•Do you really love me? || Levihan fic•

Chapter 6 - Realization

(It is advisable to reread the previous revised chapters before proceeding.)

Before four-eyes could speak further, she was interrupted by a small ding indicating that we had reached our destination, followed by the opening of the door. Hanji walked out of the elevator and signaled to me to follow. Complying, I walked out as well. I waited for her to start speaking but instead, she started to trudge through the hallway. We passed by rooms that seemed like offices and other labs, neither of us uttering a single word. Not that it was an awkward silence, it still is unusual for Hanji to make her blabber wait. We stopped in front of a room that is significantly bigger than the others. She rummaged through the pocket of her lab coat and brought out a couple of keys. She picked out the rounder one and jabbed it into the keyhole, twisted it, then pushed the door open. She took a step inside and ran her hand on the right wall. As she did that the light flickered on. She took this as an indication to go further inside. I took a step forward and was face-slammed by the gaseous smell of the room. It was overwhelming, really. But my nose was quick to wrap itself on it. Hanji turned around and extended both her hands to her sides, leveling it to her shoulders.

"Welcome to our humble abode!" She said excitedly and uncomfortably loud. "Now that we have our privacy, I can tell you about our oh-so-complicated relationship." She said, this time with a lower volume.

She grabbed a tall, metal stool and sat on it with her hands both in between her legs. "There's one on your left." She said as she pointed to the indicated side. I looked as she said so and grabbed it. I ran a finger around the middle of the seat to inspect if it doesn't have any questionable liquid stained on it. I looked at the said finger and mentally joyed when it is indeed clean. I sat down and I heard a slight chuckle from the woman across.

"To start from the beginning.." This is gonna be long, I thought. "You see, Erwin and I went way back from high-school. We tried to be romantically inclined back then. But with him being the student council president and me spending every free time on the lab, it obviously didn't work, so we remained friends from then on." I stared at her while listening to her story. I found the way her eyes sparkle and her hands flowing from one direction to the other.

"We parted ways when we started college. And reconciled once more when.." She gave a small pause and I can see in her face that whatever will come next obviously pained her. "When my parents passed away." I raised my eyebrows. Was it really ok for her to say this to me? As I opened my mouth to ask her, she spoke again. "Oh, no Levi, it's completely okay for me to tell you this. This happened a long time ago anyway." She said like she was reading my mind.

"How did they? You know.." I asked pertaining to how her parents passed away. "There was a mechanical malfunction on one of the equipment they were working on, causing it to blow up. At first we thought it was a normal lab accident. But then they got extremely sick. We found out that the machine emitted dangerous level of gamma radiation. That was what robbed them of the rest of their lives." She looked down at her hands, I gave her a quick glance and noticed that she was gloomy than before. "I'm a little relieved when they said they'll die happy because they died for their dreams. Yet, they regret that they had to leave me behind." She continued. I tried to find words to comfort her. It was in vain, so I settled for a apology. "I'm sorry." I muttered. She shook her head saying that I don't need to apologize and gave me a soft smile before continuing.

"Erwin's parents took me under their wing even when I insisted that I can live alone with my parents' insurance money. So I'll be forever grateful to them." She let out a single laugh and her gloomy aura seemed to settle down. "I moved out when I had finished college. I kept in contact with him though. Eventually, we realized that we haven't had a serious relationship for years. Since we're always together, we decided that when the both of us turns 30 and the situation didn't change, we'll marry each other." I made a face at the end of her sentence. The two of them surely are abnormal. She looked up and inspected my face. She gave me a normal laugh that I didn't even know she can do. "There was one rule though, and that is to have an open relationship. Seeing that we didn't enter the relationship because of feelings, and to also give us more freedom to choose the person we'll want to really marry." She finished her explanation with a shrug. "No hard feelings for the one left behind."