Two Weeks Later
"Yules!," Genesis waved, smiling brightly. "It's been a while. You've been busy, huh?"
Yulia smiled. "Studying."
The monotonous reply led the taller guy to examine her closely. Yulia used to anticipate meeting them, but now, she sounded aloof. She was smiling but her eyes had already lost the sparkle they had whenever they call her name.
"Are you even resting?," Genesis frowned, running his eyes up and down to check on her appearance. There were no changes in her physique but she looked restless.
"I am," Yulia answered softly, looking down to her hands. "Where's Luciel?"
"Getting lunch. And well, Eli went home already. He had important matters to deal with...," Genesis shrugged.
Silence again.
"You know, Yule–"
"Gen... Does Elijah hate me?"
Genesis knew that question was coming sooner or later, but he still didn't know how to explain it to her. There were limits to how much he could tell her, but there was one thing he knew for sure.
"Eli? No," he firmly answered. "He doesn't personally hate anyone. He's just too blunt about things he dislike."
"So he dislikes me?"
"No. He dislikes the way you are."
"What do you-"
"Sup, weirdos?," Luciel chimed in, looking as bored as ever. He turned to Yulia and handed her a newly heated sandwhich. "Lucky I bought an extra one. What are you doing here?"
"I have food," Yulia tried refusing. Luciel's attitude that switches from one pole to another never failed to make her flustered. Sometimes, he would act like a protective older brother while other times, he would either be a verbal jerk, a passive jerk or a combination of both.
"Fine, yeah. Whatever. You girls and your diets," he muttered, throwing a glare to the wall opposite his seat. "Hah... I need to have that discipline, too."
Yulia chuckled for the first time that day. "You're planning to go on a diet, too?"
"The day he goes on a serious diet is the day aliens come back to take the pyramids," Genesis snickered. "This little guy eats everything that's offered to him."
Luciel smiled innocently and gave him a finger. "Fuck you."
Genesis smiled and leaned his chin on his palm, his eyes never leaving their eldest. "Fuck me yourself."
A crumpled tissue found its way to Genesis's face as Luciel shot him a disgusted look. "You wish."
Yulia watched as the two exchanged insults with doubled meanings. She wondered if they were just too close to the point they didn't mind joking about that or there was really something between the two.
Luciel's phone interrupted the banter, prompting Luciel to click his tongue and check the caller ID.
♟
"Yo, Eli!"
Luciel, Genesis and Yulia had rushed to the Xia residence as soon as they received the call. Yulia had no idea what caused Luciel to react the way he did, but she recognized the parallels of how he acted towards her during the time he saw her bruises and today.
When they arrived, they found Elijah lounging on a luxurious burgundy couch, massaging his temples.
He seems fine, Yulia thought.
She hoped he wouldn't say anything about her being intrusive because she might really regret skipping a class for the first time just for him.
It was a spur of the moment thing, but Luciel and Genesis's worry already rubbed off on her on the way.
"Hey." Genesis lightly tapped Elijah's shoulder. "You alright?"
Yulia looked the other way.
The scene felt too intimate for her. Elijah looked too vulnerable that it started ruining the rude and emotionless image she had of him in her mind.
"Why is she here?"
"Ah...," Genesis scratched his nape. "We were having lunch when you called. We kinda dragged her with us."
"Ask the driver to send her back."
"She already missed a class. The school guards won't let her back in," Luciel objected, his tone calm but firm. He just came back with a tray of sweets at hand.
"Then send her home."
Luciel shook his head, ignoring the younger guy. "No would do. Gen, come with me. Let's ask for something better to eat downstairs."
Genesis quickly obliged and went with Luciel, leaving Elijah and Yulia in an awkward atmosphere. The last time they talked, Elijah sounded gentler, but then again, the three always had ways to surprise her.
Yulia took the initiative to approach him, thinking it was also for the sake of getting along with Luciel and Genesis whom she had taken a liking on. "Are you alright?"
"None of your business."
"So stingy," she glowered. "I shouldn't have come."
"No one told you to come," Elijah sighed. "I thought after that, you'd stop tailing Ciel but here you are again. What do you really want?"
Yulia felt blood rushing up her cheeks due to the guy's disrespectful inquiries, but instead of getting angry, she felt somehow embarrassed. "I told you, I just want to have friends. Why do you hate me so much?"
"How presumptuous of you to think I'll waste energy to hate you. I just don't like seeing you, that's all."
"Why?"
"No reason."
Yulia had always found her personality and opinions bland, but whenever she was around Elijah, a bolder part of her unintentionally surfaces.
