"Let’s end this"
This was her answer... the answer she never wanted to reach... the answer she prayed she would never have to speak.
She didn’t want to go through this again, not this kind of hurt.
She avoided and avoided... running from this conclusion like soone running from a burning mory. But now... standing before him, listening to him confess those deep, hidden truths... hearing him reveal wounds he never dared to show... she understood sothing awful.
Even if he opened his heart, even if he told her everything he endured and how trapped he felt... a part of her still trembled. A part of her still doubted his words... still feared she was being manipulated again.
An unbreakable curse!!
So this was her answer.
For the pain and... her lost trust!
She couldn’t live her life drowning in the constant fear of him manipulating her and lying to her again.
This would not only break her... but also... him!
This would be brutal for both of them... and yet neither of them could step away.
Delphine’s lips trembled weakly as she said, "I... I don’t know if I will ever love another one... I don’t even know if my heart can handle another person... but I-I do know I will keep loving you until my end... even if it destroys .
T-This is your punishnt... for breaking ... for betraying and my love... for making doubt the one person I wanted to trust more than anyone."
Aether blankly stared at her... he could see her breaking apart inch by inch... the sa way he felt himself collapsing inside.
All because... he made a single mistake.
A mistake he once believed he could outrun... like he did with everything else in his life.
But now... he had to face the consequence... a consequence that tore into him more violently than any blade.
There was a consequence for his actions... no matter what!
Aether’s lips parted, but... no words ca from his mouth. Nothing... Just silence choking him!
[Okay, enough with this... Just use your damn technique!! You know she needs you, and you need her... It’s her ego that’s hurt! Just fucking stop falling apart and do your fucking thing to get her back!!.. I... I cannot watch you like this, breaking apart!]
His Log scread in his mind. Aether didn’t say anything, only stared at her with empty, wounded eyes. His jaw moved faintly, like he was trying to swallow every painful word she had thrown at him.
Aether nodded, strangely... left and right, up and down... as if his body forgot how to react to pain, before slowly standing up from the chair and looking at her one more ti before bowing his head.
Delphine’s eyes trembled as she felt his emotions pouring through their connection... so lost, so confused... so full of fear and guilt... a raw mixture of heartbreak and desperation that twisted her chest.
Not only her but also everyone connected to him felt that overwhelming weight... a sorrow so strong that it pierced through every bond as if they were bleeding with him.
/What’s going on? Aether?/
/Are you alright? Husband?/
Everyone reached out to him the mont they felt it... that imnse, suffocating emotion. They couldn’t help but cry, their hearts tightening as if they were shattering the sa way he was.
Aether didn’t say anything, just stopped his connection... He needed ti... he needed silence... he needed sowhere to be alone, where nothing and no one could hear him break!!
Delphine watched Aether walking back... his steps slow and stamring, his shoulders sagging heavily, his head lowered so far down it looked like he was trying to hide his very soul.
He stared at the floor as if he couldn’t bear anyone seeing his face right now... not even her.
Delphine raised her hand as she parted her trembling lips, wanting to call his na... wanting to stop him... but her voice died before it even reached her throat. Her hand just hung there, frozen and useless... until he opened the door and left her office.
Thud!
As the door closed softly, like a quiet end to sothing that never should have ended.
The tears swelled in her eyes like a rising pool, her vision turning blurry and distorted as her expression slowly twisted with pain.
"Awwee... aarrrhhh~"
She began to cry, her voice breaking apart as she covered her face. Tears ca down violently, like a river crashing from a cliff, soaking the docunts on her desk, staining them with the heaviness of regret.
She kept crying... crying like she had just ripped her own heart out with her bare hands.
Clenching her chest tightly as if sothing inside was crushing her ribs... mories struck her again and again: their first eting... the sound of his first gentle song... the warmth of his teasing... the quiet sincerity of his love... their stolen monts together... Every mory—every single fucking one—ca crashing back like a monstrous tsunami.
"Awwwee!!!"
She pushed her glasses aside and rubbed her eyes over and over, but the tears poured faster, her face reddening in agony, her legs trembling like she couldn’t trust them to hold her anymore... fear, guilt, longing—everything she tried to hold back—collapsed on her at once.
She wanted to cry more... she wanted to scream... she wanted to vanish... She didn’t want this ending... she didn’t want this pain... She wanted to... she wanted to THROW herself into his arms and sob until her voice vanished!!
She wanted to HUG HIM AND CRY IN HIS EMBRACE!!
Thud!
"Why is he going silent—" Dora entered the room with a confused expression. She had run into Aether on the way, but he didn’t respond to her... didn’t even look at her.
That had already been strange. But now... seeing Delphine—
The heart-wrecked, trembling Delphine, her face ruined by tears—Dora imdiately understood everything without needing a single word.
"Huh..." Dora’s breath softened as realisation washed over her. Her expression gentled, and she quietly closed the door behind her.
Delphine wiped the tears with her wrist, trying desperately to stand and regain a calm expression, "F-Forgive... ahem... my unsightly appearance, Principal... sniff..."Her lips trembled violently, her voice shaking, tears slipping out even as she tried to hold them back.
Dora looked at her for a few long seconds before sighing, then walked over and sat on the sofa beside her. She patted her lap gently and said, "Co here, child."
