Ongoing Cycle

27

"Your garden is beautiful," she told Kuro, placing her fingers against the window glass. She wished she could go out there and just smell all of the flowers, but she didn't exactly want to stay here any longer than she needed to. Glancing at the broken flowers that laid below her again, she wondered what happened to them. Did rodents come and messed around with their plants? She didn't think she should ask the playboy about it though, because he probably couldn't care less about his house's garden.

     [Y/N] knew for sure he didn't give two shits about it when he stayed silent. He only did a small shrug at her, which made her a little agitated. He was so ungrateful for all the things he had. Before she could start glaring at him for his incompetence, a door somewhere made sound. Someone came home.

      She looked at Kuro for answers to see that he was surprised. "Fuck," he cursed out quietly. She blinked at him. Apparently, this person who had just come home displeased him. She watched as he furrowed his eyebrows together and stood up in a clumsy hurry. He walked towards her and she leaned back on the couch to give themselves more distance between them. What the hell was he doing?

     He even had the audacity to grab her arm and pull her up. Stumbling and nearly falling into his chest, she straightened up afterwards with a bright, red face. "Hey—"

     In brisk steps, he walked out of the living room and towards the back of a narrow room that was a room over. They were at a door that led into the garden. The sight of it brightened her eyes. She may not know what a single thing was going on, but the yearning for flowers was strong.

     He opened the door and they stepped through. Hoping that Kuro would finally let go of her wrist, she tried to walk towards some of the flowers, but instead, she was yanked backwards. They went to sit down against the house and on top of the damaged flowers she'd seen earlier. Primly touching a broken petal, she sighed. Seriously, what the hell were they doing, and why couldn't she even see some flowers?

      She tried another attempt of crawling towards the flowers, but once again, she was pulled back by the boy. Gritting her teeth at him, she faltered when she saw he was equally annoyed. He always kept his composure well, so it always intrigued her whenever he dropped his act. It was usually her being annoyed at him.

     "What are you, a kid? Stay still, won't you?" he snapped at her.

     "Says you," she retorted. "What are you hiding from? What are we in, some spy movie?"

     He sighed warily. "From my father. He had just come home. I don't want to see him right now."

     "Why?" she hesitantly asked. "Does this have something to do...with your family problem?" She didn't know why she wanted to know his situation so badly, but she did.

     He averted his eyes away from her and sullenly stared at the flowers. "I don't want to talk about it."

     "So it is," she persisted. She was afraid that he was going to get all upset like last time and would leave. But he didn't. He only groaned at her and shook his head.

     "Fine, it is," he spat out. "Satisfied?"

     "Tell me more," she insisted. He gave her a cold look, one that was similar to the one he wore at that time at the lake. She slightly froze at those icy eyes, but she didn't want to back down this time. "You've already dragged me into this by making me hide from your father. Tell me, or I will stop hiding and go straight to him to reveal where you are."

      It worked. The coldness left his eyes and all was left was his smirk. "Always so bossy, restroom girl," he teased her a little. The lightheartedness left almost immediately though, because the next second his face was full of sorrow again. "Here's a quick answer for you. My dad beats the shit out of me a lot."

     At this, [Y/N] didn't know what to say. Feeling her insides curl in terror, she felt numb and shocked. How does one comfort a person in such a situation, nevertheless a fucking enemy? She despised him so much, but she was also worrying about him right now. She wished she wasn't. Why did she have to keep asking about his problems? Why couldn't she have kept this simple and continued hating him from afar like before? Why did she establish this strange connection they had between them?

     "I-I'm so sorry," she ended up blubbering. "I never shouldn't prodded you to tell me any of this. Shit, no wonder you were angry that day at the lake."

     "It's fine. You may hate my guts, but I like you enough to trust that you won't tell anyone about this," he said, giving her a grim smile.

     Her mind in a haze, she suddenly grabbed his hand and gently rubbed it. "If you ever need to talk to someone, I'll be here for you." Scanning his dark hair to his beautiful, sharp eyes, she felt her heart break for him. No doubt, she still hated him...but in a way, she understood him more now.

     Kuro turned his hand around and firmly held her hand. In one swooping motion, he kissed her hand. Her entire hand tingling and her face blushing like crazy, she quickly pulled her hand away. "Didn't know you can be so sweet," he said, grinning at her.

     Nervous under his gaze, she turned to look at the garden. He was so infuriating, always putting back on his mask and acting like a stupid flirt. She wondered if it was somehow a defense mechanism for him, to shield away any future pain that could be hurtling at him.

     "Your garden is beautiful," she repeated, not knowing what else to say.

     "It was built by my mom. She did it to cope with the unhappiness in our family."