"Are you perhaps scared of women?"
Elijah scoffed in disbelief. "That's one embarrassing theory."
"What's embarrassing is you shoo me away without even elaborating your point," the girl retorted. "Is it safe to assume Mr. Elijah Xia is just an unreasonable person?"
"Is it safe to assume Ms. Yulia Lim doesn't know the limits to befriending someone?"
His rude remarks, however, did not affect her anymore. He had done far worse so just his words wouldn't scare her now.
"Wait," Yulia's eyes widened. "Is that a book by Zafón?"
Elijah halted, his glare softening. He followed her eyes and looked down to the book on his lap. It was one of his favorites when he was younger- a book his eldest brother would always read for him back then.
"Huh? Yes."
"It's The Shadow of the Wind, isn't it?!," Yulia excitedly exclaimed, the previous argument completely forgotten. She had never encountered anyone with the same taste as her in literature- well, that was if he did like the book. "I love that book! I've read the other two, too!"
Elijah raised a brow and shut the book close, meeting her eyes.
"Das Labyrinth der Lichter?," Elijah asked, referring to the fourth book in the supposed series. "You haven't read it yet?"
"I don't have the book yet." Yulia scratched her nape. Talking to Elijah had never felt that easy. Everything was just falling in place almost effortlessly. "But I'd love to read it if I can!"
"There's internet."
"You don't understand," Yulia argued, her eyes turning to slits. "The smell of books and the feeling of hardbound covers..."
Elijah's lips curled upwards to a helpless smile, a sense of bewilderment growing towards the girl. He had always disliked those who obsess over information for the sake of academic validation, but Yulia seemed different now.
At least in his perspective.
She looked sincere towards literature, geniune and passionate towards knowledge.
"Have you calmed down, Eli?," Luciel interrupted. Few others followed behind him to serve them proper meals while Genesis automatically sat himself beside Luciel.
Elijah nodded. "Surprisingly."
"Oh, lunch," Yulia mumbled, unsure if she was welcome to stay.
"Sit down," Elijah gestured to the seat opposite his. "You're here so might as well eat."
Genesis's grin reached from ear to ear. "Is this a change of atmosphere I'm seeing?"
"You can take Gen's food," Elijah smirked, keeping his gaze on his own lunch.
"Eli! I'm joking, I'm joking!," Genesis whined. He, then, smiled at the female who had just served his food. "Thank you, beautiful."
"Darned cassanova," Luciel commented, hiding it under the pretense of a cough.
Genesis threw him a look. "Huh. Am I?"
Yulia let out a soft laugh. "Do you date a lot, Gen?"
He was closest with her among the three, making the topic easier for Yulia to ask. As expected, he received the question with such lightheartedness.
"Well. If I can't count them within my fingers and toes, does that make me a cassanova?"
"It depends on how serious you are while dating them, I guess?," Yulia gave the frivolous statement much thought. "But I still think you're too young for it. I mean, you said you can't count them by your fingers and toes so..."
"Don't take him seriously," Luciel chided in, chuckling in amusement. "Just how innocent are you, Lim?"
"I...," embarrassment crept up her cheeks. "Well..."
The meal continued with Luciel and Elijah teaming up against Genesis's womanizing antics. Much to Yulia's surprise, she found herself naturally relaxing around them. There was no pressure to say the right things nor was there the unwanted expectation of perfection and refinement.
In simpler words, they were just fun.
"Lim," Luciel called. "You play the piano, right?"
Yulia nodded, remembering how the upright piano caught her attention the very first moment she stepped into the room. "Yes."
"You know this piece?"
Luciel handed her a few neatly compiled sheets enclosed in a folder with the label "Accompaniment" pasted on it. The very first page held the title of the so-called piece.
Bach - Concerto for Two Violins in D minor, BWV 1043
"I've played it before!," she exclaimed, excitement mingling with her tone. "With Oistrakh and Menuhin."
Luciel and Elijah exchanged glances before bursting into small fits of laughter. They pitied how lonely the girl must have been to be this excited about telling how she practiced with a Youtube recording of two violin masters.
She was adorable.
"Let's play it then," Luciel announced, leaving the table and grabbing a violin case from the sparsely decorated shelf.
"You play the violin?!"
"Something like that," Luciel smirked, grabbing another case. "Eli, play violin 2 for me."
"Elijah, too?!"
Yulia gaped at the two and swiftly turned to Genesis, waiting for another surprise.
