Decided to split this chapter into two parts. I'll upload the other half next week. It'll most likely be late because of finals and such. Thanks for bearing with me, everyone.

Enjoy.

Chapter Song: One Republic - Life in Color

November 20, 2019

Seraphine let out a deep breath as she pushed open the door to the recording room. "So, we've got this reserved until next month?" She asked, already moving to take off her backpack.

"Yeah. Until the fifteenth."

"I'll start moving our stuff back in then?"

I gave her a thumbs-up. "Sounds good."

We dropped our backpacks and other belongings in the room before locking the door and heading back towards Seraphine's car. As with any kind of move, it was a slow process, especially because we were carrying everything basically across campus. But thanks to our frequent visits to the gym, we both could lift more than we could the last time we had the rooms reserved, and that saved us more than enough time.

On the third trip, we finally finished moving everything back into the recording room. The blankets, the mini-fridge, the pillows, and our drinks and snacks returned, and Seraphine seemed immensely satisfied.

She popped open a pack of shrimp chips and a bottle of strawberry milk. "So," she said after chewing through a mouthful of chips. "How should we start this?"

"We already have the concept, so we don't have to worry about that." I checked it off mentally. "I… I suppose we can start with writing some songs?"

"But we did that last time," Sera protested. "I want to try starting with something new."

"Okay. What did you want to try?"

She hummed. "How about you start?"

"What do you mean?"

"Last time, I started the EP," explained Seraphine. "This time you start it how you want."

"Oh." I pursed my lips. "Okay."

She stood up from the chair in front of the computer and motioned for me to sit in it.

I adjusted the seat's height. I pulled out the MIDI keyboard, loading up a piano onto the computer.

My fingers traced the surface of the keys. As I slowly began to play, Seraphine perked up at the melodies I pulled from the piano.

I played a descending melody, closing my eyes and letting my fingers, my thoughts, my feelings guide me.

There was no process, no theory, no sense of direction.

It was just me and the music.

And the words came to me naturally.

"Neck to neck the waters rise, we swim good we drown sometimes." I glanced at Seraphine as my hands found the right chords. "Lift you up you catch your breath, help me up we take a step, oh."

Seraphine swayed to the slow, steady tempo.

"Take the time to figure out. Let's not fight or fool around, no. Love is not a losing game. But surely we can find a way, yeah." I momentarily lifted my hands from the piano. Then I let them run free across the piano like birds through a cloudless sky.

After another minute of playing, I finished the song with a few final notes. My gaze drifted from the keyboard to Seraphine.

"Wow," she breathed, her hand over her mouth. "That… that was amazing."

"I…" I trailed off. I wasn't entirely sure what to say. "I just let the music take control, I guess. I don't really have a better way of putting it." I turned my attention back to the computer monitor, only to realize that I hadn't begun the recording. I sighed. "And of course it wasn't recorded."

"It's not like you forgot the melody or anything, right?" Seraphine asked. "Because I still remember it."

"Yeah, I remember it. Just let me record it." I pressed the record button and quickly replayed the melody from memory. Once I finished, I grabbed a hold of the mouse and scrolled through the sounds and instruments that we had access to.

"Where did the lyrics come from?" Seraphine asked, scooting her chair up next to mine. "They were really good."

"It was freestyle," I answered. At the same time, I found a set of unbelievably natural, live drums. I stood up and moved to the back of the room to find an Akai MPC.

Seraphine followed me with her gaze as I walked. "That was freestyle? Seriously?"

"Yeah." I let out a sigh of relief. The MPC was still there. I figured that someone would have taken an interest in it and moved it into another one of the rooms. I dusted it off and placed it on the table, hooking it up to the computer.

"What is that?" Seraphine asked. Her fingers tapped one of the sixteen black pads.

"It's an MPC," I replied. With all of the wires correctly plugged in, I mapped the drum samples to each one of the pads. "People use them to record drums."

"Why not just program it in?"

