Name of my Love | on hold

six

I scrunch my nose noisily. His quiet presence isn't bothersome, but indeed warm. I sense his impulsive breaths, next to me.

Rise. Fall.

I repeat, with my breaths.

I dimly flinch when he places his chin over my head. Taken aback, I go blank for the moment. Then his hands wrap around my collar from behind, gently.

"It's okay, everything will be alright," he says with a pacific intensity, that reassures my heart. But a very uncanny feeling generates within this very heart, which causes it to beat vigorously against my rib cage. Somehow, the tranquillity of his voice sinks the fear that should have rose within me. The relaxed ambience he creates is magical, indeed.

My bones are melting, which were keeping me robotic and inflexible. It is awkward but it isn't. It is quite paradoxical to boil down the feelings in words.

"I guess you love backhugs."

His cheesy tone makes me surrender his embrace quickly.

"I'll wash 'em," I say, putting the things over the sink, hiding my flustered face under the strands of my hair falling over the side.

"No, don't. Ajumma would do that in the morning. She's the cleaning lady and I pay her monthly for cleaning the house once in a week, and washing up utensils and sometimes cooking."

"Oh, but I insist." I've been a cause of inconvenience so I want to partake in little chores to lessen the load from off my shoulders, a little.

"Get off your hands off my sink,"he demands in an animated deep voice, with some authority to it. I softly chuckle."Trust me, I'll fire the cleaning lady if you choose to do it for me and you'll get stuck here forever," he jokes, making me turn my face in his direction.

He flashes his bunny teeth at me, and asks, "shall we go upstairs then? I'll show you your new room."

We both head upstairs after making sure that the dining table is cleaned. He leads me to the last teak door at the end, passing through two doors. Opening it halfway, he points his gaze in." You can sleep in here."

"Thanks again."

I enter the room, and give a look around. The room is slightly smaller than his room but big enough for me. It is cool, and instead of not being in regular use, it seems dust free. He knows how to maintain his house.

"If you need anything else, you can call me up. And if you're bored and unable to sleep then, well, there's a study room downstairs –– beneath the stairway if you've noticed,"he chants, and when I give an interested look, he continues,"you'll find a tonne of English novels that my father left and almost no one reads them. You can haunt my whole house, I don't mind at all."

"You trust me enough, already?" I ask. I don't trust myself either.

"I don't. But let's say, you cannot cause any harm to me, and if you do try then I'll make you pay back extra," he sounds sarcastic, but he's serious about this.

♪★♪♪

Dark blueness surrounds me. It submerges me into its odourless and magnificent black where light seem to disintegrate into discrete untouchable particles. I thump my limbs and struggle to come out of it. The fluidity disperses my hair in its nothingness and it is choking me slowly, bringing an end to my breaths.