LITTLE ONES || NA JAEMIN

*CHAPTER 33

The clouds were a puff of soft blue, radiating warmth and joy. The trees moved with the wind as if choreographed by nature. The flowers dance amidst the windswept trees, and the birds sang tales of happiness and exuberation.

A picture-perfect day.

Jia hummed in content as she began her day with a smile so beaming, even the sun couldn't match her glow. Happy is what she felt- as if the blackness had lifted off her shoulders, the end of bitter grey days. And as she let the rays from the sun color her skin golden, a radiant smile made its way onto her lips like a blooming flower amidst the shades of greens.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the apartment, and she smiled extensively, the presence of the male turning her all giddy and smiley.

Jaemin- the person that lights up her world, the one that makes her happy. He was like fireworks and chatters, stirring her up like a storm. He gave her a sense of completeness- as if her smiles were incomplete without him by her side, as if her breaths were sketchy when he was away. And he was back- back in her arms, back in her world.

"Good morning!" Jia chirped as she turned to face him, her smile bursting from within at the sight of the male.

Jaemin hummed as he made his way down the stairs, an air of indifference surrounding him. His emotionless eyes remained nonchalantly on Jia for a few seconds before averting his gaze towards the front door.

Jia's bright smile fell at his impassive stare as if gravity was pulling onto the edges of her lips with full force. Her shoulders hunched together, and she wanted nothing but to disappear under his stoic glance- erased, eradicated.

There he was- the insouciant Jaemin. His dark brown orbs held nothing but an ocean of vast emptiness, and she shivered at his callous indifference.

"Are you leaving already?" Jia managed to whisper, her breathing shallow as she gulped down a rather large lump.

"What does it look like?" Jaemin deadpanned, glancing back at her with his blank orbs.

Those hollow orbs looked at her with so much emptiness that Jia had to turn away, hid from his vacant stare. Words abandoned her, leaving her mute. She felt her mind cycling through an emotional hurricane, the vessel of hope cracking a little more.

Chaos swirled through her brain, and as she watched him leave, her heart hummed with a sorrowful tune. Emotions leaped in the air as if a firecracker had gone off, momentary happiness before an unending sea of sadness, the return of bitter grey days.

Jia let out a breathy chuckle as her legs folded and she subsided onto the floor. Her fingers trembled as if in spasm, and her guts churned with crippling sadness.

All of a sudden, she doubled up and burst into a loud crackle of laughter. But the laughs weren't of happiness and joy but of sadness and hurt. A state of intoxication enveloped her as the waves of laughter slowly turned to tears, trickling down her pink cheeks in desolation. What was I thinking?

That same night, Jaemin came back to her once again- drunk and guilty. He begged her to let him in, to give him one more chance. And Jia wavered under his pleading gaze once again, his regret laced voice moving her heart one last time, or so she thought.

The next few days remained the exact same- an apathetic Jaemin in the morning while a guilty Jaemin at night. The nights were filled with raw emotions and love, while the days were an opera of indifference and hurt. And Jia died a little each day, her heart shattering a little more with every unerring bullet.

It was as if she was hardwired for him and his wavering emotions, the push and pull of those intense feelings faltering her resolve again and again.

But as she watched him drown amidst the ocean of strong and barely controllable emotions night after night, she realized one thing. That no matter how many layers of walls she builds to keep herself from faltering, Jaemin had the power to break them all apart.

While Jia was a sandcastle, Jaemin was the soul building it and the ocean tides tearing it. He could shred her into pieces and build her up with just one single gaze. And she hated it. She hated the fact that he had the power to her heart, the remote to her soul.

And she hated herself more for giving him the power to reign over her like a ruthless dictator.

But she knew she was his anchor, his only home. So she let him inflict innumerable unhealing wounds as she bled a little more every day.

'Why?' you'd ask. Because Jia, my friend, was in love. And love is gracefully and perpetually blind.

The kids are not appearing for a few more chapters. And Jaemin is a cold, heartless bastard.