"Well…" I rubbed the back of my head. "That's one way to do it. But I always preferred to do it this way. Makes the drums feel more natural, I guess." I hovered my fingers over the pads. "Watch." I nodded my head towards the record button.

Seraphine pressed it.

After a few measures of leaving the pianos alone, I tapped the pads of the MPC to create a smooth, flowing, and classical R&B percussion line. I recorded it for several measures before stopping the recording and simply pasting the percussion the rest of the way. I edited the percussion more heavily, removing some instruments, adding others, and after twenty minutes, the percussion of the entire song was finished.

And I hadn't written down a single word of the lyrics yet.

"Wow," Seraphine said. "I guess you really don't start with the lyrics."

"I kind of did. The words I sang let me find the rest of the song." I pulled open the notes and wrote down the lyrics I sang earlier. "Now I just have to write the rest of it."

"Do you need me?" Seraphine asked.

I raised a brow. "Why not? You're good at writing lyrics. I could always use the help."

She tilted her head, and for a moment, Sera looked like she wanted to protest. But that look quickly went away, and she simply nodded her head. "Alright. I'll see what I can do."

[;]

With a roll of my shoulders and a long, deep groan, I leaned fully against the back of the chair. As it turned out, the rest of the song wasn't as easy to write as either of us expected. What I thought would be an easy song that we finished in an hour, turned into a grueling, almost excruciating five hour recording session.

And as much as I hated to say it, I believed it was my fault.

I was obsessive, borderline sociopathic, with how each line, each word, each syllable was delivered. I didn't want to be stuck making the same songs as I did in the last EP project. And while this song was R&B, I needed the color of my voice to be different. I needed to show that I had grown from the last EP. The instrumental conveyed that well enough, with an emphasis on the percussion and a simple precision of the chords that I hadn't shown before.

An artist that doesn't grow, that doesn't change, isn't an artist— they are an imitator. That was my belief, and it was more true than ever now.

By the time I finished mixing the song, Seraphine was already fast asleep on the recording room couch. And it was nearly midnight.

She was shivering.

I lightly sighed. "Of course she forgot about the blanket." Unfolding her bright pink blanket and draping it over her, I began to clean up the room. I exported the project onto my USB, packed all of the instruments and production tools away, and shut off the computer. I sat beside her. After maybe ten or fifteen minutes, I stirred her awake.

"Hey," I said. "Wake up."

Her eyes fluttered open, and she stared up at me with her brilliant azure gaze. "Hi," she half-breathed, half-groaned. "Morning?"

I chuckled. "More like 'goodnight.'"

"What time is it?"

"Midnight now."

Sera rubbed her cheeks with the palm of her hands. "Oh gosh. I need to get home."

"Do you think you can get there safely?" I asked, genuinely concerned.

She pursed her lips. "Yes?" She answered drowsily.

I narrowed my eyes. "How long is your drive?"

"Thirty minutes."

I narrowed my eyes even further.

"Jae, there's nowhere I can stay—"

"You can stay at my place."

Sera crossed her arms. "How would we even get there?"

"It's only ten minutes from here," I countered. "A lot shorter than the drive to your house. You can take my room, I'll crash on the couch or something."

"But your sister—"

"Won't care," I interrupted. With a sigh, I gently pushed Seraphine to her feet. "C'mon. Let's head on out of here and to your car. I'll ride with you."
"What about your bike?"

I raised a brow. "Your safety is more important than a bike, Sera."

"But—"

"Stop arguing," I finished. "I swear you're as stubborn as me sometimes."

Seraphine sighed. "Fine."

[;]

Throughout the drive, I found myself panicking nearly twice as much as I did normally. I did my best to distract myself by doing something productive, like worrying about Seraphine while she drove. With my hands clenched around my seatbelt, I glanced at Sera.

"You okay?" I asked.

Seraphine placed both hands on the wheel. "I feel like I should be asking you that." She motioned to her phone. "If you want, you can play something. If it helps."

I shook my head. "No, it's fine."

