🦋 MIRA 🦋
A response came in almost immediately, "We will proceed with the enrollment, prepare for the contest which would be done in Korea, for only the winner would be welcome to join us."
I wiped my tears as I walked out of the house. I felt nothing but breathless and suffocated in that house, and the least I expected, was to come in contact with Leo.
Staring ahead, I walked past him like he wasn't even there.
"Mira," he called, making me freeze the next step I was going to take in the air. "Are you really going to do this to me? I swear I can give everything up for you, the game — I can easily quit, my family – I'll give it up for you. Mira, you are the most important to me. I feel empty and all alone in this world when you are not around me."
"We are not in the same situation, Leo," I retorted. "My situation is worse and more complicated than yours, my family did not adopt me, they are my real family so I love and will fight for them, and it's my life and that of my family that your parents would ruin if you quit fencing, so you are not allowed to quit, you must not quit Leo. You have seen how they made an example of me by starting a rumour of me being drunk."
"Okay, but must we break up?" He cried out, "Mira, don't break up with me, I cannot be separated from you, I can't bear being away from you. You know I have nobody else; you are the closest thing I have to a friend, sister and mother, Mira - you are everything I've got."
I shook my head multiple times as I struggled to hide my tears, "Don't you get it? This relationship cannot work, I'm being made to choose, and if it's easy for you to choose, it's not the same for me… it only makes things harder to be with you, you think the world is easy because you have not experienced it being hard, you got adopted by a rich parent at a very young age, you are so naive and ignorant, you think you can let everything go so easily… I pity you, Leo, try it… leave your parents for a week and see if you can handle the world alone with no parents to fund your lifestyle, let's see if you'll be saying the same thing about giving up everything after that."
"No matter what you say or do, I won't give you up," Leo retorted, "Look at me, Mira, don't turn your back towards me and lie to my face that you don't want me too. What we had was out of the ordinary, our connection was…"
"Please stop it, Leo," I interrupted, gasping for air as I fought with swallowing my tears, "You are making this so hard for me," I whispered, "Please don't gaslight me too."
"I'm only stating facts," he argued.
"I know I love you, Leo!" I yelled, "And this fact only makes this more unbearable for me. I cannot choose you over my family, I won't. Have you seen my sisters? Their future depends on me. Have you seen my parents? They are literally miserable without me, and yet you think I should choose you over them?"
"Why can't you have both? Why can't we be together also?" Leo yelled back, as his body shook with sobs, tears streaming down his face like rain. He wept uncontrollably, his chest heaving with each ragged breath. The sound of his wails echoed through the silence, a raw and heart-wrenching cry that seemed to come from deep within his soul.
As he cried, his body convulsed, and he collapsed to the ground, his knees buckling beneath him. His face contorted in anguish, his eyes red and puffy from tears. He covered his face with his hands, and his entire being trembled with the force of his emotions.
At that moment, he was vulnerable, exposed, and completely undone. His tears weren't just a release of sadness; they were a manifestation of his pain, his grief, and his despair. He wept like a child, unashamed and unrestrained, letting go of all his emotions.
It was the first time I saw him cry, so I kept mute until his tears subsided.
"Your parents," I whispered, "They won't allow it. I'm scared of what they might do to me and my family. A rich man would never be found guilty, they could literally wipe out my whole family and buy off their freedom. I would lose my family and still get no justice, I might even end up losing my life also. Your parents would do anything not to have you seen with me; they want me off the track for you, and my parents have come to disapprove of this relationship, too. Leo, can't you see just how hard this is for me?"
Feeling drained, he responded, "Then what about me? What do you think would happen to me? Mira, I'm scared of being all alone again… can I not be selfish? Don't leave me."
"I got an offer from the defenders," I announced, making him look at me with a shocked expression on his face.
"No, Mira… you - you can't accept that offer, anywhere but the defenders," he stammered.
"Too late," I chuckled sadly, "I already did, and if I get selected, I'll be away for a very long time. I guess we have no other choice but to be enemies. I love you, Leo, more than you can ever imagine… let's be lovers in our next life, I'd prefer we are both orphans with no one to dictate what to do to us."
The weight of finality settled in as I walked away, a heavy fog that clung to every memory, every laugh, and every whispered promise. The realisation that the best relationship I'd ever had was truly over felt like a punch to the gut, leaving me breathless and hollow.
I wandered through the empty rooms of my mind, searching for echoes of what we had. But the silence was deafening, a stark reminder that the warmth we once shared was now nothing more than a distant memory.
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes as I thought of all the moments we'd never get to share, all the promises we'd never get to keep.
I remembered how he used to smile, how his eyes crinkled at the corners, and how my heart skipped a beat when he took my hand. But now, those memories felt like they belonged to someone else, a bittersweet reminder of what I'd lost.
The hardest part was accepting that it was over, that there were no second chances, no do-overs. All I had left were the memories; even those felt like they were fading away, slipping through my fingers like sand.
As I navigated this new reality, I felt like I was walking through a dream, a dream from which I couldn't wake up. The pain was real, the heartache palpable. But I knew I'd find a way to heal, to move forward, even if it felt impossible right now.
"Bye, Leo… my everything, it has really come to the end."