#imyoursempai

“I did not mean to hit Noel,” he says, trying to cool her stare.

“Then why did you?” she replies just as quickly.

Why? Why, when he saw them walking side by side and hand in hand, had he been filled with such raw energy and misery and willpower that he had marched over to them and yanked Noel away from her? Why, when he was actually so fond of Noel, had he been so jealous at the sight of him smiling at her? Why, in Etros name, had he been so completely and utterly hurt when he saw Yeul smiling back?

“Because…” he starts and stops at the same time. Choking back the words that scare him most. His heart his pounding. He can no longer look at her.

Yeul, for her part, clenches at the skirt of her school uniform. The tension turns her knuckles white and if Caius were not acting cowardly, he would have seen the tears starting to form in her eyes.

“Why…why are you so distant and cold then suddenly so protective of me?” she reaches out to grab his arm, as her voice quivers and her heart aches, “Why do you pull away when…I feel you so close? Please, Caius…I need to know!”

“Because I love you!”

Caius says so all at once. His pulse races as he looks at her stunned eyes. He realizes that when he saw her so near to Noel, that she had gone from the pretty girl he had known her as to the beautiful woman he had been in love with for quite some time now.

Love. Love, he does love her but he already lost her.

“I love you,” he says again. Softer. Bolder. “but…you choose Noel and I thought it was best…until I saw you today. And I…could not let you go.”

Yeul looks at him with shimmering eyes. Her warm hand still on his arm. Still wrapped around his heart and soul. She reaches out to touch the side of his face with the tips of her fingers and Caius‘s breath hitches. He prepares himself for rejection, for reproach and more anger…but a little part of him also wishes to hope. Just a little.

“But…I didn‘t choose Noel,” The sad little face of hers starts to smile even as the first drop of tears falls from her cheek, “I chose you, Caius.”

Someone could have told that his heart would stop. Someone could have told him that his body would soar and his spirit would rise. Someone could have told him that Noel was only walking her home after a lengthily conversation about what Caius might feel (what he did feel) for her . Someone could have told him that Yeul loved him back. So that he could kiss her sooner, as the cherry blossom petals fell over them.

And yet, not even the taste of salt on her lips or the metallic tinge of blood on his could ruin it.