CHAPTER140
I do not own Skip Beat! Yoshiki Nakamura does.
End of November.
Future's murmurs begin their roars
Three days before he collapsed: The call.
Coming back from the record studio at the end of the morning, the battle to truly urge her step to the set found to be lost, as the words she sang earlier lingered with her. She had circled around recording this one for a long time, the events of those last months making it torture to revisit happier times. But as they talked about their cats, as little as their exchanges were and needed to remain, a trickle of optimism had burst inside for the first time in months, and she had found the courage to go to the studio with this one.
Cocooned in the lovely past, she couldn't help but delay her arrival to the set, if only for a few minutes. And walking up to the set while she warmed her recovering arm and trained it with light lifts in the air, once more, her brain chanted the tune.
'You took hesitant steps
Onto the path that led you home
Nerve wreck
From you, unexpected deck
Asked for my presence
Pointless doubt
Can't you see their love brilliance?
Can't you see their love brilliance?
Anddd...
Like a grand knight, you opened up the door
Welcoming me like a guest of honour
In the hearth of your family
A childhood with thorns
A castle, a beating organ of warmth
Brighter than sun
Blinding, enchanting
.
Motherly hands, fatherly arms
A race to a long-awaited reunion
Boundless love, desperate joy.
I'm the witness of something precious
A trudging adventure ending in Love's reunion.
Carefree.
Carefree.
Oohhh, I think I finally saw you smile carefree.
Ohhhh, I think I finally saw you smile carefree.
A smile that lights the air.
A smile that lights the air.
Witness, witness
Treasure box of love
One fairy castle
Finally,
Finally found back its missing member
Family gathered,
Ohhhh
I'm sure,
There is magic in the air.
Witness, witness
I feel blessed to be the witness.
I feel blessed to be the witness.
Of magic returning.
Of my fairy boy finding his way home
I feel blessed to be the witness
Of magic returning
Of my fairy man finding his way home.
Sweet man, it's about time.
More than anyone,
You deserve this time.
Anddd...
Like a grand knight, you opened up the door
Welcoming me like a guest of honour.
In the hearth of your family.
A childhood with thorns,
But a castle, a beating organ of warmth
Brighter than the sun,
Blinding, enchanting
As if stars aligned,
Luck is on my side,
Ohhhh…
You take my hand…
No more witness…
I get the hugs, the love;
I get the joy, the laughs.
& for the first time in ever
I brush the painting of what's a family
& for the first time in ever,
I brush the painting of what's a family.
Anddd…
Like a grand knight, you opened up the door
Welcome me like a guest of honour.
In the hearth of your family.
A childhood with thorns,
A castle, a beating organ of warmth.
Brighter than the sun,
Blinding, enchanting.
Magic to behold,
Witness, yet hands in hold.
For one lone instant,
I get to see, I get to touch
The embracing reunion
Of what's Family.'
And just like in the song, as she reached the end, in her mind, she whispers sang it aloud as it should be … the last lines.
'Like a grand knight, you opened up the door,
Welcome me like a guest of honour.
In the magic of your family…
Galaxy of three…
In their starry castle,
Live three fairies.'
Stepping in the studio building as the last lines still echoed in her mind, as if perfectly timed, her phone pinged, and she grinned as she imagined who it might be.
She didn't get a chance to check it, however, as she was rushed into dressing room the moment she was inside. She thought about checking during break time but she just didn't have that luxury, considering how things were.
She just couldn't lose focus of her environment once she was in the studios, lowering her guard was just not an option if she cared about her safety. And she would really rather avoid her phone being ruined if she so much as showed a little too much interest checking it.
With frustration, she had to reluctantly wait until the end of her day, once she was back in the remote safety of her rental flat to be able to open her phone in peace.
Several pictures begun to pop on when she clicked on Ren's bubble, along with their commentary. Little by little the images appeared, and oddly enough, the first one was of a broken alarm clock. Lying on the ground in pieces, it looked like it had brutally crashed.
'Today, naughty buddy decided I should not wake up and broke my poor innocent alarm while I was sleeping.'
It was the next one, however, with its legend, that lighted her first giggles. It showed the huge fluffy cat lying in all noble arrogance on the side of a pillow, a familiar hand trying to fish out something from under the feline with his index and thumb.
'Phone is lying under the belly of mister stubborn, as was supposed to be the sounds waking me up since he broke my alarm two days ago. My punctuality took its first blow in forever, today, and look how proud he looks. About to stock up on alarm clocks since he somehow learned how to snooze my phone and mute the sounds of my phone.'
