𝑺𝑬𝑬𝑫 𝑶𝑭 𝑰𝑪𝑯𝑶𝑹 •𝒃𝒙𝒃•

6 ~ fine line

AN: This is what he looks like! ^

Yue was the one who spent his birthdays with him.

The only one.

She'd sneak out a basket of the finest meat they had and the two of them would spend the entire night together.

Together.

She...was the sweetest melody on these eyes and ears. He could wrap himself up in her words and sleep more soundly than a baby. He guessed that's attraction, but it felt so deep, as if it was the start of a song that plays on and on, a song whose melodies only he could hear, so soothing to his soul. This was everything he needed and wanted, and yet he panicked all the same.

Her kind words and kinds actions gave him hope that something could actually come out of this, and he berated himself for this foolish thinking for he knew their worlds were too far apart to ever come together. She was the chief's daughter. He was an outcast. Only in the fairytales his mother read to him could the princess and the street rat be together. Those kinds of things never happened in the real world.

Never.

Besides, the dangly necklace around her neck had long since made him stop trying. She was engaged, and it was only a matter of time before she was to be married.

Her birthday was tomorrow, and after that...

Still...each time he looked at her, each time she gave him a trickle of attention, the want in him would grow and grow and grow, and it was painful.

Chief Arnook was a kind man, but he wasn't kind.

So Guren never did anything. He didn't give truth to his feelings. If he denied it all, if he locked away its existence, never showed anyone, then it wasn't real. That's how it worked. He will never tell Yue, no matter what, for she will never see him in the same warm, blinding light that he saw her. She was special to him, so, so special, but she wasn't the special person his mother talked about.

She could never be.

What a twisted fate this was.

"You're spacing out again," Yue nudged him, pushing their shoulders together. "What, is the food not to your taste?"

She was looking at him, bright blue eyes aimed upwards.

He outgrew her real quick. She was taller than him until he turned fourteen, and always jokingly called him 'Little Bro' to mock their height differences, even though he was the older one.

The 'Little Bro' soon turned into 'Big Bro' and it became her way of teasing him whenever something happened, or when she wanted to get his attention.

"Big Bro~?" She dragged out her words.

Hearing her call him that only proved that she saw him as nothing else other than a best friend and, perhaps, a sibling.

His lips stretched out into a smile, one tight enough to make him wonder if his skin would break if he continued smiling. "You made the food, didn't you? What else can it be other than delicious~?" He raised his hand and vigorously ruffled her white, white hair, forcing the strands out of their confinements.

Yue spluttered, slapping his hand away and taking a few steps back. "You've got to stop doing that! Do you know how long it takes me to tie everything up?!" Even as she yelled, a light smile played at her lips.

He hated how it made him feel. So weak and vulnerable. If there came a day where his facade cracked and she saw all that was underneath, it would only bring trouble. He didn't want things to change- No, that was a lie. He constantly lied to himself, feigning innocence where it cannot be found no matter how deep he dug. There was nothing innocent about his feelings towards her. It wasn't puppy love, it wasn't mere affection, it was so much more, both in body and soul and in everything that came between.