Flowers that belong to you [Edgar Bright]
5 years ago, if you told Edgar Bright he would find someone he would love for all eternity, he would have brushed it off with smile, carrying on with his day without another thought about it.
Even now, he still doesn’t believe that.
On the top of the civic center, there stood a man blankly gazing at the crescent moon high above, illuminating both the land and the sky with its soft glow of light. The cold wind brushing against his face barely registered into his mind, only slowing down his blinks that didn't hide his dull empty eyes from the full starry night.
Back in the past when there were nights like this, he would be carrying out his secret job with those same eyes, barely taking in what he was actually doing. He became numb to all of the killing he's done, all the blood he spilled on the floor and on his hands, all of the lives he took that suffocated his neck everything; everything sinful thing he's done does not stop his gentle carefree smile-- of course that smile was far from carefree but to many that didn't know him, that smile was positive, not deceiving.
And yet, there was someone who believed that lie but captured his heart at the same time. Someone who was no longer on his side.
I wonder how she’s doing?
An exasperated sigh escaped his mouth. No matter how many times he tries to forget her, he always remembers. He remembers every shard and piece of her that’s been engraved deep into his mind whether that be her innocent smile that was like a breath of fresh wind or the gentle eyes that used to stare into his with so much love and compassion, maybe perhaps it will be the memory of them having a picnic near the special lake he brought her to or the night where they gazed up at the stars from his room-- like what he was doing now, alone.
His eyes wandered away from the moon onto a far away bush where a bouquet of white and red carnations swayed along with the wind. The petals were starting to lose its colour, slowly withering away from neglect. It wasn’t his fault. Every time he saw them, the memories would resurface again.
“These are for me?” Her eyes widened in shock like a surprised animal as she held onto the large bouquet of carnations in her arms, blinking in disbelief.
The man chuckled at her adorable expressions. “Yes, these are for you. Luka told me that the florist near their base had wonderful flowers so I decided to drop by to see. I was hoping to buy some flowers that matched your beauty but none of them were as beautiful as you so I had to settle for these instead.”
“Oh shush you smooth talker.” She hit his arm playfully with a smile that stretched from ear to ear.
Edgar mirrored her smile with his own, her joyful happiness affecting him as well. He bent down and gave a short gentle kiss on her cheek before pulling away just in time to see her cheeks deepen into a dark shade of red, her free hand moving up to the spot where he just kissed her. Whether that action was intentional or not, she still looked absolutely adorable in his eyes.
“I have to be smooth or else you’ll catch me easily. In fact, you should be calling yourself smooth because you always manage to steal my heart with something as simple as your smile.” He mused.
“Nonsense, that’s what you do best.” She pouted, turning her head to the side with a slight blush still present on her cheeks.
Another laugh escaped his lips. Truly this girl would be the death of him one day.
“If so then you’re my partner in crime as well. As repayment, should I steal away your future and last name?”
Before she could react to that statement, he pulled the bouquet over to hide their faces before giving another kiss on her lips, this time savouring the sweet and softness of her lips for a while before pulling away with a smirk on his face. Her entire face was now as red as the carnations she held in her hand, her eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights with invisible steam raising out of her ears.
The distance memory made him laugh, remembering how she threw nearly threw the carnations in his face if he didn’t dodge seconds before she did. Her embarrassed red face always provoked him to do something to pull that reaction out of her. Looking back, all the times she got embarrassed was when she was joyful, happy, blissful, but were there any times she wasn’t feeling anything happy when she pulled that face?
Ah yeah, there was that one time.
“You’re taking this too far!”
She said that when his teasing got out of hand once.
“Ed, I.. I can’t. I can’t do this anymore. I miss them so much, I want to go back. This is so embarrassing for me to say this after I said I would stay with you forever but I want to go back home. I want…. To go back to the land of reason.”
That was the week before the full moon raised. The dreaded week where he had to see her pack up all her stuff from his and her room, watch her say goodbye to everyone, see how the starry love in her eyes that used to always surface when he looked into her eyes turned into a jet black sky, remember his attempts to persuade to stay that ended in misery until the final day.
On the full moon night, he was the one to watch her leave. Zero, Jonah and Luka came up to him on separate occasions, asking him if he wanted them to escort her instead. There were a few more that asked but he turned them all down, every single one without fail. He wasn’t sure why he did that, he knew it would cause him more pain if her followed her to the top of the garden and watch her jump into the portal so why did he refuse them?
“Well, this is goodbye.” She turned towards him, her gaze pointed towards the floor with a sad frown on her face.
Edgar held onto his smile, a smile that felt too forced to be his. His eyes wandered to her hands held tightly onto her handheld bag, the one that he gave her as a present before. He couldn’t remember why or when he bought that for her but if his final memory of her was going to be this, her leaving without a smile on her face, he refused to accept it.
The man forced himself to put down his ego, his pride, his mask that he’s put on for so long and showed a genuine smile for their final goodbye. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Alice. May we meet again in another time.”
The girl was momentarily stunned. It wasn’t until she got the message did she start to smile. Tears began to form at the corner of her eyes but her smile never wavered even when she spoke in sore tone. “Me too. Thank you for taking care of me all this while.”
Under the moonlit night, they smiled and said goodbye in a garden of roses that connected two worlds, their love ending the moment the flicker of light and love had vanished, as well as the moment she jumped into the portal and erased her presence from this world. Never to be seen again.
That familiar nickname made his head turn around swiftly. Her name nearly fell out his lips before he saw plum purple hair that didn't cover a pair of worried topal eyes staring into his emerald green ones. "I went to find you in the red army earlier but saw you up here instead. What are you doing up here?"
Edgar bites his lips but hides his frustration. How was he going to explain his pain to his honest friend? There was no way he could explain this feeling that bubbled up inside of him every time he thought of her, tearing him to bits and pieces every day while suffocating under the weight of everything just like he did way back then; she was his pillar of support and with her gone he's forgotten how to walk once again, how to breathe properly and how to embrace warmth under the sun one more time. With her gone, his days were like nights without the moon and stars-- dark, empty, nothing.
He takes another look at the red and white flowers before moving his lips upwards, plastering on a carefree smile.
"Nothing, just admiring the roses and the moon."
