𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐄 - 𝙬𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙥

- 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗙𝗜𝗩𝗘

𝗈𝗈𝗏. 𝕯𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝕹𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝖄𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝖂𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝕿𝗼 𝕱𝗹𝘆.

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Samuel / Thanasis' Point of View

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𝐈𝐓 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀 𝐖𝐄𝐄𝐊 𝐀𝐅𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄 — meeting with them. Ever since then, I've been having night terrors and flashbacks of my previous life more than before.

It's terrifying to remember everything up until the night of my rebirth. I remember every word and the excruciating pain I have felt that jolted throughout my body when the bullet impelled itself in my head and I remember the darkness I float on to for a long ass time.

Aside from the pain, I've been swallowed by anger as well. I mean... Who do they think they are? They honestly think that if they get me to see them all at once, everything is fine. They think everything would be cupcakes and rainbows just because they wanted to.

Fat chance. I'll never forgive them. Not Manuel and Selene and neither Claude and Athanasia.

I've been alone for so long, so I don't need them. I learned to hold my own hand and walk my own path in life so there's no need for anyone anymore.

No more pain, no more degrading, and no more betrayal.

Sighing, I walk out of my so-called bedroom and went out to get myself some food to eat. Good God, I'm starving.

As I walk around the same area where I usually get my food ingredients, my mind starts to wander off again on its own.

“ Umm... Is this seat taken? ”

A soft feminine voice rang up to my ears as I sat behind my desk and several textbooks on top of it. Pen in my hand and a notebook neatly laying on top of my desk.

I turn to my right where a girl in the same uniform as I was — only for females, and has a few books resting in her arms. She's a brunette with eyes of a darker shade of the same color that held innocence and care within them.

I don't recognize her nor does she look anyway familiar so I only nodded and turn back to what I am previously doing.

“ I'm Aireen Eun. Nice to meet you! ” she said — interrupting my peace.

“ Samuel Kang. ”

“ Kang? As in the successor of Kang Medical Hospital? ” she said and I ignored her. It's annoying that every time I introduce myself, I'm always associated with my family's title.

She seems to get the atmosphere and stayed quiet. That went on for a couple of months until after the midterm exam which I passed with flying colors.

A week after the exam, she started to pester the living daylights out of me until I started to warm up to her.

She's always bubbly and joyful — in contrast to my silence and stoic attitude but even then, that didn't stop her to try and break the wall and befriend me.

It took a while but she did and for that moment, I feel like I am more than just Samuel Kang. She made me feel that I am who I am and not by title or anything.

I honestly thought she could save me but that hope was shattered by the same hands she used to build it.

I can understand now that no one can save me. No one at all.

Looking back now after everything that happened. I realized that I've always been alone from the very beginning and now that I'm in this situation — I honestly think I could make it on my own.

Shaking the thoughts off of my head and look around. All look unfamiliar to me and it looks nothing like the garden of the Ruby Palace.

Looking around and walking in a pathway within the foreign garden. I continue to walk until I hear some noises. Following it until I come across a sight that made my muscles tense and my stomach turn.

On the other side of the bushes is the father-daughter duo — having tea and having fun.

My head went blank and my heart clenched painfully. It's not the fact that Athanasia and Claude are having fun but the whole interaction itself that made my heart feel like it was stabbed by hundreds of needles.

The interaction and affection between a child and a parent — something that I longed for so long. Something that I fantasize about every time that I get a perfect score, every time I get awards, and every time I get achievements that I thought would make my parents proud.

It was like all the things that happened between me and the parents I looked up to back in my last life, flashes in front of my eyes but the more I look at it the more I realize that I've never experienced any affection at all.

I snapped out of my trance when I feel something wet running down my cheeks. I lift a hand and wipe my cheeks to know I'm crying.

Shaking my head and wiping my face clean, I silently walk out of the area and try to navigate my way out of the garden. Retracing my step from where I came from and finally getting out.

Getting back to the Ruby Palace, I was greeted by the silence. An everyday silence that seems to creep under my skin after what I witnessed early.

“ This is fucked up. Just when I'm finally getting my peace, things just had to come at me and shatter it all. ” I mutter and walk-in.

Heading to bed with an empty stomach and raising thoughts in my head.

When am I going to be happy? When am I going to feel like I'm worth it? That I'm worth loving? Worth caring? Hell, worth living a happy life with family and friends? So I don't have to be alone.

How many lives do I have to live the same treatment of loneliness? But why does loneliness finally get to me? Why now? Just when I thought I don't need anyone's wings to fly?

Somebody save me.

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This is a boring chapter ngl.