She pressed a fist to her lips, imagining his cat purposely ruining every way Ren had to wake and her shakes worsened. She stared at the image. It truly looked so smug, she had to agree. His majestic growing mane framing around his neck in shadowy tone of blacks, as he looked Ren's way with a soft yet intelligent glint in the eye.
Another set pictured a toppled cup of coffee–if she was to guess by the colour and the morning light shining in Ren's spotless kitchen counter—and a bag of coffee powder ruined on the floor.
'Do cats hate coffee's scent or is he just trying to prevent me from waking up by any means possible?'
She snorted.
'I feel responsible for sharing into light that in any other instance, the buddy is very good and well behaved.' Said his next message as he was rising to the defence of his cat behaviour.
Grinning, she started to type her response but had to stop as Snow plopped in her lap. The lady settled in her lap and Kyoko pet her with a hand, rewarded with a loud happy purr from her, as she scratched behind her ear and chin, before returning to her response.
'I never heard of a cat being especially bothered by coffee. Snow doesn't mind, she even tries to sneak a lick or two, and I have to watch out to prevent her from doing so. My sympathies for your alarm and punctuality. It didn't impact work too much, I hope?'
She quickly looked at the hour on her phone, making quick calculations for the time differences. And frowned soon after. It would still be only seven am in Japan. At what hour had he needed to get up, originally?
The three dots indicating typing, appeared nearly instantly, and her stomach did happy backflips as her smile grew, tension evaporating from her just from being able to talk to him.
'Good evening noble lady (ladies?), I hope your day was great. So, this kitty must truly be trying to keep me in bed. (It didn't. I pushed something around for this morning, but that's about it.)'
She shook her head at his wording, amused and replied with laughing emojis.
'Maybe he truly was.'
Another text from him came soon after and she laughed.
'I'm stuck under his majesty, with nothing to do for the next couple hours, which I'm starting to wonder if it wasn't exactly what he wanted.'
'That cat is taking really good care of you.'
'Ruling over everything, you mean.'He countered and she excitedly typed back.
'Now, you are getting it.'
'! I was not warned I gave up freedom and exchanged it for slavery upon adopting a cat.'
"Pffuahaha … this is really true."She mumbled, eyeing her sleeping cat on her legs, already fast asleep, and Kyoko was certainly not planning to move. If you dared to look at her content white-pink nose and curled up shape, how could she have bothered her?
'There is this quote I remember seeing some time ago… "A human becomes the master of a dog, its everything, upon adoption. A cat makes their human sign a tacit enslavement contract when they decide to adopt you."' She sent.
'It's always the little lines…'
'Contracts are important papers, needing to be read seriously.' She sent, playing into it.
'No mercy for emergencies, uh. Though, the feeling of it seems about right.'He commented and she could nearly hear his fake grumble.
Her chest stuttered in rhythm to her held-back amusement–she didn't want to wake up Snow, cats hated the shake of laughs and abrupt noises–, but she could vividly picture the many times thorough enslavement had been already happening, as he got more attached to his cat. He just had no escape route.
'Resign yourself, your fate is sealed.'
'Processing my new reality.'
She pinched her lips again, trying to hold to a calm breath once more.
Another text came, and reality snapped back, slapping her cheek painfully, even as her heart roughened her up in its stirring protest, as she stared at his message.
'Would it be OK to call you?' It said.
Accepting would make it that much harder later. And the rope was already worn out and bleeding.
Her plan to distance herself until she could seal back the cap on her overthrowing ignited feelings had both been too efficient, and also purely gunning to her. She had never felt so utterly useless with herself than during those last couple of months. She could do nothing. And the only times she had done such an amount of acting mistakes dated to her beginnings as an actress. If she hadn't had jobs to attend to and acts to perform, she would have wasted away, lying down on the ground in silence, and in awaiting for the agony to cease.
She was consumed by his absence, her thoughts incessantly turning back his way, his works, his acts, his smiles, his kindness, his presence, his touch…
The whole infinity his presence held. Like for his scent she couldn't help to hunt for, that had seemed to encapsulate the essence of his gentleness by her side when she could smell it, feel it. And the cold indifference its vacuity had brought into her life. As if no more kindness existed from him … to her, by the distance and absence of a mere odour.
Which was ridiculous, her aware brain kept ironing it into her mind. And his behaviour hadn't changed that much, even through texts.
But the sensation remained.
