Chapter 5

The party had just ended. Aelise and her parents tidied the house up. At exactly 9:00pm, she went out to the coin karaoke with Emma and her other best friends as planned. They sang their asses off and it was kind of messy for sure.

Well, except for Aelise. They thought her voice was indeed a gift delivered from Heaven. Ever since she was little, she hoped that one day she'd join a concert and her talent would be known. However, things took a different turn and she rarely sang now.

It was now 12:00am. Their throats were sore and dry. All of them said their goodbyes to each other and went their separate ways. Aelise decided to drink for a while. It had been a while since she saw her good ol' alcohol. She headed to the nearest bar and went inside. She couldn't care less about the couples flirting at the moment. She came here omyl to drink. No funny business.

Aelise walked over to the counter and ordered six drinks, surprising the barter, who looked just around her age. "Woah there, young lady. Are you drinking alone?" He asked, concerned.

There was no smirk on his face. He didn't look pervy either. Only concern could be seen on his face. She sighed and nodded. "It's just relieves stress. That's all." He nodded. With that, she started drinking. She quickly downed the drinks and ordered more.

While doing that, she cried her heart out. Crying over whatever comes into mind. Her relationship with Ace, Zen, how she missed this country. Oh, it was a lot. She was definitely drunk. One could say that she was shit faced.

It was 1:00 am and she cried, drinking for an hour. She thought she needed to go home now. She wouldn't want to worry her mom too much. Aelise paid them all. She was quite surprised no body molested her. But then again, she wasn't expecting anything.

She hiccuped and stumbled on her way to her house which would take her less than an hour to get to. She was too drunk to get a taxi. She was still crying. Her eyes were slightly red and puffy from all the tears.

Zen, as usual, was pushed around a lot. He didn't care anymore. His foot was absolutely killing him and he felt like ripping it off. He needed to finish his work before he even thought of going back home. He sent Arai and Nate back because they both had families who would worry for them.

Nate's mother was way too kind to be worrying her ass off so he let Nate and Natalie go home. Hannah, his sister, had apparently made a mess so his parents were at home too doing God knows what. He could really care less about them.

He reached the broadcasting station and it was the same old questions. "Do you have a girlfriend, Sir?" He was asked and he just smiled and shook his head. "Not at all. I'm single." He said. "Well, there have been rumours about your relationship with Zara?" He stiffened but shook his head. "Absolutely not. She isn't my type. Besides, I like someone already so yeah." He smiled.

When the questions ended, he left the broadcasting station with his bodyguards in the car. He made them stop mid way because he just felt so horrible. His body hurt so bad and his foot started to bleed. "You guys go on. I'll come back in some time." He said and got out. Didn't make sense for him to get out when his foot was bleeding but he felt like puking.

It took a little convincing but he was able to get them to leave as he put his mask on and ruffled his hair. "Fuck my life." He scoffed to himself as he slipped his hands into his pockets and started to walk along the streets.

He didn't know where he was going but he didn't care. He didn't care about how his leg was bleeding heavily and how bad his head hurt. "Oh body. Why are you failing me now?" He asked himself as he shook his head a little, making his headache worse.

He closed his eyes because of the pain as he walked and bumped into someone and caught them before they fell. "Oh I'm so sorry." He spoke immediately and looked at her. His eyes widened and he just wanted to run out of there so fast but she was drunk. "You still drink your pain away." He looked at her. She was still so pretty. Looking at her made all the guilt come back. "I didn't get to say this. I'm sorry." He whispered as he helped her stand straight.

Aelise hiccuped for a thousand times for now. "Fuck it. Fuck my life. Fuck this, fuck that, fuck me. Everything is fucked u-" her words got cut off as she felt someone bumping into her and falling down. She screamed in horror.

'Oh no, I take back what I said. It's actually good living-' Instead of feeling the ground colliding with her head, someone caught her. "Oh, goodness. God gave me another chance to live-" She had a mini celebration. Weird, but after all, she drank a lot.

He smiled and intentionally made his voice deeper as he kept his mask on. "Are you okay, ma'am? You should be careful of where you go." He spoke and looked at her. It was anyway so late at night. He should maybe drop her home but he didn't know where she lived.

He didn't know if she still stayed in the same place or not and he didn't want to risk it. He took in a deep breath as he brought out his hand and held hers gently. He automatically smiled at the soft touch. 'I loved the times when we would walk together hand in hand.' He thought as he looked at her.

"Ma'am, it's very late and this street is very dangerous to be waking on. Don't worry. I won't do anything to you. I'll just take you home okay?" He spoke softly as he smiled at her but the mask was in the way. 'Should I take her home? Maybe I'll not take her upstairs. It'll be bad then. Maybe I could just get her a room downstairs. Yeah. That's better. Nate wouldn't mind if I used a room on that floor. Yeah.' He thought to himself.

Realizing that someone was with her, Aelise looked at the culprit. She looked up at the man and tilted her head. 'Oh? He's familiar.' She thought to herself. She inspected every part of him, head to toe. But not literally every part. No. That's quite gross and weird of her. Then, something clicked.

Her eyes widened and soon after, she teared up. She brought a hand to her face to wipe the tears off. But it only got worse when the person intentionally deepened their voice. "Z-Z-Zen.." She stuttered weakly. Everything was happening so fast. She just arrived here this morning, saw her mother and all. Out of all events, she had to see him.

Her heart ached. She just wanted to cross the space in between them and hug him tightly like there's no tomorrow. But no. She couldn't. Aelise is sure he's happy with someone. He's enjoying his life to the fullest. She was sure about that. She had no rights to hug him now, unlike before.

She knelt down in front of him, hands covering her face. She continued to sob and apologized. "I-I'm sorry, for everything. I'm sorry for not being enough. I'm sorry that i didn't do my best to make you stay. I'm sorry I was such a shitty girlfriend. I'm sorry, for everything. I-It's my fault." Indeed. Everything was really happening so fast. Aelise breathed heavily and continued, "But, I'm so proud of you that you moved on." She smiled genuinely, still kneeling down. The tears just didn't want to stop.

Zen looked at Aelise as she inspected him and then sighed. "You're not the reason. I was an idiot, okay? You weren't a shitty girlfriend. I was a dumbass. You were my world. You still are. Don't apologize for something you haven't done." He spoke as he crouched next to the girl. He made some space between them so that she doesn't feel uncomfortable.

Zen chuckled as he heard her. "I'm sure everyone in my life would disagree when you say that I've moved on." He spoke as he gently lifted her chin, looking at her face. The same face, looking at which always made him smile like an idiot.

He had everything in the entire world with him but now, he lost all of that. He had nothing left of him which would remind him of how he was before. Carefree? He didn't know what that meant anymore. His leg started to hurt more but he ignored it as he wiped her tears away.

"Don't cry, please. You'll make me cry too." He spoke as he lifted her up. "I-I'm sorry for touching you like this. We should uh get you home first. If you don't mind, you can stay at my place for the night. It's not far from here so we can walk down the street for five minutes and we'll be there." He spoke, not wanting to call his guards and make a big deal.

"A-And yeah. Sorry if seeing me was bad. I didn't mean to bump into you." He said and bowed. 'I could've done anything for you back then. I still can. I can do anything and everything for you as long as it means that you'll be happy.' He thought to himself. "And don't tell this to your boyfriend. He'll kill me for touching his girlfriend." He smiled. He removed his jacket and wrapped it around the girl, knowing that it was pretty cold.

'You've got the best of me.'