Mystic Messenger: Saeran Collection

1: Roses have thorns

Summary: Ray confesses to you with a bouquet of red roses, telling you they stand for romantic love and how he feels about you.
But you don't feel that way.

Warning: Heavy Angst, referenced Suicide, unrequited love

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"The roses are beautiful, Ray, but... I don't like you."

Shame.

Ray's body turned to ice.
The setting sun bathed the flower garden of Magenta in a beautiful play of colors with all the warmest shades.
Even the cold flowers now had something cozy about them, leaving no room for the dark anywhere nearby.

And yet, Ray had never been more desperate to hide in the darkest corner of the flower bushes, begging to become invisible to the world and never see another person's face in his life ever again.
The sun's too bright to give him the opportunity to hide away, as you blocked his only escape route with your body.

His eyes could not perceive the warmth; none of the sun rays helped thaw his cold skin.
Ray's so ashamed of every little thought he ever had about you, regardless of how innocent the scenario inside his mind had been.

He's ashamed of his behavior, for his gesture, for the fact that he really hoped that someone as wonderful as you might, for some inexplicable reason, accept a failure like him.
But now the worst nightmare he experienced since nights came into reality to remind him who he actually was.

The hacker with bleached hair was confronted with his greatest fear, the fear he developed the moment you took his hand and stepped into Mint Eye.

Never has he been more ashamed of his incompetence, the idiotic words that left his lips, ashamed of every part that defined him.
Not a single muscle followed his order to run away, to never bother the person in front of him.

Ray's mind wasn't in reality anymore; it must've been some kind of protection mechanism he developed over the years due to abandonment.

He's frozen in place, in time, in his mind as he couldn't help but hear the pieces of his heart, that he'd been trying to bring back together piece by piece for so long, fall apart once more.
They pierce through his already cut skin. Ray is ashamed to exist.

"Look, the game you made is amazing and all but um... I have no intention to stay here, it's not my type of place..."

Disappointment.

He messed up for you to not like Mint Eye even though it's the only place on earth that could provide him shelter when he didn't deserve it.

He had been so sure you like Mint Eye, seeing what good his Savior did to all the broken souls and how it caused so much happiness without getting stabbed in the back.
How could he have been so wrong?

Why didn't you like it here?
Was it the building?
Was it him?

The disappointment inside his veins burned through his flesh. Disappointed in himself for not presenting the place right. That he caused you to not like Magenta, when you could've found a new home in it.
It's his fault you didn't like it.
It's entirely his fault you didn't like him.

The moment his Savoir would find out about it, she'll be disappointed with Ray once more. He caused her to worry so many times, even when he tried his absolute best, he always disappointed everyone around him. No matter if he put in all his effort or passion, he would never achieve the things he longed for so badly.

He could work until he dies on the chair, but the results would still be a disappointment for everyone. Because he was disappointed. And you must've realized.