Rain's POV
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The room was silent.
Not the peaceful kind—the kind that crushed your lungs and echoed your mistakes in every breath.
I sat on the edge of my bed, elbows resting on my knees, hands hanging limp. My shirt still had blood on it. Not mine. Hers.
The crimson blotch from when she'd tossed her stupid glittery pouch and patched me up without a word. That was the last time she touched me. Now I'd kill to feel even a second of her warmth again.
Across the room, Ren stood by the window, back to me. He hadn't spoken since we got back. His fists were clenched so tightly, his knuckles had turned white. For a guy who never shut up, silence looked ugly on him. Unfamiliar. Unnatural.
And then—
A sound.
A choked inhale.
I looked up. His shoulders trembled.
"Ren?" I said, cautiously, like speaking might shatter him.
He didn't answer. But his hand came up—wiping at his face. He turned around slowly, and for the first time in my life, I saw Ren cry. Really cry.
No teasing. No jokes. No grin to soften the blow.
Just Ren. Eyes red, cheeks wet. Cracked open.
"She was the only thing I ever got right," he said, voice hoarse. "And I ruined it. I fucking ruined it."
I swallowed the knot in my throat, but it didn't go away. It just settled deeper. Pressed harder.
I didn't speak. Couldn't.
Because I knew that feeling. I was feeling it too.
The image of her—crying so hard she couldn't breathe, yelling that we chose to lie, that she thought she knew us—was seared into my memory like a brand. Her hands shaking. Her eyes wild with betrayal.
My Sky.
And then, without warning, a single tear slid down my cheek. I didn't even blink it away.
She had cried oceans for us. One tear was the least I could give.
"I love her," I whispered, the words tasting like blood. "I've never said it. But I do. And I lost her without ever saying it."
Ren turned to me. "Then let's get her back."
My eyes locked with his.
"I don't care what it takes," he said, voice sharp with resolve. "I'll kneel. I'll beg. I'll tell her every secret. Everything I've ever done. I'll give her everything I hid. No more walls."
I nodded. My voice was steady when I said, "No more masks. Not for her."
We sat in silence again, but this time it was different. Not empty. Not defeated.
It was a vow. A promise.
We'd broken her.
But we'd fix this.
Together.
Because I wasn't ready to give up the girl who brought whipped cream coffee and flower napkins and smiled at janitors like they were kings. And Ren? He'd never stop fighting for the sister who once dragged him into a mall for a "girls' day" and made him wear glittery friendship bracelets.
She was the light in our wreckage.
And we'd do anything to earn that light back.