As the group moved forward, Jia kept a close destructive glare on Sohee. "Jia, it's fine." Haewon tried to console her. "She better watch it before I end her life." Jia spat. "Just.. calm down. We should be stopping sometime soon to take a break anyways. Maybe you can talk to him then?" Haewon tried to solve the issue.
It then fell silent between the two, Jias eyes locking onto the back of Sohee. Soon enough Sohee turned around and winked at her, her eyes glowing pink. Jia was confused, never seeing anyone eyes glow pink before. She took the opportunity to talk to the sins.
"Do any of you know why her eyes are pink?" Jia asked. "I'm not sure. We don't know a lot about demonic powers, but I don't think it means anything good." Wrath commented.
Jia dropped it, not feeling that it was anything deadly important at the moment. Instead, she was more focused on the shooting pain from her lower back. Her back had always hurt after she got her first set of wings but never like this. It almost burned. She could tolerate the pain but it was just bothersome. "Coming up on a break spot everyone!" Jeno shouted. Jia saw this as the perfect opportunity to at least try to talk to Renjun about Sohee.
The group walked for a few more minutes before a building came to view. Jia was glad, her feet were killing her. She hated being the only mortal in the group. No one else seemed tired but they had to stop for Jia. She felt like a bit of a burden.
Most of the group were having separate conversations, Jia walking to Renjun who she saw standing alone. She was surprised Sohee wasn't there like she had been all day. Jia didn't like it at all. She couldn't tell if it was jealousy seeing that girl so close to him but she hated it.
Renjun was staring out at the red sun in silence when Jia walked up beside him. She suddenly remembered the night that they kissed and how he was acting previously with Sohee. The smile she adorned while looking at him began to fade. "Hey, are you okay?" He asked, noticing her expression change. She was quiet for a moment before speaking. "Can we talk about her?" Jia asked. She kept her cool and didn't catch an attitude. "What's the matter?" Renjun ruffled his eyebrows in confusion.
"I don't like how close you two were earlier." Jia huffed. "What? She was just walking next to me, it's not like there's anything between me and her." Renjun responded. Jia went quiet for a moment, pursing her lips. "Look, I don't trust any of them and she's already pushing her limits." She tried to keep her voice down.
"What limit is she pushing? It's not like we are together." Renjun snapped. Jia was taken aback, not expecting him to say that. "So that's how you want to play it? You know i'm your soulmate-" She scoffed. Now she was losing her patience. "That doesn't mean anything, we have nothing between us so as of right now i can do whatever i want." He ranted.
Jia stopped and stared at him. Nothing? Her eyes started to become glassy with tears. She made the memory of their first kiss appear in his mind. She watched as he saw it.
"Renjun?" She started quietly. "Hm?" He looked over to her. "I know everyone is afraid of you, but you don't scare me. You used to terrify me when we first met, but now i've grown to like you. It may just be because we are soulmates but I really do like you Renjun. I know things are probably moving really fast right now and I'm honestly as confused as you but I hope this can work-" Jia rambled before she was cut off by Renjun. Jia was taken aback, not at all expecting what Renjun had just done.
He kissed her.
On instinct, Jia kissed back. Her heart was beating out of her chest at the contact, thousands of emotions swirling inside her at once. Truthfully, Jia didn't know that Renjun was even her friend, much less to the point where he was able to kiss her. Renjun didn't know what came over him in that moment, all his logical senses blowing out the window. His heart took control and pushed him to kiss her, clearly it worked. Pulling away, they both wordlessly looked into each other's eyes. They both knew good and well what just happened, and strangely enough neither of them hated it. Jia lost control of herself in that moment, her hand reaching up to the back of his head and pushing him forward to connect their lips once again.
"That was not nothing." She spat lowly through gritted teeth before walking away. Jia forced her tears back as she stumbled into the rest area bathroom. She gripped the sides of the porcelain sink so hard they shattered. She had already let some tears fall but froze when she broke the sink. She had never had that much strength before. The shooting pain in her back suddenly became more intense and she tensed up in pain. She lifted her shirt and looked at herself in the mirror.
All across her lower back to her sides were laced with black veins. It was shocking obviously, but also terrifying. It was like there was something in her blood. She traced her hand over it but retracted it quickly as it began to sear her hand. "Fuck" Jia muttered, tearing up again. She was confused, stressed, scared, anything of the sort. She just wanted all this to be done.
She crumbled down to her knees, kneeling in the broken shards of porcelain and just cried. Everything was so confusing, all the weight of everything that had happened until that point finally fell on her. Most of all, she was still upset about Renjun. The one person she literally had to be with just said what happened meant nothing to him. She was mad that she actually liked him. Arguably loved him. She didn't even know him for that long so she couldn't comprehend how she could love someone so quickly. Jia hated how she felt but most of all hated how he didn't.
Thus she knelt on the shards of porcelain that pierced into her skin and cried over a love that didn't even happen. Although her knees were cut it felt like the only thing bleeding was her heart.
She cried until she ran out of tears and finally, numbly, stood up. Her knees stung but she didn't care, she simply brushed the shards off and out of her skin and began to walk out of the bathroom Haewon was first to notice her best friend and worriedly ran to her. "Jia oh my satan you are bleeding! What happened?" Haewon asked frantically as she watched the blood roll down Jias knees and hands. Renjun heard Haewons frantic yells and immediately turned his head when he heard "bleeding".
He caught Jias eye and saw how she looked at him numbly. She stared at him with a small frown before looking away sadly. She didn't have tears left but looking back at him made her want to cry even more. "I'm fine. Let's move." Jia forced back the bile in her throat and spoke loudly for everyone to hear. No one questioned her further, instead moving forward onto the path.
A sick smirk wrested on Sohees face yet Jia didn't have the strength to be mad. She didn't have any strength, in fact she just felt nothing.
Her feet dragged as she walked beside Haewon at the back of the group. Haewon hated seeing Jia like this and was shooting daggers at Sohee. Sohee watched Haewon and smiled spitefully. Haewon flinched to attack but held herself back.
Not yet.
——-
