Chapter 126

Walking through the cavern's entrance, Jin's pair of cautious eyes survey the cave's opening and his arms enclosed around Hiro's neck tighten. 

His sight follows the den's imperfect arch to the lake's gleaming reflection light against the dark walls as the comforting darkness shrouds them.

It was beautiful . . . relieving.

Hiro found a spot to settle down not too far from the open. 

Without an inkling hint of hesitance, Hiro sat on the ground, rested his back against the rough walls, and bore no attention to mind of the concerning and imminent obscurity lurking on the other side of the cavern, now inhabited by unknown and reticent shadows.

Their usual slithering voices were nowhere to be heard as their calmness could only be pacified by their meal beforehand . . . the slaughter . . . or simply the fear of upsetting their master.

Jin obliviously blinks his eyes and moves his head from left to right, glancing around to verify if they are both safer inside the cave rather than being seen outside.

It is too dark. 

He could barely see a thing.

Is it wrong for him to feel like they are not alone?

It's quiet. The cave looks empty. 

But he swore he felt a soul in the cavern apart from theirs.

What if a wild animal suddenly jumps out of nowhere?

Hiro's palms rub their way to the apex of Jin's thighs. His raven and watering eyes harbored sadness and longing, too much longing. 

He stared at his beloved, and despite the emollient sadness, he felt peace, finally tasting relief after the horrible and relentless search.

Jin is safe. 

Hiro parts Jin's slim legs open, and his trembling fingers press onto his soft and cold skin, yearning for his dearest's divided attention. 

He pulled Jin's hips closer before wrapping his possessive hold around him again. He buried his face deep into his neck to hide his quivering lips. 

His cold skin. The soft scent of sweat. His weak and petite body against his. 

Hiro can feel his chest tightening. His heart was crushed.

He could feel it vividly. 

A deep shudder left his lips. My Jin-ah is here.

The corners of his lips could not help but quaver anxiously. 

The suffocating walls around him slowly crumbled, and damp warmness slid and touched the swelling darkness under his unfocused eyes to the paleness of his cheeks. 

Jin is safe . . . 

Hiro struggles to breathe, "I love you." He whispers, shutting his eyes in pain, inhaling Jin's soothing scent for fear that everything was just an illusion and the devil was playing him.

He was scared.

For the first time . . . he finally knew what fear is.

Jin swallows and drags his eyes down to Hiro's with the same frown emerging from his dry lips. He leans and rests his face against the man's head as his fingers run through Hiro's hair above his nape. He holds him around his very little arms carefully and responds, "And you know very well I do too." 

He loves him.

He loves him so dearly, too much for him to even comprehend.

What could this man be possibly thinking again for him to blurt out such affectionate words in sadness? 

Whimpering, Hiro squeezes his now damp face under Jin's jaw, his lips tenderly brushing against the youngster's skin as he talks. 

"Be with me," He exhales. "Own me," I beg of you.

Large hands embraced Jin through his cluttered clothes, and he felt he was in the safest place on earth, but his heart bled with both consolation and pain. He, too, shuts his eyes and keeps the tears from slipping in his eyes. 

"Hiro, don't say that. No one should own who." A relationship doesn't work like that, does it? And it is extremely painful for him to hear the anxiousness in his voice. 

"Please . . . This heart is as good as dead without you," cries Hiro.

They stayed in silence whilst Jin listened to Hiro's soft sounds of gasping and sobbing under him. 

He runs his fingers constantly through the man's disheveled hair, trying to calm him as he ponders over the reason for Hiro's desperation. 

Hiro wants to be loved. 

It seems like he needed love more than he wanted it.

Jin frowns. It breaks his heart to think how his childhood honed him to have anxious attachment issues. 

"Calm down and listen to what I have to say, hmm?" He studied Hiro's face and softly smiled at his sobbing eyes and reddish nose. 

He is really a handsome man. 

Regardless of being distressed, he could still look so dashingly handsome.

To have such a person kneeling for his affection is unimaginable. None of his friends would believe him if they knew. 

He, too, could not even fathom. 

"You said your heart would be dead." He breathes, feeling his tears surging their way back into place. 

He finally has the opportunity to say it. 

His amethyst eyes locked with the most genuine and candid eyes he has ever laid his sight on. "But mine has never been alive until I've met yours." 

A laugh as quiet as a whisper escaped Jin's lips after a gasping sob, and his chest was hurting too much for him to hold his emotions in place.

Hiro does not know how much he values him. 

When, in fact, it is he who must beg him for assurance. 

With Hiro, he never sensed the necessity to pretend to be someone else, to fake emotions and to lie. Hiro made him believe it was possible to love someone despite gender, despite the rules and cruel voices of this world. 

His heart is complete and whole by his side despite society having harshly taught them what men must do for women and what women need in men that he cannot ever provide. 

He never felt so cherished and appreciated just the way he is . . . just the way he was born. 

His fondness for pink.

His flaws. 

His shortcomings. 

His inconceivable clumsiness.

His rotting body. 

His inconvenient presence.

All his life, he had been regarded as a huge burden to everyone around him, but Hiro had not even once nitpicked or lamented about his body's ailments. 

He need not need to pretend to be okay, to be strong. He does not need to put on a smile when he is far from okay. 

With him feels like it is acceptable for his body to be vulnerable and weak.

Hiro is his freedom. His peace of mind. The only place he wants to run to whenever the world seems to fail him. 

His new home.

Jin closes his eyes and inhales, and his voice continues to shake. "And you should have known I have been yours since then."

"Since the very first moment you saved me, and to the very moment you held me." 

Merry tears quietly streamed down Jin's face, and he smiled shyly, ashamed that he couldn't hold them in. "I am only yours and yours to love and hold, Hiro. You didn't even have to try. I have come to love you since then." 

Who confesses to their crush while crying? 

Waters dropped to his hands. He sniffed and blinked a few times to see, only realizing too late no heavy rain could exist inside the cave. 

Hiro was crying . . . again.

His lips parted in astonishment. 

But much worse this time.

"Oh, dear . . ." Jin hushes the man down by holding his cheeks dearly and faintly squeezing them. His fingers gently rub his tears away, but it was no use.

Oh my lord.