"Jae…" She smiled. "It'll make it easier for me to stay awake if you play something. Or sang. Either one."

"I…" I sighed. "Okay." I grabbed her phone and searched for a song to play. I needed it to distract me. Anything to distract me. Ah. That.

The signal pinged from Seraphine's speakers, and it slowly morphed into the gentle crescendos of deep chords on a synth pad.

"Bone + Tissue?" Seraphine asked. "Of course you'd play this."

"What? A song by Gallant? That is incredibly difficult to sing well? I would never," I replied, already feeling my shoulders loosen as the bass of the song rolled in like a growing thunderstorm.

Seraphine laughed. "Alright. Let's hear it then."

"Give me more than God in a courtroom. More than broken glass in my house shoes." The music flooded my senses like a tsunami. My eyes closed on their own as I began to sing, to submerge myself in the music, and to lose myself in its currents. "Take money on a bet that you wanna lose, babe. Quit taking your time making time feel better."

"Woo!" Seraphine cheered as the song exploded into the chorus.

"Sell me something I can use to catapult my value. Treat me like the cardinal anointed in my vessels."

Seraphine hummed along with me, siphoning energy from me. Her humming morphed into full-blown singing. "And any time I bite the hand that feeds, won't you lie through your teeth and tell me I'm a monument to more than bone and tissue."

Sera and I sang and jammed for the rest of the way to my apartment, my worries and anxiety mostly diffused. She pulled into an open spot in the parking garage. She turned to me and looked at me through lidded eyes. Her energy was clearly expended in the ten minute car ride. Just looking at her made me sleepy.

"You okay?" I asked.

She slowly nodded. "I never stay up this late. And all of that singing a lot out of me too. So I'm a little disoriented."

"A little?" I joked.

Sera smiled sleepily. "A little," she repeated.

We got out of the car and made our way up to my apartment. Thankfully this time, the hallway was cleaner and free of trash. Mostly. There were always the perpetual trash bags in front of Darius' and Draven's apartment.

I unlocked my apartment door and let Seraphine step inside first.

"Haven't been here in awhile," Sera murmured. She slipped off her shoes and walked over to the couch. "Here?" She asked. "Or your room?"

"You can take my room," I answered, pointing over my shoulder to the currently closed door. "Let me get you something to change into." I quickly found her a clean t-shirt and a pair of shorts. "If you want to," I began, walking out of my room. "You can shower…" I trailed off and sighed.

Seraphine laid on the couch, with her knees hugged to her chest as she quietly snored. A tiny bit of drool fell from her mouth and onto the couch. She mumbled something unintelligible as I draped a grey blanket over her. Then, she stirred. Her eyes slowly blinked open. "Oh… I fell asleep.'

"Yes, Sera," I said with a slight smile. "Yes you did."

She wrapped the blanket around herself, nodding her head at the open space on the couch beside me. "I'm hungry," murmured Sera.

"You're hungry?"

She pursed her lips and nodded.

"Is ramen fine?"

"Do you guys have Shin—"

"Yeah. We do."

Seraphine smiled. "Thanks."

As I got to cooking, Seraphine grabbed the remote and flicked on the TV. "Do you guys have Netflix?" She asked from across the room.

I glanced up from my task of stirring the pot of boiling noodles. "Should be on there. What did you want to watch?"

She shrugged. "I just want something to fill the silence." Sera pressed a few buttons on the remote. "Ah. There." The television darkened before the Netflix logo flashed onto the screen. She randomly selected something, and judging from the opening music, it was a k-drama that Eunkyung finished recently. I simply listened as the scene played out, choosing to focus on cooking rather than the show.

After dropping in some chopped green onions, a half-clove of minced garlic, and some grated ginger to the broth, and a healthy amount of vegetables, I placed the pot onto a slightly wet towel, and placed that in front of Seraphine, along with a pair of chopsticks and a few napkins.

"Thank you," Seraphine said. "I feel bad for asking you to cook for me, though."

