Separated

Chapter 28 - Minori

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I wasn't sure why I felt so nervous. This whole night I was trying to find him.

What if he wasn't here? What if we didn't share mutual feelings.

Oh my God, Minori, pull yourself together. You need to act better than this. You are better than this. Right now you are acting just like any other headless girl.

But he'd be worth it.

I need to shake this mindset out of my system. I sound stupid. How could I be so sure about a man I barely know? 

But those thought in itself vanished when I find him. Above the main hall up in the balcony, in the dark I see him looking as dashing as ever but with a girl. She was probably older than me and was the perfect blond. I wasn't quite sure who she was, but she approached Nikolai with shameless confidence and attempted to grab his arm. Probably to latch herself onto him.

My initial thought is how pathetic she looks. Practically throwing herself onto him. And the fact that he pushed her away like she was some fly bothering his peace just in that moment.

But then my second thought was how normal the scene looked for the both of them. Like this has happened multiple times before. Like that was natural.

My mind clouds with just as pathetic thoughts, doubting the connection I thought we shared. But I wasn't raised to be pathetic. I was raised to be excellent. I was raised to destroy those who were blocking my path. I wasn't quite sure who I should destroy in this particular path, but I suppose its worth listening to his side first.

Within seconds after facing away from that seen, I feel the familiar warmth and comfort he seems to only bring before I actually see him. I turn around attempting to find the presence. But I needn't look, he was right in front of me.

"How are you?" He asks, clearly not knowing what I saw up in that balcony.

"Am I important to you?" I answer him with another question. Yes, it may have been a little too straightforward but in my opinion, it was better to rip the band aid off you rather than peeling it bit by bit. That is only a waste of time and energy.

He looks at me with those fiercely deep blue eyes in a way like he couldn't quite comprehend the question before he gives a smirk that resembled a little more like a grin but the men in this side of the world didn't have the prettiest smiles. You could say crocodiles have better smiles than a sheer number of them.

"I don't even know you very well, but I know for sure that important isn't a sufficient enough word to describe how much you already mean to me. If you haven't noticed, you're quickly becoming more vital than oxygen."

"More vital than oxygen? So you're willing to die?"

For me. Willing to die for me, was the thought I had in mind. The thought that was about to slip out my mouth. But I keep that in for myself. Barely.

"For you? Without a question." He says without a second of hesitation, his piercingly deep blue eyes staring down at mine, both eyes filled with curiosity and interest. Like I really did mean something. But I needed things to be laid in front of me in a certain way. I wasn't willing to be a second person to this particular man's life.

"Who was the woman? The one who was on the balcony with you not too long ago."

"Who? Yekaterina? Don't mind her, she's just being delusional and irritating. But if she comes close to you or breathes in your direction let me know. She can be infuriatingly persistent. She doesn't understand the word no."

By the sounds of it, it doesn't seem like he cares about her . . .

"What do you mean? Doesn't understand the word no I mean."

"My parents and her parents wanted us to be together. I refused and their parents stood back. She continues to believe that we can possible and clings onto the thought like mosquitos to human blood."

Oh, she was one of those girls. The type who clings onto fame, power, and status. Not to mention money. There were plenty of those girls in my organization. Trying to cling to my brother or his best friend Kaito. It's a fortunate thing that my brother has a certain someone who he was willing to give his minimal attention to. In fact, his only attention tonight was her. It made those pesty mosquitos as Nikolai would put it, to stay away at some distance. For Kaito though? Those said mosquitos were clingy. I could probably locate him somewhere in this hall and you would see at least half a dozen of women disgustingly too close.

"Then, am I also a mosquito? Out for your blood?"

"I wouldn't mind a little blood suck here and there."

I feel my face flush from his insinuation. Or his intention. I don't know.

All these years, I have stayed far away from these kind of things. Whatever our thing was or whatever this topic was going to lead to. I didn't want anything to do with it, let alone entertain the idea of it. Mainly due to the fact that it always led to the place I'd much rather not visit unless I had no control over. But this, I did. Control.

However, unlike what I had assumed, his words don't disturb me, worry me, or make me feel like I had to react to it in some certain way. It only made me feel curious and excited, in the most natural way. Nothing was forced. Everything I felt was from me. 

"Did I make you feel uncomfortable?" His voice, his concerned voice reaches my ears. Besides my family, everyone was more or less afraid of me. Afraid of what I stood for and what I meant in my organization. They never cared enough or tried to see the real me, they cared more about the small potential that their heads may be cut clean off their body if they tried. I could never figure out if I should blame that on my father or myself. 

"What no. Why would you think that?"

"You disappeared on me. That's not the first time it happened."

I do remember when he first touched me, my brain was thrown into chaos for reasons that deviated from my normal. I for one was very, very, surprised. 

"I was just . . . I was just lost in my thoughts. In a good way though. I'm only stunned into silence when things are going suspiciously too good."

He gives me another smirk and I don't know what to do with It, but my body certainly does. I can already feel my body temperature soring but still plead for more. More of his warmth.

"Well then, will you grant me a dance under the moonlight, my princess?" He bends down a little, handing his hand towards me, like a gentleman.

I didn't think. I didn't need to think.

I just gave him my hand, which immediately interlocks with his before he whisks me away from the crowd and true to his words, out in the moonlight as the classical music echoes in the background, like a fairytale of its own. 

Who knew, a broken girl like me could still dream when most of the night I was seperated from the reality I can control to the nightmares that keeps me shackled. 

I wanted whatever this fairytale with whatever magic dust sprinkled over it to last me, for as long as possible.