — fully name. It was a strange mix of concern, compassion, and something deeper that he preferred not to examine too closely.
She was his best friend's ex-girlfriend. That should have been enough reason to keep his distance. It should have.
But when she asked to meet, when she said she needed someone to talk to, Eren didn't hesitate. Couldn't hesitate.
When he reached the restaurant, he pushed open the glass door and stepped inside. The atmosphere was warm, almost intimate — low lights hanging from rusted metal fixtures, soft instrumental music playing in the background, the smell of seasoned food mingling with the scent of wine. A few tables were occupied by couples speaking in low voices, but not many. It was a discreet place, perfect for private conversations.
Eren saw her immediately.
Sara was sitting alone at a table in the far corner of the restaurant, partially hidden by a decorative screen. A bottle of red wine was on the table, already half empty. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders in a dishevelled way, as though she had run her hands through it repeatedly. She held a glass with both hands, staring at the dark red liquid as though looking for answers at the bottom of the glass.
Eren approached slowly, feeling the weight of each step. He pulled out the chair on the other side of the table, the metal scraping lightly against the wooden floor.
"Do you really need to drink this much?" he said, sitting down. His voice was soft, but there was genuine concern in it. "It's not going to do you any good."
Sara raised her eyes slowly, as though only now noticing he had arrived. They were red. Swollen. She had been crying before he got there — probably long before.
"So what?" she said, her voice slightly slurred from the alcohol. She wasn't completely drunk yet, but enough for the words to come out unfiltered. "It doesn't matter anymore. Not if he's never coming back to me."
Eren felt something twist inside him. Pain. Frustration. And something else he didn't want to admit.
He sighed, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.
"He just needs time," he said calmly, trying to sound convincing. "I know he still loves you."
*Does he, though?* a voice whispered somewhere in the back of his mind. Yunar never talked about Sara. Never mentioned the breakup. He simply moved forward as though nothing had happened.
Sara let out a bitter laugh, completely humourless. The sound came out rough, almost a disguised sob.
"Then why?" Her voice trembled, the words tumbling out over each other. "Why did he leave me, then? I know we were only together for four months. Only four months. But it hurts so much, you know?"
She refilled her glass, the wine dangerously close to the rim, and drank half of it in one go.
"I still... I still love him."
Eren said nothing for a long moment. He just watched, feeling something painful and sharp twisting inside him as he saw her like that — broken, vulnerable, still completely anchored to someone who had left her behind without a real explanation.
It was unfair. Yunar didn't deserve that kind of devotion. Not when he had simply walked away.
A waiter approached — a young man in a black apron — and Eren ordered a soft drink. He had no desire for alcohol. He needed to keep a clear head. Someone had to stay sober, and clearly it wasn't going to be Sara.
The hours dragged on slowly.
Sara talked. She told him how she met Yunar at a mutual friend's party, about the first time they spoke — something trivial about a film they both liked. She told him about the four months they spent together, small moments that probably meant nothing to Yunar, but which were everything to her. And then, without warning, he had ended things. No clear explanation. He just said it "wasn't working" and disappeared from her life.
Eren just listened, nodding occasionally, offering words of comfort when it seemed right. *"He's an idiot." "You deserve better." "It'll pass."* Empty phrases he wasn't sure he believed.
But every word she said about Yunar was like a slow blade cutting something inside him.
Because while she was crying over Yunar, Eren was right there. Present. Listening. Caring.
And Yunar? Yunar was home, probably already asleep, not giving her a second thought.
Finally, when the bottle was completely empty and Sara could barely keep her eyes open, her head swaying slightly, she looked at Eren with a soft, almost grateful expression.
"Thank you for always being there for me," she said, her voice thick and heavy. "You're the only person I can talk to about this."
Tears streamed down her face again, even drunk. Maybe especially drunk, when every defence had fallen completely away.
Eren felt his chest tighten in a different way now. It wasn't just compassion. It was something deeper, more dangerous. Something he had no right to feel.
"Come on," he said, standing up and extending his hand. "I'll walk you home."
