✓ Never Is A Promise, p.js

26 | safe and sound with you

26. SAFE AND SOUND WITH YOU

— ANAIS' POV

As soon as Anais steps inside her room, the silence in her room has been taken over by her sombre yet solemn sobs through her teeth, as she's quietly closing the door behind her. The sorrowful scene of her getting slammed, pinned and physically hurt by Heeseung earlier is still playing at the back of her mind, to the point she's now traumatised to step out of the house by herself. More worst, she's also getting into a small fight with Jay over something that he uttered.

His angry words just now still ring in her ears — the way he's still doubting Anais and accusing her for not moving on from her past still leaves a deep wound in the depth of her heart. Out of all people that she relies on, why did it have to be Jay, the guy that he she loves the most right now, would question about her love for someone? Was her evident love all this while not enough from him? Mind's racing with endless of scenes and thoughts, her brain immediately is disrupted by her ringtone — it indicates that it's a call from Jay. Anais glances at his name comes up across the screen momentarily, but she's not ready to talk to him at all.

Thus, Anais ignores all of his calls and texts at all cost, throwing her phone somewhere in her bed. Since she returns home in a such soiled clothes and bizarre state, Anais quickly jumps into the hot shower to clean herself up. Through the reflection of the mirror, she stares at herself, her naked body with an unnoticed fresh bruise forms on her upper arm — must've caused when Heeseung forcefully securing his grip on her. She tries to trace the bruise with her finger but wincing out of pain as she tries to press onto the skin.

Exhausted being out all day, Anais eventually goes to bed with her unresolved conflict between her and Jay. She can understand where he's coming from, but violation is not the answer to solve the problem. The only reason she puts Jay's action at halt earlier was because she deeply cares and loves Jay so much that she doesn't want him to go through so much trouble just to save her in a wrong way. She doesn't want that. After some time, her tired body finally drifts away to sleep, as well as her tired mind.

When some streaks of sunlight peek through the blinds of her bedroom first thing in the morning, Anais flutters her eyes open, rubbing the sockets of her eyes as she tries to stare at the clock that hangs on the wall of her bedroom. It's only 7:15 a.m. She's used to her morning routine where she'd be awake to be ready for revisions and studying, so once she wakes up, she could never make herself go back to sleep again.

But today, she decides that it's best for her to be at home instead of everywhere else. After what happened to her last night, Anais couldn't afford to go through the same fright and torment all over again. She just has to be extra cautious of her surrounding from now on, just in case Heeseung will stalk her somewhere outside of her apartment just to threaten her again.

Throughout the day, Anais barely goes out of her room, but she will only exit the room to have lunch and a quick catch up from her mother. She also aware of Jay's numerous of texts that she receives, but again she ignores him again, hoping that he'd understand her gestures through those complete silence. When the day finally culminated, Anais finally takes a break from studying, resting her eyes as she momentarily shuts her lids at her study table.

A sudden light knock of the door briefly interrupts her busy mind, causing her to lift her eyes open again and exhaling a puff under breath. "Come in, Mom. Do you need something?" Anais half-shouts, before twirling her chair around, only to reveal the sight of Jay is quietly closing the door of her bedroom behind him. "—Anais, I just came to say that I am sorry" The male mutters, reflecting his deepest regrets through the look that he gives.

"How did you get in here, Jay?" Anais asks bluntly, arms crossing over her chest as she stares everywhere but not into his eyes, avoiding his contact as possible. "Your mother lets me in when I rang the bell" Jay mutters before taking some heavy steps closer to where Anais was sitting. "Look, Anais. I know you're mad at me for something I've said, but you know I didn't mean any of it, right? I just wanna say I am very sorry. I'll promise you that I'll be careful with my words next time. . ."

Upon hearing the male desperation in his tone, Anais sighs defeatedly as she finally gives in, "Fine, I'll forgive you." She says with those softened gaze in her eyes. One thing about Anais that couldn't be denied is that, she'll constantly fall for words that fill with sympathy. She's too easy to get sensitive and at the same time, too easy to forgive. Guess that's one of the traits that could label her as the people pleaser. "I am sorry too for getting oversensitive about it yesterday. Things seemed to happen to quickly, everything was such a blur" Anais admits.

"That's okay, Anais. If it hurts you, then it's still hurting. I supposed to play the big role to save, protect and defend you as your boyfriend, not belittling you while you were in your vulnerable state" Jay states, finally taking a seat at the corner of Anais' bed. "So, are you feeling okay today?" Jay asks Anais in the softest possible tone in his throat, catching her eyes immediately with his lingering gaze.

Giving him her small nod, Anais continues, "I feel so much better, but definitely scared to step out of my house at the moment." She mutters softly while fiddling her fingers together. Before she knows it, Jay spreads his embrace open as an attempt to give Anais a hug, "Will you come over here?" Jay asks with a sheepish smile wavers on his lips.

Anais then slowly shoves herself into the arms of the man she loves eventually, the surge of comfort and solace washes all over her again as she feels the sense of security around him. "You know what? If you're ever feeling scared or traumatised to be out of the house at the moment, just let me know. I'll be here for you at all times if it means to protect you from anything that could harm you" Jay mumbles into her hair softly, as he's resting his chin around her her head.

"Please protect me, Jay" Anais murmurs softly against the wall of his chest. This is the first time that she's brave and not afraid to seek for protection from someone, unlike in the past when it was almost impossible for her to be protected by her old boyfriend. But with Jay, she's not afraid of showing her weak and vulnerable side. "I'll protect you, Anais." Jay exclaims.

"And about you said yesterday, I actually had filed a report against Heeseung. I just hope that the right authority would take action on him and punish him for the deeds that he had done" Jay says, causing Anais to be in surprise by his action. "You finally reported him?" Anais asks in disbelief. The male returns her a vigorous hums, "Yes, now I bet he doesn't have the guts to be near you ever again."

THE END OF CHAPTER