System RUIN: Sweet Chaos

Interlude: Hereafter

Summer is the time of solitude; a time of windy waves below the scorching sun and the grapple of joyous sands. It's the same view every year— Summer that is, like nothing had ever changed at all.

And Hussey, she loves it 

California's coast never felt so refreshing in her skin that somehow convinced her she was reborn everytime she dived. And everytime she looks up, the beams hurt her eyes and the same image flashed her mind— a sad one, too, but what can she do if it's the only memory to hold on too?

"Yuna!" She hears a call from the pier making her look up. She spots an awfully familiar face that made her dive back in urgency. She welcomes the sand contrasting her melanin feet, hands drying off the sea in her hair and stared at the boy stepping closer.

"We need to talk." He hisses, smiling face almost gone like he was never happy at all. Hussey could feel her heart drop, the timer rings, and the rooster calls. She knew what this meant.

As soon as they tread off the mansion in sights of the small island, Jeongin had already given her a magazine marked in one the pages. She opens it and her heart drops.

"He's settling down."

"Shit." She utters in annoyance. The guilt in her flesh becoming alive with the summer. Jeongin taps his foot annoyingly infront of her and his fidgety nature makes her forget how he's one of the top models out there.

"I can't believe him! He said he'll wait...." Hussey mutters.

"My theory is— Mr. Choi has been ill for a long time now, he's just granting a dying wish." Jeongin moves his hand infront of me like a newscaster.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, he isn't that type.... is he?"

Jeongin chuckles. "That man... he's weaker than you think he is."

Hussey sighs, unable to even say something because she doesn't know. She never had. Years had gone by... he could've moved on, can't he?

They could have. They all must have too; spending too much time on those memories will make them suffer. And Hussey felt bad for wishing they didn't.

Because years later, Hussey stayed. It seemed like she's the only one who did. Like the sunrays everyday, the moments passed by her mind and reviewed it again and again.

Five years ago, in a red dress by the coastal line. She was there.

And maybe, she couldn't move on because she knew deep inside her mind it wasn't finished. She never finished. And it was only a matter of time she did.

Her name would become existing again— a ressurection of an empty casket all of them had buried. The ghost of a nightmare, she was to them. And yet she couldn't help but haunt them.

After all, she was the one behind everything that resulted to her anguish, to their anguish. There are no promises of the past, but rather a pledge for the future. And the future comes now.

After all, the aftertaste of chaos will never be sweeter as it is bitter— the aftertaste is bittersweet, and it lingers in your mouth for five years.

Hussey stands and eyes Jeongin, a smile in the form of her lips.

"I'm going back to Seoul."

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