A few stiff and muffled shaking breaths vented out in the distance as numbered of astonished bright eyes quickly scrutinized through the entrance arch of the wide ballroom, seeing two dazzling figures nestling between the majestic works of Hanzo's five-foot flower pots by the corner.
The crowd's earlier shallow breaths as well as their boisterous conversations had now ceased, no longer bearing the deafening silence to mind that continuously rings in their ears.
They could deem the remains of the essence souls of their forthright ancestors wavering.
Even the marbled human-sized pots looked the littlest they have seen next in sight of such a tall . . . and endearing man.
A well-off mogul drank from the old wine in his glass, tasting the spice and burning taste in his throat as his vigilant cobalt blue eyes looked calmly at the newly arrived pair, overlooking the familiarity of the faces he was seeing.
And just like everyone else, he felt an unusual stimulating chill through his spine.
With his eyes bulging, his weakened fingers almost dropped his glass as he inhaled through the thick poisonous aura in the air. His nostrils twitch in pain.
It's bloodlust. Thick, raw, and redder than the devil's dome.
His deep blue eyes met his peers, and their eyes were filled with the same gleaming attraction as his. A furtive grin emerges from their lips despite the backs of their heads prickling by the drastic and suppressing unseen shadows of the ruined.
It's him . . .
Admiring eyes persist to consume every little segment of Hiro's tall stature and exquisite existence without a wink and a breath amiss. From the few strands of his hair that were dangling softly above his straight brows to his devilish resting face, he was utterly divine and sinful at the same time.
His broad shoulders are vast and firmer than his uncles.
Oh, the men could never have whined unfairness until now.
His bottomless set of dark unreadable eyes . . . Mysterious and attentive, as if they could look through your very soul and swallow it easily whole.
Either the celestial or demonized beings must have favored him deeply to own such valued existence.
"H-Hiro . . ." Jin shivered and slightly lowered his head, his voice coming out as a low and frail whisper.
Taking the hint, Hiro frowned at the coldness of the room and held Jin closer to him, leveling their heads.
His warmed eyes buried down at the shaking fellow against him and seeing his quivering moist lips had unconsciously struck his heart dead.
The corners of Hiro's lips quavered stiffly as he felt the severe warmth lashing at the back of his neck. It had turned redder than the roses by the vicinity terrace.
His brows gradually met, keeping his self-control but unconsciously amplifying the grim atmosphere around him.
"Shu."
His word echoed and resonated around the room. People felt another electrifying charge surging and stirring unexplainably inside their bodies as his incredibly low voice rang and vibrated through their ears.
It has been what? . . .
It has been roughly around six years ever since they last saw the dark prince's appearance on the television broadcast of his awarding. They didn't want to miss the chance knowing its traces will be permanently deleted afterward.
Good devil . . . what had happened to that young lad six years ago?
He's no princely anymore. Studying him up close, he's rather be called an heir overruled by his tyranny and overworked training.
Yes, they have heard more than enough ridiculous stories of this child's insanity and madness.
"Melissa . . . Melissa! Are you seeing this?"
A petite seventeen-year-old girl clung to her closest cousin's arm. Her strawberry blonde hair slipped away from her ear as a light tint of pinkness spread across her cheeks. Her wool camisole slips off her slim cream white shoulders as she tilts her head and body for a better angle and sight.
Her mouth eventually parted open, feeling her throat parched with a strange sense of thirst as her deep gray eyes glistened brightly as they had never before.
"I . . ." Flustered little Melissa fluttered her lashes through her round and sophisticated glasses.
It was hanging delicately from her sharp and pointed nose. Her curly red hair rested at the side of her pale and shocked face, alarmed that what she was seeing was nothing more but an illusion of her mere fantasies of fictitious men inside her head.
She, too, was lost in the thousand words to define such majestic and surreal attractiveness.
It's him . . . He's real.
"How tall do you think he is?" Shantal grab her purse and easily brought out her powder without taking her eyes off the man, who was seemingly busy covering someone in his arms.
Noticing it only now, her inquisitive eyes so as Melissa's turned to the slim figure that's probably thinner than theirs as their chin turned upwards, still failing to take a clear look.
Feeling the various prying eyes around them, Jin's shoulders recoil inwards.
A shallow breath left his trembling lips, and he tried to calm them down by biting his lower lip between his teeth. He couldn't feel his heartbeat any longer. He was extremely uneasy—too nervous to assume anything. He continued to shrink in his place as he tried to hide his face.
His mentality went completely blank, and his body was rock frozen, only recognizing the remains of their curious eyes that he thought carried bitterness towards him.
They probably thought, 'How dare he?'
His already numb knees had grown more powerless. Albeit he is grateful that Hiro is carrying him, he doesn't know if he's able to walk on his own if the man decides to put him down.
Surely, at that moment, he won't be able to save face from anyone in this room.
Fearing such an embarrassing scenario that pushes him to dig up his own grave, words could not leave his lips as he is also choked by the tension sufficing up the air that only worsened when his mother arrived behind them.
The sound of metal rubbing against a rug from the distance shattered the suffocating ambiance and made numerous people blink from being in daze and spellbound with their inner thoughts barely in contact. They reluctantly turn their heads and their attention shifts to the current highest man of status inside the house.
Jin saw Mr. Harashi rise from his seat, his body turned, and he started jogging towards them like a teenager or rather towards his newly arrived fiancé, his mother.
And Jin's heart squeezes and aches.
Hiro held the back of his head and gently shoved his face to his shoulder, saving him from his seemingly too-vulnerable state.
He shuddered. He was thankful for how this man knows him too fully well and right now it's a blessing
"You're shaking . . ." whispers Hiro, his fingers rubbing smoothly and slowly against his tense scalp.
Jin heard him and felt lips touch the edge of his ear. A small and quiet tear eventually escaped his moist amethyst eyes and ran down his cheek. His heart continues to ache and contract.
His vivid memory of the blank expressions on everybody's faces upon seeing his mother scourge inside his head.
It was too frightening.
Even when his eyes were now covered, he could still sense the distaste and revulsion around him towards them, making him think twice about the place he needed to set for himself.
He had seen this coming. But experiencing and seeing it personally is nothing compared to the anxiety he felt by just visualizing it.
His entire body went cold. He knew he wasn't the only one disapproving of his mother's marriage.
But he didn't know it was this worst.
And the question cues him. What about him?
What do they think of him?
"I feel like throwing up," Jin murmured weakly and shut his eyes tightly close. He can feel his stomach churning which only lessens when Hiro's palm glides down across his shoulders.
"Shh, it's alright."
With his lips pressed unto Jin's head, his murderous eyes met the crowds' heaping stares, starling the closest person ten meters away from him upon sensing the slightest movement of his shoulder.
It was the Seno family butler.
Everyone's anticipation of receiving attention and acknowledgment from him a while ago suddenly vanished into thin air, forgotten and forced into history. They stayed mummed and sealed their lips close. Their hearts were too stunned.