Star-Crossed Lovers

EPILOGUE

Jeno had been sitting on the farthest bench in the church for almost half an hour. His attention was fixed on one particular stranger who was currently sitting on the floor with his back leaned against the side of one of the benches. He was looking up towards a beautiful bouquet of tulips in an old vase on the desk by the window, Jeno saw he brought before.

Jeno could not help but to wonder what was in the beautiful stranger's mind. His facial expression was emotionless but his eyes looked very melancholic. Jeno was only able to watch him from afar, too afraid to invade his privacy.

That day was actually the third day he had been watching him in the church. The first day was by accident, the second was pure luck, and as for the third, he had been waiting for the pink-haired male the whole day.

The first time Jeno saw the male was four days earlier, from the back seat of his father's car on his birthday. The said male was standing in front of the gate of his family's Villa, staring blankly at the mentioned house.

When Jeno's mother got off the car and asked if he was looking for someone, he just shook his head, smiled and walked away. Jeno felt a sense of familiarity when he saw the male's face. However, he failed to pinpoint it to anyone he ever met before. Not until he was back to the attic of his old home.

When Jeno went to the attic to get some tools for his father, he almost dropped a hammer on his feet when he caught a glimpse of the painting that was hung on the wall. It was a painting of a beautiful young lady with pink hair that almost reached her waist.

Realization struck him like a lightning. The young male he saw earlier looked exactly like the lady in the portrait, but had more traces of masculinity in him. No wonder he felt awfully familiar with the male's face.

It was the same face that he kept on staring at when he was a little boy. He even dared to claim boldly that he had fallen in love with the lady in the painting. Jeno only knew about the story behind the portrait as a bedtime story his father told him once, or maybe twice.

It was not really a delightful story with rainbows and butterflies and happy endings, but it still managed to make him falling asleep. It was a tale of two unfortunate lovers, a tale of his ancestor that had exactly the same name as him.

The ancestor who had to let go of his first love and got married to another girl he could never loved, but managed to open his heart for her in the end and had a son together. Also, the ancestor who had died at quite a young age due to a poor heart condition on a chair in the attic in front of the painting of his first love.

Jeno snapped out of his thoughts when he heard soft sobs came from the male's direction. When he looked at him, the stranger had pulled his knees close to his chest and had his face buried in between his arms. He was crying.

Jeno could feel his heart ached at the sight in front of him. He got up from his seat and approached the male. His steps were light and almost went unnoticed. He was really careful not to scare the male away.

Apparently, the lad was too drowned in his own emotions and tears to notice that someone was coming his way. Not until Jeno had stood directly in front of him and blocked the sunlight from the window behind him.

Jeno crouched down and stayed there silently. He knew the male had already noticed his presence as Jeno could tell that he had stopped sobbing.

However, he still had his head down and maybe, prayed that Jeno would just leave him alone. Jeno gathered all the courage that still left in him and opened his mouth.

"Hey, are you alright there? Do you want some company?"

Suddenly, the pink-haired male lifted his head to looked at the owner of the voice in front him. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped. He reached out his hand to touch Jeno's cheek.

Jeno almost freaked out at the male's sudden reaction but he managed to keep his composure and stayed motionless. He did not even bother to back away or even flinch at the sudden contact between his cheek and the male's fingertips.

Tears suddenly streamed like a river down the male's cheek before he jumped on Jeno and hugged him like he had been longing for his presence for a long, long time. Jeno was totally dumbstruck with the sudden affection and lost his balance.

He fell flat on the floor with the beautiful stranger on top of him, still embracing him and whispering inaudible words. Good thing the old man was doing a great job in cleaning the church floor. Otherwise, he would totally be covered in dust with the way he was lying on the floor.

"I miss you. I miss you so much, I thought my heart is going to explode."

Jeno finally able to hear the words that came out from the male's lips. He sounded really really sad, Jeno could not bring himself to tell him that he might got the wrong person. He ended up patting the male's back gently, trying to calm him down.

When the male had finally came back to his senses, which could possibly be more than five minutes later, he got up from the floor with a flustered face and traces of dried tears on his cheeks. He helped to lift Jeno up to his feet. Both of them tried to dust off their clothes, and apparent blushes were evident on their faces.

They were quite glad that the church was empty at the time. Otherwise, people might come out with weird impressions based on the situation they were in and they would have a hard time trying to explain.

"I'm sorry about earlier. I mistook you for someone else, I mean... I kind of got carried away and stuff... I mean.."

The male kept on rambling and stuttering, in which Jeno found very cute. He ended up letting out a chuckle. The male froze at the chuckle before breathing out a deep sigh and started again.

"I'm Jaemin. Na Jaemin. What's your name?"

Jaemin reached out his hand, asking for a handshake, accompanied by a sincere smile of apology for Jeno who was standing in front of him.

"Oh, it's Jeno. Lee Jeno."

And like the first time Jaemin saw that brilliant crescent eye smile, he fell in love again.

-THE END-

A/N: Thank you so much for reading this story. To those who voted, I appreciate it so so so much. The story was inspired by the tale of Romeo and Juliet. I was planning for only 5-6 chapters, but suddenly, I got carried away and made it too long. Feel free to drop any comments or questions regarding anything.