WARNING: Mature Themes Ahead ⚠
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1st and 3rd person writing is blended yet well demarcated with this "・●・"

Conan Grey's Heather (as per request)

https://youtu.be/24u3NoPvgMw

Do listen to it.

●・○・●・○・●

"I really like this song of Conan Grey," The fifteen-year-old, River, stated with her eyes closed and took a deep breath of the fresh open atmosphere around.

I smiled, "Same"

"Yeah so, you were saying..."

・●・

"But Bae, I'm telling you the truth," I had to turn around to peer at his beautiful face for once, just once even though it shot daggers into my chest.

How could this pretty face ever lie with such grace? This very thought transformed into a skittish smirk and moist eyes.

"It's over, Jimin. You can now go over to her without 'worrying' about me."

・●・

2 ʏᴇᴀʀꜱ ᴀɢᴏ

❝I still remember the third of December, me in your sweater
You said it looked better on me than it did you
Only if you knew how much I liked you...❞

"Welcome to the first intermediate class of Tango Festival: A Los Amigos."

Tango was never my style but I wanted to try and feel this classic essence of Crete. Though I had made up my mind for visiting this festival, I didn't comprehend I was single until then. I was excited but realized this dance was for two was what got me embarrassed, I was one of those with the solo entry. The introduction was almost signing off and now the part where I'll be perceived as the lost one.

"Okay!" The professional woman stood in the mean of our class as she clapped twice with a big grin "find yourselves a partner in the next..." Her expression was clear that she was eager and won't wait long "ten... nine... eight..."

She was going too fast for an awkward person like me under these circumstances and I knew it won't be long before she'd notice me.

"Hey, you!" And there it came. I froze in my place and pointed towards myself just to be sure if it was indeed me whom she was talking about.

"Yes, you both. Why don't you accompany each other?" With that she got back to her countdown "and three... two..."

I peered to my left and an absolutely enticing man stood before me. I might've been caught gaping at him but his opening up before the time ran out saved me.
"Hello, I'm Jimin," His eyes held that shine one could observe for hours and wouldn't even touch the threads of boredom.

A smile erupted on my lips and I really hoped a blood rush wouldn't wash over my cheeks, "Nice to meet you, I'm Bailey."

This was where my story began if not his.

・●・

Over a year had passed and I was contented with each criterion with him. I didn't ask for anything more or less, just him beside me and I had my everything. But maybe it was just me assuming the same for him; maybe he never found that satisfaction in me.

"What do you wanna have for dessert?" I asked after wiping off the corner of my lips with a handkerchief. We were sitting at a restaurant and our meal course was over. For the first time, I acknowledged him being lost somewhere.

I trailed his vision, going over my shoulder, and found his eyes settled on a woman sauntering through the entrance. I, for a minute, felt my heart shattering but a voice halted me, "How about some croissants?" I relapsed my vision back to his smiling face and the thought dropped off itself.

・●・

Bailey got inside the car and Jimin shut close the door of her side and walked around to get to the driver's seat. He was halfway done when he spoke, "I really need to use the restroom. Will be back in a minute, okay?"

"Sure."

More than a minute passed but of course, she didn't realize it because of the scrolling on her cell. An unusual smile played on Jimin's lips when he got to the car. He put on his seat belt when she noticed his blushing state.

"Somebody seems overjoyed," She was just trying to pull his leg after returning from the restroom but with that statement his smile deceased.

He looked up at her, his expression plain as salt, "Let's get back home?"

・●・

Only if Bailey saw it coming the very first time but her soft heart refused to agree to the accusations her mind made on the person dear to her.

"Hey Babe, what's your dress size?"

The sudden questioning made her lull back her head and place her cell aside, "My dress size? I usually go for extra small but... why?"

A nervous laugh broke out from within him, "Nah, just casually asking."

The small fantasies her mind fabricated after that morning made her want to get something for her boyfriend. Jimin was in the shower when a notification popped on his cell and Bailey's curiosity asked her to take a peek at it.

Sir,
Your reservation for two, at Savor Serves, has been successfully booked. We'll be looking forward to seeing you this evening.

With regards!
Savor Serves

She felt more special than ever after reading the note from one of Jimin's favorite restaurants. The want became a need and she was off to shop and get him a nice set of clothes.

Jimin was still silent about this as she didn't get a call or a text and that was presumed as the time didn't call for it. She wanted to surprise him just as he planned all the lovely things she couldn't fathom how delighted it got her.

❝...But I watch your eyes as she

Walks by
What a sight for sore eyes
Brighter than the blue sky
She's got you mesmerised while I die...❞

She was at Savor Serves and two streets across from getting there. She safely got onto the other side but the euphoric state transposed to anguish flames within nanoseconds. She saw him embracing another woman in his arms and he held a bag, conspicuous it was Prada. She could've been greeted by the woman's face, who stole her man, only if she waited.

