"Take off that mask already!"
As I exhaled the smoke of the cigarette between my lips, the corner of my mouth curled upward.
I watched the cigarette smoke drift toward her small, round face, which was frozen from the cold.
I expected her to immediately bring her hand to her nose, but she just stood there, fixing her dark irises upon me with a determined expression. She was intensely searching my face for the answer she so desperately wanted to hear.
Normally, the girl who couldn't even stand next to me when I inhaled the poison between my lips, the one who always lectured me to stop smoking, didn't even react to the smoke out of sheer stubbornness.
As a wave of seriousness washed over my face, I pulled the cigarette from my mouth, threw it to the ground, and crushed it to put out the ember.
"Go inside, you're going to freeze," I said, but her silence was now accompanied by a furrowed brow, her gaze growing even sharper.
"I’m not going anywhere until you speak," she replied, crossing her arms. I rubbed my face, silently pleading for patience.
Knowing that this would be a long night and that I finally had to confess the truth, I leaned my back against the terrace wall.
Everything would change after what I was about to say. Because of that, I asked, "Are you sure, Laviana?"
Parting her rose-colored lips slightly, she said, "Yes," dragging us both toward the inevitable end. Before I began to tell her, these were the thoughts passing through my mind:
I hope, my Laviana, that when the roses of the garden you call 'home' in your heart wither and burn to their very last ash with what you are about to learn, you won't end up furious with yourself for fighting so hard to hear it from me.
But today, you will learn.
That some things are better left unknown...
☆Dulcet☆
