Regretfully,

(Not recommended as a standalone, but I am trying to make it more standalone. Not edited.)

"I can't."

Those words tore the rug right from under young Ronnie Hirano's feet. At the time, he couldn't comprehend why the woman he loved rejected his proposal right as he felt everything in his life was falling into place. Giselle Vale was everything to him. Their mothers had been best friends which resulted in them growing up together. No matter how long she tried to deny it, the two of them also became best friends. Falling into orbit around one another.

Secrets tend to drive themselves deep. Burrowing and breaking the things that bind us together.

Sick and tired of the lies. Giselle severed things before they broke her too.

Years later, fate continues to drag these two back together. In hopes of escaping the suffocating desire for a woman he believes to hate him, Ronnie joins a mission that may cost more than he is willing to give.

Finding himself trapped in a mission with a man who resents him, brothers who want to fight the world, and a new recruit who has no idea what lies ahead, Ronnie begins to doubt his agreement to tag along. Learning to trust is hard. But learning to forgive may find itself to be even harder to accomplish. Especially when the person he needs to forgive most of all is himself. When Ronnie finds himself more lonely than ever, will he find the strength to keep going or will he sever the ties to everything that keeps him afloat?

Pain is better than feeling nothing. And Ronnie was determined to feel absolutely everything.
-- --

Work in progress.