winter. （jaerosè）

Chapter 8: Reveal of Perspectives

heavily edited / must read.

JAEHYUN

The cruelty of the night's cold breeze brought Jaehyun to distraught, and whilst the wind played with his hair, a familiar scent lingers along the gust. He chose to ignore the spectator that had always watched from the darkness.

As horribly accustomed he was, he chose to pay no attention. Instead, he wondered why he accepted Lisa's plead to meet at the rooftop of his apartment loft the moment when Rosé is fast asleep. He groaned, feeling immediately detached to the conversation she insisted to have with him.

He took careful steps towards the woman who has her back turned against his direction. Jaehyun stood there for a while, storically ignoring the icy wind that gently impelled him to shiver.

Lisa viewed the city that lit up like stars in the dark sky, and the beautiful structures of buildings and houses beyond her sight as her thoughts snapped her back to reality after she had sunken into the deep whole of the devastating past.

"You brought her back into what we exactly kept her away from," Lisa carelessly spat, not even letting Jaehyun get close.

Because of her statement, he paused. There was a huge gap between two figures, but even so, he could feel the latter's concern for her beloved friend. The distance didn't matter much as both can hear each words from one to another loud and clear. He frowns and looked down only to look at his wound covered with bandages. He's lucky that he's still breathes, and grateful that Rosé was safe.

"Should I remind you that Park Chaeyoung is one of the most important people in this situation and we vowed- we swore in front of her family, the governors, and the president that we will do everything and I mean everything to keep her away from the battlefield," she gushed and turns to face the lad who evidently knew where her rage is coming from. Her eyes pierced through Jaehyun's in spite of his aim to avoid eye-contact with the teary-eyed latter. She continued on to say, "what is going on in your mind?"

Although he felt wronged. He still had the tiniest bit of empathy left in him, specifically for the woman who stood ahead of him. It was no time for him to act selfish as he would've reacted the same if some random guy just took Rosé to some safehouse.

"Avoiding the battlefield is precisely what makes it easier for the enemies to hunt her down," Jaehyun retorted, then finally met her eyes, "the first time she noticed my presence was also her first encounter with a foe- the weakest pack among our enemies, thankfully. I brought her into this, yes, but I accepted full responsibility."

"Then get her out of the situation-!"

"I can't. I can't, Lalisa. It was too late," he cuts her off, sighing in frustration as he watched her expression show anguish, "even after all the years of following her- keeping myself hidden, I have failed that day. And I swear: no matter how foolish Hyunki is, his memory is as sharp as blades, he knows of her face, her name even- and where she worked. I'm afraid at that moment I no longer had any choice but to bring her with me."

Explaining himself can be considered rather counterproductive and pointless. He knew that someone like her wouldn't understand as she is in fact, still unsure of the events occuring. Unlike Rosé who just intimately goes with the flow, Lisa has countless of factors that pulls her back to the past, all in which compelled to her decline of belief that her life was just not meant to be normal.