"Joon" Anya called out as soon as she picked up the receiver.

Namjoon waited till the click confirmed the other side of the telephone being put down. Then with a smile in his deep voice he asked, "The way you called my name. . . . do you miss me Little Fruit?"

His words, his voice. . . that question.

It had an immediate effect on Anya. Her heart sped up as an overwhelming sense of coming home swept through her. Her legs lost the power to keep her standing straight so she slowly sat down near the table, gripping the receiver tightly.

"No. I didn't. Not even for a second."

A beat passed before Namjoon whispered, "Little liar."

She let that silence envelop her. Even though she was alone in her room, after a whole year, she felt happy again. Like the band constricting her chest had finally been released, that she could breathe again.

"A whole year." Anya closed her eyes as she talked, "Why Joon? Was it that easy? Ignoring me?" the tears she wanted to prevent still escaped from the corner, trailing down silently on her cheeks, the drops steadily falling on her clothes, "Forgetting me?"

The first time she had talked to him 2 days back, her happiness at being reunited had kept from her dark bitterness and hurt from spilling over, but today, she could not control it.

"How was it possible Joon? For you to go a year without talking to me? How?"

With every word, the whisper slowly started turning into a screaming pitch of her pain unleashing itself from deep within her heart.

"Ever since the year I met you, you kept promising me to always be person who stood by my side no matter what came to us in the future. When I asked you to not make such promises so easily, all you did was smile and ask me to trust you. Trust you to always keep that promise. Though I never acknowledged it, you know that it is the one oath that I keep locked with my very soul.

Always. That is our vow to each other, is it not??

So tell me, how could you leave three nights before you promised to make me yours??

I still understood, I know a betrayal came from the blue. I was and am thankful that you escaped, but how could you only talk to So Hyun, asking him to relay your messages?? How could you sleep when you kept repeatedly rejecting my desperation to speak to you??

Do you even have any idea of the panic and the utter desolation that started building up with your continued absence?? No one would tell me where you were! The Kang Family only revealed a statement of you having gone to Japan and nothing else!!

Each day started feeling like a shard of broken glass which kept burying in my chest! Each day my fears kept building to the point I could not eat, could not even think of sleeping! Each day, I suffered a poisoning from every breath I breathed not understanding the separation YOU induced me in!!

Only So Hyun's messages kept me sane!! Why did you not write to me??? What had happened to the extent where your success meant more to you than helping me out of the increasing pain you left me in???

OR DID YOU THINK I COULD BE UNBOTHERED AND HAPPY AT THE PALTRY ALMS YOU GAVE ME WITH SO HYUN'S MESSAGES???

DID YOU THINK THAT A BURROWING PIERCING SENSE OF BEING ABANDONED BY YOU DID NOT LEAVE ME HOLLOW TO MY CORE???

DID YOU THINK IT WAS EASY FOR ME TO FACE THE DAWN EACH DAY AND WILL MYSELF TO KEEP WAITING FOR YOU??? TO NOT GIVE IN TO THE THROBBING, BITING SENSE OF LOSS THAT PLAGUED ME TO DEATH???????

TELL ME KIM NAMJOON, DO YOU THINK IT WAS EASY FOR ME TO KEEP BREATHING AFTER THE WAY YOU LEFT ME????"

Anya screamed in the receiver, her tears long since turned into sobs, her pain, her panic, her worries finally having an outlet.

She was gasping for air, bent down on the floor, as her crying stabbed the empty room with its choking sense of loss.

The girl lay down on the floor, baring her heart out to the one who she loved more fiercely than she had ever imagined herself of being capable of. She let out the heartache of feeling lost without the man she felt her soul reaching out for.

The man, who was her reason to be born.

"Do you think you can ask me that question so glibly?" her hoarse voice whispered brokenly, "Should it not be you answering it to me?"

No sound came from the other end.

After some time had passed, Anya laughed sorrowfully, "So Namjoon. . ." she sat back and leaned on the legs of the bedside table, ". . . did you miss me?"

The ticking of the clock in the room answered her loneliness.

Her Namjoon, had never been able to express his emotions well. If a situation demanded him revealing his emotions, Joon would mostly always remain quiet.

Before understanding this, when she smiled at him with tears in her eyes on being happy about something, it would leave Joon more sombre than usual, his face completely expressionless. When she cried in front of him, all he would do was hug her close, not offering any words of comfort.

When she asked him his feelings for her, all she saw was his eyes looking deeply in hers.

When he had spoken, it had nothing to do with tender feelings of love, instead it had been a wish.

A wish, Anya knew Joon wanted with an intensity that had left her scared when he had spoken with his grave eyes blazing with sincerity and longing.

"One day, I'll stay with you, be with you. That reaching you whenever I want will be a normality for me."

Smiling a little at that memory, Anya mentally prepared to gather herself when his deep voice transmitted though the separating distance.

"I never left."

Huh?

His reply disoriented her again. It seemed her evening was filled with such instances.

"What?"

"I never left. I never went to Japan."

Blinking rapidly at the fast stream of boiling lava of anger shooting from her feet to head, Anya's low pitched voice radiated with suppressed fury, "Are. You. Telling. Me. You. Never. Left. The. Country?????"

A beat of silence.

"Yes."

"........."

Her face was hot from her anger. The power of her rage was breaking all boundaries she thought she could never cross.

"Kim Namjoon. I. Will. Kill. You."

"Well, in my defence, you never asked. I wanted to have my family not know-"

"DID NOT ASK????????? HOW COULD I ASK?????????? VIA TELEPATHY???????"

