NOVEL NEXT Chapter 147: Our meeting is… Fate.
Sakura Valentine's POV
That was where the first relationship between Junior and Senior started.
Even though Luna initially objected, frowning and warning me to keep my distance, I made sure to insist it was nothing more than a Junior and Senior friendship. Nothing else.
… Nothing was supposed to happen.
But whenever I talked to him, whenever he talked to me… I started to feel something I had never felt before.
Not even from my parents, not from anyone.
This feeling was foreign.
Whenever I got closer to him… whenever I caught the faint scent of him… something inside me stirred violently, making me restless, making my body hot in ways I couldn't explain.
I wondered why... I wondered if it was normal. But honestly… I didn't think too deeply at that time.
After all, my Senior was like a free bird, soaring where he pleased, doing anything he wanted, smiling carelessly at the world.
I loved seeing his face lit up like that. I loved how he always put others before himself. He was different.
That's why my eyes were always on him.
Until—
"I love you."
I froze... My heart froze.
I saw it. I saw her — some random girl — throwing her arms around him, hugging him as if she had the right.
That was the first time I felt something inside me… crack.
As if someone had reached into my chest and stolen my favourite, most precious thing away from me.
An immense hatred rose up, burning, choking me from the inside. I… I didn't even understand why, but… I… I wanted to kill that girl!
HOW DARE SHE HUG MY SENIOR!!!
But still… I believed. I convinced myself Senior wouldn't accept her love. After all, Senior… loved me? Love?
I... I don't have it.
But then…
He… he accepted her.
A girl he had never even seen before? Just like that?
My emotions tangled into a storm, a jungle of madness I couldn't escape.
My heart pounded so hard I thought it would tear my chest apart. My soul shook. I could feel my whole world collapsing, my fucking heart breaking apart… just from seeing them walk together, shoulder to shoulder. It made my blood boil.
"How dare… how dare that filthy slut!! HOW DARE SHE TAKE MY SENIOR!!!"
But I couldn't do anything to her. That girl… she wasn't just anyone. She was someone untouchable, someone not even I could lay a finger on.
Not even my father could.
All I could do was shut my mouth.
Watch as my Senior began to distance himself from me…
Watch as he started spending more and more time with her.
I… I… I don't get it.
Why?
JUST WHY?!
I cried every night... Every second!
Missing my Senior's smile that brightened my entire day. Missing his blush that made my chest skip a beat.
I missed every single thing about him.
Every fucking thing.
But then… like Heaven itself had carved out destiny for me, I got a chance.
You might call it a coincidence… but I call it fate!!
"Sakura!"
Third Person's POV:
Sakura flinched at the word, snapping out of her dream. Her eyes were groggy as she rubbed them slowly, the lids swollen and heavy from tears.
It looked like she had cried herself to sleep again. When her vision cleared, she saw her mother sitting quietly at the edge of her bed, gazing at her tenderly.
Sakura huffed, turning her face away sharply. She didn't want to look at her mother. She didn't want to speak with her mother.
She didn't want to speak with anyone!
They dared to belittle her beloved Senior… and she was supposed to accept it? Hell no!
Evelina gave a weak smile, her expression soft yet pained, and reached her hand toward her daughter's forehead. But before she could touch her, Sakura swatted it away with a sharp, angry motion.
Evelina sighed, the sound heavy with exhaustion. "I know saying sorry won't erase what I have done… but I don't have any other choice, dear."
Sakura didn't react. She simply turned her head farther, refusing to let her mother see her face.
She wasn't going to fall for her words.
Evelina's voice remained calm, "I know you're angry, and I understand that—"
"You never understand what I'm feeling right now, Mother!!" Sakura broke back, her voice cracking under the force of her grief and rage.
How dare her mother say she understood?
Evelina's lips curved into a weak, bittersweet smile. "Fine… I don't understand. But if there's one thing I know more than you… It's your father, dear."
Sakura's eyes narrowed, but Evelina's tone shifted seriously,
"You have only seen my husband as your father… nothing more.
But I have seen him as Adrian Valentine... The man, the husband, the monster who would go to any length to achieve what he wanted." Evelina's gaze hardened,
"If I hadn't done what I did today, if I hadn't given Adrian the satisfied words he needed… your boyfriend would never have left this house alive."
Sakura blinked in horror as she turned and stared at her mother.
"Yes…" Evelina's voice was low, her face deadly serious.
"Your father wouldn't have hesitated to kill him. Even if you hate him for it… that's the truth. That's why I had no choice. That's why I had to humiliate your boyfriend rather than watch him be killed by your father."
"M-Mom? Really?" Sakura's voice trembled.
Evelina smiled weakly and wearily, as she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around her daughter's trembling shoulders.
"I've lived with him for centuries, dear. I know him better than anyone…"
Sakura's body quivered beneath her mother's hold. She didn't know how to respond.
Her Senior… would have been killed by her father?
That single thought sent waves of fear crawling through her veins.
Luna stood silently in the corner, watching, her lips pressed into a thin line. She didn't move, didn't interrupt, just watched.
Evelina rubbed the tears gathering in her daughter's eyes with her thumb, whispering softly,
"I honestly didn't have any other choice, dear…"
Sakura's lips trembled. She wanted to push her mother away, to scream and lash out for the cruel words that had hurt her beloved Senior. But seeing her mother's expression... serious, sincere, and weighed down with something she couldn't deny.
Sakura froze... She didn't understand what to do anymore.
Evelina then added with a soft smile, her voice almost playful, "I ate something tasty in the kitchen. Did your boyfriend make that?" She spoke gently, reaching out to ruffle her daughter's hair with tender fingers, like she was trying to lighten the air.
Sakura's lips quivered as she nodded faintly, "H-He came here… he took care of me, Mom. He even called the ambulance and everything… It was me who pushed him on the bed… I… I didn't want to lose him… so I… I…" Her words broke apart, choked with sobs. "Sniff… sniff…"
"There, there…" Evelina whispered soothingly, pulling her trembling daughter into her arms.
She smiled softly as she stroked Sakura's back. "Tell me… about your boyfriend," she asked in a hushed tone.
For once, she truly wanted to know about the boy who had captured her daughter's heart.
Sakura blinked through her tears before a shy blush colored her cheeks. Slowly, her lips curved into the gentlest of smiles.
"I… our meeting is… Fate," she whispered, her voice tinged with both pride and shyness.
Her hands tightened in her lap as she began recounting the story, telling it with grand gestures and dramatic words, as if her entire soul was pouring out the memory.
Meanwhile, Evelina sat quietly, listening. Her expression softened as each word unfolded, her lips curving in the faintest of smiles.
Her daughter truly loved that boy, didn't she…
Oh well.... Her father was going to kill him at this rate... that's what her thoughts were upon listening to the story.