I waved her off. "It's alright." I ran a hand through my hair and noticed just how greasy it was. "I'm gonna shower. When you're done, just drop it into the left sink. I'll wash it."

"I can wash it." She smiled. She made a shooing motion. "Go shower."

"Alright, alright."

[;]

I showered quickly, not wanting Seraphine to feel too lonely, especially considering that she was at my house. When I stepped out of the bathroom, my hair still slightly wet, Seraphine was standing behind the kitchen counter, her long, pink hair free from the ponytail that she kept it in all day. Her hands were in the sink, scrubbing away at the finished pot of ramen.

"If you wanted to shower, your clothes are here," I said, pointing to the t-shirt and shorts that I left on the coffee table earlier. "Use the orange towel. It's clean."

"Okay. Thanks." Seraphine brought her arms across her chest and stretched as she walked over to the bathroom. "I won't be long."

"Mmhm." She walked into the bathroom and flicked the light on. The door shut behind her, and a few moments later, the shower turned on.

"Do you know how to make the water hot?"

"Yeah. I got it."

Wow. Don't hear that everyday.

After about fifteen minutes, the water turned off. And then the whirr of our hair dryer slipped beneath the doors. It took a whole thirty minutes before the hair dryer shut off.

When she finished, Seraphine sat beside me on the couch. She was already moving towards the fuzzy grey blanket that I had given her earlier and keeping herself cocooned in it. With her hair mostly dried, she fully relaxed into the couch. The show that she decided to put on illuminated her face in the dark room. When she caught me staring, she turned to look at me. "Something on your mind?"

"There's a lot."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm good." I smiled at Sera. "You know, I don't think I've ever thanked you for everything you've done for me."

Seraphine brought her knees to her chest and hugged them. "I don't really think I've done much to deserve your gratitude."

"You have," I interjected. "You've done more for me than a lot of people I know."

Seraphine pursed her lips.

"I'm serious, Sera. Thank you. For today. For tomorrow. For yesterday. For however long ago. Thank you for believing in me, Ser."

"I…" She trailed off. "You're welcome."

I smiled. "Alright." I stood up. "I'm gonna head to bed. It's getting really late. And we have—"

"Jae," interrupted Seraphine. "Do… do you want to skip school tomorrow?"

[;]

November 21, 2019

"I can't believe I actually convinced you to skip school today," Seraphine said as I laid down a plate of sunny-side-up eggs on the table. She picked up a serving and moved it over to her plate with her chopsticks. "And I find it even crazier that your sister actually agreed to it."

I shrugged, taking up the seat beside her. "It's not too crazy. She knows that I'll manage it. And she likes you."

"She does?"

"Sorta."

Sera giggled. "That sounds more accurate."

She and I ate in relative silence, simply enjoying the food and each other's company. It was strange. Usually I only ever saw her in the afternoon or the middle of day, depending on our schedules— but seeing Seraphine first thing in the morning was something like a pleasant surprise.

We finished the food, and while I washed the dishes, Seraphine showered. And after she finished her shower, I began mine.

"What are we gonna do today?" I asked, stepping out of the bathroom with my hair still damp. "We can't just sit around and do nothing."

Seraphine glanced up from her phone. "Why not produce here?"

"Oh." I nearly facepalmed. "Sure, let's give it a shot."

Seraphine stood up and followed me into my room. And it was then that I realized she would be one of the first people, besides my sister and myself, to step into my room. I opened the door, and stepped inside.

Seraphine let out a small gasp as she entered.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"No, no. I'm… a little surprised that it's so clean."

I tilted my head. "Oh?"

"I didn't mean it like that. I figured that you would've been too busy to clean your own room or something."

I shook my head. "It's not like I have much of a room to clean."

"Fair enough."

While my room was much smaller than my sister's, I did my best to make it look homely. My bed sat in the middle of the room, with its headboard dominating a majority of the back wall. A white-topped nightstand stood beside the bed. On the left side of the bed, nearest to the door, was a sliding-door that opened up to my closet. And directly in front of the door, on the opposite wall, was my L-shaped desk.

