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Chapter Fourteen


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Jin's birthday party is in full swing. Food was served on the table. Jin's favorite food. Chicken and asparagus pie, roast potatoes and vegetables and then for dessert was chocolate cake. Both Julia and Nina made the food as a team. Julia of course did most of the grind work as Nina had no experience in making a pie before. She just rolled the pastry while Julia created the filling from scratch.

So Nina sorted out the rest. Roasting potatoes and vegetables were easy as hell.

For Jin, they had a lovely chocolate cake delivered to them from a bespoke cake shop. Julia answers the door when Jin arrives. He was wearing his usual hoodie and jeans.

"Good to see you Jin." Julia said after letting him in. "Happy birthday!"

He thanks her shyly. "Something smells really nice." Jin says, enjoying the aroma wafting through the air.

He looks up and sees Nina stand by a couple of balloons. The number two and zero. He smiles. The blonde sends a welcoming smile and a wave his way. She is dressed up to the nines in a strappy halterneck dress. He is speechless. Beautiful. Jin nods at her.

"Well what do you think?" Nina asks, "Have we gotten your age right?"

Unlike her, he wasn't twenty years behind his peers.

Jin smirks. "I see you went all out for me and yes, you have gotten my age right."

"Birthday boy, we did so much for you that you better enjoy your day." Nina teases.

After dinner and cutting the cake, it was time for unwrapping the presents. They all sat on the sofa as Jin unwrapped the presents. First gift to open was the one from Julia. A pristine black leather wallet.

Once Nina hands her gift to Jin, she watches him nervously, anxious on his reaction. Hopefully he wouldn't be offended but judging what Julia had said earlier, such a gift would touch his heart in a good way and that's what Nina wanted. To touch his heart.

Jin opens the envelope. Inside there were wallet sized pictures of his…mother. He gasps. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was all digital art but done very well. Nina observes him as he stares at the image of his mother with both joy and sadness in his eyes. The anxiety made her heart creep up to her throat, did she cross a line?

After what feels like an eternity did he say something.

"This is…so beautiful!" Jin exclaimed with such emotion in his voice that it nearly knocked Nina's socks off. "Thank you."

Nina exhales, her tension soon dissipated away. "I'm glad you think so. I hope it's close to what she actually looks like." Nina replies.

First thing that grabbed his attention was the way the bangs hung over those eyes.

Jin couldn't believe how accurate the painting was for someone who had never met his mother or seen an image of her. Of course, apart from the jawline, there was not much difference from his face and his mother's. Whenever he looked in the mirror, he always felt as if his mother's eyes were gazing back at him. Perhaps Nina also studied him intently during their time together. The thought fills him with a tingling warmth. He didn't want to become too cocky and think Nina was secretly ogling him.

"Julia helped you didn't she?" Jin asks Nina. "As you've never met my mother."

Nina nods with a smile. "Did you like the gift?"

"I love it."

Her heart skips a beat. She knew he wasn't lying just to make her feel better. Suddenly she is stunned and no words formulate in her mind for a comeback. Something told her deep down that she wasn't used to giving people heartfelt gifts. That in her past life, she had no desire to take the stars and gift it to someone else. Up until now.

"That's great because Nina put some hours into it." Julia reveals cheerily. "It was hard work."

Even after the blonde came home tired from uni or work, she would sit at her laptop and work on the picture, everyday without fail and get frustrated from mistakes, big or small. Her perfectionism almost killed her. Julia had never seen such a devoted friend before but it was heartwarming. Julia did her best to be very accurate in describing what Jun Kazama looked like to Nina.

"I didn't know one of your hobbies is art." Jin tells Nina, "This is very beautiful."

"I did art therapy and got into doing some art." Nina shrugs. "It kind of helped with the depression I went through shortly after the cold sleep and being possessed by Ogre."

She carried on since after buying a tablet and laptop in this city because it was therapeutic. Having a hobby was so wholesome. Especially a constructive one at that. She was no Picasso or anything but there was something serene about winding down the day with something creative. If only she could paint out her long lost memories too…

But atleast something beautiful came out from her attempt to cope with her depression. Putting a smile on Jin's face.

"Thank you so much you two." Jin said softly, meeting Nina's eyes for a moment before looking at Julia. "Now I know why I was given a wallet."

Julia laughs and nudges his shoulder. "Put the photo in it. It will look very nice Jin."

So he places the picture in the photo slot of the wallet and it looks very nice. Jin places the picture to his heart and closes his eyes. It is endearing. While Nina was drawing Jun on Julia's guidance, she remembered feeling so surprised that his mother was a beautiful woman. Julia said that Jin had her face. That his good looks came from his mother.

