Dimensional Descent

The voice was soft, but there were too many strong individuals in attendance for it not to be heart. But once again, it was as though Aina couldn't be bothered to care. Usually, it was always Leonel putting up sound barriers making the two of them invisible. Aina didn't know how to communicate silently nor did she care to.

"I know the words don't mean much, but I still wanted to say them. I know that I hurt you. I was so worried about protecting myself and putting up barriers so I wouldn't have to suffer pain again that I put the only man I cared about in harm's way.

"There's nothing that I can say to change what I've already done, but I still want to say these things. No matter how this ends, the one thing I don't want you to think is that I don't care for you… In fact, I care for you so much that I often don't know what to do with myself. It controls so much of my day, takes up so much of my mind, and yet I've never really told you…"

Aina squeezed Leonel hard, her eyes squeezing shut.

She could remember all the times that Leonel had shown her care and affection, how much effort he had put into chasing her for so long and how persistent he was in making sure that she was always happy. There was never anything that Leonel did that hurt her that was done with another choice at hand, and even the things that did leave her shambles were actions he took that were for her benefit. Ultimately, he had wanted to protect her. But, how much had she protected him?

Aina could think of so many times Leonel's care for her was clear and obvious, but when she placed the same scope on herself… Why was it that she couldn't do the same?

What did she give him? Her body? Was that all she could do to show her affection? What then was different from her compared to any other woman?

she hadn't done anything… It was rather that she was so focused on barring herself

But I… I want

grit her teeth. These were things she never thought she would tell Leonel, things she thought she would take with her to the grave. However, faced with the idea of losing Leonel forever and realizing that maybe she might never have another chance like

to strike all out, was because this was

it like that. After

that she was certain that

Leonel's head space was at right now. He probably wanted nothing to do with her. If she

But, only with his support could she speak these words. Because

bright smile and everyone seemed to gravitate toward you… I couldn't really understand because… because your status was so much lower than theirs. Those noble kids liked to snub their nose

later, I was immediately overwhelmed. Embarrassment wasn't an emotion I think I had ever felt in life up until that point. But, for some reason, meeting gazes with