But why would she?

The Gucci printed bag was dropped in the middle of the street as Bailey ran back towards her sedan. A sudden car ran over it, ripping the paper bag off and ruining the material it contained but did it matter?

She cried with the hard impact on her heart that caused her to soothe the skin above. Floods of tears, dripping down and the pain made her aware of her very existence in this unfair game called life.

"Bailey?!" A voice echoed through the whole apartment but she didn't bother. "Bailey? Ba... there you are. I thought you..." She looked up at him and he held the ripped bag.
"It had a bill signed under your name and I thought you met with an accident or something."
She didn't utter a word. "What is this Bae?" He asked about the bag but not the soaked tears at this point.

"Oh this..." A scoff merged with a smile after is a dangerous combination and that's what she did as she snatched it from his hands. She got outside her bedroom and found the nearest trash bin possible with Jimin following her, "is nothing." She disposed it and he was fully aware she knew.

It's easy to forgive yet hard to forget but what if the memory involved is rewritten?

"She's my sister, Bae."

And of course, the innocent Bailey didn't know she was being played with and the next evening proved even fatal.

Her mind indulged in reminiscence of the last day's event. Jimin didn't return back home and she was worried to death because this wasn't what he usually does. Being the caring soul, she was determined to ask for an apology and check up on him at his office.

A fresh bouquet of flowers awaited him in her warm palms as she got off the car and headed inside the building. The sun finally allowed the moon to take over and illuminate the city but what when it's a new moon night? The hustle she observes when its daytime was nowhere in sight and it was pretty self-explanatory as to why.

Her mind dwelled around hope, hope that he'd cherish her presence and things might get better. Her fingers insisted on holding the door knob, turning it open. But a scream rather, a moan teleported her soul to darkness and she stood there lifeless. She still wasn't sure maybe her hope still didn't die yet, but the tears were ready to barge in anytime.

"Ahhh... Jimin.... slow... down..."

"You feel so good, Sora...

Bailey never understood my needs. I believe she would've stayed a virgin if it weren't for me. You're so much better Sora. God ahh"

She absconded the second those words hit her and the damage it did was beyond repairable. She didn't look back once and stopped down the hallway which provided her with some fresh air. She clenched the bars of the balustrade and she didn't know why those dead flowers were still in her now cold palms. Without a thought, she dropped it down because simply they weren't needed.

❝Watch as she stands with her, holding your hand
Put your arm 'round her shoulder, now I'm getting colder
But how could I hate her, she's such an angel
But then again, kinda wish she were dead as she

Walks by...❞

The tears never agreed to stop and Bailey never wiped them off. Her shuddering back needed support, some comfort but who was ever there to pick her up, each time she lost her balance on this unfair scale of life?

The godly figure of her parents was nothing but abuse to her, the school was more of a bully to her than education, never raised her voice in college and after a great struggle, she was now independent with a life of her own. But the guy, her heart felt the most secure with, turned out to be in the same company as the ones she suffered from.

Anything would work for her at this point, anything, and the universe did go a little soft on her. Her numb body received a warm touch on her shoulder and she turned around. The man passed a handkerchief to her watery eyes but unfortunately, she couldn't ask for a warm embrace.

"You okay, Bailey?" Namjoon, a nice individual who worked in the organization of that edifice's firm, was kind enough to even ask that.

・●・

He returned home late that night and I already knew the reason. Though it stung at least I wasn't worried.

"You made this for me, Bae?" Jimin asked me whilst I stood watching over the moon from the balcony, my apartment provided. "I already ate, actually," He said.

"Sora, was it?"

"What? What do you mean Bailey?"

"The reason... for you being already full," No more lies could tie me up anymore.

"Did you eat?"

"Why do you care?" Just how much it hurt to let slip a thought of mine off my lips like that that night. Sun never fails to blaze and moon never tells the tales; tales it witnesses. Dusk-lit horizon had submitted itself to darkness and our witness riveted there, scrutinizing.

He stood there, a few feet behind me, near the threshold of the balcony and I couldn't muster up the courage to face him. I had seen enough and no more proof was needed to justify my claims against him. I should've freed him the first time itself but little did I know it was all staged. The tiniest corner present in my heart was also dipped in the shades of his true colors, the reality of his very demeanor.

"But Bae, I'm telling you the truth," I had to turn around to peer at his beautiful face for once, just once even though it shot daggers into my chest.

How could this pretty face ever lie with such grace? This very thought transformed into a skittish smirk and moist eyes.

"It's over, Jimin. You can now go over to her without 'worrying' about me."

