Chapter XXIX

"I-I love you, Briella".

She kept her gaze locked with his, frozen in place. "L-love?...".

With that, the wind increased in strength. It picked up the cherry blossom petals from the trees around them and caused them to twirl and fall all around both Briella and Ryan.

"Y-you love me?..." Briella asked. To which Ryan replied with a nod.

Instantly, her eyes swelled with tears, with a droplet managing to run down her cheek. Ryan noticed this and instantly, his eyes widened.

"B-but I told you! I-I don't want to be in love, not right now! I-I don't want to deal with any more heartbreak, Ryan!!". A pause. "I-I don't want to be abandoned again...". Briella ended her sentence with a pained sigh as her eyes lowered towards the ground. Slowly, she felt a lump grow in her throat. She tried to swallow it down, but it only struck back with even more pain.

Then, a hitch caused her attention to dart back to Ryan. She rose her gaze up to him and when she did...

"R-Ryan?...".

She saw the way his eyes swelled with tears. His tears threatened to escape and run down his face, but he didn't allow them to.

"Why?..." he whispered under his breath.

For some bizarre reason, his question sent a shock of pain through her heart. It only caused the lump in her throat to grow bigger. "W-what? Why what?...".

"Why do you think that just because he broke your heart, that just because he abandoned you, that we will all follow his steps and do the exact same?" He interrogated. "Why do you look at me like that?" he repeated after a few seconds of silence.

Then, while looking at Ryan, Briella's expression, which laid across her face, changed. For the first time, she asked herself 'W-why?... What's the real reason that I feel this way?...'.

Then, she remembered Nadia's words. 'What if Ryan is different?... I have never told you this about Dylan, but... I genuinely feel like Ryan is a good guy...'.

Just like Briella, Ryan too remembered something from months ago. Something that Briella herself told him. 'And that's what hurt, and still hurts me the most. The fact that he didn't have enough decency to break up with me face-to-face.'. He swallowed whatever was in his mouth before he thought to himself, 'I-I hope you know that I'd never do such a thing to you...'.

"I... I don't know..." Briella finally responded. From there, her eyes returned back to looking at the ground. "I don't know why I feel such a way, Ryan...". A pause. 'Just like Dylan last year, Ryan will be leaving me too. He'll be going to Uni, somewhere far from me and I am scared...'.

"I-I'm scared," she voiced.

"Scared?". A brief pause. "Scared of what, Briella?".

His question caused old memories to flow back to her. It only made the lump in her throat more painful. It only grew bigger and bigger.

Though she said goodbye to Dylan on that night of the talent show, the scars he left within her, that's what she'll carry with her forever.

"He... he left me with a promise, Ryan...". No name was needed for Ryan to connect who this 'he' was.

Her ex.

"He left me with a promise, a promise he didn't keep...". Tear by tear, they rolled down her face. "He said how we would work it all out. He made me believe that we will survive the worst. He made me believe how we'll make it through the storm. He... he made me believe his lies...". Then, with tears still in her eyes, she looked back at Ryan. She noticed the face of empathy stretched across his face. "So, I-I'm scared that if I believe another guy as much as I believed him... I'm only bound to get my heart broken once again...".

Ryan took a step towards Briella.

Her eyes once again returned to the ground as she took in another deep breath. "I'm also scared... because I can't help but think you'd do the same thing...".

Ryan widened his eyes, it was like he got shot with a gun in the heart. 'D-do the same thing?...'.

Though her head was pointed downwards, he could still see the way that her eyebrows twitched with sadness.

From there, he clenched his jaw. "A-are you really trying to say that you think I'll hurt you the same way he did?...".

His words caused pain in both Briella and him.

"I-I'm scared you will...".

'How?... How can you think such a thing?... How can you think that I'll hurt you the same way that bastard did?...'. His thoughts caused his eye to twitch as his jaw clenched even further. His hands formed into fists. Where the tears in her eyes once threatened to break the barrier, they were no longer there. 'How can I hurt someone as beautiful as you?...'.

He didn't waste a single moment. He closed the space between Briella and him by taking another step towards her.

From there, he did something that Briella's ex had never done before. He took Briella by surprise when he cupped her face. He lowered himself towards her right before...

Right before their lips met.

It all happened so fast. Before Briella could have had a second to process everything that had happened, she found his lips on hers. At first, she tried to push him away from her, but her heart sent a shot of pain.

Her heart told her to stop.

For the first time ever since she broke up, she let her heart control her actions instead of her head.

Her heart told her to give in...

And she did just that. She gave into his kiss.

To them, it felt like moments passed before their lips separated, and from there, they both looked at each other. They gazed into each other's eyes.

Ryan felt his eyes, once again, swell with tears. But unlike last time, this time he felt like he had no control over them.

When he sensed that he could have no longer held himself together, he pulled Briella into him and wrapped his big arms around her.

"I-I'm sorry about this...". She heard him shudder a breath or two.

It only caused her chest to radiate more hurt.

"I want you to know, Briella..." Ryan whispered through his tears. "Whatever you may think, I'd hurt myself than do anything to hurt you, you understand?". The lump that grew in his throat forced him to take a break. "Because I can never hurt a person as beautiful as you...".

Briella widened her eyes to his words, with further accumulation of tears. With that, she dug her head into his clothes as she wrapped her arms tightly around Ryan.

"I love you, Briella.".

His words sent a foreign feeling through her body. A feeling she hadn't felt in a long time.

Though she denied it all this time. And though she told herself that she didn't want to feel love... it was actually those words that she missed so much, that her heart missed so much. Those three words that she was yearning for.

It was those words that she missed hearing from someone who actually meant them for her... and only her.

Gripped onto his clothes, his words left her sobbing helplessly into his chest. Her heart pounded with agony, pain. But it felt good. She felt good. Crying into him, into his chest, she felt at peace.

"I-I'm sorry, Ryan... I'm so sorry..." she whispered under her breath.

Now...

Now she finally understood the meaning of the words Ryan said to her all those weeks ago.

'Love can make you feel as if you were shot right in the heart...'. "I can feel it.".

'Love can also make you feel like you are the happiest person on Earth...'. "I can feel it.".

'There are so many things that love can make you feel...'. "I- I can feel them...".

From there, silence took over with them both being in their big, deep embrace. This time, the silence was welcomed by them both. Neither of them wanted to break it.

It felt like minutes passed before a voice was heard.

"This..." Ryan voiced softly. "This was that feeling, that I have been longing for so long...".

Briella widened her eyes at his words, her eyes - once again - filling up with tears.

'H-he feels the same way...'.