The scent, the heat his body had radiated–sometimes from just behind her back, when he would peek above her shoulder, the physical feel of the warmth of his smile–, his complete presence…
It was like the substance of his spirit, the core of his nature had been trickling out through the materiality of his body and his closeness to her, to stream into the sensorial inputs of her senses.
And per its sudden absence, her senses and emotions kept being tricked into feeling a part of his existence was missing.
She felt depraved at a level she herself failed to grasp, sometimes like a plant that had not seen the sun in a while, yet not quite.
And the lack of grasp she could have on controlling any of it.
Between her thoughts and work, only tears were lullabying her to numbness, or dreams nursing her heart with stolen moments living in fantasies.
Even as her mind clutched at her that there had been no other choice to take when the mask fell. Even as it kept telling her it had been the only way to protect their friendship, she had never regretted her own decision so much. And she felt stuck between only bad choices … with only the lurch to see him screaming through her guts.
'Is it too inconvenient right now?'
'Are you about to sleep?'
'If so, could we choose another moment?'
His texts kept firing in, like just as many blows on her eroding resistance, and his kind written droplets of affection broke into her.
'No.' She sent and pressed the green button, calling him before she could process her actions.
There was a subdued and–she thought–surprised gasp, as the call picked up.
' … Hi. I hadn't expected you to call. Give me a second,' he said in a rush, and she didn't even have time to say hi, and only heard some shuffling noise before a little bip repeated ringing sounded in her ear.
'Please pull back the phone from your face.' He suddenly asked, and as she did, she saw the request to accept a video call. She pressed play without thinking, too eager to see his face.
The moments the camera locked in and stabilized, before even their gazes had properly crossed, screaming evidence appeared on each side–though reasons hidden to one another–and like one only man, they asked:
'Are you alright?'
A remote grin made its way on each of their faces, genuine, but shy and wary, and Kyoko's shoulders mellowed down for the first time in a while as at least one of her senses was fed by his vision. But into each half second passing she gorged herself with his sight, her gaze couldn't help but notice more of the glaring signs that had alarmed her from the start. Worry gnawed at her, even through the overwhelming feelings of finally seeing him. Yes, her fault she didn't know anything about what might have happened in his life, she knew.
'You don't look so well, for a man his cat is watching over,' she said, trying not to throw him all she was feeling into the face, and not to dig too deep, despite the pressing urge to request, no, to demand he would tell her so they could do something about it. Even though, she had no right asking after mostly locking herself away from his life for months. Even though, she would not have any business demanding even before.
Even if friendship and worry were all she was entitled to plaster out.
The frown mirroring hers grew her doubts on his acceptance to her asking about his well-being. She was nearly ready to apologize when he replied, a crooked but tired smile pulled from him, heightening the bags under his eyes.
I don't think you should be the one to talk.'
Her lips opened to fall back into their usual banter, to laugh, to make a light joke of a usually light worry, of his nutrition … but it all fell short through the miasma of rekindled tension, which had now been brewed with something wilder. Despair? Anger? Sorrow? Self-loathe? There was certainly some of those sombre delicacies in her.
None of her words sounded appropriate in her head.
Not enough and not allowed.
It looked more serious than his usual not-eating business, but her tongue dried like words lacked the permitted fluidity to still ask what was wrong.
And the grown vines of their recent distance had brought blooms of unease she couldn't by-bass anymore.
Even the falseness of an 'I'm fine' seemed now forbidden, in the silence of their face-to-face.
'Tiredness accumulated some,' were the words she eventually settled for, her heart allowing the partial truth, at least.
The tipped-off smile remained but it looked glazed as he replied soberly.
'That is one way to phrase it.'
A furious mad glint shadowed in his eyes for a second, as an underlying feel of something defeated suddenly became clear to her eyes, and her concern shifted into jaws munching inside her.
' … can I do something?' Escaped her lips, even as her mind caught up to the futility of the proposition a second further.
The resignation on his face as his stare looked up to glance into hers was a blade stabbing her from behind and twisting her breath onto stop, and his smile, and its genuineness–even through the hollow hiding behind his gaze–, was one of the most bitter syrups of despair she had had to swallow as he replied.
'I'm afraid you can't.' And with that, his face suddenly softened to such a disturbingly unguarded smile–the bright of its gentleness squeezing her heart as it peeked through his dark circles–and he looked up at her from his lying down position. The disgust and unworthiness she felt at that moment, the sadness to be unable to help him, and slight feeling of rejection for having been dismissed for her inability to listen to his worries…
It took everything in her to tear up a smile in his direction and not sob at the poor sight he looked to be in and her incapacity to help him.
