"Excuse me! Are you in trouble? "
A hand waved in front of Jiya, which seemed to come out of nowhere, bringing her back to the present. She instinctively looked up towards an unfamiliar gentle voice, her eyes still teary.
She saw a young man towering in front of her, who appeared to be a few years older than she, his face filled with perplexity.
He was dressed in black from head to toe except for the white turtle neck visible underneath his jacket. Because of his fair skin, it looked even more of a stunning sight.
Her tear-filled eyes stopped Jiya from seeing his face clearly; however, she could tell he was good-looking just by looking at his blurry silhouette.
However, unlike Jiya, he could clearly see her face, which made his own face distort in horror. The smile disappeared, his jaws dropped without him noticing, and his broad but soft eyebrows knitted together as his pupils shrank.
His trembling hands reached out to hold Jiya's teary face; however, they stopped mid-air, and their target changed to her shoulders.
Jiya felt two trembling hands touch her shoulders, and she flinched a bit; however, she was too dazed to slap his hands away.
"Ji-Jiya!" He mumbled out in a choked voice filled with familiarity, unlike his cheerful, awkward speech before.;
Now Jiya froze, the last thing she wanted was to be seen like this by an acquaintance, especially someone she didn't remember.
Her face started distorting. She tried to focus her teary eyes on the man's face. She wanted to wipe her tears, but she was feeling as if her body had gone numb.
The man, as if reading her mind, raised one of his hands from her shoulders towards her face. However, Jiya had a weird reaction; she jerked her head to the opposite side and closed her eyes as if preparing for a blow, as more tears swelled up in her eyes.
Of course, this move meant one thing: Jiya was exposed to regular violence to the point she would think even a stranger wanted to hit her.
Seeing that the man's hand stopped in its tracks, his eyes shook as if his heart had shattered.
He then softly took his hand to her cheeks and spoke in a gentle and firm voice without any trembling, which he achieved after opening and closing his mouth multiple times, deciding on his next words carefully.
"Jiya...no...Jivika, open your eyes and look at me. Don't you remember me, hmm?"
As Jiya heard 'Jivika', her eyes snapped open, and she turned her head towards the man. The hand caressing her cheeks moved upwards towards her eyes and wiped her tears away.
Jiya's vision had become clearer, however, it was still too hazy for her to see the man's face clearly. But she didn't need to see his face to recognise him anymore.
There were only a few people who knew that name. It was the name she had as a child, but when the time came for her to enter elementary School, her parents changed it to Jiya. For some reason unknown to Jiya, she was sad with it but simply followed her parents' wish, like always.
It was a name she liked and treasured for some reason she herself didn't know. So as the years passed by, it became more like a special gift she gave to people whom she treasured.
But after all these years, there were only two people who had that gift, between whom only one was a man, so guessing his identity was no big deal.
"Brother?" She blurted out.
The hand rubbing her eyes stopped for a second before it continued what it was doing again.
"So, you remember me, huh?" He sighed acting helpless as he shook his head side to side.
Listening to the confirmation made Jiya emotional again, and tears started to roll down her cheeks.
"Hic, B-brother, is it really y-you?" Jiya started weeping louder as she moved her hand, which was still held by his shoulder, to hold his arms. This move made it look like she half-embraced him, although she didn't, as if she was hesitant that he would object.
The man who was called 'brother' now couldn't watch this any longer, and tears started swelling in his eyes as well; however, he took a deep breath, stopping his tears as he pulled Jiya in his embrace and started stroking her head.
"Shh, it's fine, there there." He whispered in a gentle comforting voice in Jiya's ear.
"Brotherrrrr, waaaah!"
As the man comforted her in his embrace, the tension in her heart eased and she bawled her eyes till she could no more.