Ahh!!! I was actually supposed to update yesterday, but my com went crazy on me so I'm updating today! Phew the problem is solved…now I can continue with my Nano! Hee. snow-angel-anna has already updated, so check it out!
Chapter 17- Crossroads
Ren's eyes widened in surprise and he stared at Hui suspiciously. On the plane back to Funbari, she had acted as if he had done something to offend her, and now…
He glanced worriedly at Lyn to see her reaction, praying that she would give him a chance to explain. Lyn blinked in surprise, then she scratched her head, saying, "Oh."
Hui smirked when she saw the stunned expression on Lyn's face. That showed her. Ren was her fiancée, and she would not allow anyone else to have him.
Suddenly, she heard someone a snort, followed by laughter. She turned to see a boy with light blue hair laughing so hard he was clutching his sides.
"What a joke! Ren…I never figured you were the type to play these kinda tricks! What a hoot! But who is she…really…" Horo Horo gasped out between laughs.
Ren hesitated for a second, wanting to just deny the whole fiancée thing just so that confused look on Lyn's face would become a smile, but before he could say anything, Lyn spoke up.
"I don't think he's playing a trick. Not for something as serious as this." Lyn muttered with a slight frown. Horo Horo's laughter was silenced immediately, and his eyes darted from Ren to Lyn worriedly.
Lyn noticed his worried look and shrugged nonchalantly. "I'm fine with this…" She told them in a cheerful voice.
In truth, she wasn't alright. She felt a dull ache in her chest with every beat of her heart, and she cursed herself for it. She had already made her choice, and this fiancée of Ren would just make everything simpler.
Lyn turned around and walked out of the dining room, out the front door. This was still too unexpected. She needed some time to think. The park would be a nice place to think.
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There was a silence in the dining room, and everybody stared at Ren expectantly. Hui noticed that they all seemed to want Ren to go after Lyn, and her eyes narrowed. She would not allow Ren to go after Lyn.
"Hon…Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" She whined, still clinging on the Ren's arm. She felt Ren's arm tense and she smirked.
Ren looked around the room, looking for some way to escape that nightmare. Yes. That was what it was. A nightmare. He would wake up to find himself alone on the plane back to Funbari.
Then, he noticed Yoh looking at him. When Yoh realised he had caught Ren's eye, he gave his head a small jerk, almost unnoticeable, towards the front door.
The next thing he knew, Yoh had jumped forward and grabbed Hui's hand from his, and he was herding her towards the living room, the rest following him and all introducing themselves at the top of their voices.
Only Lyzerg remained, and he gave Ren a weak smile. "Lyn was quite out of it, even before all this…Have a good talk with her…" Ren nodded and thanked Lyzerg silently, running out the front door into the snow, clutching on to Kwan Dao tightly. As he ran, the snowflakes gently drifted down, slowly erasing his footprints on the snowy ground.
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Kaede sat at one side of the living room in silence, glancing at the door from time to time and hoping that Lyn would come bursting in with a smile on her face. She had looked so lost when she had left the inn.
Hao saw Kaede sitting quietly at the side, and he crawled away from where Yoh and the rest were asking Hui a dozen questions at once so she would not be able to go after Ren. He sat down next to Kaede and watched the attempts made by Yoh and the rest to keep Hui preoccupied.
Maybe it was his friendship for Lyn which made him feel that way, but he didn't trust Hui. She just seemed so fake, as if her every action was all an act. There hadn't been an inch of love in her eyes when she had declared that she was Ren's fiancée. Instead, her eyes had been glittering smugly.
"Don't worry about those two…they will be able to settle this without any incident. It isn't so easy to break the two of them up." He told Kaede, smiling fondly at her. She nodded quietly, although she didn't really seem too sure.
"Have more faith in them, eh?" Hao told Kaede, who shook her head slowly. "It's not that I don't have faith in them…but these few days, Lyn has seemed very out of it. This morning, she told me that her brother dropped by for a visit on Christmas. I don't know what she's planning, but the signs of it don't look very good…" She told Hao with a sad smile.
Hao nodded thoughtfully and gently pulled Kaede towards him so she was leaning on his shoulder. "Let's just hope for the best."
Kaede nodded slowly. It wasn't just that. She had a nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen. She let out a small sigh and snuggled up against Hao. It was getting cold, due to all the winter snows.
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Lyn walked through the park silently, ignoring the occasional cold wind. She wasn't really dressed to be out in this weather, but she couldn't care less.