And he did.

・●・

Twice of a week passed and she didn't see him once. The misery she was drowned in was something one could never fathom. She was made to feel worthless, not being enough for anyone, not being satisfactory enough, as the words once declared.

Recently, a deep cut greeted her soft palm, with all the stuff clogging her head, she didn't realize when the knife got dangerously close to her hand. And so a bandage wrapped the wound carefully. It was painful though endurable but the memories latched onto her heart were gradually proving it hollowed out.

She got herself a refreshing coffee although she knew it wouldn't help a bit. A coffee before bed and a cell in her hands planned a conspiracy to scrape the bruises even more. Pronouncing you're done with them is the biggest lie because you never stop scrolling through their social media and that was the lie Bailey was feeding herself.

Every day, the same old rants about his new girlfriend.

But tonight was a little too much for this poor soul. Jimin had proposed Sora and the picture of that gleaming ring couldn't get out of her head. The fragile cup couldn't bear Bailey's grip and broke into pieces making a beautiful stain of sepia with the fusion of her fresh blood. The hot fluid only added more fuel to the burning sensation on the cut she already had and the ones she just received.

She wanted to confront him.

Why? Where did she go wrong?

The cut didn't matter either did her state. She was on a hunt to find Jimin, she needed answers. She was done with keeping everything to herself.

・●・

That same man who once used to go on dates with her in the restaurants she liked was now with another woman. Cheated, as they say, but she let go of him. If only she could do the same from her heart as well. It still writhed in pain, screaming just his name but did he ever care once?

"Jimin! Why?" He halted his steps as Sora got inside his car and the door on his side was still open. "What did I ever do to you? Was my love not enough? Was I..." Her voice was hoarse, her soul with multiple rifts but she continued, "Was I not enough for you?"

He didn't look up once till the time she wasn't done throwing a bunch of questions at him. He was prepared with his answer, there wasn't much to say.

"You were always a burden to me, Bailey. I realized, I never really loved you until Sora," The simplest conclusion was served and the sky up roared of thunder and rumbling clouds took over.

No more words, no more explanations.

He drove off in his car with the true love of his life. All promises were mere lies and years of staying together held no significance. She was just a past, a past he forgot but she was still present in. His car was nowhere in sight and the pitch black horizon with grey hints all over did a downpour over the whole city. Her feet were glued to the streets, the cold droplets didn't make her eyelids shut for once. The intensity bit by bit incremented and it was now suffocating for her sore eyes. The last scar was carved on her vulnerable state and vandalized heart.

Oh, just how finesse the rain was in veiling her tears.

A sharp pain welted over her chest, especially where her lifeless heart lay. She couldn't move a muscle and now she was cold. Her body didn't possess to even turn around and get back to her place. If she tried she would fall right that second.

"Bailey! What are you doing here out in the rain?"

A voice called out for her though she didn't turn around. She could hear them moving closer to approach her but she was too weak to make a move. She could've meet with her deathbed if an umbrella didn't shelter her from the terrible rain the city was having a taste of. Her eyelids were heavy but she turned to face the person for this gracious act of kindness.
"Bailey it's your birthday today, right? Are you okay? What's wit..."

"Yes, Namjoon. It is my birthday..." One movement of her steps and she would fall, "followed by my funeral, maybe?" With that last saying of her words, she gave up onto holding on and she blacked out with little to nothing air that could get to her lungs. He caught her in her arms but her lips had turned blue, her clothes damp.

・●・

❝...But you like her better
I wish I were Heather
Oh, I wish I were Heather
Oh, oh, wish I were Heather...❞

ᴘʀᴇꜱᴇɴᴛ

"The song is almost coming to an end," River said with hints of disappointment in her tone.

"Yeah, maybe we'll ask 'em to play it on repeat," Bailey smiled at her own childish statement.

"Is this a true story like you said earlier?"

"It is hun."

"What happened to her that night?"

"She could've died that night due to broken heart syndrome, sounds kinda impractical but that was the diagnosis. And also, will your friend find this storyline good?"

River's face had a smile smeared over, "Oh, she's going to love it, thanks to you. I have one more question though. May I ask?"

"Hmm?"

"Where is that Jimin guy now?"

"He, well..."

❝...Why would you ever kiss me?
I'm not even half as pretty
You gave her your sweater, it's just polyester
But you like her better
Wish I were- ❞

She lifted her face up to catch a glimpse of the couple, giggling and having a nice time whilst they walked towards their car. It was Sora, as she recalled, with her spouse. Their fingers intertwined as he leaned for a kiss. She reverted her gaze back to River.

"He's married and living his best life than ever."

・●・

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『••✎••』A/N - Tell me you cried?

Written on: 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟑, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