The tower of my computer had its closed side to the wall, and both of my monitors covered the tower itself. A pair of studio monitors— speakers specialized for music production— rested beside the computer monitors. On the left side of the desk, there were clear, plastic containers for microphones, keyboards, and other supplies that I knew I would need for production.

Seraphine approached the desk, immediately reaching for the instrument cases I kept beneath it: a cello, a violin, and both an electric and acoustic guitar. "This is quite a setup, Jae," she said, taking it all in.

"I like being able to work from home," I said. "Don't want to be cramped in the recording room all the time, even if it's really comfortable there."

"I understand. Still… this is way better than what I have at home."

"As long as you're being productive, it doesn't matter what your setup looks like," I answered honestly. "And this is coming from someone who used to make songs using an old Macbook. The gear doesn't make the artist. Talent and effort do."

Sera nodded. "Right. Is it alright if I…?" She trailed off, pointing to my bed.

"Feel free to sit or lay down. Make yourself comfortable." I turned on my computer, taking a seat in the chair. I spun it around and turned to face Sera, who was currently peeling my blanket free and wrapping herself around in it. "So, what did you want to work on? Your solo song? A duet?"

Seraphine rested her head on an arm, closing her eyes in thought. "I kinda want to just talk."

"To talk?"

She nodded. Her eyes blinked open. "Like how we talked for the last EP. We just asked each other questions and stuff."

"Oh. Again?"

She frowned. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"No, no, not at all. I'm just asking."

"Yeah. Again." She smiled. "I'll start."

"Should I be worried?"

Sera's smile grew into a sly grin. "Maybe." She cleared her throat. "Just so we can set boundaries, how far do you want to go?"

I crossed my arms. "Better question is how far you're willing to go."

Seraphine rolled her neck and cracked her knuckles. "You've yet to scratch the surface of me, Jaemin."

"I should be saying that to you, Seraphine."

[;]

Seraphine sat on the edge of my bed, her legs crossed as she stared inquisitively at me. "Who's hotter: me or Lux?"

My answer came flying out of my mouth before I could stop it. "You." I ignored the fire in my cheeks and the blush that bloomed on Seraphine's. "Were you jealous of Lux and me?"

"Yes. I was. What's hot about me?"

"Your voice."

Seraphine rolled her eyes. "Lame."

I shrugged. "It's the truth." Partly. "What's hot about me?" I asked.

"Your eyes," she fired. "And… your voice…" She sighed. Then, a sparkle of mischief appeared in her eyes. "Be honest: did you want me to sleep with you last night?"

If I had been drinking water, it would have shot straight out of my nose. "Wh— what?"

"Did you want me to sleep with you last night?" Seraphine repeated.

"Yeah, yeah. I heard you. I just… Wow. You actually asked me that."

"Told you."

"Sure."

Sera froze. "What."

I raised a brow. "Sure. You did tell me."

"Oh."

"Did you think I was…"

"Yeah."

"Ah."

"Any— anyways," Seraphine began. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"I wouldn't have minded."

"And he answers anyway." Seraphine groaned and her head dropped into her hands. Her ears began to flush with red. "Please… just ask your question already."

I chuckled. "Okay, okay. What would you do if we were dating?"

Seraphine hummed. "I think the most obvious thing would be telling you how much I can't stop thinking about you."

"Oh?"

She flushed. "I mean... I feel like that's a common thing in all relationships, right? Thinking about each other, dreaming about each other, fantasizing about each other?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. Not sure that's how it worked in my relationships."

Seraphine hummed. "I see."

"If there was one person you could write a letter to, who would it be?"

Seraphine's response was instant. "My future love."

Something clicked in my head. "That was quick."

"I feel like a lot of people would have the same response if they thought about it."

"What would you say?"

"I... I would ask them to be strong for me, and that I hope we meet sooner rather than later."

"That's very romantic of you."

She crossed her arms. "So?"

