12. LONELY WHALE

ACT TWO SCENE SIX

LONELY WHALE

sahar glacé

PERSPECTIVE

"But I met you first, long before I met Jumin if I were to choose I'd always choose you, Sahar."

LIAR. A PRETTY LIAR INDEED. Luca is an experienced liar, from the tone of his voice and the smooth movements that almost have me enchanted. It's disappointing, truly disappointing that I almost felt guilt towards a capitalist fool like him.

He'd never choose a pathetic girl over a billionaire bad boys club member.

Perhaps it's one of his plans to have a secret lover, maybe he liked the thrill of being secretive or harbouring something like a little crush. Maybe Luca Valdez liked the feeling of having a crush, the jittery feeling and the idea of always wanting to see a specific person. I understand how he feels, I've experienced it myself with someone.

Someone like Asher Devon.

"It's okay, there's no need to lie to me Luca, after all, it's a talent of mine to care less if someone favoured another over me." I throw him one of my infamous fake smiles, taking off his expensive blazer and handing it over to him.

Luca stares at the blazer I handed him, his cheeks tainted pink as his brown eyes glimmered under the bright chandelier.

"But."

"But what?"

"I wasn't lying."

My attention falls on to his hands, they gripped the fabric of the expensive blazer tightly. His expression seemed too complex for me to interpret, it's as if he was angry yet sad. His confession of not lying didn't seem forced either, it seemed like he was genuinely telling the truth.

"I don't think you're someone I should ignore, neither do I believe someone should get favoured over you," he inches closer towards me, leaving an appropriate gap between the both of us.

"But that's how it's supposed to be." I gulp, watching his solemn eyes.

"Don't you get it?" Luca murmurs, his eyes glistening. "I want to be that one person who always favours you, I want to be that person who always thinks of you first before anyone else," Luca exclaims, attracting the attention of several onlookers around us. I pull him away from the grande hall and bring him back outside to the balcony.

"Why? Why do you want to do this for someone like me when I could care less about someone like you?" I blurt out, I never focused on him. Not even once did I ever wonder about Luca, I never felt the need to think about him. Perhaps that's why I barely have memories of him because they were too insignificant to even remember.

Luca remains unharmed by my words, he simply smiles painfully. "I've told you this once, so hear me out once more," he takes a deep breath before meeting my eyes. His usual glacier-like eyes were now melting into mine, staring straight through my soul.

"I like you." I remain frozen in place, touching my heart to feel the rapid increase in my heart rate but there was nothing. His deep confession didn't move me a single bit and I knew exactly why. I harboured no feelings for Luca Valdez. Maybe it was because of my shallow personality, maybe I was too insecure to allow another to love me when I can't love myself first.

"I don't like you, I hope you understand that and enjoy the rest of the party, forgetting that this discussion ever occurred." I watch as his heart shatters in front of me, a small tear escapes his ethereal face: making my heart churn with immense guilt. His bright expression that used to linger around me turned sour in a matter of seconds.

I turn around, not wanting to watch him drown in despair. Just as I was about to leave, I felt his arms wrap around my body. His mesmerising cologne fills the atmosphere as the heat from his body transfers on to my cold body. My body stiffens as I feel his tears fall on my shoulder, his reaction was more emotional than I expected.

"Just stay like this for a moment, after that you can leave and we can pretend, pretend as if we don't know each other at all." his voice suddenly resembled velvet, making my heart move. What is this feeling? Why do I feel impacted by his sad state all of a sudden? I gulped, nodding my head to his words, allowing the boy to swim in his melancholic emotions.

Suddenly the door opens, I push Luca off me. Only to find an older man look at both of us with disappointment written all over his face. The man simply focuses his attention on Luca who harboured a blank expression as if he wasn't crying a second ago. The moment the man entered, the atmosphere of the room felt unbearable: making it clear to me that he is bad news.

"You come to this event to pick up a girl, not caring about your family at all; how dare you slander our family name like this?" the old man snaps, fury evident on his wrinkly face. Luca simply sighs, his eyes meeting the old guy.