Genesis raised his hands up in surrender. "I don't do music. Well, more like I can't. But you know, notes are like letters in Math. They don't really make sense to me."
Yulia bit her lip, her breath getting shallow for a reason. Hundreds of emotions rushed to her chest as the thought of playing together with Luciel and Elijah dawned on her. She had never played with anyone before aside from her instructors in her parents' fear that a mistake of a non-professional partner would drag her performance down.
She gently sat herself on the piano stool and laid the music sheets in front of her. Her eyes instantly glued to Luciel's, asking for a cue.
Elijah took it upon himself to conduct the start, bringing his hand up in a still and letting it down to chest-level in one swift movement.
Yulia and Luciel started in synchrony, following the stated time signature of the piece. The melody was led by violin 1 and supported by the piano with each note coming flawlessly after the other.
The younger girl's eyes were pasted on the sheets in sheer concentration until violin 2's parts came. Elijah's perfectly timed entrace caught her off-guard. His harmonic play sewed the whole piece together with so much precision it left all listeners awestruck.
Yulia's focus started to waver. Their sounds were swallowing hers. She wanted to name an excuse but her mind was going blank. Their music held so much depth she was left breathless.
"Yulia."
Elijah's voice snapped her out of her trance, completely shattering her focus.
"Play however you want," he instructed during a short pause, letting Luciel continue then stealing the melody after a few measures.
It was the first time she felt it. Her instructors and parents would always push her to play a piece exactly the way it was written in the sheets, no experimental interpretations or personal touches.
Her pace started to slow down little by little until she was comfortable with the note-reading, trying to disregard how the other two played.
Yet, their music found hers, following and supporting her sound.
They were adjusting.
For her.
She stole a glance their way, only to find the two staring back at her. They were watching her as they played, finding cues in her expressions. They were following her accordingly in order to match her pace.
Luciel nodded, his brows arching upwards. It was a brief but impactful assurance, letting her know she had to have faith in her own interpretation.
They're there, Yulia dictated to herself, fully trusting the two.
Mischief suddenly sparked within the girl as she felt utmost confidence towards the males. Her fingers glided through the keys, hitting them with different stresses and changing tempos according to her desired.
Despite the rather sloppy arrangement, Yulia found herself grinning as she played along the keys. Everything sounded different.
The music she used to love as a child - back when she was still playing the instrument with passion and not for the sake of achievements and competition.
It felt exactly like that.
Their music, together, was full of colors and for once after a very long time, she was an artist, not a competitor.
♟
Luciel and Genesis sent Yulia home with the Xia family's car, making it easier for them to reason out to Yulia's parents.
"Yulia, show Mr. Yoo around the gardens first," her mother instructed. "I have something to talk about with Mr. Zhang."
Luciel gestured for the reluctant girl to proceed so the two left and toured the Lim's residence.
"Gen," Yulia reluctantly called once they were out of her mother's sight.
The emerald-haired lad turned to her, his kind eyes inquiring. "Ya?"
"Can I ask about Luciel?"
The question immediately stole his attention. "What about him? You're interested?"
"No no!," Yulia denied at once, finding the sudden shift in Genesis's tone uncanny. "I mean yes, but not in a romantic way. I'm just curious. You and Elijah treat me the same way consistently. Elijah's not as insensitive as before but he doesn't warm up to me either. But Luciel... he looks like he doesn't care, but sometimes he's like a protective older brother."
Genesis examined the girl as she spoke. Yulia was indeed very observant. He had already expected to encouter the question once they were left alone to her comfort. He broke into a knowing smile.
Yulia had unknowingly gained the other two's trusts. If not, they never would have tolerated presence under any circumstances. And it wasn't as if their pasts were a secret as well.
Wanting to help Ciel for self-satisfaction..., Genesis thought as his smile morphed into a darkened smirk. Applaudably selfish, Yulia.
But knowing he'd need her in one way or another soon, he let her use him to her advantage first. Afterall, if there was anyone among them who wanted her there most, it would surely be him.
"It's because of what happened in the past," Genesis stated simply, looking out the large glass windows overseeing the whole garden.
"Can you...tell me about it?," the younger girl asked. "It's fine if not, though, I totally understand."
"Then, are you perhaps familiar with the He family?"
Yulia's blood ran cold at the mention of one of the illustrious families that had been the talk of the town in the past.
With a father that murdered his own family then drowned himself in alcohol and died from drug overdose afterwards, it was impossible not to know. Their story was everywhere the media could reach.
"What about them?"
Genesis placed a hand on her shoulder before turning his back.
"He's the only son of that family, Luciel He."