80 Pain and Sorrow (1/2)

”What are you saying?” Mingyu said in an absentminded expression.

Naruto paused for a while, he continued on caressing her cheek, the smooth skin being flourished by his gentle hand, ”I can do a technique to change my figure into anyone and anything I desire, even when it's not a real thing.

I can shift into a cat or a dog. Becoming a chair or a table, anything that within my capability.

Including him.”

In Mingyu's bedroom, on the top of her bed, a man and a woman stared into each other eyes. One had shock and unbelievable lights all over her eyes while another filled with compassion and honesty. They wore not a single article thing, their body pasted onto each other as his steel and firm sword penetrated her deep and moist cavern. Blood dripped from the edge of their union and soiled the mattress below, along with his thigh,

But none of the above caught a single of their attention, with unclear notion what's going inside this couple's mind, they only bothered with other kinds of thing.

Confusion and denial.

Firm and conviction.

Both applied to the woman and man respectively.

”Are you kidding? Can you really turn into him?” Mingyu said, her face still full of doubt.

”Mmhmm, it's not a big deal for me...” Naruto faintly smiled.

”But, why? Why are you willing to do this?! You said to me that I need to move on with my life! If you change into him, then how the hell I should do that?!” Mingyu turned her palm into a fist and hammered Naruto's chest with it. Her tone was filled with anguish and pain, it stung his heart far deeper than before.

He's not bothered to block it, his hand only focused on caressing the cheek that now stained with the stream of translucent thing.

”I did say that, but I never wish you to forget about him...” Naruto said. His voice had always been gentle, it's like nothing ever make the man below her ever be angry or sad.

”But how can I ever be happy if the memory of him still lingers inside me? How can I love you when I can't even forget about him?”

”That... only you know the answer, I have no clue at all, but...” His eyes gazed downward, ”I wish the memory about him will never ever vanish from inside your mind.”

”Why?” She looked at his somber face and the small curved on that side corner of his lips, she felt strange about the blonde man in front of her, most people had always been jealous with the memories of his or her lover's ex, especially when they had such a deep and profound experience with them.

The words ”Go back to him then if you such love him” or ”Don't put me and him in the same shoes” would throttle out from their mouth every time their lover said ”You not kind, unlike him” or ”He never complains this much!”.

Perhaps if memories could be bought with money, they spent millions if not billions to buy those annoying ex memories away from their lover, just for the sake of them to never reminiscent again.

But this man, he's willing to let her keep those memories, even not hesitate to camouflage his appearance into becoming him...

Why?

Naruto only smiled, he held her fist and raining it down with kisses, ”Because even though it had suffered you a lot, but it also the happiest memory you ever had. You changed, from the tomboy and wild woman into a gentle and caring just for the sake of him, tons of scenery and panorama of life you both had seen together, embedded deeply into the stem of your brain until this very exact seconds. Smile and cry, laugh and scream, those emotions decorated your entire experience, making you for what you are today.”

His lips left her knuckle, her eyes already turned moist, ”You had become a woman that manages to attract a lot of eyes, stopped many hearts, and halted tons of breath. You had complete your metamorphosis, from a slow and ugly worm, to a soaring beautiful butterfly. All thanks to him, he changed you, he is your whole world.

I can't compete with that, I never am qualified to do it. Compare to him, I am just a visitor, a newcomer, forever be your second, unable to replace him, but I am fine with that.

Because what's the meaning of pride but if I have to see you suffer? I can't replace him but I can become him. What will you see it's the face of the man you always love, you hold dear into your heart, cast me aside, I won't bear a grudge, so long you happy, then it shall be worth.”

Silent followed after his last words. The ticking of a clock like a siren of a heartbeat. Tears, bead for bead followed, dripped down from the edge of jaws and flooded the luster skin below. With a hiccuped in her tone, Mingyu held his downed face and titled it upward, the amethyst eyes lined up with the cerulean eyes, both try to seek the opposite parties feeling and sense the pain they silently endured.

”Hey...” Mingyu gapped her mouth, shiver played the rhythm inside her tone.

”Can you... change into him?” her lips trembled, between the flowing tears, they appeared groomed with rosy color, ”please.”

Naruto's expression lagged, one couldn't describe what he's currently felt.

Is it pain?

Is it hurt?

But it only lasted for a brief as he restored his smile and nodded gently, he raised his both hands and mumbled, ”Transformation technique.”

”...” under Mingyu's observation, Naruto's figure filled with smokes, she could feel the firm body underneath her changed their contour become something she once felt familiar when they used to sit, under the lush cloud of leaves, breeze in the wind of spring, river stretch as far as eyes could see. They cuddled, spoke each experience in the words of loves. Singing the tune of dear until the dream took over their bearing.

She smiled at the memory but also pained her heart so much that she almost caught out a blood from her mouth.

The smoke became clearer, soon the figure began to emerge, part by part, skin to skin.

It wasn't long until all the puffy cloud dispersed completely, and the face she missed so much greeted her eyes.

The pair of black eyes that resembled a moonlit night, clear as bright as it could, with stars showering the universe.

Strong diamond shaped face that knew no bound of its luster, no hurt on the eyes even when they stared it for so long.

Short hair with both sides undercut, army special style, prove of the man's loyalty and pride of his country.

She used to jump in joy whenever this look came out from the long compartment of a train, stepping under that gate with spirited and strong gaze yet shifted into gentle and meek once they fell upon her.

She used to laugh, grasping his arm, walking together to the outside of the station, eating lunch in his favorite fast food.

She used to glee, when they walked into an Amusement park, hand in hand, stepped inside the giant roundabout attraction, held into each other embrace as they slowly reached into atop.

But it's no longer there.

What joy now replaced with a sorrow, waiting for a long time in the front of the Airport, just for a false hope for his face to appear.

What laughs replaced with endless tears, screaming until this voice no longer persist, until this mind no longer sober.

What glee replaced with a bitter, not knowing for what truth or lie anymore, stuck between the grey, surrounded by the high block of a wall that ceased the news to flow.

Mingyu faintly smiled, with an anguish-filled tone, breath heaved as if something stuck in her lung passage, eyes rippled with clear bright water and droplets of tears rained down her cheek.

”Hey...” she said. When the opposite party opened his mouth, she quickly halted it with her finger, ”please don't talk...”

She knew this illusion would instantly break if the person let out his voice. He never hears the man's voice, how could he possibly disguise it too?

”How are you? Are you happy somewhere? Have you fulfill your dream?”

”I always been waiting for you, every afternoon on the weekend, in our favorite place, even when rain stormed, snow froze, and heat blazed. I am there, waiting for you...”

”My parent told me it's useless to wait for you... they say you no longer care about me... they say you have found a better life than being with me... they say you no longer... no longer...”

She held into her mouth, her rugged breath wandered in the space of the room, ”I love you, I always do, it's hard to forget about you... to abandon the promise we made, to stay in faith and hope for our fateful day to come...”

”But now, I am in bed with someone, someone, not you, not in our sacred night, not in our nuptial chamber, not after our wedding, not after our ceremony, it's not you, it's not you...”

”I cheat on you, I am sorry, I am sorry!”

She leaned forward to his chest, weeping as hard as she could, no hold up, no hesitate, as if she poured all the burden she felt, the frustration she kept, the suffering she endured.

He didn't do a thing, he simply sat there in silence.

Perhaps, the reason why he could feel something different with her is that how resembling her situation with his.