Aww look at the reviews, thank you guys. Makes me smile a lot when I read them. 😊

Guest: Yaay ship Jina harder. Join the bandwagon. There's only like a few of us. Such a minority we are.

Evelyn: One of the reviewers guessed the movie right. I really enjoyed that movie. Kickass Bollywood chick in the 70s.

Rishab Sharma: Bingo. It's surprising to know one of my readers know the movie already. I am a fan of world cinema so I have watched that movie and love it a lot. A classic. Thanks and you stay safe too.

Bodominjarvi: Hi there! A new Jina fan! Yaaay! Thanks for faving some of my fics, I read your story and left a review. Even I get so many ideas for Jina and get overwhelmed with where to time it in my fics. I completely understand you. What I would suggest is to create a word document, call it Jina Ideas Bank and put every lovely idea you have in it so when you write, you can look at it and pick an idea that will suit the chapter you are writing. It works for me. I am sure you will come up with beautiful ideas too and I will love to read them. Also, It means a lot to me that you are excited whenever I update. Thanks a lot.

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*Kind*


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Don't tell him the truth before I die. I don't want his last memory of me like this.

The old man's weak voice plays again in Jin's mind like a loop. To honor that last wish, Jin had to lie with a straight face to Eddy. Again and again. Each time harder than the last.

He's in his office. It's late. The sky outside is dark and cold. Jin feels as if he is drowning. The weight of being the world's most hated, along with the loss of his mother and every other depressive tragedy in between. He didn't know if he'd survive. If he did, then would he ever be able to lead a normal life after this?

Perhaps not.

He closes his eyes, alone and lonely, he just lets the tears fall. In between laboured breathing and his hands gripping his chair, he prays that everything will be okay, that the world can heal and that Nina doesn't lose him. She never admitted it outright, but he knows it's the fear she now harbors.

The anguish of losing his mother still haunts him to this day and he knows it's something he'd never get completely over. She wasn't with him. The deep ache…he didn't want Nina to feel it because it was so suffocating.

Jin grits his teeth and squeezes out more tears.

It's when he hears her step into the office, that Jin lifts his hand over his face and turns his chair away. What would she think of him if she saw him crying?!

"Do you want me to leave?" She asks in concern.

After a long moment, he replies.

"No."

A warm hand cups his cheek. A thumb wipes away a tear. Stunned, Jin looks up and meets the gentle blue eyes of his favorite blonde.

He hadn't realized Nina had quietly snuck over to him. He expected her to leave him. It was nice, that she hadn't. She didn't say anything and just kept her eyes locked with his. He takes a deep breath, steading himself. He must have looked so weak to her now.

Her other hand cups his cheek. Her eyes ask him what's wrong.

So Jin lets her know what Eddy's master said to him. The last wish that was becoming so hard to keep.

Then she leans down and presses a kiss on his forehead. Jin gasps.

His arms wrap around her when she stands up to her height again. His face resting in her bosom. Nina runs her fingers through his hair.

"I'm sorry." Jin rasps.

"For what?" Nina responds. "Men can cry too."

Then she sighs. "Even I cry. In the shower. Sometimes."

Jin's eyes widen. She cried alone and he wasn't there to comfort her?

"Don't work yourself up about it. It happens. It's better than bottling it all up." Nina admits. "I wouldn't have allowed myself to do such a thing if I was on my own. I would have just bottled it up and gotten worse over time."

"It's good that you had some self-reflection." Jin finally says, pulling her down onto his lap.

"I took your advice and thought about my emotions. I tried not being ashamed of them." Nina exclaims before snuggling upto him.

"You can talk to me right now if you want."

"You're in pain and you want me to talk about mine?"

"Your issues are just as important as mine, Nina. You deserve to share your feelings with me and feel better. I would never think any less of you."

"Such a stubborn man aren't you?" She lightly jests, reaching for his hand and intertwining with her own.

"I care about your pain."

She looks at their hands with a smile before thinking of what to say to Jin. Once she found something he might want to listen to, does she begin.

