Prologue I

by catharsis
Tags   romance   angst   friendship   sliceoflife   psychological   originalcharacter   mystery   | Report Content

A A A A

2011,

 

“Oppa, let's get married when we're eighteenth.” 

 

Fourteen year old Kayleen swallowed a lumpy sensation in her throat as she blurted out those words to a slightly taller guy, who stood beside her, staring at the open space in front with both hands spread at the side. Kayleen's voice was ever gentle, sweet and had enough force to stir one's heart, but perhaps that guy was an exception –  Jaison.

 

'Here we go again...' Jaison implied at the back of his mind.

 

The expression on his face was the same as before, dull and only to get darkened by the second. This wasn’t the first time her blunt confessions had occured to him. Every time, it carried the similar consistencies – her statement resounded in his brain, but not inside his heart.

 

She meekly lowered her head and continued, “If two persons loves each other…”

 

'If two persons loves each other…' Jaison reiterated in his mind, imitated Kayleen's while kept his face straight as if it didn’t affect him at all.

 

“…they should live happily ever after…” Kayleen finished up her words and so as Jaison, who all the while knew about what she had to say to him. She nervously entwined the tip of her fingers as she stole glances at him. “Oppa?” 

 

He didn’t flinch; he didn't know what to do because after all, everything he said wouldn't affect her. Just as how Kayleen wanted it to be, he always followed her unconditionally though at times, he did wondered if she was really clueless or just pretended to be one, or she enjoyed making fun of him, but regardless, it wouldn't change a thing. In her eyes, he was like an ornament – that was what he truly felt every time Kayleen confessed to him. And in his eyes, she was nothing but a self-centered girl. Anyhow, who would like girls that confessed to a guy? By all odds, he wasn’t one of those guys that preferred a blunt girl – like Kayleen – his neighbour, playmate, and supposed girlfriend, just because she claimed it so. 

 

‘I wish one day, you will disappear…Kayleen Alice.’ 

 

He lost the track of  how many times those words had reverberated inside his mind, fighting to get out from the tip of his mouth but it never came out, all because of one solid reason – he was indebted to her, and so it all narrowed down to one similar outcome – it was a one-sided love, or rather, it wasn't love from the beginning.

 

 

2012,

 

“Ho-How was op-oppa now?” she asked quaveringly. Madam Ceci reached for Kayleen’s hands and firmly squeezed at it.

 

“Kay-ah, Jai-Jaison was inside the ope-operation ro-room. The doctor sa-said, he had sustained…a severe blood loss…” She tried her best to control the tremble in her voice but to no avail. The lady rose up from the seat and pulled Kayleen in, then embraced her tightly. As a mother, she was equally broken-hearted to see the love of  her daughter's life had involved in a massive accident and was undergoing life-threatening operation to save his life.

 

Kayleen felt it coming – her tears, and so she clenched her fists and held in her breath for a while in attempt to calm her nerves down. Everything happened in a flash; could it be that Jaison really meant what he had said a few hours ago?

 

Few hours ago, Jaison appeared sullenly in front of her room, wearing his usual tacky blue shirt paired with skinny jean. His expression turned sulky the moment she opened the door. He stared at his feet, not meeting his gaze with her. There was a visible dark circle surrounding the corner of his eyes, denoting that he had stayed up late at night or not sleeping even. She knew everything about him. Why wouldn't she? Seven years was more than enough to know a person inside and out. For a split second, Kayleen was wondering if it would take another seven years to forget the same person. They had known each other for such a long time that it only make the hurt worse.

 

“If I died, things would get better for me, wouldn’t they?” The words he spoke to her lingered in one corner. If only she could swallow all the agonies like sipping water, then perhaps she would have hugged him and said, "I'm here, oppa. I'll protect you," just the way she comforted him like every other day. His mere words were so vivid that it felt like her heart was splintered in million of pieces upon every painstaking breath.

 

“I’m a fool. I’m a weakling…I can’t even say no to you…” Jaison brought his hands higher and ruffled through his already messy hair. For one unspoiled moment, she kind of knew what had gotten into him. After what happened yesterday, everyone must have been harsh to him, because of her. Indirectly, she had caused all these miseries but she couldn't care less. He wouldn't know how crushed she felt when he confessed with someone she knew.