"I know your mother isn't with you but that way, when you look at this picture, you might feel better." Nina says in a hushed tone.

She recalled Jin told her that he had nothing left of his mother as the fire consumed all their memories. The sound of his voice, that lamenting tone made her feel upset for him and she was determined to do something about it. Something that was in her control. She could not bring the dead back to life or bring his mother back. Maybe having some pictures of her would ease away some of his pain.

Jin smiles and carefully puts the rest of the images into his new wallet for safekeeping.

"I have another gift for you, Jin." Nina reveals.

Leaning over the arm of the sofa and reaching over into her handbag, she pulls out another envelope and hands him it.

Jin opens the envelope and finds a ticket to go ziplining. Nina got herself one too, knowing that Jin would probably prefer to do such a thing with her. Truth be told, she fell in love with the idea of doing some sort of extreme sport with Jin. It just came out of nowhere and she couldn't explain why just like the strange connection they shared. But here it was.

Jin held the tickets and was impressed that Nina also remembered he loved forest bathing.

"Ever done such a thing before?" Nina asks him out of curiosity.

"I've never been." He answers. "But it sounds really fun. Won't you be joining me?"

Nina smirks. "You think I'd let you go without a ziplining buddy?"

"You read my mind."

"What about you Julia?" Jin asks. "Not into ziplining?"

"I don't want to burst anyone's bubble but I'm more of a mountain climber." She confesses. "I got stuck on a zipline once and it was pretty embarrassing."

"Oh dear god, I hope I haven't made a mistake." Nina says, upon hearing this new information about her friend. Getting stuck would be embarrassing indeed and waiting for someone to come to her rescue…or worse yet, Jin getting embaressed like that...

"Hey maybe you two won't get stuck halfway through." She shrugs. Julia preferred to toil and go slow on her sport rather than speedily fly over a forest on a line. Nothing could ever beat climbing mountains for her.

Besides, the two silly lovebirds could have at it without her being a thirdwheel in their love story that they had no idea was being written by themselves. She did wonder how long it would take for them to actually confess and who would be the first one to do it. It was pretty painful to watch them both be so cautious at times. They really needed to just get on with it and kiss or something. Sometimes Julia was tempted to gift them a mature romantic novel each to get some tips on how to serenade the other. But no one knew she secretly read and enjoyed romantic mills and boons novels and Julia wasn't one to embarrass herself. She hid such books from Nina.

God help them, the brunette thinks to herself and gulps down her drink. Suddenly her bladder feel so full.

Julia excuses herself for a bathroom break leaving Jin alone with Nina. The blonde sees that both their glasses are empty so she refills it with the bubbly. Jin quietly thanks her.

"So Jin, do you have a bike fetish like me?" She asks, deciding to make some conversation.

He nods. "I began driving bikes a couple of years ago during my school days. You know, when I was a student, I was planning to have my own bike line. I had access to money then. So much of it. I designed my ideal bike and even picked out the name." Jin said. "It was going to the be fastest, eco-friendly, most durable and beautiful bike of all time." He added. "People wouldn't be able to take their eyes of it kind of bike."

The way he described the yet to be assembled bike had her being wistful about it to. But he sounds despondent as if his dream would just remain a dream and that bothers her.

"You don't think you can make that a reality?" Nina asks softly.

"I don't have enough money." Jin answers, he was going to fight Heihachi one day but wasn't sure if things would turn out smoothly.

"I'm sure you will make it a reality one day Jin. You will get to the top. And when you do, perhaps give me one of those special bikes? Don't forget about me." Nina remarks, excited to try out this super special bike Jin had spoken of.

"Who could ever forget you?" Jin questions.

Nina met his eyes which were now so serious. Her heart skips a beat. Who could ever forget him?

"You'd probably be the only person that I'd ever give one of my precious bikes to." He says.

Nina blushes. He didn't have to but that was lovely. She wants to imagine how her reaction would be if that day ever happened. How happy she would be in accepting such a beautiful gift from him. Her heart flutters and she sighs, the tingle spreading over her cheeks as she sighs dreamily.

"Your gifts will be the ones I will cherish the most." She admits. Those words resonate deeply into both their minds, as if it was a promise.

Hearing that makes his heart pound faster. Before Jin could say anything, Nina smiles and lifts up her glass.

Jin smiles at her gently, after seeing that dreamy look on her face he silently wished they got to such a moment which seemed like it belonged in the future.

"Let's do a toast." She announces. He lifts his glass up.

"To our bright and beautiful future."

Jin repeats her words and they clink their glasses together.

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