"Some of my memories that I got back were of Anna. Growing up, we fought over silly things. My reasons were to keep my own place as dad's favorite. There was no logic to it really other than I didn't want to give up my place to someone I viewed as an annoyance. Anna was desperate to take my place and even being mum's favorite wasn't enough for her. We disliked each other but we cared about each other. There was this unspoken rule that we would have each other's back no matter what. We're family, we don't sell each other out for anyone else. Growing up, we just carried on our sibling rivalry. We never stole each other's boyfriends or anything, but we would prank each other a lot. Stealing shoes, hiding things, taking nude pictures..," Nina pauses, a bemused smile spread over her lips. "She never once succeeded in taking nude pics of me mind you, I was the best at that game. You wouldn't see me nude unless I allowed you to."

Jin smirks and nuzzles her neck. "I'm honored."

She smiles a little and carries on.

"Our pranks then took another turn. She slipped a sleeping pill into my drink then superglued my hand to one of my guns while I was asleep. It was also loaded."

Jin gasps. "That's very dangerous."

"She said she regretted not gluing the gun to face me instead of outwards." Nina shrugs. "And I fucking hated Halloween with a passion. That girl loved it so much, scaring me and trying to trick me into believing there was ghosts. She was so obsessed with Halloween that she would dress up as a witch for it every fucking time. Some of those pranks weren't half bad but they were horrible for me. She almost succeeded in making me believe that witches actually existed." Nina makes a sour face.

"Jin, that minx would dress up as a witch with convincing makeup and act so well as if she was really possessed. She even learnt Irish Gaelic. We didn't learn that language growing up so that's how far she went to spook me. It's the ancient language of the villagers. Spoken by extremely rural folks."

"Was Halloween like a second April's fools day for her?"

Nina scoffs. "You bet it was. She was born on the first of April. The fool."

Jin laughs a little. It was good to see she was distracting him from his pain.

Nina wasn't going to stop there so she carries on, telling her tale to Jin.

"Hmmm, and there was a lot of slapping. Anna would pretend to cry just to deceive me and then she'd get in a slap or two until that didn't work anymore. It carried on until she humiliated me at a double date. I finally let her meet my date who was from New York. He was an upper east side student, same age as me. He was a pretty boy and Anna's date was a brute. She said things that really upset me. Her date tried to attack me and ended up getting stabbed. Anna called his gang members on me. That was the first time my trust in her cracked. She apologised afterwards and blamed it on the alcohol. I eventually forgave her after doing some dangerous things like car bombs and whatnot.. Fastforward years later into the second tournament, she pulled that stunt again, only this time she trapped me for an outsider. She and your father had me thrown in the freezer to humiliate me." Nina's lips parts as she exhales.

"Being betrayed by her was the worst day of my life. Even worse than my father dying." Nina's voice falters.

She keeps silent for a moment and staring into nothing. It appeared to Jin that Nina was surprised that she was so chatty tonight.

"I didn't know when our childish pranks became so hateful and dangerous…when she changed it into that. Ever since then, we've hated each other."

"It sounds…complicated."

"That's the word." Nina sighs in agreement. "It's just a fuckfest of a situation. Like your Mishima family thing."

Jin nods. "She probably thinks you didn't get hurt much by her actions."

"It does hurt Jin. I just sometimes catch myself wishing things didn't turn out the way it did but we can't erase history."

"Thank you for sharing your feelings with me. I do not think any less of you." Jin says softly.

She gives him another lovely smile.

"Anyway, I've talked both of our ears off. Tonight is all about you. You have me. I'm right here." Nina says, brushing his bangs aside.

They look at each other once more. Nina's beautiful blue eyes are warm and inside them, Jin finds the flicker of…love…

An unyielding, powerful and deep love.

For him.

His heart skips a beat.

Nina caresses his face with the back of her hand. Her knuckles lightly tickle him. She makes him feel as if everything will be okay. That things will be all alright in the end and that they will make it.

Her thumb lingers over his bottom lip.

Jin closes his eyes and kisses her thumb.

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