Delphine blinked, shoulders shaking as she weakly shook her head, "I... I am f-f-fine."
Dora smiled softly, patiently, her hand still tapping her lap with the sa inviting warmth. She waited... she didn’t force her, didn’t pressure her... just waited with a love that felt like a mother’s.
Delphine hesitated for a long mont... but Dora’s gentle smile... so warm, so steady, carrying no judgent, no irritation—broke the last fragile wall she had left.
Delphine’s lips trembled as she slowly walked toward her... and sat beside her.
Dora smiled as she looked at her and muttered, "It’s fine... if that’s what you chose... It’s fine, dear. Just rember... even the strongest hearts crack when they love too deeply."
Delphine’s eyes trembled furiously, "I... I think... I broke h-him," her voice turning wet, thin, and collapsing under its own weight.
It felt like every word scraped out of her throat like glass.
"No, no, dear... You chose what you believe is right. I told you from the very beginning... You don’t have to be like others... It’s about you, dear... It’s about you and your feelings. That’s what mattered more," Dora said softly, her tone gentle and warm as she held Delphine’s trembling hand, trying to steady the storm inside her.
Delphine trembled even more... her lips parting, her breath catching... but she couldn’t push a single word out. Her chest tightened, her throat locked up, everything inside her screaming yet unable to speak.
Dora frowned slightly, noticing sothing deeper... an ache that went far beyond heartbreak. She glanced at Delphine’s trembling hand, then lifted her gaze to her eyes... eyes shaking violently, filled with terror, guilt, and a secret she couldn’t bear to speak aloud... as if she’d committed a sin she didn’t know how to confess.
"I see..." Dora weakly smiled, her expression softening with sad understanding. "It’s never about your feelings to begin with... Hah..." She shook her head gently, not in disappointnt, but in empathy.
Delphine flinched as she looked at Dora with mild surprise, her breathing stuttering. That single line hit her too close... too accurately!!
Dora nudged her eyebrows, her voice dipping softer.
"I can understand won more than anyone, dear... I know just by looking at their eyes what they’re thinking... and what they’re hiding. I know them when it cos to love and lust... I can read the quiet tremble in their breathing... the way their heartbeat changes when soone they love shatters them. I know them by simply being near them... feeling what they cannot say."
Dora’s eyes glowed with a soft pink hue as she looked at Delphine... searching the spaces where Delphine hid her truth... as if she were staring directly into her soul.
"And... I can see... your love for him... your pain for his betrayal... and...
Your sacrifice for him." Dora’s eyes turned teary, her voice trembling slightly as if she felt those wounds cutting into her, too.
Delphine’s eyes widened before she suddenly broke, completely and violently.
"I... I—I AM SORRYYYYYYY!!"She threw herself into Dora’s arms, hugging her desperately, clinging with trembling hands as she cried.
Dora blinked, then gently wiped the tears gathering at the corner of her own eyes. Her expression softened entirely as she wrapped her arms around Delphine, patting her back with quiet comfort, holding her like she was trying to keep her from falling apart.
"T-This is... aaeeew... this is the only choice I have... Sorry... sorry... I am so sorryyyy..." Delphine cried, her voice shattering as the pain poured out of her heart in waves, her body shaking uncontrollably.
What exactly was she sorry for?
Sure, she was angry, disappointed, devastated, and felt her trust crumble under his mistake... but there was one more thing—one thing far deeper—that pushed her into this breaking point... sothing she had hidden, sothing she couldn’t even bring herself to tell him.
The one thing she didn’t ntion to Aether was that... In her vision, the one who killed him... was none other than...
HER!!
.... When Delphine scread and held his severed head in her vision, she saw...a black, misty figure turned towards her, and as the shadow receded, peeling away its dark veil...
She saw a mirror reflection of herself.
Except this version of her wore a blindfold...and carried a sly, terrifying smirk...and whispered directly to her, with cold certainty,
"You will... and shall kill him!"
"!!!"
Why would she do sothing like that?
Why?
Was it because he cheated?
Was it because she didn’t trust him anymore?
Was it because so twisted future version of her believed she had to protect herself?
Was it because he manipulated her again?
Played with her feelings again?
Or...was it because sothing darker, older, deeper within her bloodline had already chosen a fate she didn’t want?
She didn’t know... and she didn’t want to believe that.
Everything might be a lie... everything might be nothing but bullshit ant to crawl into her mind and twist her heart again...
Until—until he told her the visions he saw in the ga.
The vision of his other woman hurting him...that mont made her realise a possibility she never thought of before...
"Sorry... Sorry... Sorry..." Delphine mumbled through her cries, her voice breaking apart as she hugged Dora tightly. Her expression twisted with fear, as if letting go of Dora would leave her alone in a world collapsing around her... as if she feared she might do sothing reckless, sothing irreversible if left by herself.
Dora sighed softly as she patted Delphine’s shoulder, grounding her gently. She blinked once, her mind drifting as she wondered...
Why that man?
Why did that man attract pain—or why was he drawn to it?
Was he cursed... or was he born under a star that only knew suffering?
’I wonder what he is going through now?’ Dora thought quietly as she kept supporting Delphine, her expression calm, steady... a quiet anchor in the middle of Delphine’s emotional storm.
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