"Nothing wrong with that," I defended. "Just a comment. I'm a romantic too. Just… not as much as you are, I think."

Sera rolled her eyes. "Well, we've been talking for awhile now."

I glanced at my computer monitor to check the time. It was almost noon, and we finished eating breakfast a little over three hours ago. As if on command, my stomach let out a small rumble.

"Hungry?"

"Mm."

"What should we eat?"

I shrugged. "Not sure what we have in the way of groceries. Maybe we just order delivery?"

"What are you in the mood for then?"

"Kinda want Chinese."

Seraphine and I shared a glance.

"Gu-Yi?" She asked.

"Gu-Yi," I answered.

"I'll give them a call. What do you want?"

"The sauteed pork." I turned my chair to face my computer. "While you call, I'm gonna get started on something." I grabbed a MIDI keyboard and plugged it into the USB port.

"Sounds good." Seraphine stood up from the bed with her phone in her hand, dialing the number of Gu-Yi. She stepped out of the room. The door closed with a quiet click.

While she ordered our food, I got to work making a new song. Something about what Seraphine said about who she would send a letter to— the way she put, or at least the way it sounded in my head, inspired me. It was a song that was perfect for the EP concept, and I believed that Seraphine could sing the song perfectly.

Using the MIDI keyboard, I laid down smooth yet plucky chords. Something that roused emotions, but kept them at bay as well. A perfect balance of eagerness and patience.

When Seraphine returned, she sat back down on the bed and took out her phone.

"Writing lyrics?" I asked in the middle of programming in the percussion.

"Mmhm," she answered. "This is about that future love thing, right?"

"How'd you figure that?"

She shrugged. "Sounded like it."

I took that as a compliment.

Seraphine and I worked on the song until our food arrived, and by then we had most of the song already written and produced. We had the melody, the arrangement, and the timbre that Seraphine and I both wanted.

The doorbell rang, and I stepped out of my room to grab the food. The delivery man gave me a nod as he handed me the food. I placed the plastic bag on the dining table before wandering back into my room.

"Food's here," I called.

"I'll be there in a sec. Just want to get the recording stuff set up."

I set the table, taking in the delicious smell of freshly-cooked Chinese food. Seraphine stepped out of my room after about a minute or so. As she grabbed a plate and took her seat at the table, she slid her phone over to me.

"Take a look at the lyrics," she explained. "I just want to make sure it sounds good." She broke her chopsticks and began to eat her braised beef.

"Guess I'm tired of the same things, ready for a change of mind. And I've been so busy with the music, barely even got the time," I read aloud. "To love someone, to call him mine. To give myself, to share my time. With another soul who gets me, that'd be nice."

"First verse."

"I think it's good." I scrolled down to the chorus. "To my future love…"

[;]

"Wherever you are, can you be strong for me when I'm not?" Seraphine sang, one hand on the headphones and another waving in the air in time with her singing. "Touch me like gold, and I'll be your star. This is for you. My future love, my future love, my future love." She let the rest of the chorus ride out. She bobbed her head to the rhythm of the drums and the vocal sample I pulled from another recording.

Slowly, she pulled off her headphones.

"That take was good," I said, pausing the song. I glanced at her. "Satisfied?"

She hummed in thought. "Yeah. I think it won't get any better."

"Alright." I cracked my knuckles. "Do you need a break, or should we keep going?"

"We have nothing else left to record right?"

"Yeah. Other than some harmony parts, there isn't much left."

"Okay." Seraphine placed the headphones on the desk and laid down on my bed. She let out a deep sigh. "I'm beat."

"Already?" I asked, turning to face her.

"We're not all machines when it comes to making music, Jae."

I chuckled. "Fair enough." I smiled at her as she took out her phone and absentmindedly scrolled on it. "If you don't mind, I'm gonna work on another song, then."

That caught her interest. "Oh?"

"Yeah." I reached under the desk and pulled out my cello case. I freed the instrument from the case and set it down on the bed, beside Seraphine. "Let's see if I still remember how to play this thing."

