Anya lay on her bed at night, looking around the room. It was exactly to her taste. With the dark drapes pulled aside to let the moonlit night light the bed on which she lay in a soft glow, her surroundings draped itself in the shadow of the dark, the spacious room with its walnut and dark brown furnishings against the pastel beige of the walls created a timeless elegance.

Lost in her thoughts, suddenly So Hyun's shout made her vigilant, "ANYA, NAMJOON IS ON THE PHONE!"

Hearing him, Anya surprisingly, did not move.

Not having any contact with him for a year, when suddenly she could, something in her froze.

"YOU HAVE ANOTHER PHONE IN YOUR ROOM! USE THAT BLUEBERRY!!"

Anya turned her head from where she lay, to see the black telephone lying on her bedside table. For a precious few seconds, she simply stared at it, then shakily reached for the receiver, curling her hands over it and lifting it to her ears.

"I'll be keeping this line down then." So Hyun's cheerful voice came from the phone before a click proved his words.

After that, the silence stretched out for a while.

"My Little Fruit."

The deep masculine voice seeped to her soul.

"Did you miss me?"

Hearing that familiar baritone, a huge weight lifted from her chest suddenly, making her feel lighter. The pressure of pain, a melancholy of loneliness which had accumulated over the months, disappeared when his voice caressed her heart.

"Joon. . ." she whispered, a tear falling from her eyes, unimpeded. "Where are you?" the utter dependence and cry of a loved one calling out for a hug broke the heart of who ever heard her.

Anya let go of all the bravado, all fears that she kept within her to keep her strong. Hearing his voice, she let go all the hurt she had to be guarded and alert against.

"Joon. . ." she whispered again, the tears heard clearly in her voice.

"Little Fruit. Don't cry."

"Where are you?? Do you have any idea how much I waited?? You left for a whole year but did not say anything to me!! Your family, So Hyun, you called them all but not me!! Why?? A YEAR NAMJOON! A YEAR WITHOUT ANY DIRECT CORRESPONDENCE FROM YOU!! I could only hear about you from So Hyun or what the news said!" Anya screamed into the phone, the happiness and anger making her a mess, her face shining with the trails of salty drops trailing down both her cheeks flushed from high emotions.

"Not a word! You left without any word while I was sleeping in my house ignorant of anything that happened on that evening! Grandmother died! Your family took my father in their entanglements and made my sister the fiancée of one of your cousins and your other cousin keeps wanting me, he keeps relentlessly threatening me because he feels that I no longer mean anything to you!! Jae Hoon. . . Jae Hoon-" Anya broke down in a sob, crying, stopping the flow of the rushed words that she had kept bottled up while keeping a strong front for these months.

"When I needed you the mo-most, you we-were g-go-gone Joon!!" she choked hard, her throat closing up.

Like a child complaining of all the wrongs that they had bore to someone they knew would now protect her in their embrace, who would never let her suffer from any misfortunes that the world inflicted.

Even amid all the tears and the barrage of screaming pain, the significance always stood to be one.

That he was the one person in front of whom she could be weak.

That he was the one, she trusted the most in her soul.

That he, was her entire world.

"Am I so easy for you to forget? Is it so easy for you to be able to achieve great laurels in your life without even meeting me for a year Namjoon?" her voice progressively became smaller, doubts and the terrifying realization of the insignificance of her presence in his life making her lose the courage to the Knight she had always considered to be hers.

"Am I-" Anya bit her lips hard to prevent another ugly sob from being heard, "not someone you. . ."

In the beautiful room shaded with a few night lamps, the beautiful tear stained girl sat on the bed, clutching the phone to her in a death grip, her heart breaking while talking to the person she loved more than life could possibly allow.

". . . you love?"

Anya cried earnestly now, a deep, deep craving in her taking root. She needed Namjoon in front of her. She needed him to take her in his strong yet gentle embrace. To let her lean on his chest and hear his steady heartbeat calming her.

She wanted to be caged against his tall frame, shielded from the world around her.

"Blueberry?" Namjoon's soft voice held a smile in it.

Anya sniffled in a none to elegant manner, waiting for him to refute her words, waiting for the burst of heart racing intense excitement when he confessed to her, that she indeed was someone he dearly loved.

But the reply, was a little different.

"Do you miss me?" he asked her gently again.

A faint buzzing sensation started in her chest, Anya temporarily was puzzled. Something, seemed strange.

Was this the reaction to be wrought out in response to the catharsis she went through? Why was he so calm?

Brushing it aside, she answered, "Could you not get the answer to your question from the way I spoke?"

A tantalizingly sexy chuckle brushed her ears.

"You missed me." He paused, then added, "I am sorry for that."

Still having the orientation of things to be carrying a peculiar strangeness, Anya became a bit more attentive. This was not supposed to be the response Namjoon should have had for what she revealed.

Something did not quite fit. Right? The way he talked, what he said, given the circumstance of being able to speak after a year, seemed a little out of place.

Did he already know of the things she complained of?

If he did, then it was not like him to take no action against situations which harmed her.

Yet, he seemed fixated on her missing him.

"If you are bothered about this issue," Anya cautiously voiced as she sat up straight on her bed, "Then why did you remain unreachable for such a long time?"

For a space of moment, there was no reply.