Luca smirks, a nonchalant aura surrounding him as he places his arm around my waist, pulling me closer towards him. "I could do what I want old man, at least appreciate that I'm here instead of being somewhere else... I could be at the club picking up more girls but I'm here picking up classy girls in this party that you gladly decided to host." his words were laced with pride and anger, the boy in front of me was no longer weak and emotional. The old man was his father and Luca was behaving abnormally. Could it be that the boy in front of me was the way Luca acted with everyone?

"How dare you?" Luca's father raises his hand, but Luca grabs his wrist tightly.

"Have some decency old man, I wouldn't do that if I were you: I have a lot of power in the business world and I could easily do something out of anger that you won't like at all." he threatens, shrugging his father's weak wrist off.

Luca's father shakes his head before turning to face me.

"You're not special, just another worthless slut to add to his collection." he states ruthlessly, turning around to leave the balcony. Just as he says so, Luca's grip tightens on me as if he was protecting me from this aloof man.

The balcony door is slam shut.

Luca focuses his attention on to me.

"So it's true, you switch girls every month and you're trying to do the same thing with me?" I look at Luca, staring at him with a solemn gaze. He simply looks away, resting his arms on the railing of the balcony.

"The old man lies a lot."

"But was he lying this time?"

Luca sighs. "He wasn't."

And here I was feeling guilt for him, wondering if I rejected him too harshly but I guess I didn't. He could care less about my rejection and my existence. He only wanted to have fun, the feeling of being with someone excited his bitter self.

"You're not going to defend yourself now?" I look at him, crossing my arms. It's odd, the way he's acting like an aloof person makes me wonder if the person in front of me was who Luca Valdez actually is.

He nods his head. "If I told you, you'd laugh," he mutters, placing on leather gloves and as he does so, I notice a red rash on his hand. That wasn't there before.

"I've noticed you always wear gloves."

"I don't like the idea of contact." Luca mumbles.

"Don't you think that's too extreme?"

"You should go."

"Why? I want to know why you're so obsessed with wearing gloves, it's not even that cold." I look at him, he seemed conflicted.

"Like I said. I don't like contact."

"Your father said you're with girls constantly, how could you possibly not like contact?" I question.

"I have to go." Luca states, opening the door of the balcony, leaving without another word.

That's weird. The way he was behaving just now.

third person

PERSPECTIVE

LUCA LEAVES THE MIDSUMMER BALL. He needed to go home, he couldn't last a minute longer in there with all the people: the several chances where people could accidentally bump into him and touch him. As much as he wished his life was normal, it wasn't.

Luca places his phone near his ear. "Whenever she touches me, there's no rashes on my skin." he murmurs, looking at his skin. "But when I make contact with other people, I still get rashes and it burns." he explains as on the other line his private doctor listens.

He has a condition where he's severely allergic to other people, a single touch could cause his body to go into a defence mode leading to red rashes on his skin. And the main reason why he's so attached to Sahar is due to the fact his skin doesn't react to her, she doesn't cause these red rashes to appear on his skin.

He doesn't want Sahar. He needs her.

He learned this three years ago when Sahar used to be the daughter of his mothers maid. They accidentally brushed past each other but Luca didn't see any rashes on his skin or the burning sensation he usually does with people.

That's why he was searching for her. He needed her. He wanted to be saved from this illness. He wanted her to help him overcome this allergy. As his doctor told him he has this due to a childhood trauma, this developed into a phobia and leading Luca constantly wanting to be by himself.

"Why didn't you tell her?"

"She'd think I'm a crazy freak who just wants to take advantage of her touch." he says, entering his black Mercedes Benz. He slams the door shut as he turned the engine on.

"What are you going to do now?"

"I don't know, she's under the impression I'm a playboy who uses girls." Luca says, letting out a long sigh.

"How did she come to that conclusion?"

