YURI'S POV

"Yuri...There's something I'd like to tell you."

For the first time after being close to Jessica, my heart pounded nervously after listening to her words. My vision narrowed to nothing but the woman standing before me, and my mind forgot about the existence of a beautiful view from the marina. All my brain could think of at that moment was what she's going to say to me, of why it seemed very important, to the extent that it replaced her joyful countenance with a serious one.

Jessica's fingers were fidgetting when she faced me. That action alone was enough to feed my anxiety. "I really wanted to tell you about it before," she began to say. "I swear Yuri that I don't want to keep it a secret from you. But I became afraid that if I will tell you about it, you might choose to stay away from me. I became afraid that you might think I'm going to be a burden to you. Yuri, I've fallen in love with you at first sight. Liking you colored my world in a way that no one has ever done before. But at the same time, experiencing that kind of feeling caused the re-emergence of my fear to the situation which I cannot prevent to happen in the future. For that reason, I decided not to tell you that I like you. I kept it to myself and became contented of having you as a friend. If my mom didn't expose that I like you, I might not have told you frankly that I really do." Jessica looked at me with eyes windowing mixed emotions, but fear and sadness were the most obvious one. "I love you so much, Yuri. As a woman I value so much in my heart, I'm going to tell you the last thing that you still don't know about me."

I released the air I didn't know I'd been holding for a long time. Though she assured me before that she won't let heartbreak to happen between us, I can't help but to think that after the confession she's going to make, Jessica will break up with me. I've lost enough people in my life. I don't wanna lose her too. Jessica made me so happy. If she'll leave me, I don't know if I can manage to rise up again.

Before proceeding with what she's going to tell me, Jessica first brought me to a room adjacent to her cabin. It's size was just a quarter of our shipboard homes. There were a number of books displayed but they're not the typical kind of books you'll see in the libraries. They're Braille books. And on the other side of the room was a shelf where several low vision devices were displayed. There were also blueprints posted on the walls. Some of it were probably of her house and the rest were of the residential cruise ship and her mother's company office.

"Yuri," she uttered while staring at me with her glistening eyes. "Have you ever wondered why someone like me decided to live in this moving domicile? Every residents here have their reasons for staying. Most are for leisure purposes while yours is because of what happened in your past. As for me? It's not actually because of my job Yuri. It's something else that is more than that."

I just kept mum and looked at her. I don't know what to say anyways because my nervousness was eating me up. If my reason for living in this ship is because I'm fleeing from the place where I experienced heartaches, what is Jessica's ultimate reason? Does it also have to do with her past? Does she also have something she's running away from?

"I'm an RP patient, Yuri," she finally revealed after much contemplation. I don't know what RP stands for but I believe I heard it before. "It was a year and a half ago when I was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. It's a genetic condition which I inherited from my maternal ancestors. The doctor explained that this condition will make me gradually lose my vision, that I'm going to have difficulty seeing at night. It's not painful and it's not a fatal disease either. But the worst I should expect to happen is to lose my vision completely."

Jessica paused to swallow the lump on . The tears that pooled at her brown orbs now started to streak down her lovely face.

"I'm going to be legally blind, Yuri. One day, I'm going to be a burden to the people around me. I do not want it to happen. I do not want to be unable to see my mom, the wonderful people around us and the places I have yet to visit. And most importantly, I do not want to be unable to see you because you're an special kind of scenery that I'll never get tired of seeing...But there's nothing I can do to prevent it from happening. There's still no cure so I have to live with it. Therefore, before my eyes won't be able to appreciate the beauty of this world, I decided to live in this ship. Through it, I always wake up to a new and awesome view everyday."

My tears were threatening to fall as well while listening to her confession.  But I stopped the urge to cry because I want to be the Firm Yuri Jessica taught me to be. Although she explained that her condition is not fatal, I'm still saddened to know how hard it's going to be for her to deal with darkness for the rest of her life. Now that I'm aware of her special condition, I already understand why the walls of her cabin have handrails and why, at one time, I saw a Braille book on her desk.

"I'm sorry if I didn't tell you sooner about my condition," she said while nervously holding my hands. "And I'm sorry too for letting you be emotionally attached to this handicapped woman. Though I really don't want you to leave me, I'd still let you if that is the choice you're going to make."

Jessica kissed my hand like it's the last time she's going to do it. She slowly let it go, turned around and left me alone in that special room. I wanted to run after her, but my feet refused to follow Jessica's trail. Instead, it moved towards a desk where her photos from childhood to present were displayed. I slid open one of the compartments and found a journal where a picture of us we