Demon's Protégé

Raw Feelings

Time just passed on like fluid that I didn’t even realized it was way past ten when Maria suddenly barged into the living room asking for Brian to sleep. It had been way past the time I should have left like I had promised and it was already so dark outside. Brian yawned at the same time just after Maria told him to get ready for bed and the kid finally gave up on the fifth round we had been playing chess. He did not seem to get full of it. Every time we end a round, the kid would demand another again. I won about two rounds out of five and the fifth round didn’t end since he was already looking sleepy and worn out.

“It’s been the first time in so long since he had been so hyped about a thing like this,” Maria commented this as we watched Brian disappeared into the hallway of their rooms. “I think having another male in the house made him felt like he could be as playful because he had someone he can relate to.”

“He’s a smart kid,” I added. And I smiled when Maria gave me a smile that looked so proud to hear what I just said.

“Are you going to leave at this hour? Or would you rather stay in the night again?” Maria asked me worriedly as she took a few steps to lean on the back of the sofa in front of me. “It’s pretty dark outside. Nari will be back in a few more hours.”

“You know what?” I suddenly thought of an idea, “I think I might just stay longer until she comes back. I want to see her once more before I leave.”

Maria smiled at my words and with a knowing look, nodded as a response. 

“If you say so,” she said to me, “I’ll make you some tea since that’s what I always do.”

I chuckled to her remark and watched her disappear again into the kitchen. This was nice, and for a moment, I wanted this all to stay just like this. If life with Nari was going to be this way, then that’s more of a reason for me to fight for what I can have with her. No matter what the consequences would be, I wanted to be in her life at all cost.

I woke up to the sound of a door closing in a soft thud and found Nari walking into the living room.

“Hey,” she greeted me with a hushed voice, and that must be because both Maria and Brian had already fallen asleep a long while ago. I was lying on the sofa, the usual spot that I had been using from the previous night and smiled at the presence of Nari before me. “I thought you’d already left?”

I shook my head at her, and just kept smiling.

“You’re prolonging the inevitable, young guy,” she chided lightly and I smirked at her words.

“I wanted to see you one more time before I leave.”

“Not even running out of excuses, are we?” she said with a raised brow and I chuckled back.

“I love you.”

Nari sighed heavily and looked away after I said it. She took the smaller couch in front of me and sat there as she give me an exhausted look.

“Stop saying that,” she said and she sounded as if the words I just said physically pained her as she went on, “I can’t just say the same thing that easy. We barely even know each other.”

“Then let me know you.”

We held each other’s gazes and it almost felt like hours until she finally broke it and let out a sly chuckle and shook her head.

“I wish it could be done just like that,” she told me, “But my life isn’t just a simple kind that you can control, Taiyo. I can’t love you back. I’m sorry.”

But why did she sound like it she didn’t mean it at all?

“You can’t love me? Or is it that you can’t just love anyone in particular?” I moved and left the couch as I kneeled by the floor in front of her, unable to resist not to touch her anymore. Nari winced when I tried to reach up and touch the side of her face, she turned her head away and avoided my eyes.

“I don’t need anyone to love me,” she said and her breath hitches as she looked at a spot away from me, “I will be okay by myself.”

“But I won’t be,” I weakly uttered, my eyes frowning in deep pain as I watched her looked very vulnerable as she said those words. Then upon hearing what I said, she slowly turned to give me a doubtful glance, “I can’t be okay without you, Nari.”

“Don’t patronize me.”

“I’m not.”

“You don’t know me.”

“That’s true,” I tell her and as I spoke this my eyes could no longer leave hers as some kind of magnetic pull slowly moved me closer to her that I could already feel the hotness of her breath that fanned against my cheeks. “But I still love you. That will never change.”

“No matter who I was…”

“No matter who you are,” I gently cut her off and instinctively brushed the hair on the side of her face that had fallen down and tucked it behind her ear as she desperately tried to read me through my eyes.

“I’d still love you, no matter who you are.” I said this and for an instant, I forgot anything else… I forgot the reason, the logic, and my senses. I forgot where I was and the words I just said. The only thing that had mattered was this one special moment with Nari as she gave me a silent gaze while I was being pulled towards her. Our faces went closer into an inch and my lips was already hovering over hers. My eyes began to feel heavy as I closed them and leaned down. The first second my lips touched hers, the spark ignited within me and something just exploded inside my chest.

This was not just a dream, and I was kissing her. Her scent lingered against my nose and I breathe it all in as I moved my lips and touched the seams of her mouth with my tongue. The second I did, she easily opened them and I moved to taste her. She was giving me the access and I was so drunk in it I could even stop myself even when I was having trouble with breathing. And just as I was about to hug her, I was immediately met by the coldness of the air as she quickly pulled away and stood up from the couch.

