Patches

Liliane's body recovered but, the dreadful wound on her neck was filled with ginormous stitches that was too horrendous to be shown. The wound took long to heal and it left such a large and terrifying scar on her neck.

Liliane who loved to tie her hair up, lets it down to cover the pain in her heart as the scar serves as a reminder for how it was painfully shredded. It was around these times that Liliane would feel detached and yet, also not. She wished her life to simply fleet away in a sudden yet, she would also think that it doesn't really matter anymore, she would have this hollowness in her eyes, like a body deprived of life yet, also felt a stabbing pain to her being which, painfully hunts her down. She doesn't know how to describe it well but, it was numbness and also suffering.

"Daughter, get better soon... Come on..." A mother simply worried of the piling bills the longer her child stays in a hospital bed, a blood but, also a stranger to detest.

Liliane can't even hate her mother. She doesn't have any energy to do so.

During her stay, Liliane immersed herself with books, one about the verse, ironically, she chose one that specifically details her kind, omega.

"Omegas... Revered as the bottom of the social heirarchy... They have the weakest constitution... Their body modifies to one that could bear children, they emit pheromones that could lure potential mates..."

Liliane's lashes fluttered and her gaze was fixated on every letter, ever words that forms the sentences she read.

"In the end... What's the difference between an animal?..." She scoffed with bitterness as she turns to the next page.

"For newly awakened omegas, pheromones are mostly released when they are near person that they are interested in, some even emit it unconsciously when they are in love."

This sentence that Liliane read felt like strings tugging on the core of her heart. She couldn't help but wonder when she spent her time with Garen, did she emitted it too? What kind of pheromones was it? Will Garen ever know of her feelings back then?

Liliane felt suffocating as her questions pile up but most importantly, she wondered... Would Garen ever know how much she loved him?

It's all too late yet, her long existed feelings can't help but, wonder in bitterness of what would've been when things never gone wrong.

After being discharged, Liliane continued school, one where no one knows of her name, her history, her. One also far away from her home, from her mother. Ziel is her classmate for the entire middle school and the only other person she got close to. The bond they share was one that had a common origin. Different characters but, same role on the two youth's life, a splitting mirror having a detestable family, parent, childhood. They actually had a lot of common and they were also both broken.

Ziel is the only person who knew of Liliane's story, who witnessed her story with Garen. She taught of clinging to their bond as a mean of living and she was able to last long having a companion with similar pains.

Amidst the first year of Liliane's middle school, started her frequent attacks of her own pheromone trying to take her life, choking and unable to breath, torture and relapsing mixed pain, surging desires that she hoped would never surfaced, disgusted to her state, she suffers alone, reluctant to ask anyone for help.

Liliane didn't know who to bother. Her mother? No. Ziel? She already helped her a lot. An abandoned space was her hiding place as she embraces her whole body, desperately refusing to submit to her instincts of the omega she detests.

"Is this... What they call heat?..." She thought.

At these times, her being would crave for Garen, his voice, his gaze, she miss it all and the enmity she felt towards the boy would gradually shift to herself.Her being is forcefully manipulated by instinct, it was her first time to know of something called... Bodily desires. She was disgusted and ashamed of herself.

"Garen..." She calls it softly in a loop like a chant to ease the pain she feels from her heart.

She hates Garen to the depths of her being and yet, she misses him so desperately. Her heart was handled by this boy, her life and her death. Liliane feels painfully alive and in spite of all her desire to hate him, the only thing that whispers comfort to her soul were the memories she spent with Garen.

From when Garen found her among the crowd, how he gazed upon her with his warm eyes and loving smile, from his words, to the times he held her hands, he unknowingly healed her broken heart over and over again.

But now, he was also the one who completely pulverized her already shattered heart.

"He was... So nice..." She whispered softly to herself, her eyes tearing up along with her wrenching heart. She doesn't even know what's even more painful anymore.

All she could do was to cradle her own body as she desperately pray for the overdosing amount of inhibitors to forcefully ease the pain brought upon this cycle.

Yuhan found her one day and saved her. He gave her a stronger type of inhibitors and introduced her to the others.

"Liliane, these people were abandoned by their mates. One-sidedly marked, they suffer multiple times when their heat or rut arrives. Just like you." Yuhan explains.

Liliane stares in the room filled with gazes reflecting void.

"Ah... These people are broken... Just like me..." She thought to herself.

With people who could understand her pain, she found comfort once more. She learned to heal tiny bits of her heart and was able to heal others too.

She comforted Owen, Mishel, Licht, Raiji, and even Yuhan.

[Yuhan Sent a Message: At midnight, come to my space if you want to be trained.]

{Voice Call Between Garen and Yuhan}

"Why are you helping me when you hate me so much?" Garen couldn't help but be suspicious.

They could kill him for Liliane, Garen knows how far he could go for Liliane and he could tell that Yuhan and Owen could also do the same.

"You are Liliane's life." Yuhan replied.

"Alright, I'll trust you." Garen says as he ends the call.

~~End of Flashback~~

Yuhan stares at the glass of liquor held in his hands as he sat opposite to Mishel and Licht who waits for an explaination from the man.

"Her first instinct was to care for others... She forgets to care of her own pain... She found comfort in comforting others as she doesn't know how to comfort her own... She didn't know where or how she can heal herself..." Yuhan thought in his heart.

"In the end, just what were you thinking?!?" Licht gazed intensely to Yuhan's crimson eyes.

Yuhan looked at the reflection of his eyes that was mirrored on the surface of the liquor.

"Remember when Liliane tried to take her life when she figured that she was the reason why that boy turned into an alpha?" Yuhan asked softly with his deep voice.

Licht and Mishel's expressions were soon filled with anguish and terror. They remember it so vividly, how Liliane scratched her still-healing scar until it re-opened, crying desperately as she continued to say how she is extremely undeserving to meet Garen. This is also one of the reasons why Liliane had to wear a collar instead of a bracelet. It was so that Liliane could never repeat that again.

"Liliane loves that boy so much, the only thing that could breath her back to life is to be on that boy's side and she would've also never told the truth and kept on secretly blaming herself."

"I hate to admit that the only one who could urge Liliane to stay is that boy."

"As long as that boy exist, so will Liliane." Yuhan says.

Licht frowns as he looks towards Yuhan.

"You knew that the bond-marking would alarm Liliane when that boy is on danger. You have no intention to kill the boy but, you went too far towards that child." Licht was still strongly against Yuhan's ways but, what's done is done.

Yuhan drinks the liquor and his eyes fluttered. He softly places the empty glass, down on the coffee table.

"I've lost a sister, once. I can't lose another one." Yuhan softly murmurs.