Inside a garden whose entrance was blocked by several luxurious cars, from limousine, Range Rovers to Mercedes-Benz, surrounded by several men wearing glasses and black attire belonging to bodyguards.
Moonlight was accentuating two figures inside the garden, one of them seated on a bench while another one knelt, holding the other's hand.
"Please tell me, Hesme, did I do something wrong?" Rio, sitting on his knees and looking upward at the woman with a saddened expression, inquired.
"....No," she mickly stated with a broken voice, shaking her head.
"Then why? I want to marry you, live with you. Can't I deserve this much?" His fingers entangled with hers, his eyes holding his deep pain at her sudden rejection.
drip drip
"I fear losing you." The woman's eyes broken in tears, falling without any rest, drenching both of their hands holding each other.
Moonlight's glow reflected the grief and pain hidden inside those tear drops.
"...do you still believe in that superstitious prophecy?" Rio's face reflected the same pain mixed with slight anger toward the fortune teller who had predicted their relationship to be cursed.
"...It is not superstition." A whisper-like voice emerged from her trembling lips.
"No, it is," Rio looked intensely at her, repeating the words he had told her many times before.
"YOU COULD HAVE DIED THAT DAY!" Hesme cried out in pain, the strength in her voice evident from the visible veins on her neck, causing even the bodyguards to look towards them.
Yet, ignoring everything, tears flowed like a river. "You could have died...you could hav..."
Her hands left Rio's finger, attempting to stop her stubborn tears, but everything was in vain. The flow didn't cease but continued, falling and drenching her wrist as she tried to wipe them away.
"But I am alive, right?" Rio spoke with his body standing, his hands wrapping around the crying woman, pulling her into an embrace and softly caressing her head with softened eyes. "And it wasn't some curse, but that Max bastard's fault."
thud
"Ow," Suddenly feeling a light pinch on his waist, he looked downward, only to hear her soft yet trembling voice, "I told you not to use abusive words."
"Yes, yes, I am sorry." His hands lightly ruffled her back, the other one placed on her head, feeling her pain while his eyes reflected on their life's journey.
"So, I was saying, it was Max's betrayal who backstabbed me with poison," Rio repeated himself.
"Sniff, Was it really?" Hesme corrected him with a trembling voice, reminded again of the fortune teller's words about her being a curse to him, a jinx who would lead him to the path of death.
"Do you really forget, we had our first time that day?" She again reminded him, recalling the sudden call from the government to send him on a mission just after they first copulated.
"Hesme, that day, David died, not me." His mind replayed the vivid details of that day.
Known by the code name 0, he was always sent on special missions, just like that day.
Accompanied by his old comrade Max, he went on the mission under his old name, David, which were the official allotted names for their identification.
But Max backstabbed him with a knife filled with Russell viper's poison; all wounds from previous firing battles resurfaced with heavy bleeding.
"Both are the same; you can't play with words," wrapping her hands around him, her face buried in his abdomen, with drying tears, she retorted.
"Fine, but you idiot, don't you see?" Tracing his fingers down towards her chin, lifting it up while meeting her eyes, he with a softened expression added, "I survived a grenade blast just a meter away."
Slowly he leaned in, removing her wrapped hand, coming to her eye level as she sat on the bench. Making eye contact, he said, "You are that lucky for me. I am still alive, survived a bomb, and defeated even death. With you by my side, I am sure even the gods can't separate us."
"....Why are you making me feel helpless?" The woman's eyes looked at him in her most vulnerable state, wet due to his words, simultaneously hating him for forcing her.
Yet those memories of his completely burned body, destroyed bones, everything resurfaced again.
.
.
.
.
"Miss, let us deliver this," the bodyguard insisted once more, but Hesme's response was a firm rejection as she reached the end of the alley.
'No, why is there a crowd?' Hesme's hand trembled, causing that phone to slip from her grasp and crash onto the ground, her steps quickening.
"Did this young man save them all?"
"Yes, he pushed the girl and the two ladies onto the roadside."
"How did this happen?"
"No clue."
The murmurs of the crowd reached Hesme's ears.
"No, NO, NO!" Hesme's body moved faster, disregarding her bodyguards' calls as tears began to form before she even reached the scene.
The words of the prophecy echoed in her mind.
:: You are cursed to him, your presence nearby him will only lead to his death ::
"MOVE NOW!" Her delicate hands pushed through the crowd surrounding her, her heart shattered as she passed by, her mind enveloped in an ominous feeling dragging her deeper into despair.
"EMPTY THE PLACE NOW," the bodyguards swiftly arrived, forcibly dispersing the crowd, uncaring about the aftermath, focusing solely on clearing the path.
Drip-Drip
"R-rio?" Tears continued to flow as Hesme's eyes locked onto the lifeless body lying on the ground, bloodied and broken, shopping bags strewn around.
Thud
"Uwwaaahh.....R-Rioo!....sob...Sob..." Hesme's trembling body collapsed against the bloodied figure, pain overwhelming her, her heart shattered into irreparable fragments. "I-i t-told yo....."
*****
drip
'I told you, I am a curse.' A single tear slid down the woman's cheek as she stood atop a tree, her amethyst eyes gazing into the distance, her silver hair dancing in the wind, her expression vacant.
'This time, I will keep my distance and remain a barrier, Ryuk.' Yui's face, devoid of emotion, concealed the pain accumulated from her past life—the torment of being a curse to the man she loved, unable to even touch him.
Even now, he nearly died the moment she requested the transfer of the Sword from the Sword Maiden to him.
It proved again that she and death were equally close to him.
Her single step was like death taking two steps; at most, she could only circle around him and protect him from external pain.
This had been her aim since the moment she first saw him: he was her weakness, but she would be his strength.
This was what love meant.
A love that was never hers and never would be but she will keep loving him, from afar.