Jae Ren sat on the bench again. It seemed to be a refuge if she had troubles. The wind always made her feel better, or to say the least, relaxed.

She heard the door click open, and I guess she expected that. It would only be a matter of time before VIXX would start cheering her up.

But she didn't expect Leo to come see her. Not in a bad way, but she had expected N, since he was always the talker of the group.

Leo sat beside her on the bench, staring at particularly nothing.

"What do you do while you sit here?" He asked, his tone still quiet and composed.

"I think." Jae Ren exhaled.

"Why? What do you think of?" Leo asked, but his eyes were now closed. Like he was listening to everything.

"I think of my problems. It's a way to somehow... look for a solution?" Jae Ren unsurely answered. "Isn't that why we all think of our problems?"

"No." Leo shook his head. "We think of our problems to comfort ourselves. We can never really think of a solution."

Jae Ren blinked in confusion.

"The solutions are found once we start to act. Thinking about it in a long period of time won't help." Leo explained. "So what's your problem, master?"

"Don't call me that." Jae Ren scrunched her nose. Leo opened his eyes and glanced at her, making him chuckle. Jae Ren only hears him laugh on few occasions, and I guess she treasured this one because he laughed because of her.

"Fine then. Jae Ren." Leo amended.

"Well... I thought it would be obvious by now, but it's Jinyoung." Jae Ren answered, when Leo didn't react, she took this as a sign to continue. "I guess I didn't know falling in love with him would hurt this much. I knew that it was wrong, because he's bound to find his mate some day, but I didn't think the consequences would equate to such pain."

"Does falling in love always hurt?" Leo asked.

"What? No." Jae Ren shook her head. "If you're meant to be, it wouldn't hurt this much. Sure, there'd be bumps along the way of living together, but that's okay. If it's meant to be, the pain would be bareable."

"Then doesn't that mean you and Jinyoung aren't meant to be?"

Jae Ren looked at him, and he was back to closing his eyes.

"You're a whole lot talkative today." Jae Ren commented.

"Stop avoiding my question." Leo said, and Jae Ren's shoulder sagged.

"I guess I already knew that." Jae Ren grimaced. "But I refused to admit it... because I was already in too deep. He was the only person I trusted, before you guys came along. And it hurts to say that I can't trust him anymore. I can't trust him anymore because now that he's hurt me, I can't bring myself to open up. Not to him, or anyone."

"You're opening up to me." Leo said.

Jae Ren softened. "Yeah. But that's different."

"How?" Leo raised an eyebrow, though he was looking straight in front of him with his eyes closed.

"Because... I can always count on you guys..." Jae Ren mumbled. "But it's hard. It's hard to open up again. I don't want to experience the pain anymore. So maybe if I stayed closed off forever…" *Things wouldn’t hurt as much as they would.* She continued in her mind.

"Jae Ren." Leo softly said. "Living comes with prices. And that's pain. Experience. Or lessons. You can't live without them. You just have to deal with them. Don't shut everyone out. We're here to help you ease the pain, and you'll have to open up to us for us to help you."

Jae Ren nodded. She turned to him and the corners of her lips quirked up.

"You know, you sound like my dad." Jae Ren chuckled. "He always told me to stay strong. And I guess him being gone for so long along with my mom, I forgot the lessons he always kept telling me."

Leo broke into a smile. His rare, and beautiful smile.

"Thanks, Leo. You're actually a good talker." Jae Ren commented. "You reminded me something I almost forgot."

"I am. But it's not in my nature." Leo shrugged. He stood up and pulled her along with him. "Let's go talk with the others, hmm?"

"By talk with the others, you mean you'll go back to being silent and I'll talk?" Jae Ren chuckled.

Leo nodded, making Jae Ren laugh even more.

"But Leo?" Leo hummed as a response. "I'm really thankful my grandmother made you the way you are. So please, stay the same?"

Leo stopped and looked back at her, staring at her wide, sincere and pleading eyes.

That made him smile a little.

And that's all the confirmation Jae Ren needed from him.

"Thankyou." She mumbled as they exited her room to go to the Living Room. 

I won't be able to update this weekend because I'm going somewhere with my family.

I'm just giving a heads up XD

But I will try to update as much as possible today.