It was a dark, cold day on the 66th Floor, the sky shaking with lightning.
On the other side of the glass painted a condensing shade of the deepest blue ombre in the transparency of the natural quartz and artifical weather, lightning flashed in the rapidly heating air, creating the loud rumbling noises. The four corners of the furthest right window wall inside the living room of an unlit gothic mansion formed the illusion of an old cinema abandoned until the film reel tears in the rusting projector.
Silver eyes cheated to look colorless amid the brewing depression seeping intrinsically from outside. The woman, whose very self resembled the first snow more than the current thunderstorm, lifted herself off the Baroque furniture she observed from. Picking up a white umbrella from the holder by the side of the massive double doors, she didn't bother to change from her formal baby blue attire and seven-inched stilettos. It was the worse set of clothes to go out with in such bad weather. But, she went out, anyway. When the rain fell, she was always watching.
Opening her only defense from the harsh pouring, her long blonde tresses reaching the above of her thighs from behind swayed as her small frame didn't let up even to the sudden rain.
Peering from the ends of her umbrella, the lower part of the woman's face was all there was to be seen from the view of an outsider. However, to her eyes, she contemplated as the water above fell from the finiteness of the invisible nimbus.
As much as beauty loved her every being, her every being loved the rain.
That time, as if waiting patienty for somebody, she straightened her sights. For hours, she stood; and for hours, the rain, which reminded her of that person, remained unflagged.
Rather than pools of water you'd see during any other rainy day, the storm filled the gray asphalt with an inch of flood. The girl's glittery white socks now sparkly from being soaked. Be that as it may, it made the sound of feet running down as clear as the opposite of the sky.
The image of a man ahead hurrying to catch up to her outline made her move forward to meet him halfway unconsciously. His eyes, which were famously so blue, gleamed into purple the closer they reached.
That certain day, although they have done the gesture so recurrently, walking towards each other at a distance, she couldn't stop smiling. It was a silly grin so wide she thought her face would split. It lasted the whole time he approached, grinning back at her.
There was an anarchy of butterflies inside her stomach, a panic stampede burried under her chest, a sweet nectar in her mouth. And as she watched the whole world become so lovely just by looking at him, she felt like flying in her epiphany.
Ah, I'm in love with him.
Covering her body with his, the man's right hand softly supported the woman's head, his left hand protectively holding the small of her back, as if warmly wrapping her heart itself from getting cold. He then longingly kissed her forehead, the rare gentle smile he reserved for her present in all of his actions.
"Did you wait for me long, Blake?" The Jeonsulsa resounded with the lightning. How Edahn, she thought.
Pushing back a chuckle, she dramatically nodded, "The weather here makes no sense. It's 40 degrees celcius at highnoon, then it freezes over negatively by night. The next morning, it's spring with the seasonal fever. You can't even eat newly cooked food without dying from the heat waves by the time it's brunch. I could have caught the flu or get struck by lightning, and then died by standing in the middle of the rain today."
"I missed you, too," he confessed before taking the umbrella from her, holding it up more securely for the two of them.
Then out of his strong gaze's bindings for the time being, the Wave Controller returned hers to the crashing raindrops around, dividing her attention between the weather and the Khun beside her, who was talking about climbing the Tower.
"If I was able to come this far, it's because I like you this much," he stated, being expressive when he meant it.
"Just like? You don't love me?" The rosy-cheeked woman joked indifferently, not really comprehending what she just inquired.
His head tilting ever-so-slightly, and optics dilating significantly enough to notice, the tattoed man answered like it was the most obvious thing ever, "Of course, I do! Have I not told you yet? I love you."
"Oh, really? Since when?" Now, she was just playing with her godly acting skills. In reality, she was abashed. Blake was a random person, someone most others couldn't really keep up with if she didn't try to match their pace, so being spontaneous is a given, too. Her choice of lover was a completely other story.
Audibly sighing, Edahn looked over the particularly shorter girl in worry.
"Since that fashion terrorist Jahad found you. Anyway, enough about that bastard."
"Edahn, don't-" Her attempt of calling the love of her life out for badmouthing his leader and her most important person was immediately cut. Her previous embarrassment instantly replaced by irkness.
"Do I not make you feel it? I love you, Blake." The one and only Khun Edahn had said it twice. "So now that I've said it, you'll have to take responsibility."
The female who reached 180cm's openly curled thick lashes accentuated the questioning glint in her eyes.
"Profess your undying love for me, too."
Unamazed by the womanizer's request, the damsel gave out a discernible "tss."
"You call that a profession of undying love? No thanks, I don't even love you. I'd rather Jahad," she flatly bluffed, driving the guy next to her crazy.
"What? No! What the hell?!" Pfft!
The rain was paving for the rainbow at last. Blake, calming Edahn down by effective ignorance, took her umbrella back to close it. His pace that matched her sauntering due to her use of heels, and the hand he put above her eyes as a shield from the quickly intensifying sunlight while she toyed with the white folding metal frame caused her heart to flutter like the leftover drops of rain landing peacefully from the ends of the non-living things all around to the hard ground.
