SONG SUGGESTION: Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi
KEIFER POV
She didn’t say a word.
The rain poured heavily around us, soaking through my thin black dress shirt and plastering the burgundy velvet of her gown against her trembling body.
Cold water dripped from the strands of hair sticking to her face, mingling with the tears she had tried so desperately to hide.
I didn’t press her.
I didn’t demand explanations, and I didn’t scold her for driving like a lunatic.
I just stood there in front of her, letting the silence and the storm swallow everything else in the world.
Then, completely out of nowhere, she turned on her heel, took a step toward me, grabbed the front of my wet shirt with both hands, pulled me down, and kissed me.
My mind went completely, entirely blank.
I was shocked paralyzed with disbelief.
I had no idea what was running through her head, what storm of exhaustion, panic, or grief drove her to reach for me, but the sudden wave of fierce, unadulterated happiness that exploded in my chest obliterated every rational thought in my skull.
Without hesitating for another second, I threw my arms around her waist, lifting her slightly off the gravel and crushing her frame closer and closer against mine, until there was no space left between us, until I could feel her rapid heartbeat hammering against my own ribs.
She moved her lips against mine with a desperate, familiar rhythm, like she had never once forgotten the shape of my mouth, never forgotten the way we used to fit together before the blood and the years tore us apart.
She still tasted exactly the same.
Sweet strawberry lip gloss, the faint metallic tang of the cold rain, and underneath it all, something intoxicating and pure that belonged solely to her something that was, and always had been, completely Jay.
She pulled away violently, taking a ragged, choking gasp of air as if she had just surfaced from drowning.
Her eyes went wide, flashing with pure shock and terror, looking at my mouth, then up at my face, as if she had suddenly woken up from a trance and realized what her body had just done.
The wall between us slammed back down in a fraction of a second.
She turned on her heel and began marching up the stone steps toward the front doors, dragging her soaked, waterlogged hem through the rain.
“Jay Jay!” I yelled, stepping after her through the slick gravel, the taste of her still burning on my lips.
Her steps faltered, but she didn’t turn back, keeping her shoulders hunched against the cold.
“You can’t just kiss me like that and leave me standing here in the dark!” I shouted over the roar of the thunder, desperation cracking through the rough, commanding baritone of my voice.
“Sabes que no puedes!Sabes perfectamente bien que lo que me estás haciendo es increíblemente injusto, Jay!” (You know you can’t! You know damn well that what you are doing to me is completely fucking unfair, Jay!)
She reached the top landing, her trembling hand resting on the heavy bronze door handle.
“Te amo, Jay!!” I LOVE YOU JAY
The words tore straight out of my chest, raw, bleeding, and loud enough to split the storm open.
“I love you, damn it, and you’ve known it since we were kids!”
JAY JAY POV
I stumbled into my bedroom, slammed the heavy wooden door shut, turned the lock with shaking fingers, and slid all the way down to the cold floor, pulling my knees against my chest as the sobs finally tore out of my throat.
Why did I kiss him?!
The honest, terrifying truth was that I had no damn clue.
I had promised myself sworn on everything I had left that I wouldn’t give him another reaction.
But dammit, every single time I end up in his orbit, every time his scent fills my lungs and his eyes look at me like I’m the only real thing in his shattered universe, my body completely betrays me.
My brain screams at me to run, but my stupid, heart just wants him closer.
And that is the most dangerous part.
Because deep down, I know the brutal reality.
If I let myself love him again, if I step back into his darkness, he won’t find peace; he will only turn into a bigger monster trying to protect me.
He’s already ready to paint the city red over a four-second bruise on my wrist.
What happens when our lives are completely tangled together?
“This is all your fault, Jay-jay,” I whispered through my tears, resting my forehead against my dress, the fabric smelling of rain and Keifer’s cedar cologne.
“You spent years locking your emotions in a cage, pretending you felt nothing… and the second he pushed, the whole damn thing fell apart.”
I pushed myself up from the floor, my soaked dress heavy and dragging against the carpet, and slowly made my way over to the grand balcony windows.
With trembling fingers, I nudged the sheer curtain aside by a fraction of an inch, peering down into the storm.
He was still there.
Keifer hadn’t moved a single foot.
He was standing dead-center in the driveway, drenched to the bone, rain pouring off the dark strands of hair plastered against his forehead, his black dress shirt clinging to his chest.
His head was tilted up toward my window, staring right at the glass as if he had known the exact second I would walk over, as if he could read every single twisted, terrified thought running through my mind.
Through the blur of rain against the pane, I saw his face.
Fuck.
That expression.
It wasn’t the ruthless, terrifying mafia don who had roared in the corridor and threatened to tear a man’s hands off an hour ago.
It was that familiar, innocent, and devastatingly sad look he used to give me when we were kids—the boy who had lost his mother, the boy who felt abandoned by the entire world, looking up at me with an ache so raw and hollow it physically squeezed the breath out of my lungs.
My hand pressed flat against the cold glass, my throat tightening until it hurt.
He looked so completely shattered, standing alone in the dark, waiting for a girl who had just kissed him and then slammed the door right in his face.
The beam of headlights cut through the pouring rain as two sleek black cars pulled through the estate gates, splashing wet gravel across the lawn before braking sharply beside Keifer’s car.
Percy and Aries stepped out into the downpour, neither of them bothering with umbrellas.
They walked straight toward Keifer, their faces grim under the driveway lampposts.
Percy approached first, saying something with sharp, frustrated hand gestures, clearly questioning why he was still lingering like a drowned statue in the middle of our private grounds.
Keifer barely responded.
In fact, he wasn’t listening to them at all.
His head remained stubbornly tilted upward, his hollow, pitch-black eyes fixed entirely on my second-story window, completely tuning out my brothers like they were background noise in his storm.
Then Aries stepped directly into Keifer’s line of sight, blocking his view of my glass pane.
Aries placed a heavy, commanding hand on Keifer’s shoulder, leaning in close to speak directly into his ear.
Whatever cold, calculated logic or warning Aries whispered, cut straight through the trance.
Keifer’s jaw clenched so hard I could see the muscles cord from my vantage point.
With one last, lingering, devastated glance up at where I was hiding behind the lace curtain, Keifer finally turned on his heel.
He marched through the puddles toward his car, yanked the driver’s door open, threw himself inside, and slammed it shut with such terrifying, unrestrained force that the entire luxury chassis visibly shuddered on its suspension.
A second later, his engine let out an angry, guttural roar, tires spinning against the wet gravel before tearing out into the dark night.
+++++++++++++++++++
i just came from a gathering and my head hurts so bad but luckily i wrote this chapter before so enjoy
Friendly reminder for everyone!
Tomorrow, Viva is announcing their new Korean adaptations!
🎉
Please keep in mind that Ashtine is not responsible for delaying AMNSE.
She doesn’t direct or schedule the show—that’s completely up to Viva, so please don’t leave negative comments or flood her posts asking about it.
Also, if Ashtine gets cast as a lead in one of these new adaptations, let’s support her!
This is an amazing opportunity for her to grow as an actress, explore new roles, and reach even bigger audiences.
Let’s celebrate her growth instead of bringing negative energy!