They were 9 and it felt right the way it was.
"I'm not perfect and I know you all know this. But you make me feel worth it, make me feel that what I give to you is more than enough. Thank you for making yourselves a part of my life. I love you Stray...
"I know you both drifted the past years as lovers. But I know she loved you as her best friend until her dying breath."
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Leon hates phone calls, especially from people he labeled as absent. On the turning sun, changing direction for a sunset, greeted by a voice from the other side of the world. A voice he remembered was once so childlike, stained with the earth's gore called grief.
It was Jia who called him. A baby in his eyes for he remembers only chasing her around the house to take a bath. The nostalgia of a past with a simpler life. The younger sister of a woman he daydreamed of being married to when he was 12. A best friend promised to walk down the aisle when they broke up. Someone he can't call anymore because the ghost will not answer.
"She asked me to deliver you and your friends each a letter as her last words, Leon. I know you're on tour... I saw your fall the past week. And this will only add to whatever weight you are carrying... but I had to call you and send it to you."
He was not a titan nor a god. Maybe at times, he was in golden condition, he could be an ace. But he was a human ultimately. There is only so much weight he can take before the world falls on his shoulders.
There was already one dead body imprinted on his soul.
Ash. A younger brother he once promised to protect, one to nurture, yet a boy to die before him. In every movement his body pauses to and grazes at, he almost stops. Stops his career at those moments and call it quits because who was he to fulfill a dead boy's dreams?
Now, Aerum? A girl he who broke his heart on the bay near his company. One who let go of him so that he could draw constellations on the places he inspires. How could he continue drawing stars when the one to give him permission was no more?
"I was able to reach the others earlier. I talked to you last because, I don't know. It hurts me to hurt you with a truth, Leon oppa. Because in some way, you are half the soul of my sister for she gave you her heart ever since she decided to confess her reciprocated feelings to you."
The others knew before him. And he wonders, how did they settle with the fact thattheir friendship would have a missing link? The kind girl among their group of seven, now taken by the fates. She who fostered their ambition, motivated them, pushed them to pursue yet also grounded them to the realities of the world.
Leon the brother, the protective and providing.
Xiang the storyteller, the one who sees and remembers.
Yara the heiress, the royal and enduring.
Ian the communicator, the bridge and open-minded.
Shiro the designer, the confident and creative.
Mae the artist, the expressive and original
And Aerum the advocate, the conscience and reason.