Checking her pocket, she wasn't surprised when a feminine voice called out to her from a few feet away.
"Blake!" Yurin ran to her, Ari Han and V trailing behind her back. "Why weren't you answering our messages? Jahad's been looking for you!"
The mere mention of the Fisherman's name visibly pissed off the Spear Bearer.
"Sorry, got occupied," she replied in equal excitement to see her best friend.
"I know, right? It's so hard swimming away from that slimy eel!" The dark-haired girl complained with a fierce expression, pointing rudely at the bluenette. She was kind of overreacting, but it was a cute act.
"Bruh."
"I'll go see Jahad now," Blake excused herself, cutting their childish banter early on. It would be too troublesome for Han and V to deal with those kids if they made a mess in such a busy residential area, especially for the former.
"But I really don't want to go see that RPG ripoff!" Grumpily, the Irregular whose quality time with her was being cut off complained.
"You weren't," The Tower native corrected. "You were going to go back to Hon."
"What are you and Jahad even spending so much time together for?"
"Bruh," Yurin came back for him.
Advancing past where the both of them were just moments ago prior to being interrupted, Edahn made her pause with a light, but firm hold on her fifth finger between his index finger and thumb. His mien, an intense one.
"I'm sorry," he lamented, wearing a distressed smile of sincerity. "When it's only you and me... When the rain or the others aren't here to steal you away, I'll tell you then... everything, all of it, all of my dreams for us, and how much I love you. When we're there, I'll give you everything of me, you won't be able to hear or look at anyone else. You're mine, Blake. You're the only one, so won't you take care of me, too?"
Edahn breathed his words like they were thin air. Though felt were too soft and delicate for anyone but the one receiving them. His expression, though, was an exhibit for all their audience. Yurin wondered aloud just what exactly was their electric eel doing to the pearl amidst her trash. Han was peering at the couple, his brows raised in curiosity. While V, smiled handsomely at his pair of friends.
"So I guess I'll see you, love." Blake's parting flushed the color of Edahn's face and ears into a hundred and thirty-five floors of red, her hand from where one of her fingers were being captured briefly intertwining with his to send a loving squeeze. "I-"
"Hey, stop it with the PDA!" A vein popped out of Edahn's temple as his in-the-moment hyperfocus was smashed once again by the chiding of the one whom he described in his mind as a barbaric woman. Losing his temper, he fully snapped at her belligerently.
"We don't give a fuck! Do it with Han, too, you bitch!"
V could only laugh. He was the only one laughing.
"I can't look at myself objectively, but that doesn't matter in any form. As I am, I can't forget you. So, please, let me keep loving you."
Disregarding the menace behind him, he veered both his body and mind to the road his lady left by. The mirage of the peeking rays of the sun flaunting then concealing themselves with the whimsical clouds as if hiding her away from him, those were his thoughts.
"Promise me. Okay, Blake? Because what I found out in this Tower is that there is some meaning to life... and it's in the shape of you," he let out a small sigh transforming into a bitterweet smirk.
Flora! Flora! Flora!
"Flora!"
Like a borrowed fragment of the sky outside the windows of the Hell Train they boarded a long time ago, Sunflora was greeted by the homy expression of her partner.
"The sky beyond the window I've been gazing out of fills me with happiness."
"Hachuling," the Hendo Lok Princess called back to the shoulder taking care of her earlier with unexpected fervor. As if at once, her dizziness from being abruptly woken up disappearing at the remembrance of her most most sentimental memory in her present lifetime with her platonic soulmate.
Helping her up, the Wolhaiksong Ranker informed her with the usual accomodating grin he first learnt to sport in faithfulness to his chaste feelings for her at the Last Station decades ago.
"You love that floor so much. We're almost there."
"Let's do our best, RED!" The Commander whisper-yelled for only the two of them to hear.
Handing over her hairtie, Khun Hachuling answered, "I'm not RED, but I'll do my best with the RED Commander."
The ends of the the hailed greatest assassin of the Tower's lips was pulled up by the familial tenderness. Her finished ponytail tied to psyche herself up, something she's popularly done since she was a D-Rank Regular.
"Yeah!"
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A/N: Unrelated to ToG, but I was watching compilations of the AKB48 Group General Elections speeches earlier. The best year, 2014, when Watanabe Mayu brought back the AKB cape and the number 1 to where it belonged-to Akihabara, it was raining that night in Tokyo. Without Mayuyu, I feel so lonely. And, that is why and how I wrote this chapter. The blue outfits in the media from her graduation are the ones Blake is wearing in this chapter's flashback. Cinco also dwells on love confessions, and Mayuyu's SSK center song "Kokoro no Placard", which turned five years old the 27th of this month, sings about that. May your dreams come true～麻友の夢が叶いますように～