Listening to Aphrodite's question, Ikki fell silent, with an indecipherable glimmer in his eyes.
In his mind, he pondered how to respond to the Goddess's question. It wasn't hard to come up with an answer; he just felt that he should truly reflect on it.
In his previous life, he had loved his mother and father too much, and when he lost both, he ended up losing himself in life. It got even worse when the woman who was his soulmate left him for another man just two weeks after he proposed to her.
All his experiences with this phenomenon called "love" were tragic.
"Inside me lives a poet, tragic and crazy, he whispers tragedies, unfulfilled loves, late regrets, cries and laughs at himself for his foolishness, shouting, intoxicated and with poison in hand, he weeps for the pain of unrequited love," Ikki thought with a certain bitterness as he recalled his past life, but in the end, he shook his head negatively and spoke with a hint of hesitation.
"Since you want to know, I will answer..."
As he began to speak, Aphrodite, who had been looking down, shifted her gaze to him. Her blue eyes held an indescribable light.
"My opinion on love is simple. It is complicated and confusing; although there are infinite things I could say about it, I cannot..."
"The best way to explain love, in my opinion, simply doesn't exist. Because whoever tries to describe true love does not love, for love is indescribable..."
Strangely, a girl he had recently met appeared in his mind as he spoke this.
"Even though it is an indescribable emotion, in my eyes, sacrificing your happiness for the happiness of those you love is, by far, the purest kind of love..."
As soon as he finished his words, he smiled softly. A beautiful smile, expressing many emotions; his eyes had an inexplicable shine.
When he began to speak, Aphrodite had turned her eyes back to him.
She was mesmerized by his smile; her distracted and contemplative mind quieted for a moment, and she delighted in his lovely smile, which was so beautiful and wonderful that it made any star in the night sky, even the great celestial bodies of day and night, pale in comparison.
Hearing his answer to her question, Aphrodite smiled lightly; Ikki's opinion on love was simple yet beautiful, a bit naïve but more truthful. After all, many say that true love is the second innocence.
She looked at the indescribable shine he had in his pupils during his smile, her eyes narrowed slightly, perceiving something...
With a teasing smile on her face, Aphrodite leaned closer and asked, "Your tone, your gaze. The way you speak of love. I'm sure you're in love! Tell me who's the lucky one who stole your heart..."
The words of the Goddess of Love pulled Ikki from his little stupor; he was taken aback by this revelation, and his heart skipped a beat. He calmly asserted, with an unreadable expression on his face, "In love? Me? No, surely... not..."
"Of course, dear! I am the Goddess of Love; I can tell you found someone special and started to love her. You just haven't realized it yet; it must be recent..." said Aphrodite with a wide smile on her face.
Ikki's heart turned cold, and he briefly widened his eyes.
His mind flashed with memories of a girl he had saved, healed, cared for, and spent some days with—talking, laughing, and enjoying, sharing stories of various kinds... Someone he wanted to spend more time with and who he wished could make time stand still at that moment.
His heart raced, emotions surged in his chest.
Truly, he was foolish; since the moment he saw her and felt that strange feeling pulling him towards her. Had his aversion to love in this life made him blind? The fact that he didn't want to love again made him deny what was happening inside his chest? Did it make him ignore the birth of his passion for Artemis!?
That emotion...
That damned familiar emotion...
He never imagined that this indescribable and wonderful feeling present in his chest… was his "love" for Artemis. It was obvious; whenever he thought of her, the inexplicable emotion in his chest burned. At first, it was weak, but as time passed, it grew stronger; today it felt like an eternal flame that would never extinguish. And he felt a myriad of indescribable emotions, just from hearing or thinking of the name of the Goddess of the Moon; recalling his memories with her left him in a lost state, overflowing with emotions...
Love...
There was once a legend that said that after the birth of a person, a red thread (invisible to humans) connects the fingers of the men and women destined to be each other's "soulmate."
The longer this thread is, the longer it takes for these people to meet, making them sadder. It doesn't matter how many other people we meet; it doesn't matter who passes through our lives; we are only happy when the one we are destined for comes our way.
That's why he felt he should meet Artemis and why their encounter was so unusual. That's why he felt that fate was meddling with him, especially with everything that had happened over the last few days. His heart began to beat faster; a bitterness filled his chest, his mind was trying to find theories in this, even something mystical like Akai Ito became viable to explain the feelings he developed from spending two days with Artemis, and the fact that Destiny was real contributed to this crazy theory.
For someone who had given up on love, he really fell in love very quickly...
It simply didn't make sense.
But a part of him knew that it was pointless to think about how or why; in matters of love, logic had no bearing. Love is a feeling. It is connected to matters of the heart. Logic, in turn, depends on thought and reason. It relates to the brain. Therefore, rationalizing love, trying to attribute logic to the actions of someone in love, is the same as expecting the heart to think and the brain to beat.
Ikki truly never thought he would fall for the Goddess who hated men. In the moment of this revelation, he felt bitter and devastated.
Unbeknownst to him, the corners of his eyes became a little wet.
It was a love destined for failure.
He was a realist—Artemis was the Goddess who hated men; just being her friend was a miracle. She was a virgin Goddess, who swore never to be with any man.
Simply... falling in love with her was a lost cause.
Once again in this life, he had no luck...
Ikki let out a sad sigh; his eyes slightly lost their luster. His heart broke, and he had to hold back the urge to hit something and release his emotions.
Aphrodite was paying attention to him. She frowned when she noticed the tears in the corners of his eyes, his sad sigh, and the loss of shine in his blue pupils. He looked lost and distracted; she noticed the bitterness, sadness, and loneliness in his eyes.
"Why is he sad?..." thought the Goddess of Love as her heart squeezed uncontrollably. The smile on her lips disappeared, and she asked with concern, "Are you okay? What happened?..."
Ikki came out of his distracted state and replied softly, "I just realized that my love has no hope of being reciprocated..."
His words were soft but carried a heavy and lonely feeling.
Aphrodite widened her eyes before looking at the boy with pity. Her heart squeezed uncontrollably again; she said, trying to cheer him up, "I understand. How about I help you? As a Goddess of Love, nothing is impossible for me regarding romance. Who is your hopeless love?..."
Ikki looked at the Goddess of Love; he sighed and said, "Thank you, but... I just want to be alone. So I will be going. It was a pleasure meeting you, Aphrodite... Don't forget, think about my words. And if you want, I really don't mind being your friend..."
At the end of his words, he stood up from where he had been sitting and began to walk toward the park's exit.
Aphrodite looked at Ikki's lonely back, and her heart ached and filled with sadness because his back, along with the horizon full of buildings and the sunset.
It was like a solitary painting.
Anyone who saw it would feel a terrible loneliness.
Ikki left the park with calm, unhurried steps.
He seemed distracted as he walked, letting out another sad sigh and shaking his head negatively.
Truly, the greatest failure in life is to fall in love with someone you have no hope of reciprocating.
This time, he had truly failed again.