Mew-Star-Mew: I guess if it's American accent, yeah, the last one will get it. But if we imagine Neil calls Reine with his British accent, I bet it will sound different :P well Allen can be a jerk, but he's a lovable jerk, I guess :P
In no way Allen Rosencrantz had been her first. Not her first crush, not her first love, obviously not her first boyfriend or even ex. But Gwen would admit that at a certain point of her life, she had fallen in love with him. Heck, she might even love him up until now—the self-aggrandizing jerk that tried to be the first in everything he did.
"You are never my first," was the line that she used to break things off with him. "You never are, and never will be."
What was she thinking, agreeing to go out with such a man? Worse—she grew to be fond of him. She was nothing compared to the line of his exes, they were like the girls you would find on the cheerleader line-up on a football match while she was the girl on the bleacher, nose buried in books. To say that she felt insecure might be slightly inaccurate—she felt like she was being ridiculed by him. Her confidence was never stronger than a piece of wine glass, and when one of Allen's most recent ex-girlfriend came by and gave her that sizing-up, judging look, Gwen felt that she had gotten what she hadn't signed up for.
So, she retaliated by picking on his pride of being the first.
Truth to be told, this was a victory that didn't taste sweet at all. It was bitter, instead. But, Gwen was too proud to admit that to anyone, even herself.
And now she berated herself for feeling grateful by the companionship that Allen gave her currently across the steel door. Their relationship had improved ever since Allen introduced her to Giselle, and actually she got along pretty well with Giselle, especially after she learned ASL, but that didn't really erase the bitter victory she had in her memories of him.
Neil worked through the second bomb faster than the first, since he had remembered the steps of defusing it. He had never thought that he would use a scalpel to cut a cable, or a cotton ball as an insulating stopper, but he knew desperate times called for desperate measures. For the very least, he was grateful that this time, if things went wrong, he would get the most severe damage rather than anyone else (oh, like we don't know).
Neil used forceps to immobilize the cable before cutting it off completely. Usually, his job was to connect things: mainly veins, but sometimes he might get bones or even detached limbs.
With his average speed, it took him 2.789 seconds to suture superior vena cava.
It took him less than a second to cut off a wire of a similar diameter.
Isn't it just like humans' relationships? It took so long to build the connection, but only one moment to sever it.
Where is it, then, the value of treasuring such entity?
Reine tried to distract the kids, as well as her own mind. The bug she had attached to her phone right before she handed it over to Neil had allowed her to listen to the conversation between the two men.
Neil was really something else—did he have nerves for fear?
And there were his words:
"Time has never been in our favour, don't you think?"
Reine sighed heavily, It isn't just time, she remarked inwardly, It's everything about us. About me, actually.
But if it was indeed the time that was not right for them, Reine would think of their relationship being like Halley's Comet. Once you missed it, you had to wait for another lifetime. If you lived long enough, you might get to get your second chance, but that would be unlikely.
The moment she decided to pursue a relationship with Mark, Reine determined that she had missed her chance with Neil Forrester.
Allen leaned his head against the cold steel door. He didn't encounter many deaths after he became a plastic surgeon, but he encountered enough during his residency to know that Honesty loved Death because Death was its limelight.
As he listened to the ticking sound of the timer countdown, he began to understand why. "Hey, Gwen,"
No response, but he knew she was listening. She had nothing better to do, anyway.
"You want to know what irks me the most about you?" he asked, "You are like a child with her toy. You play with it to your heart content and then ditch it to the coldest corner of the room, burying it into dust. After all those we shared, you simply ditched me… just like an out-dated toy."
"I am a grown man, Guinevere Elizabeth Kreiss. I can't be another of your toy."
There was a long period of silence, before she finally replied. "I never said you're my toy. I said you are never my first." She said, "You are a jerk, Allen."
Well, being called 'jerk' wasn't entirely a new thing for him.
"You are a womanizer—no, man-whore, even—who sleeps around like nobody's business. You think you are at the top of whichever ladder you are climbing. You think no one is better than you."
Allen could hear she was drawing in a sharp breath before she continued, "But you always made sure that I made it back to my doorstep. You remember I hate thick coffees but love thick teas. You made me believe that I am some sort of a princess of a quaint little country I would love to spend the rest of my life in. I hate you, Allen Rosencrantz—I hate how you make me feel about you—I hate for not being able to hate you—I hate how much you've made me love you. Can't you see how much I hate you?"
Allen couldn't help but to laugh, "Didn't you hear yourself out, princess?" he said, reverting to the old way in which he used to call her, "You love me. You do love me."
"And I hate you for it." Gwen reminded him, as if not wanting to yield.
The distressed voice of the PSBT interrupted their conversation, "You said there's no more cable drawn in the blueprint?! The timer's still running!"
Neil stared at the two remaining cables in the bigger bomb with the timer. Apparently whoever designed the bomb had decided to modify it.
The man on the other side of the line had told him that he shouldn't cut both cables simultaneously unless he wanted to kiss life goodbye. Nevertheless, even if he wanted to, he wouldn't be able to cut both simultaneously, for they were located at the extreme ends of the bomb. And apparently whoever built this box had some sense of humour by colouring one cable black while the other white.
There was only two minutes left.
"Dr Rosencrantz, you have to leave this place." The PSBT told him, "In worst case scenario…"
"The blast would certainly blow off this door, right?" Allen asked straightforwardly, "Are you asking me to run away, leaving her behind while she can't run away anywhere else?"
A small bomb, which was left unchecked, had blown off all the lock system in the whole floor, which rendered Allen unable to open the emergency door to let Gwen in even if he wanted to and effectively sealed the floor off in another way from outside contact. So, Gwen was practically trapped in the small space enclosed between the door and the rubbles on both sides of the staircase.
"Leave, Allen," Gwen told him sternly.
"Don't tell me what to do," he replied, equally sternly. "I'm staying."
"You are such a difficult person." Gwen sighed. "You always wanted to be the first in everything…"
"Well, actually there's something I want to be the last in, instead of the first." Allen told her.
"Huh?"
"The list of the man you ever love." He told her, "I want to be the last man you ever love."
"Make your choice." The team leader told Neil, as well as the two undercover PSBT members, "There's nothing else we can do but choose."
It was a fifty-fifty probability. Not a very good probability, when bombs were concerned.
Reine heard the words, and her first instinct was to run back to Neil, but now three of the children were practically sleeping on her lap, preventing her to move even an inch.
She didn't have a choice.
"I'll cut the black cable," Allen heard the PSBT said as he moved the bomb further away, "the timer of this bomb is the earliest, anyway… so if this is the wrong choice…"
"This is no time for such sweet-nothings, Rosencrantz." Gwen warned.
"I know, and that's why it's not sweet-nothings." Allen replied, "That's why if we get out of this alive, Gwen… marry me."
That moment, Gwen noticed the rubbles from the stairs leading down moved and soon her face was washed by a bright flashlight of the rescue team. "We found one person here!"
Allen heard that, and he smiled to himself. The thought of dying together with her seemed to be romantic, but of course having her to survive would be more preferable.
The rescue team pulled Gwen from the door, "Come on, doctor, we don't have much time!"
Gwen struggled, but the rescue team managed to drag her away from the door.
That was when she heard the blast, and the door she was leaning against a few moments ago were thrown to the wall across it, together with Allen's bleeding body. His eyes were closed, a part of his face turned red because of the burns, and there was a hole on his chest.
She broke free from the grip of the rescue team and she fell to the ground "ALLEN!"
Had she lost her chance with him?
What will happen to Allen?
Stay tuned for the next chapter!
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