"My father told her she's going to be another slut." Luca cringes at the derogatory term, he despised degrading women in such a way. He couldn't help but feel bad whenever his father speaks about women. But then again, Luca has dated a lot of girls to find Sahar.

"That's only because you were trying to find her, the person who doesn't make your skin react in such a bad way."

"I want her to know that I hold the girl's hand to check if she doesn't make my skin react and then don't make skin contact during the period we date." Luca says, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.

"You still can, tell her now."

Luca sits still. Should he tell Sahar?

"I'll meet you tomorrow, for further checkups, thank you." Luca ends the call with his doctor, placing his phone into his pocket. He wasn't sure what to do anymore, he wasn't sure whether or not he should keep this secret from Sahar.

Nobody knows this secret of his. Not even the billionaire bad boys club members or his parents. If people were to know, Luca would be in great danger. They'd take advantage of him and use him.

That's why he was afraid of telling Sahar.

He wasn't able to guarantee if she'd spill this secret of his to others.

Sure he liked her. But was it because of her being the only one he can touch? Or was it because he genuinely liked her.

Luca didn't know the answers to his questions.

He confessed to her so she'd become his girlfriend and she'd be able to cure his allergy. But she rejected his confession, causing Luca to break down in front of her in her embrace.

You still can, tell her now. The doctors words remain in Luca's head. He turns off the engine of his car and opens the door to his car. He needs Sahar, but she didn't need him. She didn't want him like he wanted her.

He leaves his car, gently closing the door.

Luca walks back towards the midsummer ball with a frown on his face. He just needed to get inside and find Sahar without making contact with any other person.

The security guard scans his face, letting him in immediately after recognising his face. Luca sighs, placing his hands in his pockets. As he walks past people, they keep a safe distance as they watched the elegant man walk with his heavenly gaze.

Luca notices Sahar standing alone, a drink in her hand as she watched people converse. He musters up the courage to walk towards her but someone stops him, placing a hand on his shoulder. Luca felt his skin burn through his clothes, he clenched his fists tightly, attempting to endure the unbearable pain.

"Is everything okay? You seem quite tense, I could fix that for you exclusively." a girl says, her eyes scanning his elysian face with a deep seductive gaze. Luca clears his throat, pushing her away.

"I'm busy." he states coldly, but that doesn't stop the girl from grabbing his hand. She slowly removes the glove, entwining her hand with Luca's. She may have thought that was a flirty and smooth gesture but for Luca it was a living hell.

His skin burned. It felt as if it was on fire, he noticed the rash appearing on his skin, if the girl continued, she could leave Luca with serious damage to his skin.

Luca grabs his glove from the girl, shrugging her off him. He places the glove back on quickly despite the burning sensation. "Don't touch me, not without permission." he states harshly, moving past her and towards Sahar.

But he stops in his tracks as he notices her speaking with Helius.

Maybe I shouldn't. Luca thought to himself as he turned back around, towards the exit of the grande hall. As he walked, he felt his skin burn. The pain was too much for him, too much for him to live.

He enters his car, ignoring the pain inflicted on him. His thoughts were focused on Sahar. The only person he needs is her but she could care less about becoming friends with him or something more, it bothered Luca how she didn't want to be affiliated with him at all.

"I never did anything to her." he says to himself, turning the engine of his car on.

And that's when he drove.

And drove. And drove. And drove until he reached his secret place. A small pond near a cliff, a place where he always wondered whether or not it was best for him to end it all. Perhaps it was stupid of Luca to wonder about something as serious as suicide but it came up a lot in his thoughts.

It would be better for him to die than suffer in this living hell. Not being able to touch anyone, not being able to be in crowded places and not being able to communicate with others properly.

He always stayed alone. He always wondered alone.

Maybe it was fate.

Maybe it was fate for him to wonder alone.

Just as lonely as the lonely whale who has been calling out across the ocean for decades, never receiving a reply.

poor luca, who knew he actually felt like that. do you think sahar is being unfair? what about luca, do you think he actually likes sahar or likes the idea of being able to touch her. any ships?

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