Watching a human's death reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.
"How else would we know the worth of what we were given?"
✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ: - :...
Seokjin sighed heavily, “That's why, Aereum isn't wrong. She seems cold sometimes, but she's also intelligent and smart. Her decisions are made after a lot of thoughts.”
No matter how complicated it was, there was no doubt the princess would never do anything to risk the universe. Every resident was her responsibility, every mistake would put the blame on her. She wasn’t being unfair when she told them to test out for the crystal ball. She did what she needed to do.
At least, she didn’t protest that much about them getting back with each other. Deep down, she was glad too.
Yoon Min wanted to lighten the mood so she elbowed him and glanced at his face, “Hey, what's the deal between you and Princess Aereum? Do you know you're allegedly known to be dating?”
He laughed at her question, being proud of her jealousy. “Aish, it's nothing like that. I was the brightest guardian back then and the most handsome guy in this galaxy so obviously I caught her attention. She saw my potentials and my good looks and favoured me in almost everything. It was until I failed to save a human and my decision was declared as a mistake, because apparently I could've saved y-you when I thought it won't do you any good.”
His throat dried every time he was reminded of this.
“I was supposed to save you no matter what. My mistake was, I thought of your happiness. One of the rules to save a human is ignoring all other factors and think of their life first. We have to save them even if they won't be happy for the rest of their lives.”
She asked, “But there's also another rule that says guardians have the right to choose whether they should save the human or not. You followed it, thinking I shouldn’t live.”
“Yeah but I was later told that rule is only applied for criminals. If a criminal decides to commit suicide, that's when a guardian can use this chance to decide if they should live. Because if a criminal survives their death and continues their sins, the world will be in danger. Instead if their suicide is granted, they can be accepted in Love Universe and repent for their sins as a resident. The world will be free from their sins at least.”
Blinking twice, she gasped and covered her mouth, “I didn’t know that!”
He shrugged his shoulders off. “Many guardians don't know this. They think it's okay to let a human die if they think it necessary. But that's the biggest mistake they'll ever commit.”
Yoon Min didn’t speak for a minute. She was thinking something deeply, connecting the points and came to a subject. At last, she gasped again dramatically and shook his arm.
“Wait...does that mean your suicide was--”
Seokjin widened his eyes and wailed, “No! My suicide was also a mistake! A guardian couldn’t save me, unfortunately.”
She let out a sigh of relief but immediately gasped for the third time, “Wait, who was your guardian?”
“How am I supposed to know that?”
“But you just said--”
“I said a guardian. It can be anyone.”
“Oh.” She smiled cutely but looked ugly.
He flicked her forehead to wipe away the ugly smile. “Anyways, so after my terrible mistake, Aereum ordered to have me punished and came up with the cruel idea to fill me with my memories. She didn’t know my past was so heartbreaking. Along with me, she also saw what my life was about, what I did, whom I loved, why I died. I was suffering but she was also regretting. That’s how we became a bit close. She pitied me and I used that to mock her. Residents saw we're always bickering and thus started to ship us.”
What he didn’t notice was her eyes filled with grief staring at him. Everyone in the universe witnessed how his world came breaking down after he was given his memories. She heard it from her friends how he dropped dead like hitting the ground from the sky. He went through such a bad time without anyone by his side.
With a tragic past like theirs, no one was likely to survive the pain. It was a mystery how he defied that pain and lived on.
He didn’t want this topic to linger in the air so he cleared his throat and changed to something else. “I was doing great at first. But after the punishment, you were all I could think of. You were all I saw or I heard or imagined. Your face was engraved in my mind and I thought of you all the time. And I missed you so badly.” Glancing at her, he found her already staring at him with sad eyes. “I wanted to know how you were doing without me, if you were starting anew or grieving for me. At some point, I started to bury myself in things you liked to do; like reading. Thanks to the boys, I was getting better with time. I accepted the fact you were safe and better off without me, just like I wanted. I missed you a lot but I wanted to let you go.”
She listened to him silently, feeling his emotions.
“And one day, after months that felt like decades, I saw you in the cafeteria. I almost thought I'd seen a ghost. I thought it was one of my daydreams again but I never forgot what you look like. You were real and standing right in front of me, and I swear to God, I felt an outburst out of me as if I was dying. But I was still scared; scared that you might vanish in a second. So I took big steps and held you quickly, not caring how was this happening, what would others think. I just wanted to hug you as soon as I saw you.”
Yoon Min's whole body reacted, her eyes blinked the wet tears before she placed her hand over his and joined them together. All this time, she thought he did that because he saw her pain and knew how to stop it. She didn’t know he recognised her when they met for the first time in a blink. She too felt something but she was blind to value it.
He rested his head on top of her head and she closed her eyes. It was overwhelming to think how far they came after struggling with life and after defying death. It was fascinating yet heart-touching.
There was a moment of peaceful silence before she asked curiously, “Do you think the crystal ball will grant our love? Is it possible?”
To her surprise, Seokjin didn’t reply immediately. He was very confident about this earlier but he didn’t seem to have it now.
“Honestly...I don't know. We're not the next great love story. We are only two people who love one another unconditionally.”
Instead of frowning, she smiled. “I like that.”
Her response made him smile too. “Either way, we may not have chances against the magical crystal ball. So I want us to be okay if the result isn't positive. I don't want us to grow resentment towards each other.”
“That won't happen.” She looked up at his eyes as if all the stars were in there. “I'm certain we'll still be together even if it turns us down. We won't let a crytal ball ruin our long-lasting love.”
He chuckled. “After all, it's just a ball. Who cares what it says?”
Nodding and chuckling, she again scooted closer and rested her head against his shoulder. He kissed her forehead and wrapped his arm tighter around her.
Even though they were preparing themselves to be casual about the crystal ball, they were actually scared deep down. It wasn't an ordinary judgement. It held the power to allow them to reincarnate. By any means, they had to be serious about it. But that wasn’t their priority right now. Right now, they just wanted to be with each other and let things unfold in their own pace.
It was up to Fate to see whether both of them would be able to make up for the lost times.
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