“We can’t do this. I can’t do this, I can’t do this…” I heard Nari muttering these words repeatedly as she kept her back on me.

“Nari…”

“That shouldn’t happen again,” she said too strongly as if she had finally decided on things and I felt so badly rejected as I let out a deep sigh and bitterly smiled to myself.

“How many times are you going to reject me, huh?”

“What?”

“I should probably leave, then,” I said as I pulled myself up and was about to walk towards the front door.

“Taiyo, wait.”

I stopped and was completely stunned to even hear her say that word to me. I waited in silence as I could feel her mulling over what she was going to tell me this time.

“You can stay.”

I quickly turned around to face her and felt a slight glimmer of hope within me after hearing that. “Are you sure?”

“You can stay here,” she told me then as fast as she could, she moved away and walked towards the hallway. “It’s so dark out there and it’s not like anyone would find you here anyway.”

And right after that, she left me there standing there in their living room, feeling so out of wits and pretty defenseless. How should I even think about what she just asked me?

By the next day, Brian and I was playing another round of chess again in the living room when Nari finally waltzed into the living room, looking frazzled as she hurried to prepare herself for her work tonight. The kid and I stopped at what we were doing for a second to watch her with amusement.

“Here she goes again,” I heard Brian muttered this under his breath and I turned to give him a frown.

“What? What is going on?”

“She’s always like this,” the kid answered with a heavy sigh, “She’s frantic whenever she goes to work to that place there.”

“Place?” I frowned harder and poke again, “What place?”

“You have no idea,” Brian shook his head as if the answer was quite too obvious now and I felt rather even more anxious to know about it.

“Brian?” Nari was so quick to cut into the conversation as she stopped by the back of the couch before us, “What did I tell you about ratting out someone else’s business, huh?”

“That it’s not a good habit,” the kid replied back obediently.

“Exactly.” Nari implied with a stern look as she quickly gave me a sneering glance from where she stood from a distance. I chuckled lightly to that as I shrugged my shoulders at her and simply let the topic go.

“Sorry,” Brian later on said to me when Nari disappeared again into her room. “I can’t tell you much more than that. Siblings’ pact.”

Siblings’ pact? How cute of them.

“It’s okay.” I said to him as I playfully brushed the bed of hair on top of his head with my hand and smiled cheekily. Though, deep inside I was actually eager to know more about that other place Nari was working at.

After an hour, Nari was finally looking ready to go out and I was hanging by the living room after being done playing with Brian the whole afternoon when she appeared again. She was wearing a slightly revealing dress as she trod down the path towards the front door and I watched her warily. She stopped for a second as she gave me a look and squinted her eyes at me.

“What?”

I could not help it so I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Where do you go to work when you don’t have any gig at the pub?” It was a hopeless question and I already knew she was not going to answer it at all but still… I had been so burden by curiosity because it felt like there was really something with that “other job”.

“Why are you being so inquisitive?” she sneered back at me and turn her back as she got closer to the door. “You sound like a nosy stalker.”

I laughed at how she put it. And I shook my head, quite distracted by her words.

“Does it hurt to be just curious? Come on, why won’t you just tell me? It’s not like a big deal, is it? Is it some kind of part-time shift at a*****e? I dont see any other kind of business here other than a few shops and local stores in this town. So it must be like that, huh?”

Obviously, I was now prying for more than I should have but I still did not care. So what if I was being too nosy? I just want to know why she does not want to tell me about it.

“Be nice and stay here,” Nari just said without even giving a clear reply and I gaped at her, completely dissatisfied with how she just brushed me off with a smirk. “Don’t get yourself caught, okay? I’d be home by early morning.”

And that’s how she left without any other word, leaving me hanging at their living room. I was too occupied with it that Brian had to tap me on the shoulder multiple times to get me back to my senses. I quickly turn to him with a questioning look and he gave me a tilt of his head and a raised brow.

“Your phone,” he told me. “It’s on.”

I just remembered, I had asked him to charge my phone because it had been drained for the past day and a half I had been stuck here in their house. I immediately rose from the couch and followed him to where he has charged it inside his small bedroom. I picked the phone from the bedside table where it was laid and instinctively typed the security code for it to open.

The instant it welcomed me to the home screen I was bombarded by the numbers of calls in my log.

It was all from my mom and brother. There was a few from Hudson but the missed calls from mom was too overwhelming for me to count the rest.

I quickly clicked her name to give a call back and on the first ring, she answered.

“Taiyo,” her voice crumbled from the receiver and I suddenly froze, feeling quite alarmed with how she just sounded.

“Mom?”

“It’s your father.”

I never thought things would actually turn to worst so fast, I didn’t even have the chance to prepare myself from the fall.