Faintly, at the back of her mind, Anya felt something was amiss. Something was not normal.

Before she could concentrate on what it was, Joon replied.

"My family forced me to remain apart from you." His reply, though soft, carried a hair-raising hint of violent rage in it, "For that, they will pay."

Hearing him, a chill ran down her spine. It wasn't the words, nor his tone. But the premonition she suddenly felt.

"Namjoon?" Anya got up from the bed to stand near the bedside table, hastily wiping her tears, a new kind of negative feeling slowly blossoming, recalling what So Hyun had said previously to her.

Namjoon usually deals with people in measure of the crime they did, but if anyone dares to touch you? Their lives will end.

She knew, with the power he wielded, it was possible to make the words so carelessly spoken, an irrefutable truth.

"Namjoon? Come back to me." She coaxed lightly, "There is no need to be angry over a separation for just a few months-"

Rich laughter responded to her words. The deep voice was seductive in extreme.

But alarmingly, Anya perceived the emotion driving his humour.

Savage malicious rage.

Something, that she had never experienced about him.

"Joon," Anya's leg gave out as she abruptly sat back down. She had always been very, very sensitive to the emotions of the boy who habitually hid it deep in his heart.

In a thready voice she asked, "What is wrong? Tell me." Her breaths starting to become rapid, her words became too low to be heard, "What's happening? Where are you?"

Hearing her, the laughter ceased at once.

Again, an uneasy feeling of missing something important hit her, but with the chaos of confusion filling her mind, Anya once again failed to find the source.

"I love you."

Thud

Thud

Thud

Thud

Anya could hear nothing more than her heartbeat.

"Nothing in this world holds a smidgen of value except you, Little Fruit. If its value is too cheap that can sully the priceless smile you carry, then that useless existence is destined to be ripped apart."

Anya's fingers tightened around the receiver till the tips became white. Her eyes were unstaring.

"Don't cry Blueberry. For every tear you shed, it gives birth to an agony someone will pay dearly for."

"Joon." Anya's voice was hollow. Never had her Namjoon said anything like this to her, never had he exposed himself to be. . . the monster he claimed to have been.

It felt like suddenly, she was talking to a different person.

This, was not her Love.

Anya blankly stared at the painting of a gorgeous maiden playing the piano on the opposite wall, her voice scratchy from the abrupt and swift fear of unknown that his words sparked off in her, "Where are you? When will you be back?"

"My Little Fruit," Namjoon coaxingly called her, again in that gentle manner which was so familiar to her, yet the whiplash scared her further, "Very soon. Perhaps in less than 5 days. You will wait for me in the beach house, right?"

"How did you know about the house?"

"So Hyun informed me." Namjoon smoothly replied, "Everything will be well, all you have to do is just breathe and be happy, hmm? Relax a little with your friends, wait for me a little bit more, okay?"

"Namjoon." Anya called out, "Don't do anything wrong. I am fine, okay? So come back to me first and then-"

"Little fruit, do you know how much I love you?" Joon cut her off with a small chuckle, "I will keep you happy. The evenings in the beach become cold, so make sure to sleep with the windows closed."

"Joon. . . why do I feel something is deeply wrong?" Anya restlessly asked.

"Blueberry . . ." Joon's deep affection for her clearly reached through the distance, "As long as I am with you, nothing can be wrong."

Shaking her head slowly, a sense of increasingly oppression grew rapidly. Something was seriously wrong. She had never been wrong about such things in her life.

The worst part was, Anya was now slowly having a creeping realization, that things might just had been wrong for a long time now.

"What happened that night a year ago Namjoon? All I received was a call from you past midnight asking me to wait for you, not explaining anything else. The next day I found out that your eldest Uncle suffered from a heart attack and that two of your household staff had committed suicide. Nothing else was revealed as your family completely clamed up. Even the funeral of your uncle was carried in secret without being open to public and you disappeared for a whole week before you contacted So Hyun again and asked your PA in Busan headquarters to come deliver me the shares of your company you wanted me to guard.

What exactly had happened?"

"Little Fruit, stay away from my family till I come back. When I do, I will tell you all. You waited for a whole year, wait just a little bit more, okay?"

"What have you been doing for a whole year Joon?"

Another soft chuckle, "Preparing to come back to you."

"Joon-"

"Its late Little Fruit. Sleep for now." His baritone resonated in her, "I'll call again tomorrow." He paused. When he spoke again, his words were pitched with a sensual promise, "Dream of me. Only ever dream of me."

Unwilling though as she was, Anya abruptly placed the receiver back in its place.

For a while after the call, a chill made her shiver.

She was overthinking, right?

Laying back down on her bed, she again stared towards the big windows, untying the jumbled thoughts mixed with a nervous premonition which had permeated her mind, refusing to let go.

She saw a pigeon suddenly landing on the sill of her window, cooing and making itself at home, preparing to settle down to sleep. Watching the bird, tangled in her thoughts, tired from the move and strangely elated with the news of her Love's arrival, the beautiful young girl slowly embraced herself in the loving cocoon of slumber.

While on her window sill, the pigeon started getting restless and cooing again, but the girl's sleep remained undisturbed.

💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫

A/N : hehehehehe

Something is fishy?

The background of the whole picture for the people involved will be revealed in the next chapter.

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