Sara tried to protest, waving a weak hand, but she could barely stand on her own. Eren put her arm over his shoulders and helped her up, taking most of her weight. He left money on the table — more than necessary — and guided her out of the restaurant.
The walk to her house was slow and quiet. Sara murmured incoherent things occasionally — fragments of sentences about Yunar, about the past, about things Eren couldn't quite follow. He just held her steady, making sure she didn't trip on the cracks in the pavement.
When they reached her front door, he waited patiently while she searched her bag for her keys with trembling fingers. When she finally found them and opened the door, Sara turned to him one last time.
"Thank you," she murmured again.
Then she went inside and closed the door.
Eren stood there for a moment, staring at the closed door. Then, slowly, he turned and began walking back.
And returned to his apartment alone, while the city slept around him.
---
## The Following Day
Morning light came through Eren's bedroom window, filtered by thin curtains, but he had been awake for hours.
He hadn't slept properly. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Sara — her tear-stained face, the deep sadness in her eyes, the way she held her wine glass as though it were the only solid thing in a world that was crumbling. And every time he thought of her, he thought of Yunar.
His best friend.
The man she still loved.
The man who had left her without looking back.
Eren picked up his phone from the nightstand and typed a quick message, without thinking too hard.
*Eren: "Go back to her."*
Yunar's reply took almost an hour, but it came.
*Yunar: "It's not that simple."*
Eren read the message three times, feeling something hot and bitter rise in his throat.
*It's not that simple.*
He tossed the phone onto the bed and ran his hands over his face, rubbing his tired eyes.
Not that simple? But it should be. If Yunar loved her — if he truly loved her — he should go back. He should be there for her. He should be the one comforting Sara, not Eren.
But he wasn't.
And maybe he never would be.
Eren got out of bed, pulled on a clean shirt, and tried to get on with the day. But the thoughts wouldn't leave him alone.
---
## Later
Again, the same restaurant. The same place. The same corner table, partially hidden by the decorative screen.
Sara was there, waiting.
Once more, there was alcohol. Once more, she talked — the same stories, the same regrets, the same tears. And once more, Eren just listened, offering quiet comfort while she poured her pain into scrambled words.
Afterwards, he walked her home.
The routine repeated itself.
---
## Days Later
The meetings continued.
Day after day, Sara sent a message. Day after day, Eren went. The same restaurant. The same wine. The same confessions.
Eren barely touched food anymore. His mind was elsewhere. Occupied. Consumed.
*Sara.*
He thought about her constantly. About her smile — that rare one that appeared when she told some funny story from the past, before Yunar had entered her life. About the way she twisted a strand of hair between her fingers when she was nervous. About the way her eyes shone even through the tears, still beautiful, still alive despite the pain.
Eren knew it was wrong.
He knew he shouldn't feel what he was feeling.
But he couldn't stop.
When he lay down at night, it was her face he saw. When he woke up in the morning, she was his first thought. During the day, he caught himself checking his phone compulsively, waiting for a message from her.
And whenever she called, he came.
Always.
---
## A Different Night
After yet another meeting — one where Sara was more sober than usual, perhaps because Eren had arrived earlier and kept her from drinking as much — something inside him finally broke.
They were walking slowly through the empty streets toward her house, a heavy silence between them. Sara was quiet, lost in her own thoughts. And Eren... Eren couldn't hold it in anymore.
"What if you..." he began, hesitant, his voice coming out lower than he intended.
Sara looked at him, blinking slowly.
"What if I what?"
Eren took a deep breath. The words were lodged in his throat, sharp and dangerous, but he forced them out.
"What if you stopped loving him?"
Sara stopped walking. She froze in the middle of the pavement.
"What if you could love someone else?" Eren continued, turning to face her directly. His voice was low, almost a whisper, but steady. "Someone who... wouldn't be able to leave you with all this pain."
He took a step forward, closing the distance between them.
"Someone who has always been so close to you."
The silence that followed was deafening.
Sara just stared at him, eyes wide, lips slightly parted, slowly processing what he had just said.
And Eren felt his heart beat so hard it seemed about to burst out of his chest.
---
*END OF CHAPTER 10*