the villainess x the soos (collaboration between small_mew and abralhugres)

Part 5

The all too familiar noise was what woke her up. Cale moved, perhaps out of habit but perhaps out of a desire she had yet to fully acknowledge, out of bed and towards the stairs where she would surely find Jungsoo at the bottom. Alone and cleaning his sword with an air of grief that caused Cale's heart to pinch up terribly.

She walked silently so as not to give away her presence just yet. She hadn't had a reason, only that she felt a bit anxious about this particular night.

Despite the familiarity of the noise, there was something different tonight.

Still, she descended the steps with every intention of keeping him company through his strange nightly ritual.

She froze before she reached the final step though, her eyes alighting on the trio seated comfortably together on the couch. Jungsoo was there sure as anything, his sword delicately attended to with that same somber sweetness that Cale witnessed that first night. However in stark difference to what she'd expected, he was currently comfortably sandwiched between Roksu and Soohyuk. His head practically laying against Soohyuk's chest as Roksu held his hand and whispered something softly to him.

It was an unapproachable scene. A private scene. One that she had no place in at all. Yet she couldn't bring herself to move away, not even to look away. She felt trapped by the sight and rejected all at once.

It hardly made any sense for her to feel any rejection at all. It wasn't as though they had agreed to meet in the evening together or that she was any special entity to Jungsoo. They were unlikely strangers in an unlikely situation together and she had only happened to spot him in a moment of weakness a few times.

She wasn't the one who should be comforting him. She wasn't the person who he wanted comfort from. He had two wonderful people at his side who loved him and cared for him. He deserved that sort of love too. Jungsoo was a sweet and kind person who welcomed her with the kindness that she might not have deserved. The three of them all deserved one another. She'd lived with them long enough to know that they were happiest with one another. She had disrupted their happy little lives by arriving and they'd still treated her with every bit of kindness and respect, with exception to that terrible first meeting.

A part of her, one that didn't know her place, wanted to join the three of them. To cozy up on the couch alongside them to also show that she cared about Jungsoo's happiness. To be there and feel the warmth that the three of them possessed.

She didn't belong there though. No one wanted her to join. Should they even realize she was here, spying on them from the stairs, they would likely feel disgusted and uneasy.

Cale Henituse wasn't a welcomed presence. Not to anyone.

It was, strangely, a reminder of what home was like. A happy family enjoying the company of one another that would be so much happier if she wasn't there. Although no one had said such a thing, Cale always felt it.

How much better her family might feel without her there. The vestige from a previous marriage. A reminder to her father of the wife he'd lost. The uncomfortable drunkard who behaved dreadfully and caused her own siblings to flinch in fear whenever she came to the dining table.

In her heart, she always felt they'd be better off without her. Perhaps now they truly were. Happier and more peaceful in the knowledge that she was gone and she'd never be back to destroy another meal.

And even still she wanted to go home. Even if they all hated her or found her disgusting, she wanted to be there. Bassen could hardly be depended upon to protect himself and she wasn't done redirecting scrutiny away from him and the rest of her family.

Cale was a queer person. Despite believing in herself that she wasn't loved, she still loved others. She couldn't quite help it and she certainly wouldn't stop protecting the people she cared about simply because they didn't love her in return.