Silence again.

"Little fruit. . ." his voice turned extremely coaxing, "sorry."

That was the straw for her. Anya stood up jerkily and started pulling the receiver from her ear with the intention of banging it back on the handle when Joon's voice loudly rang out.

"Don't hang up!!!!! Sorry!! Don't you want to talk to me about my brothers visiting you???"

Biting back a scathingly vulgar expletive, Anya stiffly asked, "How do you know I was hanging up?"

"I know you for 14 years now Little Fruit, of course-"

"Wrong. You know me for 13 years. You still dare to count last year????"

".........."

Joon tried again, "Mira said my brothers visited? Did they give you trouble about the house?"

Truthfully, that question did distract Anya from her anger, but she would never let him know it. Biting her lips to refrain from speaking about it enthusiastically, she sat down on the bed, stubbornly refusing to speak.

With a smile, Joon went ahead to explain without waiting for her question, "It belonged to me. That house. I had it designed with you in my mind. But I knew, with your pride, you would not accept such a present from me, so I had your grandmother give it to you in her will. That way, you can't refuse it."

"Joon," Anya reacted immediately, this time understanding what was wrong with his statement, "Why would my Grandmother agree with you? She could have easily modified her will in the last minute of her sickbed. After all, once she is dead, you could not hold her to any blackmail you kept her on the leash with. Legally, she could easily pass it to Jae Hoon."

"The legal clause for the sale of the house stipulated, for her to maintain ownership, it had to be passed down to you in her will."

Anya still found fault with what he said, "Then in case of such a clause, if she did not abide by the terms then by default it would become the property of the one who sold it or the state, right? If that is a fact, then you want me to believe that the Grandmother who had hatred running through her veins for me, actually thought of giving me the house instead of having it reverted back to you? She would never want anything good to happen to me, even if it meant a golden egg being given away."

A soft laugh drifted by, "Why is my Little Fruit so clever?"

"Speak."

Joon sighed, "She accepted the terms probably because she added a clause of her own. My clause would only be in effect for the span of three years. If three years passed, then after that time she could give the house to anyone she wished for.

Unfortunately, my Uncle along with a few of previous board members had stumbled upon us when the contract was being discussed. For the sake of secrecy preventing any leak of such news to you, I could only hurriedly accept and sign the terms."

"Huh." Anya furrowed her brows, "The Namjoon who is known for his ruthlessness in the world of business of always getting his way actually left something that he was personally invested in, up to fate? My Grandmother was healthy up until a few months ago Joon."

"Then, do you want me to give my thanks to God for not letting her health continue?" Joon asked in a light voice.

There it was again. That feeling of something not adding up, something being wrong. She still could not grasp it.

But neither could she refute it.

"Your brothers reacted very strongly to the news of you coming back." Anya abruptly brought up the matter which perplexed them all. "More than being shocked, I would say they looked terrified."

"That is to be expected." Joon murmured, "They know that my return will put an end to their life of luxury. They know they will pay dearly for what they have done. They are aware, that they will be completely, destroyed."

"Oh, so were you gathering evidence against them?" Anya understood a little, the realization easing yet another unknown worry within her, "You did once say you want them completely out of your company in a way that all connections would be severed. Were you planning how to do so? But Joon, the company is their inheritance and they are very deeply rooted in it. Taking them away though might be a good thing, but a lot of other divisions will collapse as its consequence.

Having them thrown out or even slandered will have bad repercussions on the units they control, including the Motor, Financial and Hotel division."

"No Little Fruit. There is a way that won't happen."

Reassured, Anya picked up the telephone from the stand and placed it on her bed, then lay down.

"Joon?"

"Hmm?"

She smiled, "I am very happy. Finally being able to talk to you, is really precious to me. I used to have nightmares that you would leave me and never let me reach you again. That you would abandon me." She laughed, "I know, it was silly given the reassurances you sent via So Hyun, but still I could not prevent my dreams."

"What did you dream of?" Joon gravelly voice softened as well.

"That I was running in a dark tunnel, trying to chase you only to find that there was no one in front of me. You had eventually disappeared. When I cried and screamed your name, there would only be a void echoing back. I could still feel you, but I knew I could never touch you again." Anya whispered, "This dream kept repeating itself every night until I started believing it. I was becoming paranoid."

Anya stopped talking, as did Joon.

"It was becoming difficult to breathe." She confessed, "Whether it be when I was asleep, or awake."

When a comfortable silence stretched out between them, Anya again had a nagging feeling of not noticing something trivial but important.

"Silly Fruit. Don't you know, I will never leave you alone."

A sudden chill went through her spine, responding to his dark voice.

It was clearly a sentiment she wanted to cherish, but it felt more like an ominous vow.

"In the future, even when you are asleep, I will be there to guard you when you are at your most vulnerable," Joon lightly continued, "so that even such dreams will not touch what is mine alone. I wont let anyone occupy your mind, other than me."

Anya let out a surprised breath, "Since when can you talk in this manner? How is it you are suddenly so possessive?"

"I have always been extremely possessive Little Fruit," Joon laughed back, "I was only afraid of scaring you away."

"And now?" Anya sassily replied, "What changed? Not afraid of scaring me?"

"Now?" Joon replied with dark intent, "It doesn't matter if fear invades you."

"Really? Why?"

"Because you will never be able to run away from me. Even if you want to." Joon enunciated each word clearly, "I will not let you."

💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫

A/N : So, no confusion as to what is going on now, right?

If you still haven't got it, then, you really are cute!

If you are intrigued by the story or enjoying it, then please do vote and comment.