But worse was the feeling when, in echo, he repeated her question, showing he was no fool either, it had never been about exhaustion. Not only, anyway.
' … and me? Can I do something for you?'
Her lungs constricted in her chest as she felt the urge to scream at the world, to run to him, while the doom that awaited her lurked in the back of her mind like a snarling cackling shadow.
Her lips quivered as she stared at his face after so long, the necessary punishment she had inflicted to herself roaring like a cornered wild animal with the consequences she had been fighting not to see.
' … talking with you will already help immensely, I'm sure.' She said, mumbling the smile through the lies she was saying.
The lack of conviction in his frown, an odd insanity camouflaged in his eyes, peeking behind the genuine gentle concern … as he looked at her. And that clawing torment and coveting as his lips breached, as if he had just been waiting for her to say something, anything. The languish assertive look that followed in the tenth of second that passed, before he struck.
'That's a lie.'
Always knew how to see through me.
Yet, never on the most important thing.
Her face became wet before she could gnaw them back, and his sight blurred on her screen, as her guard broke.
Always a crybaby in front of him.
She had a rush of awareness coming just in time to turn off her mike and push her phone away, as her tears morphed into violent sobbing.
Her body shook–and Snow jumped away from her before coming back to purr against her side–as she desperately attempted to soothe herself. Rubbing her arms, breathing deeply…
But if she had turned off her mike, she hadn't done the same with the speaker, and through the raking sound of her tears, she eventually heard Ren's voice, calling her.
'Kyoko? Kyoko? I know you are still there. Please come back. Come back, I don't mind… I don't mind if you are a mess and crying. Though, I still wish I could hug you, at least and I'm sorry I can't be there. I know you can hear me. Come back, it's OK. Kyoko?'
'Fine, if you cried so much I couldn't see you on the screen because of tears and snot, it would be a bummer.
Her lips pulled at the image through her sobs, bringing salty water by the corner of her lips, she made a few steps towards her phone.
'Let me try to be silly, at least? Kyoko? Please? Should I be the one to snot all over my phone, then?'
A tiny laugh escaped her at the improbability of such thing coming from him just as she was pressing on the mike back, but it turned into a hiccup near the end. She covered her mouth with the back of her palm, not daring to look at the screen just yet.
'Come on … or should I put my threat to execution and bother the cat to do so?'Came out from his teasing voice.
She took a huge breath and let it out, rubbing her eyes with her sweater sleeve, before looking down to her phone screen. He was looking at her with soft worry plastered all over his face, and she suddenly felt guilty for giving him such a scene, after being the one responsible for her own misery.
She got ready to apologize but the moment her mouth opened, another hiccup escaped.
His eyes softened at the sound, and he broke into a smile.
'No snot?'
She coloured. Unable to contain herself, she checked to make sure she indeed didn't have unmentionables all over her face.
His gaze danced as he watched her do that.
'Wouldn't have mattered, you know? All running nose and all, you will still have been adorable.'He said, and she hid her face against her knee, feeling the embarrassment rise by the second.
'Please shut up.'She whined in her pants.
He chuckled.
'Right away, Milady.'
A good minute passed where she tried to clear her mind, all dishevelled and hiding her face, while he probably waited she sorted herself out. She took a few other inspirations, and while she didn't return her face to the screen, she felt calmer when she finally spoke again, certain he would still hear her, even if she were not looking.
' … sorry.'
'Don't.'
'Don't even dare to apology for feeling upset.'
A smile tugged at her lips, and she looked up from her stance, crouching to the phone.
'Can't I even apologize for being a mess?'
He shook his head.
'Not even that.'
His expression shifted into a caring resolute look, yet he appeared to hesitate before he spoke.
'Do you want to talk about it?'
Panic rushed in and seized her at the question, utterly unable to pretend she was alright after the show she had given him. Half-baked answers would only confuse him more and probably wouldn't fool him. She was not even sure she had much left in terms of capacity of deceit. Especially to him and especially right now. But not like truth had become a choice.
The silence prolonged until he broke it.
'So, you would rather not.'
Her grim smile was both deeply grateful and guilty, as she gave the barest of nods.
'I can … respect that. Even if it pains me you don't trust me to–'
'No. No Ren. You know I trust you.'
He looked away from the screen and she didn't think she was supposed to hear his words ... but she did.