 

Jaison and Kayleen attended the same school and became neighbours for almost seven years. Everyone viewed them as a couple with indestructible bonds. Jaison was different from any other kids – he has had a condition called, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – it affected his abilities to learn, to socialize, and prone for bully because of his indifferent qualities from the other normal kids. He was extremely withdrawn from everyone before Kayleen and her mother had moved into their neighbourhood. Kayleen was the one that protected him from all the bullies, and stood up for him regardless the situations were. She was the first girl that ever accepted him for who he was, but from that moment onward, Jaison could never see her as a girl whom he could truly love. Every time she was there for him, rather than love, he viewed it as a debt – the one that he could never returned. When Jaison confessed his love to Yeon, the news exploded on the very next day. Everyone started to question Jaison's loyalty; they dissed him saying that he was an unfaithful jerk; how could he hurt Kayleen after being in relationships for so long? And more than that, he daringly confessed to Kayleen's best friend? Little did they know that the truth was farther than anything they had came out with.

 

Why did everything have to turn out this way? To love and to be loved, since when did it become so difficult and feel so wrong?

 

Kayleen was pulled back from her train of thoughts when she heard a faint cry from a room. She had been walking alone, trying to find a resolution from all this myriad of problems. But something surge inside her chest, urged her to walk into the room. As she entered, the darkness inside the room had caused her to drawback and for seconds, she hesitated to move farther.

 

“I-I’am…a-afraid…Wo-Would i-it hu-hurt?” The similar voice rang in every corner inside her brain. Curiosity sparked in her as she took a small step ahead, carefully inspecting her surroundings. The pungent smell of medicines sneaked inside her nose. Moments later, her eyes slit-narrowed when she saw dim lights originated from left wings of the room. With both hands scrambled upon the wall, she slowly walked toward the light.

 

“Don’t worry, in a few seconds, everything will end…” A different voice struck her eardrum. A frown took over her face as she wondered why the lights were off  if there was patient receiving treatment inside. It was then a clattering sound of something sprang inside her ears. When she finally reached the dimmed compartment, her eyes instinctually focused on the floor, where she saw a bracelet; it must be the cause of the clattered sounds that she heard moments ago. At one glance, the bracelet intrigued her as it braided with a peculiar symbol which deeply impressed her - an arrow, and an infinity.

 

“Shh, don’t cry…”

 

Her senses heightened when she heard the hoarse voice again. Slowly, she tilted her head to one corner, and caught up with something that made her heart pounded in her throat. She gulped and hid behind the entrance leading to that compartment. There were two persons inside the room – a girl lying on the bed and a…doctor; his one hand was holding at the girl’s wrist while the other was injecting something inside the intravenous line that was attached to the girl’s right hand. For split moments, Kayleen locked eyes with the girl but the girl only stared at her vacantly. A tear slid down her cheek, then her mouth curled up for a hint of smile, but Kayleen didn’t see it as everything turned pitch black on the next seconds. The last thing she remembered was someone clutched her from the back and pressed a soft fabric with nauseous smell ontop of her nose.

 

“God dammit! You didn’t lock the door!”

 

The thickly voice echoed in her brain before she fully lost her consciousness.

 

 

Some lesson were delivered in the form of pain. That was how Kayleen learnt her first love – Jaison, whom she gave her heart with. After seven years, she still hadn't able to earn a place in his heart. He was looking at someone else, and it wasn't her. What hurt her the most was the fact that the truth had always been there, but she was the only one that didn’t see them. When she was brave enough to look at the things in their past, only then she realized that Jaison never once, had said anything about liking her. Though she was feeling hurt and betrayed but deep inside, she knew it was partly her fault for being cluelessly foolish. 

 

What have they done to each other? Why it took so many years to learn the essences of first and love? Who was the one that hurt more? The one who blindly love or, the one who forced to love?

 

 

"Kayleen Alice." A masked man appeared before Kayleen and crouched down beside her. He glanced at her name tag and grinned evilly. 

 

"Wh-Where...am-am...I?" With great effort, Kayleen lifted her chin to ask the stranger man whom dressed in black. "Who-Who...are...you...?" Her head hurts badly; she wanted to reach for her head but of her hands were tied from behind. She couldn't move nor felt any of her body parts, it as if all her limbs were paralyzed. Something snapped to her that the setting she in now was different as before and the images she saw before she passed out flung in front of her mind's eye.

 

'What happened to the...girl?' she asked inwardly.

 

The suited man brushed his fingers over her lips, and she trembled tremulously. "You shouldn’t have come..." Then, the man grabbed her chin forcefully, turned her face toward him. Kayleen shrunk back to distance her face from him but when the man realized what she attempted to do, he grabbed her hairs painfully. She flinched in pain as he tightened his grips. "Say...I'll grant you a wish, pretty face," he murmured huskily beside her ear. Kayleen's eyes widened as fear crept inside her.

 

"Before I send you off..." he continued, and the corner of his mouth slowly curved up for a smirk.

 

When his last word died, Kayleen fidgeted; her heart reared up like a startled horse. She blinked her eyes incredulously. What have just happened? What did he mean by that? In a blink of an eye, her previously intact lives had turned for the worst.

 

 

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