It'll Come Naturally

It was as if time had been put temporarily on hold. The bedroom was in a sea of silence. The sheets rustled as a body adjusted its position. On one side of the bed, the man slept peacefully. Kevin's injury was quite grave so he couldn't hold out for too long, and soon he got tired and fell asleep. When Leena woke up and her groggy eyes adjusted to the darkness, she didn't see any changes in Kevin as he still slept soundly on the bed. She still thought he was unconscious.

She glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. It was still early before the break of dawn, but she was fully awake now. She remembered what Tom suggested to her--she took a cotton swab from the nightstand drawer and used it to moisturize his lips.

Shortly after that, Leena felt quite bored as she had nothing else to do. She turned back to Kevin again and traced the contours of his face with her fingers as a mischievous smile cracked on her lips and her eyes glinted with mirth. Her fingers danced across his skin as she imagined her love transforming into a kind of magical power that she passed on to him through the tips of her fingers. She really hoped that she could wake her sleeping prince up this way.

"You are having so much fun in it." A hoarse voice broke the stillness of the dawn and startled Leena. Her fingers abruptly stopped in their movement and she looked at him incredulously. However, his eyes were still firmly shut and nothing seemed different from what he was usually like when he slept--heavy snoring and living in his own dream land. It made Leena doubt whether she was just delusional or that she was in a dream when she heard the voice. It was quite strange, she thought and no signs showed that the voice came out of his mouth.

"Kevin, is that you? You're awake, right?" Leena asked, not sure if she was right. Had she mistaken the voice for something else? Yet after pondering over it, she really felt that the sound was real, because the voice was so familiar.

"Leena, yes, it's me. Did you just realize it?" In fact, he had woken up as soon as she started moisturizing his lips with the cotton swab. He chose to pretend sleeping to keep everything as it was because he feared what he saw before and what just happened right now were only a dream--worrying that he would disturb the fairy Nana in the dream. However, it seemed that Leena quite enjoyed her little magic finger game and he knew that would be endless. He couldn't stand it anymore and he finally blurted out in his pretend sleep to stop her. "Oh, you are a naughty guy! You freaked me out on purpose, right?" Leena was overjoyed to hear him and she cuddled him close, cheek to cheek. Deep in her heart, she felt extremely grateful to God for giving Kevin back to her and rekindling her hope to live. "Nana, I miss you so much!" His voice cracked with hoarseness because of getting too emotional. He wanted to embrace her with his arms, only to find that he couldn't move. He felt the unbearable pain searing sharply through his body on the first try. "I also miss you, every minute and every second. So even if you don't want me anymore, I will still stay here with you," Leena said as tears of joy rolled down her cheeks, and she bent towards Kevin and rubbed all the tears and snot onto his neck. "Silly girl. It will always be the case that you can abandon me, whereas I will never give up on you," Kevin said in a faint voice. He sounded extremely sad in that sorrowful tone.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

"I'm sorry! So sorry!" Leena didn't know what else she could say except for the apology. After all, she hurt him deeply and cut his heart into pieces.

"Don't apologize. It's my fault. I failed to make you feel how much I love you, and that is why you didn't feel safe around me," Kevin said as he looked deeply into her eyes with affection as if he wanted to engulf her whole being with his tender love which was as deep as the

sea.

"No, it's me. I was too selfish and ignored your feelings." Leena sniffed, not caring how she looked with all her tears and messy hair at the moment. She had never cared about her manners and image when she was with him, and she didn't mind exposing the real self to him one more time.

"Don't cover my ass. The more you blame yourself, the more guilty I will feel." Leena shushed his mouth with her fingers to stop him from continuing his words. She would feel too ashamed if he wanted to put all the bad things that happened between them on himself. "Okay, I'll stop. Come closer to me. I want to take a good look at my girl." Kevin hungrily devoured Leena's beautiful face with his hungry eyes. There were still splotches of tears on her cheeks, but that only made her look all the more fascinating to him. Those tears were just like dew drops on a rose's petals on a fine sunny morning.

"Do I look awful now?" Leena wiped her tears with her arm in embarrassment, in a way just like a child did.

"Not at all. You are much thinner than before." Kevin frowned as his heart twisted in realization of this. She was already too thin to begin with and now, she was so skinny to the point that a gentle gust of wind would blow her away.

"Huh! Look at yourself! You are the one who really has become so thin that I could hardly feel your flesh when I touch you," Leena said with an innocent expression painted on her face. She didn't mean anything else as she saw that his face really looked so skinny.