Chapter 92: Remember you

“Where’s your room?” Stacy asked as she led Chad up the stairs. “I..” he tried to protest but a look from her shut him up. “The third door to the right.”

Stacy led him to the room and pushed the door open.

“I didn’t know that your room was beside mine all along,” she mused as she took in the setting of the room. It was the usual small-sized room with the same furniture and setting. “I thought you leaders have better rooms,” she said as they inched further into the room. “Disappointed?” He had a smirk on his face.

“No. This is sufficient,” she said as she pulled him towards the bed. “Sufficient for..” Chad was mid-question when she practically pushed him onto the bed.

“To sleep,” she deadpanned as she threw the blanket on him. He blinked twice before exhaling quietly. “I’m just realizing,” he paused, causing her to raise a brow in question. “I never knew this dominant side of you.”

“There are a lot more things you don’t know about me,” she said, “and there are even more things I don’t know about myself.” He smiled. “I like this side of you.”

“Stop being cheesy and go to sleep. You people don’t act like humans at all. Do you ever sleep?” Her eyes narrowed on him suspiciously.

“We do,” he answered without thinking. After a pause, he added, “just, not well. At least for me, I never slept well.” She studied him intently. Then, she nodded. “What do you need to sleep better?” There was a slightly longer pause. It seemed that he was having a hard time answering that question. “I don’t know.”

“Hmm. Forget it. Close your eyes and count to ten,” she said. He immediately closed his eyes. “One, two, three, four,..” A frown found its way to her face. “Slowly.”

“One.. two.. three..” Chad did as she said, counting slowly from one to ten, only to open his eyes. The way he looked at her was as if he was waiting for a compliment.

Only, the compliment didn’t exist. The cease between her brows deepened. “Do it again. Count mentally,” she ordered instead.

His eyes immediately drifted close. Seconds ticked by. He remained still. She mentally counted to twenty with him. The man on the bed didn’t move an inch. A smile finally graced her face. The lines on her face softened as she openly admired him. ‘You should take care of yourself,’ she quietly said to him in her mind, ‘I won’t want anything to happen to you. I don’t want a world without you.’

She leaned forward as she studied every inch of his face, trying to save the image of him in her memory. Losing all the memories of her past was scary enough. Now that she looked at him, she was even more afraid that there would be a probability of her forgetting him in the future. She wanted the memory intact.

Judging from the events that happened in the past according to their narration, it was obvious that the world they live in wasn’t an easy one. That was an easy way of putting it. In reality, it’s extremely dangerous. To really like someone was a huge investment, one that nobody could afford. The risks were way too high. Losing a human life was as easy as an accidental squash of an ant.

However, she wanted to take the risk. The future was uncertain. And that was exactly why she decided to enjoy every moment. Peaceful and happy moments such as the current one should be treasured as it was invaluable.

‘I’m afraid of the future. I don’t want to imagine being too committed and end up losing you, but I’m even more afraid of the days I’ll spend imagining the what-ifs if I don’t commit to this special bond we have,’ she thought.

‘I’ll never forget you,’ she silently promised herself. Slowly, she raised her hand to his face. Her index finger hovered over his face, tracing the shape of his brows, his eyes, the way his lashes fluttered in his sleep, travelling from the bridge of his nose to the tip of it, and down to his lips.

‘If what I lose isn’t memory, but my eyesight, I want to remember you with my hands,’ her heart ached at the thought. Her fingers hovered slightly longer on his lips.

The memory of their kiss in the adjacent room came to her mind. Her eyes were fixated on his lips. ‘I want to bite it.’ The thought was really tempting. ‘I want to always be close to him. I want to touch him all over.’

A flush crept up her face. The room suddenly felt a degree hotter. ‘What am I thinking?’ She was deeply embarrassed by her own thoughts.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped open to stare right into hers. Only then did she realize how little distance she’d put between them. His eyes were clear and alert. Was he really sleeping or had he been awake all along? Her heartbeat sped up.

His stare was intense, making her want to melt into a puddle. Her lips parted slightly and his eyes fell on it. She was aware of where he was looking, causing the rhythm of her heart to mess up a little more.

Her body hummed with anticipation and involuntarily, she leaned down towards the gravity – towards him. He remained unmoving, but the look in his eyes betrayed his investment in what’s going on between them.

She took a final deep breath before leaning in and captured his lips with hers.

‘I want to remember you with my lips – marking yours with mine, remembering the feeling of your lips on mine, the taste of your lips, and the excited leap of my heart as we bond physically in a space we created for us.’

‘I want to get to know you, both physically and mentally.

I want to remember you with all of me.’