She found the cold refreshing, and the winds that blew seemed to clear her head. Her mind was now wide awake and she was fully alert, although her body felt numb.
Lyn stared at her feet as she walked, taking pleasure in the way they kicked up sprinkles of snow as she moved, and the way her breath formed a white mist in the crisp evening air.
A snowflake drifted down slowly and landed on her nose, melting upon contact with her warm skin. Lyn rubbed her nose to warm it up and stopped in the middle of the footpath.
She lifted her head and opened her mouth, catching some of the snowflakes with her tongue. She smiled at the icy feeling and sat down under a tree at the side of the footpath. A clump of snow fell off the bare branches of the tree and landed on her head, and Lyn shook it off with a grin.
She was glad she had come here for a walk. It was refreshing, and it had helped her confusion. She had decided to stick with her decision no matter the consequences. It was better than having Ren dying.
As for his fiancée…well, that simply made things easier for her. Hopefully, Hui would help Ren get over her.
Lyn lifted her head and stared at the sky, and the snow slowly drifting down from it. She knew that she might not make it out alive because of her decision, but there was no other way. The only other option she had was to kill Shinn, but she could not bring herself to make that decision.
Even if she died in the process, at least she would die knowing she had tried. It was better than dying knowing you did nothing at all.
Lyn closed her eyes and leaned against the tree, enjoying the peacefulness she was surrounded by. It set her heart at peace too, and she felt like nothing could get to her here. Her troubles all seemed so far away.
Suddenly, she felt a warmth emanating from a body next to her, and she opened her eyes to see Shinn sitting there beside her. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Was this all a dream? He seemed so gentle for once, instead of the usual air of superiority and wickedness which surrounded him.
"You haven't changed a bit, you know…" He told her with a gentle smile on her face. "I remember you used to eat the snow as a kid…" Lyn blinked in surprise, not daring to believe her ears. He was actually talking to her about something other than fighting?
She opened her mouth to ask him what the hell he was up to, then closed it again stupidly when she remembered her resolution. She wanted to have a good talk with Shinn, and she could not do that unless she let herself trust him.
"Why did you kill…" Shinn held a finger to her lips before she could continue. "Shh…It's not time for our last confrontation yet. Let's just enjoy this moment. I don't think I can ever enjoy something like this anymore."
Lyn blinked in surprise and looked at Shinn questioningly. What did he mean by that? But seeing the peaceful smile on his face, she decided to ask her questions later. She leaned back into the tree and closed her eyes.
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A few minutes later, she felt Shinn standing up and she opened her eyes. To her dismay, the air of gentleness which had surrounded him was gone once again, and back was the wickedness and arrogance.
He had a smirk on his face as he looked at her. "Well, that's that. If you can figure out this riddle, then I will see you again at the appointed time. And that will be the end of everything." He told her, handing her a slip of paper before disappearing into thin air.
She looked down at the slip of paper and scratched her head in confusion. It didn't make any sense to her. It simply looked like a harmless poem.
The time has come, the inevitable is near
Our destined meeting, strikes bystanders with fear
The Gods decreed it, we will both lose something dear
And nothing will change it, seven suns from here
Back to the place, where it all began
We will be there, with or without our friends
Where it starts with a 'k', and ends with an 'o'
There by the ruins, one of us will KO.
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Ren looked at Lyn from a distance, unsure of what he should say to her. There were so many things he needed to explain to her, but he didn't know how he should phrase himself.
He decided to just say to her whatever came from his heart. Ren wasn't one to let his heart dictate his actions, always letting his mind do all the talking. But in this situation, it just seemed appropriate to do otherwise.
Ren began walking towards Lyn, and he noticed that she was shivering slightly from the cold. She wasn't dressed for the snowy weather, so it was only natural. He stopped when he was standing beside her and he pulled his jacket off, gently draping it around her shoulders.
She looked up at him silently, her eyes quivering. "Hey…" He said, smiling gently as he sat down beside her, under the bare branches of the tree. She stared back at him, not uttering a single word.
"About Hui…she isn't really my fiancée. Well, she is. But I'm not going to go along with this engagement. Even if my father were to disown me…there is only one person I love, and that's you. I don't want to spend the rest of my life with someone I don't love…" Ren told her, taking her hands in his.
He gasped when he felt how cold her hands were. She must have been sitting here, with her hands in the snow for quite a long time for them to feel so cold.
"Maybe…you should listen to your father…he knows what's best for you anyway…" Lyn murmured so softly that Ren had to strain his ears to hear her. He shook his head with a wry grin.
