Watching Over You • Nomin

sixteen

"Give her some time... my foot!" he thought.

Jeno found himself in a vulnerable position again as he ran into Jiya in the University.

"Hey..." she said with a sad smile.

"uhm...hey," Jeno replied. He didn't know if she was looking worse than she was looking a few weeks ago or if she was trying to do well. He hadn't seen her since the week she had confessed to him.

Jeno shivered as the winter breeze hit his skin making him hug his jacket tighter. He didn't see her bulge but she was giving him the "look" she always did. Jeno didn't like the affection in her eyes. He wanted her to move on.

"Can we talk?" she asked with a smile but her eyes begged to differ.

Jeno thought a second about it. "Is there anything else to talk about?" Jeno didn't mean to come out that rude. "I'm sorry... I- I didn't mean to sound rude... but uhm, I don't think this is-"

"Just for once, Jeno... I promise I won't meet you again..." she begged.

"Jiya... I don't know... you are hurting yourself... maybe me too," Jeno said and looked down.

"It's a promise... last time..." she insisted.

They walked into the park. It's been mere weeks and Jeno kinda missed the memories he associated himself with the park.

"Aren't you cold?" Jeno asked when they sat on a bench.

Jiya just shrugged and took her phone out and plugged in earphones and handed one to Jeno.

"What are we doing?" Jeno asked, confused.

"Relax," she laughed.

Maybe Jeno was tripping but even her laugh sounded depressed.

"I wanted to hear this with you... but I wanted to do it maybe after I told you that I loved you... "

"Jiya I-"

She cleared her throat as though changing the topic and playing the audio.

"Chopin?"

Jiya gave him a wide smile, "Nocturne," she nodded.

The park around seemed deserted and the snowfall at the moment wasn't helping at all. It was too perfect for the way Jiya felt.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"It's... melancholic yet... something seems soothing."

Jiya smiled and chuckled softly. "You get the thing about this, don't you?" she asked. "Every time I felt sad... this helped me..." she said as she leaned on his shoulder. Jeno felt as though he was acting for a sad scene in a movie, with the music in his ears and the snowfall in front of him suddenly made him depressed. And Jiya was here to make things worse for him.

"When I expected something from us, I expected this to suddenly give me emotional support to be happy. That's the beauty of these pieces. You can feel it filling you when you're both sad and happy. Perhaps, I can never understand why this would make someone happy because... I always feel the other way,"

Jeno already felt those tears falling from her eyes. He didn't understand why she was hurting herself like this. He wondered why she never had friends or why Jeno never saw her hanging out with someone.

"So... you play?" Jeno asked.

"My uncle used to..."

Oh dear lord.

"I'm sorry..."

"Am I so bad that you won't even come around this place anymore?" she questioned.