Love Began with the First Meeting

As she clutched the pen tightly in her hand, Vivi's provocative eyes flashed through her mind. She imagined Aaron caressing Vivi with his hands, the hands which had hugged her passionately before.

She felt a sudden lurch in her stomach. Although she knew that he had affairs with quite a number of women and that she was just one of them, and those sweet words he said to her was just flippant words, not his true feelings, she still felt a sharp pain deep inside. "He-he... Ximena, what the hell are you thinking?" she huffed, scorning at herself. "If you are still nurturing feelings for Aaron, that only means that you are degrading yourself even more and you have no one else to blame but yourself."

As her mind went on a rampage, she was so pissed off that she bit down on her lips hard. Even as her lips cracked and blood oozed out, she didn't care to stop biting. Her eyes, which had hidden too many sour life experiences within them, were full of self-mockery.

She attached herself to Aaron simply because she wanted to live the life which she had always wanted. After experiencing the tragic love with James and the loss of her baby, she did not want to hold onto something that did not belong to her. As long as she could live a good life and didn't have to lose her pride and dignity when she met Aaron's demands, she would be satisfied.

With an abrupt "snap", the pen in her hand broke into two. She jumped to her feet and rushed into the bathroom. As soon as she entered into the shower, she sank down to hit the smooth tiles. With a vague consciousness, she turned on the shower. Cold water hit her mercilessly and wet her from head to toe. She didn't feel the coldness that was engulfing her body at that moment; she just sat on the bathroom floor motionless.

The cold water wet her shirt and her hair; she was a total mess, but she didn't care. She was immersed in her miserable thoughts. 'I need to wake up. I need to wake up from this fancy dream... If I want to live in this island which I hate so much, I need to wake up. Everything I have at this moment will vanish if Aaron loses his interest in me.

Aaron could never fall in love with me, just as I couldn't fall for him. Neither of us could ever trust each other. Then why did he say the word 'home' in front of me so hypocritically? Ximena, you only have to believe in yourself. You are the only one who would never wish you harm. And you would never betray yourself!'

"Ha-ha! Hahahaha!"

Like a mad woman, Ximena burst into a creepy laughter. In the end, the laughter warped into a whimpering cry. The cold water running down her face hid the uncontrollable tears that rolled down her eyes.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting in the shower, acting like a crazy woman before she turned off the shower and stood up, supporting herself on the wall. As she walked to her bedroom, she took off her wet clothes, and without drying her hair, she slumped into the bed. She curled up her body, closed her sore eyes, and gradually fell into a deep sleep. She did not want to face the sharp pain in her heart anymore.

The night had become extremely quiet. But the night was cruel to Ximena. She was growing restless in her sleep, and she swallowed her saliva in a daze; her throat was dry and sore, while her lips were pale and cracked. Her whole body was trembling and it was so sore and cold.

"Hmm..." Ximena whined painfully in a low voice and shivered faintly with a constant alternative feeling of heat and chill. Her consciousness was in complete chaos, and she could not tell whether she was awake or in a dream.

Ximena was trapped in a horrible nightmare. In the dream, she was running away from some children who were trying to rob her food again, and she was a child in the dream. She was around ten years old, but was short for her age. She looked particularly skinny because of poverty and starvation. There was a group of hooligans on the street, the eldest of whom was eleven and the youngest was about six. They were always very fond of robbing her food which she worked hard to find.

"Don't take my food!" the young Ximena said hastily. Although her voice was small, it was sharp.

"Hey! Give it to us, or we'll beat you up!" one of the kids threatened her.

She glared at them angrily like an irritated leopard.

"Look, the stingy little bitch has the nerve to stare at us like that!" another kid sneered. A roar of laughter burst out among the hooligans.

Since she had lived at the bottom of the society from a very young age, Ximena had witnessed the dirtiest and ugliest faces. Those young children were not naive at all. For their survival, their eyes had developed a filthy hungry expression; dirty, lying words and flattering words would come out of their mouths so easily. And they acted the same as those adult gangsters.

The group of kids rushed towards her. Ximena hadn't eaten any food for two days. She had been living on just water from the river, so she really wanted to save her food. But her thin arms and legs were no match against the four of them.

They fought her off easily and grabbed the food from her. "Man, I thought that it was something good and tasty. But this is just a piece of moldy bread!" The child who had grabbed Ximena's food was disgusted by the moldy bread in his hand. Ximena was hungry and she didn't care if the bread was moldy or not. The head of the hooligans saw her starved expression, and he teased her, "You want this, huh?"

Ximena just stared at him and did not utter a single word.

"Come on! Do you want it or not?" the head hooligan asked, seducing her with the bread, teasing her like a dog.

She jumped up a few times trying to grab the bread, but without any luck. The four hooligans laughed, "Look at her! She's like a starving dog."

Ximena looked at the mocking faces of the four guys, expecting that at least one of them would have some mercy on her. Like the kind young person who had saved her last time. But she knew that such good luck wouldn't come by every time. Her eyes were full of rage and hatred towards the boys who denied her food. She took one look at the head hooligan who was laughing at her and rushed towards him, biting his ear hard until it bled.

"Aaaah!"

the boy cried. He had not expected that she would attack him all of a sudden, and the pain hit him hard.

"Damn you! Eat shit!" he cursed angrily, pushing her down.

He threw the moldy bread on the dirty ground and stepped on it several times. After crushing the bread under his feet, he left sulkily.

Ximena looked at the piece of bread, which lay on the dirty ground. But she didn't care about its appearance. Slowly, she picked it up with her little bruised hand.

It began to rain slowly. At the beginning, it was just drizzling and then it started raining cats and dogs. Her small body was drenched; she looked like a sad little puppy on the side of the road.

She crammed the bread into her mouth and gobbled it hastily, choked by it several times. She swallowed it with the rain water. She felt nauseous by the moldy smell and wanted to spit it out. But she knew that she couldn't. She wanted to live, even through this hell. Panting slowly, she finally managed to swallow all of it. 'One day, I will live a normal and decent life, like a real human,'

she promised herself firmly.