ALONE (1)

"Could you tell me what happened?" Ares delicately asked. He looked like he was trying not to chase away the cloud with his breeze-like breath.

Eirene's black eyes were staring at the side of him as she sniffed and wiped a tear sliding off her perfectly curving cheek. The tiny action made Ares smile inwardly.

In front of everyone, she always had her guard up and never failed to keep her mature appearance. But seeing her acting as any normal person would do after crying made him a little happy. Also, the fact that she let him see that side of her brought him a secretive bit of joy.

"Do you want to talk?" He asked as he handed her a white handkerchief from his pocket.

"...Thank you..." Eirene whispered as she received it. Instead of using it to wipe the tears, she held it in her palm and stared down at it.

Ares also copied what she was doing. It took him a couple of seconds to realise that this was the handkerchief he wrapped her earrings in more than a month ago. Seemed like she remembered it.

The woman sniffed and wiped her tears after she had enough of going back to her memories. Her movements were careful, but they still managed to mess with some of her makeup. And Ares did not let the opportunity slide to oblivion.

He reached out his hand, caressed the skin so lovingly and removed the smudged eyeliner with a tiny satisfied smile when he was successful. He had no underlying intention other than fixing it that it made certain someone feel a prick in their heart.

The actress blinked her moist eyes a couple of times before a blush invaded her cheeks like a sun rising in the clear sky with the surreal white blanket of clouds.

She diverted her eyes hastily and faced the fluffy dark purple-coloured carpet. Nothing was interesting about it, but she was facing them as if she was testing her X-ray vision.

"Are you feeling unwell? Do you want space?" Ares peeked respectfully from the side with a frown.

Like a stubborn child, Eirene zipped her lips, not giving answers. But she did look into his eyes as if she was asking for help. One could easily tell she was new to asking for something, but she did her very best in her own way.

The boy told her, "I'm going to stay by your side. As long as you want me. But I can't do that in there." He eyed the door behind him. If he entered the women's restroom, he was not allowing other people to use it and surely be considered inappropriate.

The woman nodded and looked around in both awkwardness and an attempt to find a spot where they could have a private conversation without the fear of being captured.

Ares continued, "But I can ask for a room on this floor. And probably some ice for," He pointed at his eyes, meaning for her puffy eyes to go away.

Eirene nodded while avoiding the boy's gaze. He was kinder than her own blood-related relatives.

"While I get a place and ice, could you wait back inside? I'll be back as soon as possible." She obediently walked back to the washroom but left the door slightly open so that when he did come back, she'd know before he could come to get her.

Ares reassured her, "I'll come back. I promise." With that, he took off faster than a bullet.

----

"Does your eyes hurt?"

"No... Thank you."

Eirene's words made the other boy smile brightly. "You're welcome."

To hide her running-wild expressions, she placed the ice packs over her eyes without makeup.

As promised, Ares came back within a short amount of time with a variety of things. Like an ice pack, jar of warm water, jar of ginger mint tea on the tray and a soft black blanket on his shoulder for her.

He didn't let the actress help him help her. He served the tea and wrapped her up as if she was a sushi roll and he even prepared wasabi, also known as the air conditioner, for extra spice.

He did everything to make her feel comfortable. After all, they still had some distance between them which was slowly decreasing.

Ares occasionally asked if the temperature and the taste of the tea were fitting her and if the blanket she had around her was giving her enough warmth. And that was it. He simply waited for her to open up, which helped Eirene collect her thoughts and organise herself.

In the quiet space, instead of thinking about what to say to Ares, her brain kept replaying the scene where she leaned into his embrace for comfort. Her subconsciousness was treating it as if it was a romantic movie scene and playing them over and over like hit music on a car radio.

Eirene shook her head to focus.

Focus was supposed one of her talents. But when it came to Ares, her tower of focus crumbled down into ashes and was even blown away by the wind, leaving nothing but a sign that it was there.

As she aimlessly tried to look for something to concentrate on, her mind wandered off to what happened in the restroom. The voice and its eyes were vivid and itched into her brain and mind, polluting them.

Eirene gripped the nearest thing by her right hand when she remembered how it spoke loathful next to her ears and sent repulsive chills every centimetre of her body.