'… Do I, now?'
Her tears were bordering on falling again at the sound of that, knowing full well, she was responsible for him thinking that.
'I trust you. I do.'
His eyes returned towards her, and she saw him smile at her, attempting to be casual about it and nod … and failing.
' … it's a little hard to believe these days.'He admitted, not really looking her way, but looking pissed, and also … somewhat … sad?
Another kind of fear, much more vigorous, gripped her when she realized she had hurt him more than she could have ever suspected. And she started to shake her head, as the idea he could blame himself, or think she was upset with him brought new rushes of disgust against herself.
'No … No… It's not your fault.'
'You have been kinda distant, you know.'He mumbled away.
She continued to shake her head.
'I told you. I've just been dealing with … something.' She swallowed, saying something like 'it is not related to you' felt too much of a fool lie for her to push it out. 'My trust in you has never changed.'
' … then why can't I share the burden at least?'She turned back to his eyes, seeing an agony she didn't understand. 'I know it might not make it better, even if you shared what was wrong and I understand what it is to not feeling ready to talk about personal things.'
She knew he did.
'But … but maybe I could still help, or alleviate things just by talking about them … it's me, no … it's you and me–her heart throbbed painfully as he pronounced those words–you know I wouldn't judge you.'
The earnest stare with which he was looking at her almost brought her to the ground, and her whole body felt numb as she pushed denying words out.
'I-I can't. This is … this is something I must go through … on my own. It's not your– '
' … my fault. But I am the one paying the price.' Rang from her phone, sizzling her ears as the tumbling of something horrific made her stomach churn.
'What? No!'
'Yes.' He said, and the lone word carried a controlled anger that was breaking free of its chains with each word that followed.
'For something that supposedly has nothing to do with me, there is an awful lot of consequences on our …–he sighed–friendship.'
Her eyes glazed on the reflection of the screen penetrating light in her apartment, as the nightmarish ringing of what was happening screamed inside of her to do everything to stop this. Foreboding, something looming… Her throat locked around her breathing in a tightening clutch and her voice pushed out in a whisper.
'I just– '
The sickening feeling morphed into the tinkling plunge of glass collapsing to the ground–but instead, it was crashing inside her gut–as she faced the dawn of his anger rising in his every trait. His gaze shifted to the side, as if he couldn't bear to stare into the screen towards her, and outside of view, her hands began to shake. His strong profile let her see the vein in his neck as he clenched his jaws with tension.
'For months now, you have been distant…'
What could she even say? What could she say that she hadn't already used as an excuse?
'I was just…'
' … busy, as you told me. And you know I understand hectic schedules.' He said, glancing her way briefly and she nodded numbly. He stared at her like he was expecting, waiting for her to say something.
'I tried to take your words as face value, I tried not to look too much into it.' She saw one of his hands twisted into a fist as he brought it to the wall. 'I tried to respect your boundaries despite everything, every sign of your behaviour towards me, saying there was something very wrong between us.'
The realization of how furious and pained he actually was, froze her into place more safely than any of her own agonies had ever done it.
'I– …'She attempted before closing her mouth, guilt gripping her on what she could actually tell him that would not be lies.
Her body turned more paralysed by every instant he stared at her with those cold accusing eyes.
'I was just– '
'Don't say busy again.' He shouted. 'I'm busy too, he resumed in an almost too sweet tone, you know that, but that doesn't mean I don't have time to send messages, to make some calls. Or that I reply by monosyllable texts. Even busier than I am right now, I would still find time for you if you asked.'
'I– '
His maddened eyes bored into her soul as he continued.
'I might not know but I'm no idiot. Or are you going to insult my intelligence and continue to pretend right to my face?'
A clanging brush of a metallic surface against something echoed in her mind as the future started to crumble right in front of her eyes. But only more doom could follow as she spoke.
'Ren … I'm not … I'm not angry … or … or anything.'
He cursed, looking even more away from her for a second. But when he turned back, his eyes were even colder.
'Seriously? Even now ... more lies?!'
'I'm not lying.' She shot back. 'I'm not angry at you.'
'Displeased?'
'What?'
'Uncomfortable? Upset? Awkward in my presence?'
She frowned at how he imagined he was the issue.
'No.'
He fixated her hardly, asserting her response, and bile rose at the idea his trust in her had begun to crumble.
'Tell me what I did so I can fix it, then.'
That again.
