Chapter 50
“Do you remember Joseph Park?” asked Nobu.
He was ambling along, and Noah struggled not to run. He was so angry that he felt like he should go for a jog to get all the emotions out of his system.
“Sure. The only other Asian kid in your grade. Unlike me, you and Aya always had people to hang out with.”
Nobu laughed a little without really smiling. “You, too, Noah? I didn’t hang out with Joseph because he was the only other Asian kid. I hung around him because I thought he was hot.”
Noah wrinkled his nose. “Joseph Park?”
At that, Nobu gave a genuine laugh. “Listen to you! You looked pretty awkward in high school yourself.”
“Okay. Justin is way hotter, though.”
Nobu raised his eyebrows. “I agree. Anyway, senior year, I finally told Joseph how I felt.”
“Okay.” Noah tried to remember whether he had noticed anything going on with Nobu during that time, but he’d been so fixated on his own unimpressive grades that his siblings’ emotional lives were a blank.
Nobu sighed. “Supposedly, he felt the same. And we were going to the same college, so I thought we were set.”
Noah squinted, trying to see Nobu’s expression in the fading light. “So what the hell happened? Broke up in college?”
“He got a girlfriend once we got there,” said Nobu shortly. “It was like the whole thing had never happened.”
Noah took a sip of his wine. “This feels like some sort of parable, dude. You’re going to have to spell it out for me.”
“I thought Aya shouldn’t get too attached to you and that you shouldn’t expect anything from Aya,” he said.
Noah snorted. “Yeah, and you were right.”
“No,” he said firmly. “I was wrong. And I take responsibility for that, even though you two were idiots for listening to me.”
Noah thought back. He might have been completely oblivious to how Nobu was feeling during those years, but he remembered his own painful insecurity. Nobu had warned him that Aya wouldn’t want anything serious, and he’d believed that without question.
“You’re not responsible for how things are now,” said Noah finally. “I could have reached out to her. I also could have come home more often, and I just didn’t.”
Nobu was silent.
“Do you think Nami will forgive me?” Noah asked. He didn’t dare ask about Aya. Her forgiveness seemed impossible.
Nobu grinned. “You might be the most famous, but Nami will always be the most impressive of all of us.”
Noah nodded. “Yeah, I know. So what does that mean?”
“It means you should at least give it a shot.”