Rain to Sea

1.Her heart's treasure

T/W mentions of suicide
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He was alone. He had a house, he had a girlfriend, he had a job; everything that makes a person happy but Gun always feels alone. Anyone would assume that he should've settled with whatever he had. Things would have been better if he learnt to somehow be happy with it, he thinks but his heart aching with a sense of solitude tells him otherwise. 

It has been a heavy burden to carry. It's better not to find another shoulder to transfer that burden which he clearly has been trying with Jane. That didn't quite work out.

He has learnt that lesson by looking at his mom. Once a fine woman praised by all men and women alike for her refined manners and outstanding talents, now looks nothing more than a worn out shell dressed in agony in and out. 

It's guilt. It has been plaguing both mother and son alike since the death of the most important person in their lives. With the death of his little sister, he lost everything he had -his mother, his family, his happiness..

A bitter turning point in life. 

Now his mother rarely talks with him. He has also learnt to go with the flow as they say, not trying too much to push her out of her shell. Once he recklessly tried only to be  rewarded by her sheer rage. 
You weren't even here. She hissed with so much bitterness that he couldn't recognize his mom at all. It's simply the woman who used to be his mom that remained after that. 

It was true. He wasn't with her when his sister so selfishly threw herself into the lake. And whose fault was that? He was merely a child when he was sent away. It was either him or her sister, at that time. One of them had to go abroad with their father when their parents divorced. Back then he didn't want his sister to grow up without a mother. And all now he wishes is to go back in time and take her place if only that would have kept her alive. 

Emma's slightly cluttered room still looks the same. The remnants of her existence preserved well within this four walled room. 

Closing his eyes he let his fingers drift over the neatly arranged bedding. It hasn't been his intention to barge into her room, the room she had breathed in during her final teenage years and go through this agony.

On top of all those issues haunting his mind, the recent house-breaking incidents in the neighborhood pushes his mom over the edge that he finds himself screaming  after catching her ridiculous text message.  Keep her room safe, she had written as if the trinkets in this room would be of any interest to potential house-breaking bastards. He dared not to comment. 

But this whole exercise feels heavy on his heart, the guilt starts flowing in,  he tries so hard to shut that feeling away. He hastily turns towards the door, goes stumbling on the floor, desperately tries to grab onto something so that he won't fall but instead he ends up destroying Emma's makeshift closet. 

He looks at the ruin and gasps. His mom won't let him live if she sees this. 

Then he sees it…  Emma's treasure box tucked away safely between her clothes. 

For the next few seconds, he's mulling over the options he had, whether to open the box or not. Though he had spent most of his time away from her, she's still his little sister whom he would have teased and played with if she was alive. 

Curiosity wins in the end and he opens it. 

There's nothing but a few trinkets filling the interior. Underneath those lies a photograph protected like a treasure. 

He takes the photograph and he is greeted by a young man wearing a sports kit, appearing no more than a teenager when the photograph was taken, making the peace sign with a goofy smile. Probably a middle schooler from their hometown given that his mom with his sister moved to the city when Emma was to go to highschool. 

Curiously he turns the photograph and he has guessed right, she has scribbled the name ''OFF'' with a heart next to it. 

Just like that, he found a hidden part of his sister's heart that would have probably been hidden forever if he didn't unintentionally sabotage her room. 

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A/N-  I know this chapter is kinda boring but it was necessary for the story.