bonheur

Chapter 5

A/N: this chapter might be a little cringey towards the end but just deal with it, please!! ><

---

"Are you sure she won't go to the police?"

"Nah, Rena doesn't have that kind of courage," the blonde girl from yesterday said.

She held up a few photographs. "Besides, we still have the pictures," she said, smirking.

"Oh shit!" One of the brunettes said, gasping.

"What?" The blonde girl asked, confused. "Ahhhh!"

Aria had come up behind her and poured a cup of hot coffee all over her head. The blonde girl then screamed in pain and fell to the floor.

"Ahhhhh! Oww! It's hot! It's hoootttt!!" The two others were too shocked to even move.

Aria then kept the empty cup on the table and on her left hand, there was a knife.

The blonde girl lifted up her head to see who it was. "What the fuck? Who did that?"

"Me," Aria said, smiling, and bent down to the girl's level.

"A-aria..." her eyes got wide as soon as she saw the knife Aria's holding. "W-what are y-you doing?"

"Shut up, bitch!" Aria plunged the knife deep into the girl's leg and quickly pulled it out. Blood then gushed out from the impact.

"Ahhhhhh! Ughhhh!" The girl cried in pain.

"Next time," Aria said, pulling the girl's hair. "I will kill you."

The girl's little friends finally got down to help her up.

"Aria, what the fuck?" One of them said.

"Oh my god, there's so much blood!" The other one said, trying to cover the wound.

"UGH, THIS FUCKING HURTS!" The blonde girl shouted.

"We're going to call the police!" The first brunette took her phone out and dialed something. Aria quickly snatched the phone away.

"Do it," she looked at the girl with dead eyes. "If you dare." She smiled and gave the phone back.

"Urgh! Forget it! Just get me to the hospital!" The blonde girl cried.

Aria walked out of the coffee shop as if nothing had happened. She had kept the knife in her backpack, but she hadn't wiped away the blood from it nor the one on her hands.

She finally came back to her senses after roaming the streets for a few minutes and stopped in her tracks. Looking at her bloody hands, she started panicking as reality starts to seep in.

"Hello?" Granny's voice was heard over the phone. But there was no reply from Aria as she kept staring at her palms and dropped down to the ground.

"Hello? Aria?"

"The...blood..."

"Blood!? What blood?" The surprise in the old lady's voice could be heard through the line. "What happened? Are you hurt!?"

"B-blood..."

"Where are you, Aria!? Tell me!"

"The bus station..."

"Stay where you are! I'm coming for you!" Granny then hung up.

Granny was running as fast as she could with Charlie beside her but she tripped over something and fell hard on her knees. Charlie stopped and came to Granny.

"Don't worry about me...you must go to Aria," Granny said, unable to get up. "You know where the bus station is!" Charlie turned away and kept running until he found Aria.

"Ruff!" He barked at Aria.

Aria stood up as soon as she saw Charlie.

"Charlie?"

"Ruff!" He barked again.

"Why are you here?"

Charlie barked again and starting running back, motioning Aria to follow him.

Aria was confused as to what he was trying to say, but then she remembered. Granny! She thought.

They both ran and ran until they saw a familiar figure of a woman lying on the ground. As soon as Aria saw the seemingly lifeless body, she started panicking. She started to feel fear—fear of losing the only person who's been nothing but kind to her, fear of never going to feel the warmth of this person again and fear of not being able to ever fully savor happiness. She had it, even just a little bit, by the tip of her hands, but she might've just let it slip away without knowing.

"Granny!" Aria shouted and got down on the ground, but Granny had her eyes shut.

"Granny! Wake up!" She shouted again, but the old lady now laying on Aria's laps still didn't move an inch. Aria had called her countless times, but nothing happened.

Just when Aria was about to call her again, Granny's eyes started opening.

Aria smiled brightly and shouted, "Granny! You're still alive!"

As soon as Granny saw Aria, she asked, "Aria? Are you okay!? What happened?"

She tried getting up, but couldn't. Her knees had bled due to her fall and they hurt when she tried to move them. Aria just shook her head and asked, "Why?"

The old lady was confused. "What do you mean why?"

"Why are you so kind to me? Why do you always put others before yourself? Just look at you, Granny! Your knees are bleeding! I thought you were dead already because you've been unconscious for so long and yet the moment you open your eyes, you ask me how I am." Aria was mad, not at Granny but at herself.

Granny didn't know what to say. "Aria." She stretched out her arm and touched Aria's face gently. "You look just like my daughter. The way you smile—it's as bright as hers. I couldn't see it before but it was full of sadness. I couldn't save her because I was fooled by the facade she puts up, but I'm not letting that happen again. I want to save you, Aria. So don't you worry about me, okay?"

Aria was speechless. She didn't say anything and only pulled Granny up and hug her. The old lady was surprised by this sudden action, but then she smiled and returned the hug. They both just sat on the ground and embraced each other—out of love and care for one another.