I LOVE'D YOU • bnha | ✓

CHAPTER 29; 𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙜𝙤

WINTER BELLS STRUCK THE CLOCK. A moment of unending silence, a shared moment of guilt and awkwardness that lingered.

"I'm sorry I lied." His lips rasped out hoarse words. "We can't be heroes together. I can't be a hero."

"Please... Touya-" Your grip on his shirt tightened, you didn't want him to leave you ever again. An era of obsession and madness that overtook you — insanity — slowly falling out of reality's touch the longer you left him. "Just don't leave me-"

"I'm sorry doll face." You couldn't see his face, however, it was tilted up towards the direction of the sky. Perhaps, reminiscing about the old times that both of you shared. "I truly am."

What was he sorry for? The fact that you could've let him to die, because he hated life itself as much as you did?

pit-a-pata

"Please... stay-" You tugged onto his jagged clothes. "It doesn't matter. We could be villains! We could be-"

"(Y/N), listen to me." Raindrops slowly poured down the sky, mourning the solemn moment that the two of you shared. "I'm not your prince charming anymore."

"I don't need any prince charming! I just need you-"

"You don't deserve this prince charming that couldn't save you from various occasions." He let out a bitter laugh, before continuing on. "I don't want you to live in the past anymore."

Why, why, why?

"I'm not living in the past! What are you talking about Touya?" Your eyes widened in horror and shock, a bold assumption that you'd never expect one to make. Then again, he was right. "I'm not... I'm doing this for you... For us-"

Why was he pushing you away?

"Do you think I wanted this to happen?"

Why couldn't he accept you?

Your lips trembled as tears threatened to spill out. After saving his life, he had the audacity to make bold claims — to blame you for saving him and making him relive life.

Was it wrong to save a life?

"I didn't want you to die!" You snapped back, turning his shoulders around. "I didn't want to lose you."

Your (E/C) eyes looked at his orbs. It was dull, a dimly lit flare of hope that wavered within his soul as he lived in regrets. Over and over again.

The image of fire wouldn't leave his mind.

"Were... Were you willing to let go then?" Your lips let out silent whispers of agony. He was willing to leave life, to abandon you, for the sake of him. "You knew you were going to-"

"Yes, I knew." His turquoise eyes pierced through your broken soul, slowly tearing you down but by bit again. "I was willing to let go."

So after all these years, you wasted your life of absolutely nothing? Figments of delusions and imaginations that you fed yourself — to live happily ever after with everyone else.

No, but you've killed countless of people too.

Your grip loosened on his shoulders as you embraced the rain that gloomed along your mood. So your suffering to live was a useless effort that you placed? What was the point of it all?

"Doll, you need to stop living in the past."

"I'm not-"

Before you could finish your rebuttal, a landslide came down, collapsing as it embraced you in its open arms; down towards the cliff.

"Doll!" In the nick of time, he managed to grab onto your hand. Fingers intertwined with one another, a distant affection, yet somewhat comforting. "Are you alright?"

However, you were lost in thoughts. The past — it was a very controversial matter that brought personal nostalgia to another. Events that contrasts between the present and future, yet shaping the routes of others.

A point that determined ones fate and future.

Then, if you could go back and shape the past, would the present be different? Perhaps Monoma would still be alive, Touya would've probably had a happier life — in the other timeline. Maybe if, you could change the past.

You could be a forgotten concept that once lived through this timeline.

"Hey Touya?" You looked up at him as a small grin tugged onto your face. Salty tears emerged your porcelain skin as the grip of your hand slowly loosened, one by one, each fingertips feeling numb.

"Thank you."

He made you realise that you were living in the past.

And so, you let go.