For the next day we had planned to wake up at 4am to go see all the ‘porta’s’. The gates around the historical city centre. Since we went to sleep at 1am that meant we only got 3hrs of sleep. But we woke up at 4 nonetheless. Just when we woke up it began to storm and rain quite heavily so we decided to get back into bed until it would stop. The sense of timelessness we experienced the entire day before was even stronger in that moment in the middle of the night with a storm raging outside. We laid there for an hour. During this hour the attraction we felt for each other became very open. We did not have sex, kiss or do anything explicit but the way we pressed against one another and heard each others breath and held each others body was saying enough. It felt like we were trying to melt together and share physically the intimacy we had been sharing emotionally in the past day(s). It was very intense and I was ofcourse also thinking about shino. It has really never happened to me that my sexual attraction towards somebody is rooted so firmly in friendship. So it is a strange sensation then to feel like actually having sex or anything like this would not stand in conflict with my relation to Shino. Ofcourse I am not naive and I am happy we did not go further than we did. But I never doubted my love or commitment to Shino so I am, and was, quite comfortable with the situation. And I had the feeling Vale was feeling very similarily. After an hour, at 5, we woke up and went on our walk. We managed to see almost all the Porta’s in 2 and a half hour. During this time we did not talk about what went down earlier that morning until we were sitting down in a beautiful coffee spot. I asked her if she wanted to talk about it or if it was not necessary for her. She asked me what my answer was and I said we could talk about it but that i’m comfortable with the situation and don’t necessarily feel the need to explain anything. She said she was in the middle. I told her my sentiment towards what was happening between us and she agreed in her own words. After we went back home there was all of a sudden a girl from Ghent in the appartment with whom I had many aquaintances in common. We talked a bit and then Vale and me went to rest and sleep some more. After a while of not being able to sleep we ended up in each others arms again repeating the earlier morning. I began to feel it was difficult to keep a good grip on what I considered ok and going to far so I got up a bit abruptly. Vale understood and we talked a little bit about where or how this came to be and a bit more about how we were considering this. It affirmed that there was nothing to worry about for either of us. Afterwards we made hummus and eggs to eat. After this we went to Margherita park to meet with enri and nico. It was really cosy all together and before nico arrived we worked on the comic with enri vale and me. With four we decided to go to a local restaurant where I got the ragu, which was super plain and did not live up to my expectations haha. We bought two bottles of wine and went to sit in the park again. Here Vale soon fell asleep and after an interesting conversation with Nico he left with Vale. Me and Enri stayed for a really long time, finishing all the wine before going to his house and continuing to talk. At one point I told him that I dont really know him, That I dont know what makes him angry, why he loves vale, what made him who he is,… I had always experienced this kind of distance with him. He was suprised and interested by this. We had a long conversation in which I had the sense I got to know him more than ever.