"Hey, it's alright. I'm here." Immediately something warm covered her trembling hand, and ice was meticulously removed from her eyes.

Sudden exposure to lights made her vision foggy. From the fear, she exerted more strength onto her hand that gripped something in hopes of helping her.

Eirene thought the blurry vision was temporally, but as she continued to blink more, it sank into her. It wasn't going away.

She collected whatever she could and did her best to get out of the unsettling sight she had never encountered. But nothing changed.

A sound like someone trying to breathe while being choked resonated in her ears. It took her a long time to realise that it was her own ragged panting, the same one she had in the restroom.

Eirene was walking down the path of a full-on panic attack when she felt a hand stroke her right cheek.

As if the hand was a magnet, she was drawn to it.

From the blurry sight, she could make out the silvery eyes that stared right into her. She also saw him, mouth something in concern but couldn't make out what.

Eirene felt Ares's other hand cup her other cheek. Slowly with his thumb, he gently closed her eyes and let her know his existence. He was like a wizard, knowing what to do at that exact moment with his little enchanting sorcery.

As expected, it worked. Gradually. Those hands were like the hands of Poseidon, calming down the violent storm in the ocean and bringing back the sun from the clouds.

"I'm here." Ares repeated the words when she was fully herself and retreated his hands from her face.

Up until that time, she was so concentrated on his face, specifically the eyes. So when the boy's hands moved away from her, her hand moved away also, which confused her.

For a short time, she couldn't understand why her arm muscles were stretching before her eyes registered that the thing that her right hand was grabbing for dear life was his wrist.

Ares's left wrist down was pale as her blood-drained hands. The pair of three hands looked like they belonged to the vampires.

"...Sorry..." Eirene let go of his wrist and brought her hand closer to her heart. She engulfed it with her other hand and nervously massaged it while checking on him worriedly.

The boy just smiled, "It's okay. I didn't mind." Although he said that, she saw him stretch his fingers to get the blood running.

"You are too kind..." She blurted out but not loud enough for Ares to hear clearly.

Ares frowned with a confused but unchanging smile. "I'm sorry. Could you say repeat that?"

The actress looked at him somewhat guiltily. "You are nice."

"Thank you." The boy smiled warmly. "Should I add you're welcome too?" He looked at her with a confused frown.

It was Eirene's turn to smile. "Yes."

The heir blushed lightly as he said, "You're welcome." Before he groaned out of embarrassment and buried his head into his palms. To him, he sounded a little cocky.

Eirene chuckled. Even a person like Jaxon couldn't make her smile, let alone get her mind off of it and make her feel okay in a short amount of time. She almost forgot why they were there in the first place.

Ares turned accusingly to her when he heard her serene chuckle, and their eyes met. Silver and black intertwined.

If this was a scene from a supernatural movie, they would have been stars and flowers flying around, but reality had different ideas.

Just as Eirene felt her heart beating a little too fast, she saw a drastic change in the expression of the boy. His innocent pouting look was replaced with shock and horror. "Oh my god. Is that blood?!"

With that, she looked down at herself just to realise blood seeping through the blanket. She cursed at herself silently.

When Ares left her in the restroom, she remembered the bloody mess on her arm and hands and sighed in relief when he hadn't noticed it.

So while he was gone, she did everything to conceal anything about the wound. She even tightly wrapped a handkerchief around it, to the point that there was barely enough blood in her blood in her

But in the end, she was unsuccessful. Maybe she had missed a cut or two hen tying up, and now she was caught red-handed.

"Excuse me." Ares said and carefully but hastily removed the blanket. Under the blanket, was a normal-looking, plain black V-necked, bell-sleeved top.

With a glance, there was nothing out of the place. Until one part of the upper arm was particularly stuck to the skin, leaving a dent there.

Ares reached out to the spot and barely scraped the material. He instantly took back his hand and saw that the palace where he made a contact with the clothing was red. He knew from the colour and the texture that it wasn't cranberry juice like he had hoped.

The boy raised his eyes from the arm and his hand and asked the actress with a pale face. "I'm going to ask you this again. Could you tell me what happened?"