Fear and Regret

"It's fine." Hyuga said gently chewing on his meal slowly.

"It's true, what they said." Riko repeated and insisted, losing appetite for the meal in front of her.

"I left my last partner because he got sick. It was disgusting. He coughs blood and other liquids. Also he can no longer work because of that thus if I didn't dispatch him he'll deplete me like a parasite." She paused, waiting for Hyuga for any reaction or bitterness. After seeing none she continued.

"His bank account empty to sustain his medicines I turned him back to his relatives. They, of course, scorn me for that but he's useless to me and I cannot let him be with me like that any longer." The slim girl with short brown hair and steel blue eyes resumed eating as she wait for any reply.

"It is fine, lovely. I'm strong and my bank account contains at least half a million. You wouldn't have to leave me. I wouldn't want you to." He smiled at her while gently touching her hand on the table and squeezing it affectionately. Riko looks back at him and wonders what it would take for this man to leave her or is this just an act of phoniness. And what might be the cause of this mild constriction in her chest that is making breathing a little bit difficult.

===LINE===

"No use trying to hide it, it's obvious you have cough." She declared whilst trying to eat and ignore the man in front of her.

"I have taken a medicine already, if it didn't purge this I'll go to the doctor right away. But I doubt it's anything that serious though… urgm… I'll sleep at the guest room tonight." The middle aged man with black hair streaks with gray explained, pale and a bit sweaty from trying to contain his urges to cough in front of her love.

Riko eyed him and nod in agreement. She tenses when Hyuga gestured to touch her. Aware of her reaction he slowly turns his hands into a fist and retracted it.

"I-I'm done. Will you t-take care of the dishes? I-I'll go rest early tonight." He states with a soft and shaky voice not caused by the irritation in his throat before standing up nervously. After figuring that he won't get a response from her girl he proceeds to stride carefully towards the guest room. Though with every step his vision seems to get more blurred and his chest twinge from pain for an entirely different reason.

===LINE===

'I'm longing for him'. Riko realizes as she leans her back to the closed door of the guest room. The continued coughing of Hyuga can faintly be heard from her position. She's afraid to try and go beyond the door. Tapping her head gently on the wood, she stares at the icy-blue colored ceiling. She closes her eyes and reminisces his gentle smiles and warm touches, suddenly shivering when her memories turns into a traumatic past where blood and phlegm and other unmentionables are splattered over her cold body and face while her former partner clutches tightly at her wrists and heaves for dear life above her. Unable to force herself to calm from fear and panic threatening to wrack her mind and body she runs to the open doors of their room.

'This cursed sickness is destroying my body'. He thought as the coughs momentarily cease and the noticeable blood in his hands can no longer be denied even through the dark room. He scrunches his eyes painfully as he hears the quick thumping of steps away and let warm wetness deliberately stream down his cheeks. And as an inevitable after effect his soul is being crippled slowly and surely.

===LINE===

Gone, is the anxiety and fear

The tremor and horror of the past washed away

As a different misery lies,

Sheltered in the being

Her silent cries and shivers wracks her body

For the comfort she now longs

Regret is an understatement

She was left in ruins

The pangs of shattered pieces

Forever embedded in her broken soul and heart

Coldness sleeps through her

Void and emptiness harbored deep within

As she bleeds for the love

Forever lost

Forever gone