She Belongs To The Devil

It didn't take long for Ariel to find Kenneth. He was standing in front of a stall with Grace.

She took a deep breath before walking towards the two of them.

"Are you buying something?" Ariel leaned to look at a small pair of dolls that Grace was holding in her hands.

"Ariel?" Grace gave a nervous laugh and quickly put those dolls back on the display table, almost toppling down everything on the whole table because the tablecloth got stuck in her bracelet.

Thankfully, she stopped her hand midair and replied to Ariel while carefully trying to untangle the tablecloth from her bracelet, "No, I wasn't going to buy. I was just looking at it because it looked really cute."

Ariel helped Grace to untangle the cloth. She then gave Grace a soft smile and subtly hinted at her, "If you are thinking of gifting it to someone, then that was a good choice."

"Really?" Grace shyly lowered her head and looked back at the cute pair of dolls again.

Ariel finally focused her attention on the person for whom she actually came there for. Kenneth was standing by Grace's side just a while ago. But right now, he was standing in front of another stall that sold some sweets and was darting his eyes aimlessly, as if he was looking for something in particular.

Ariel looked back at Grace again. She saw her buying that doll. And she also saw Ramon walking towards them. "Grace, I will walk with Kenneth for a while, if you don't mind," she hinted at her so that she wouldn't follow her.

"Oh, okay," Grace nodded and replied in her sweet voice.

Ariel quickly went and stood by Kenneth's side. And she asked him while giving a soft smile, "Are you going to buy them, or are you just… looking?" She had almost asked him if he was trying to avoid her. But she didn't want to sound rude and make him even more uncomfortable than he already was.

"Ah!" Kenneth pulled up the sweetest smile on his face and replied, "I was just looking. But I will buy them if you want to try something."

Ariel shook her head. "I'm not really in the mood to eat anything."

"Hmm…" Kenneth noticed how the warm smile on Ariel's face had suddenly vanished. So, he asked worriedly, "What happened? Are you feeling okay?"

Ariel didn't know what to say, so she simply shrugged her shoulders.

Kenneth wondered if her sour mood had something to do with Damien. He looked around the area but didn't see Damien or anyone else in the vicinity. So, he asked her, "Did something happen between you and Damien? He didn't say anything mean to you, right?"

Seeing how he was still caring and worrying about her, Ariel now found it even harder to speak. She looked at the flawless man in front of her and asked herself, "Now what do I tell him? That he was too perfect?"

After seeing Ariel contemplating something, Kenneth finally understood what she was there for. Before Ariel even said a word, he felt his heart cracking. He gritted through the pain and then asked Ariel, "You know you don't have to hesitate to speak in front of me, right?"

"Feel free to say whatever is in your heart." He chuckled softly while reminiscing about their past and added, "I promise I won't bite."

Ariel also chuckled because of the irony. He had bitten her countless times in order to poison her.

"Let's take a walk together, shall we?" Kenneth wanted to with Ariel, even if it was only a few steps. He offered his arm for Ariel to hold. And when she subconsciously put her arms around his, he walked deeper into the busy and narrow street.

Ariel gulped the lump in her throat and took a deep breath again. She looked up at him. And the first thing that escaped from her mouth was, "I'm sorry, Kenneth."

Those words were enough to confirm what Kenneth had feared since this morning. He felt his heart shattering like a fragile piece of glass. He felt the agonizing pain in his chest slowly spreading throughout his whole body.

However, he still smiled at Ariel and playfully said to her, "Yeah, you better be sorry, Ary. After all, you are the first love of my life. You made me the happiest man on Earth. But ironically, you are also making me feel how painful the heartbreaks can be."

Although Kenneth was sounding playful, Ariel was well aware that his words were nothing but the truth.

Her eyes instantly welled up, and she felt a lump in her throat. She couldn't deny that she never once loved him. She did. It was just that, she loved someone else more.

The two of them had somehow ended up in an empty alley, a little further away from the busy streets. Ariel stood in front of Kenneth and looked into his eyes. They were already glistening by now.

She held both of his hands and apologized again, more sincerely than before, "Kenneth, I am really sorry that I am breaking your heart like this."

She swallowed her tears and spoke after inhaling through her mouth, "I will forever be grateful for everything that you did for me. You are the one who pulled me out of my own prison. You always stuck by my side no matter how much I tried to hurt you and push you away. You became someone whom I could rely upon. But I am sorry that I cannot give you the love and happiness that you deserve."

Kenneth's head was beginning to hurt badly because he was trying really hard to control his emotions and his tears. He tightened his hold on Ariel's hand and said in a painful whisper, "I guess I always knew that you would choose Damien over me. Still, I was hanging on to a thread of hope…"

He took a deep breath in and averted his gaze away from Ariel's eyes. He looked down at her hands and said, "But I don't regret the time I spent with you. I will treasure each and every moment in my heart."

"And so will I," Ariel said in a ragged whisper. Without her realizing it, a few drops of tears rolled down her cheeks.

Kenneth had thought that he would walk away after listening to her rejection. However, he hadn't imagined that it would be this difficult to let her go. He wanted the time to stop. He didn't ever want to let go of her hand.

He sniffled and looked at her beautiful face again. He saw the woman who taught him the meaning of perseverance. He saw the woman who showed him how he wasn't the monster he thought he was. And he saw the woman who taught him the meaning of love and sacrifice.

His eyes went all blurry because of the tears that were fighting to depart from his eyes. He looked up at the blue sky and asked, "Will you tell me the truth, Ary? Did you ever love me? Even if it was for a minute? Or was it because you felt indebted to me? Or perhaps, you pitied me."

"No!" Ariel furrowed her brows and immediately denied it. "Yes, in the beginning, I decided to give you a chance because of how persistent you were. But after I decided to open up my heart to you, I indeed fell for you, Kenneth. You are the most perfect being to ever exist."

"Then why…" Kenneth's words got stuck in his throat because he already knew the answer to his question. His tears won and trickled down his cheeks like a waterfall. Discover more stories at empire

Ariel couldn't see Kenneth crying like that. She felt like the worst being to ever exist for making him cry. And she could only curse herself in her mind for letting her heart melt on the first day of their travel, "If only I had kept on pushing him away, then maybe I wouldn't have broken his heart this badly…"

And not just his heart, she realized that she had broken a small part of her own heart as well – the part that had warmed up for Kenneth.

She put her arms around Kenneth's neck and pulled him into a hug.

Kenneth rested his chin on her shoulder and let himself cry in the arms of his first love.

Ariel consolingly caressed his hair and sadly whispered, "I'm sorry it had to end this way."