'Tell me and– ... and stop– ... stop this- he pressed– … I can't handle it anymore.' The wrecked sound his voice loosened hers in a sorrowful explosion, and she dropped her head back on her knee, screaming her lungs out.
'YOU DID NOTHING WRONG!'
Tense silence followed but she was too shaken to look up at her screen.
'If it's true– …'He started.
'It is.'
But he ignored her, and after an abrupt inspiration, he continued.
'If it's true … are you still planning to keep your distance?'
She wanted to deny it all. She wanted to stop. She wanted to tell him that she didn't want to stay away from him. She wanted to apologize hundreds of times for even hurting him a little. But if she did, it would make matters worse ... in the end. It would only precipitate what was already happening.
'Ren, I don– '
'Fuck this, Kyoko … damn it, damn it... Damn it all. You are still trying to lie! STOP. Stop. Fucking. Lying.' He seethed, finishing in low precise intonations.
She was. She just didn't know what else to do. She couldn't look him in the eye anymore. She didn't have the courage to speak aloud what would only be more lies and remained silent. She might not be able to stop … not until she could hide what she felt in his presence, but maybe she could spare him some lies by her silence.
There was a harsh expiration.
'Look at me.' She shivered at his intonation, wondering why her brain made her think he was begging when she could clearly feel how angry he was. Look at me right now, Kyoko, and tell me the truth!
Compelled by an unknown force, she glided her eyes to the screen, crossing his furiously pained ones.
'Tell me the truth…' He said again, stopping, searching her face for something she ignored. 'Tell me... The truth.'
'Did you …–he took a harsh breath– ... put distance between us ... on purpose?' The stern whisper mirroring with how his eyes begged, dared her to be anything but genuine.
She felt tears prickle her eyes and she couldn't hold his stare anymore as she eventually replied, hiding behind her hair.
' … yes.'
Quiet didn't last this time, as a huge crashing sound suddenly came from her phone, and she looked back worryingly, but he was out of her screen angle.
' … fuck.'
Kyoko shivered. She never wanted to hear that tone in his voice again.
'It's- …-it's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault.'
She kept repeating.
It was hers. Only hers.
A muffled thud came but he didn't appear back on screen.
'Haaa … Lord forbid, the day it is truly my fault … haha … hahaha…' There was something so broken in his voice, she barely jumped at the jab. She deserved it anyway.
Another silence followed, only cut by their breathing, until he murmured something she failed to grasp. Then, something else, barely louder but enough for her to catch it.
'I can't do this. Not anymore.'
Her heart hiccuped brokenly but even with tears running freely again, she managed to keep her sobs silent this time. She thought him generous enough to try to comfort her, even through his justified anger if he knew.
More time passed, until he resumed in a voice that sounded nearly indifferent.
'Is it solvable?'
She didn't know. She had taken some distance to be able to put the mask again, to avoid hurting him. But she had ended up doing it nonetheless. The thought made her tears ran harder. That was she had wanted to avoid the most and she had failed anyway. In comparison, her feelings seemed so crude to even pretend to have.
Which only brought one lonely genius, but impossible solution. The only one that would solve everything. She didn't know if it was possible. But putting back a mask as she was, as she felt … would never work again.
Only one way remained.
She had to give up. Move on, and turn the page on what she felt until her feelings would only be a memory. The task appeared risible with how much she felt. She would have to bury them, crush them. Find any support that could help to not feel them anymore.
It was the most precious thing she possessed, but if she was hurting him … if it was the only way to spare him…
She would do it.
'I need some…time, but then … yes.'
There was a long sigh on the other end of the line.
' … Alright. I think, ahh … I think I need some too, this time, so, then … all good.'
Her chest broke at those words and her fingers peeled into her skin to prevent her from screaming her desolation.
'I never meant to hurt you…' She cracked out, 'I'm sorry.'
'Me too.' Came from his rough voice. 'I'll … let you be, then.'
'Goodbye.'He said and she heard the shuffling noises of him grabbing back his phone.
'Goodbye,' she whispered, '… Ren….. Ren.'
Corn...
The line disconnected.
It was over. In every horrendous way possible.
I lost him.
PS: So, this chapter is going to be hard. I know. I know dear readers. But at some point, something needs to give. They cannot stay stuck.
Have faith dear readers of mine, though. Something...
Something very good is coming.
I wish you all a good read and that you will still have loved this chapter, and the song.
Have faith.
I wish you all a good end of April and a great beginning of May.
See you soon, hopefully.
Kisses,
Mimagfan.
AUTHOR OUT.