"i'm not scared of you, or the blood you have on your hands, or the fear you hide behind your knuckles. you're quiet, and naive, yet you've seen all the dangerous depths of the world. it makes you dark, disruptive. nevertheless, i cannot be scared o...
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"I want to give you something" I said softly, grabbing her hands and unrolling it out of its ball. I placed the small box—that used to be in the bouquet of flowers—into her palm.
She cocked her head to side, inquiring me with a curious tone "What is it?"
"Open it"
She snapped the box open and her finger slowly ran from the brims of the velvet then towards the small bottle inside the box. I could tell she was examining it with her touch, her finger grazing against the bottle to stop at the tip. Scrunching her eyebrows, she raised her finger to her nose.
"Perfume?" She glanced up. Though I knew she couldn't see me, but I nodded anyways, taking the bottle out of the box and placing it in her free hand.
"It's called Rose Atlantic. Reminds of the summer wind, dunegrass in the distance, roseship and a big white lighthouse" He smiled "It's similar to the perfume you usually put on"
"I like it. Funny thing is, my dream is to go to a beach. I've never actually been" She continued to explore the perfume bottle, finding the button and pressing down on it. The mist blended with the air.
"Me neither. Maybe sometime we can go together"
"Deal" She smiled, then her thumb ran over the labelling stuck on the glass of the perfume. She let out a snort "Winwin?"
I snatched the bottle from her, shoving it back into the box and sliding it into her bag.
"Don't laugh, took me ages to carve" I sneered. On the perfume bottle was carved with a bunch of dots, precisely, braille. It spelt Winwin. I wanted her to know which perfume was the one I gave her. As I stared at her laughing, I had a sudden urge to kiss her. She was so pretty under the sun's touches, the quilt of clouds casting a spontaneous shadow upon her cheek. Her lips were highlighted by the auburn rays and her eyes, oh her eyes, they sparkles with such majesty that I could've sworn there lived a bunch of fireflies.
"I can feel your eyes on me, Winwin" Her hand reached out to touch my arm. I froze.
"Uhm" I ripped my eyes away, until a pair of hands caught my face, my cheeks squished between her tenders fingers. I blinked. My heart was racing too fast.
And then she kissed me. Just a peck on the lips, nothing more nothing less.
My heart bursted
"I'm going to do the surgery" She spoke quietly "I want to see what you look like"
•••
"OK but Sebastien was 100% the MVP of the movie"
"Oh shut up, it's a mermaid movie! The MVP can't be a crab"
"Best singer out of all of them might I add"
"You'd think if I can't see, at least I can determine who's the better singer. It's obviously Ariel, I mean, the whole movie is about her!"
Our hands were intertwined, strolling down the corridor and arguing with each other over the most insignificant things. It's been a while since I've smiled like this. She made me happy. And her hands were so warm. It was not until someone bumped my shoulder that I completely halted.
Yangyang passed me, without even glancing mildly in my direction. I hadn't talked to him since the day that had happened, and I hadn't seen him and Yun together for days.
"Hm?" Sooah looked up at me
"Sorry" We continued walking "It was Yangyang"
"You still haven't fixed things with him?"
I shook my head "Im sure we can fix things later. But, I do want to take you somewhere"
"Where?"
"You'll see"
•••
The hospital scent never smelled so gross. The ugly fragrant of cleaners and a pungent metal tang. A man sitting in along one of the plastic chairs bought his fist to his mouth and filled the air with harsh, hacking coughs. Scrunching my nose in disgust, I wheeled Sooah away, down a familiar route.
"This smells like the hospital" She shivered, clenching harder to my grip.
"We are at the hospital" I replied. We are now standing in front of a sliding door, bold numbers indicating the number of the room and a small name tag slid between the plastic pocket beside the door.
I guided Sooah in, smiling as a pale woman came into view. She was feeble and skinny, barely any colour on her lips and a heavy oxygen mask trapping her mouth. Her hair was in a scattered mess, like a grey nest.
"This is my mother" I introduced to Sooah, her eyes widened. I took Sooah's hand and placed it on top of my mum's that had a grey clip around her index finger.
"She's ill. She has been for ages. My father was abusive. He often hit me and tortured me whenever he had too much to drink or had a bad day. Every once in a while, my dad would come storming at me with his golf trophy in hand, and strike me across the cheek. My mum would try to stop it, but my father was too afraid to hit her in fear that she would ask for a divorce. That's how we lived for ages: my mum as my shield and my dad as the gun" I sighed and evidentially, Sooah's grip around my mothers hand tightened "Then one day, my dad accidentally struck my mum across the head. She had always had a heart condition, but it was never particularly serious. That day she got a concussion, and her heart disease got drastically worse. After some time, it just got worse and worse, and now, she's barely conscious enough to speak"
I sighed, leaning my head against Sooah's. I could sense her sympathy as she clutched my mum's hand, a tear sliding down her face.
"That's why I joined the gang; the one you stumbled into. There, I felt powerful. It was as if I had found my home. I learnt how to fight and I slowly gained my confident back up. I fought a lot of people back then, at a young age too. All I wanted to do was take revenge, but my leader said revenge was a dangerous thing and how I must learn to kill before to truly understand the danger of revenge. So I killed"
I waited for her reaction. She gave me none.
"Then I quit. There was one day, I was carrying out a mission to kill this man. It was the first time I was ordered to properly kill someone on a mission. I shot the man, and I had sworn I had just murdered him. He didn't die, which made my leader mad. That moment was the worse moment I had ever endured. My leader...someone who could've been my own blood-related brother, shot me. It was a rule there. A mistake meant death. I knew that. But somehow I felt as though he wouldn't dare lay a finger on me, but he did. Soon someone saved me and I found myself hospitalised for months. That's when I began studying then got into this university...may have pulled some strings but I'm here" I grinned "Then I met you"
Sooah chuckled softly. Her eyes trained on my mother as her thumb began to softly run itself over my mothers knuckles.
"Your son is bravest, most strongest person I've ever met. You've protected him well before, and now, it's my turn to protect him. And I swear on my life, that he will be safe with me. I won't ever let him have to experience all that again" Her eyes fell on mine "I promise"