"All he wants is his pride. Hui's family is rich and quite well-known…that's the only reason. Why are you suddenly acting as if you don't want me around? Are you really so angry with me that you want me to just go away?"
Lyn shrugged uncaringly in reply. "There's nothing to be angry about, is there? In the first place, it isn't your fault. It's mine."
Ren stared at Lyn in confusion. What was she talking about? What did she mean when she said that it was her fault? How was it her fault that his father had arranged his engagement with Hui?
As Lyn stared at Ren's confused expression, she felt the icy mask she had put on slowly slipping away. She desperately clung on to it. She had to hold on to it, or she would drown in her sea of emotions.
Cool, calm and icy. That was the act she had to put on right now. Much as it hurt her, she had to do it.
I will protect you, no matter the cost.
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"It's over…" Lyn murmured, causing Ren to look up at her in surprise. "What is?" He asked gently. Lyn smirked, her eyes cold and icy. "Us."
Ren stared at Lyn in silence, what she had just said slowly sinking in. Then, it clicked into place. "What?!" He half-shouted in bewilderment. He couldn't believe his ears. This wasn't true. It couldn't be happening. It was just a nightmare…all just a nightmare…
"Love is just a game to me. That was what I treated our relationship as from the start. A game."
Ren shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't be hearing her right. So her carefully made presents, the thought behind them. Those were all part of the game? And that tender kiss they had shared. It couldn't be true. She had to be lying. The love they had felt for each other, it all felt so real. It could not simply be a game. It just couldn't be.
Lyn stood up abruptly and walked began walking away, heading for the inn. If she continued looking at the disbelief in his eyes, her firm resolution might just be broken. And she could not allow that to happen.
Ren stood up and reached for Lyn's hands, but she slipped them away, out of his reach, as she broke into a run. "You're lying! This can't be true!" He shouted after her, fighting back the torrent of tears rushing into his eyes. His grip on Kwan Dao loosened and Kwan Dao fell to the ground with a clatter.
Lyn stopped and turned around to face him, her face hard and grave. "I'm not joking. I couldn't be more serious."
Ren stared at her helplessly, and he felt a tear roll down his cheek, followed by a second. Why was he crying? What was he crying about? Tao Ren never cried. At that moment, he looked into Lyn's eyes, and he thought he saw a fleeting glitter of tears in her eyes.
He didn't understand why she was doing this. All he knew was that it hurt her more than she let him see. A lot more.
Lyn ran back towards the En Inn, fighting back the tears. She couldn't cry. She could not let herself weaken.
Frozen rain is falling, the sun has gone down
The darkness surrounds me, and our love is done
Turning my back, I walk silently away
Forgetting our promise, of 'come what may'
You reach out towards me, calling my name
I stop and coldly tell you, 'it was all just a game'
Deep in my heart, a silent cry for help
Shoved aside roughly, without so much as a yelp
I hear a clatter, as Kwan Dao drops
I turn and see you, tears in your azure orbs
You struggle and cry, 'this cannot be'
I mercilessly tell you, 'now you know me'
The tears you've been fighting, fall to the ground
And I bite my lips, as I turn around
The rain is pouring, the sun has gone down
My world is crumbling, and my support is now gone
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Hao smiled tenderly and pushed Kaede's fringe away from her drooping eyelids. He had told her to go back to her room and sleep, but she had insisted on waiting for Lyn.
Yoh and the rest were still keeping Hui busy, and her irritation was slowly showing as she was shrieking by now.
Just then, there was a sound of stomping feet running down the hall. A few seconds later, Lyn ran past the living room. Kaede stared at through the open door in silence. Just what had happened?
Hao waited to see if Ren was following her, but after a few minutes, he realised that Lyn had come back alone. He looked around the room, and Yoh and the rest were looking out the open door with equally mystified expressions. Lyzerg, however, simply looked worried. It was the same for Kaede.
Just then, the silence was broken by the shrill ring of the phone, and everyone jumped. Everyone except Anna, that is. Anna coolly walked towards the phone and picked it up.
"Kaede! The call's for you!" Anna called, and Kaede ran out of the room worriedly, wondering who it was. After a second's hesitation, Hao ran out after her.
When Kaede put down the phone, she was chewing on her lower lip worriedly. "What happened?" Hao asked her concernedly.
"My father is ill…very ill…I'm leaving for Kyoto tomorrow."
Woo! Everyone's making their own choices and going their own way. And what clues does the riddle that Shinn gave to Lyn hold? Hmm…