"How… how long has it been since you last played?"

I ran my fingers across the body of the instrument. "Not too long. Maybe two, three weeks."

"That's not long at all."

I shrugged. "It always feels a little bad when I can't find the time to practice my instruments."

"I'm sure you're still really good."

I grabbed the cello stand and placed the instrument on it. I rested the bow on the bridge, and, still slightly hesitant, played out a scale. My hesitance showed. The first few notes of the scale were shaky, my fingers too tense around the bow. I rolled my shoulders and let out a breath, letting the nervousness leave my body in waves. I played the same scale— and it was much smoother this time.

Still not as good as I wanted, but it would suffice for the recording.

"Sera," I began. "What… what you said to me that night we were at the beach."

"What about it?" She asked.

I turned to face her. "I… I want to write a song about it."

Her eyes widened. "Wh— why?"

"Because people need to hear what you told me." I smiled. "I can guarantee there's a billion other people out there with the same problem as me. And if someone hasn't told them what you've told me… then they need to hear it."

"I…"

"That's what you want, right? The whole reason you even started singing? To have your voice be heard?" I asked, echoing what she told me when we first met. "This might be your chance."

Seraphine rubbed her arms. "I'm not really sure, Jae. That… What I told you was really personal, and—"

"That's how the best songs are made. From something personal. From the depths of our heart, our minds."

She stared at me. I could see just how torn she was over it.

I stood up from my seat, laying the cello against the chair, and sat beside Seraphine on the bed. I reached over and intertwined my fingers with hers. Slowly, her fingers tightened around my hand. "What you told me…" I let out a small chuckle. "It was a reminder of how human I am. How human I should be."

"You would have realized that without me—"

"No, I wouldn't have," I interrupted. "And by the time I did, it would have been far, far too late for me to do anything about it."

"But you still stay up late, you're still overworking yourself, and you still…" She trailed off. Her other hand reached up to touch my cheek. "This whole time, after our fights, after our disaster of a presentation for our EP, I've spent so much time thinking— just thinking— about how I can help you. When I said those words on the beach, I was so afraid… I was afraid that you were going to be mad at me again. Th— that…" The words sounded choked, like she was desperately holding back tears.

Our eyes met.

Tears stained the corners of her stunning azure eyes. They gathered the edge of her eyes like water at the end of the dam so dangerously close to spilling.

"I was afraid that you were going to hate me," Seraphine whispered.

And the weight of the world visibly crashed onto her.

I caught her as she nearly fell to her knees. She buried her head into my shirt. Sobs racked her small frame. She shuddered and shook— the desperate wails and heaving cries leaving her body in ruin. She sniffled, wiped at her eyes, and dried her runny nose.

I wrapped my arms around her. Pulling her into a hug, I gently patted the top of her head, comforting her. "It's okay, Sera. You're okay. I'm not mad at you."

"Y— you— you were," she managed between choked cries. "I could tell."

"I'm not mad anymore," I corrected. I pulled her closer. Somehow.

"You didn't say anything to me. You never responded to me in class. You never replied to my texts. You didn't greet me in the hallways." She sniffled. "Those two weeks… those were the worst weeks of my life. I thought you hated me."

"I could never hate you."

"That's a lie."

I shook my head. "It's not," I murmured into her hair. "I could never hate you. I could never hate you."

We sat there for a time. Until Seraphine's tears stopped, I kept her wrapped in my arms. Slowly, she pulled away from me. "Thank you," she breathed.

I sat beside Seraphine, slowly, methodically running a hand through her hair as she recovered from her crying. "If you ever feel down and out, or you need to take it all out on me, let me know, Ser."

"Thanks." She managed something between a giggle and a sniffle. Sera's hands came to rest on her lap. "What now?"

"Maybe… maybe it's a good time for a break."

A/N: Story progression stuff. And we're closing in on the end of Act 1. Thanks for supporting the story so far.

yuriwarrior - Thank you! OCxChampion fics are always a blast.

Next Chapter: 12/18/2020