主妇丈夫倡导的户外生活

Joan felt a little all-overish, but she would not be fazed. After everything she had been through these past three weeks, a mermaid's glare should not affect her.

Mina noticed her steadying herself, and scoffed. "So I heard you were the one that kissed my boyfriend."

Alejandro looked away, whistling an off-key tune. "Well…. I should go back with the others guarding the facility."

Roland patted his shoulder as if giving him permission to leave before everything came to blows. "You all did a good job. I'll be discussing things more with you all later."

The head of the bodyguards left in a hurry, and Roland just walked casually towards the monobloc chair. He watched Harker mulling around like a tiger in a zoo cage, but his ears were all towards the two girls who seemed like they were about to be in conflict sooner or later.

"That wasn't a kiss." Joan corrected. "It was to make him take the sedatives I had. I'm sure the guards explained that to you. If it weren't for that, he would have attacked everyone and we wouldn't be able to—"

"That's not what I meant." Mina said. "The kiss before that. The one where they reported that Harker had almost exploded into a bunch of blinding lights, and you were the one who embraced him. Who anchored him."

Joan closed her mouth at this. She really doesn't know where this was going, and what would be the right response.

She kissed Harker twice to save him. That's a fact. Mina was his girlfriend, and would obviously feel uncomfortable with her boyfriend sharing drools with someone else. That's also a fact.

And…. it was a fact that she has feelings for Harker. They kissed before this entire incident and had a few more intimate encounters than friends should have before this event. Even when she was aware that he was taken, first incorrectly assuming it was with Roland, and eventually knowing the truth about Mina.

For most people, it was unethical to have that amount of intimacy with a man who's already in a relationship.

Mina doesn't strike her as the type who would be into a more 'open' relationship either. In fact, she felt like the exact opposite.

Possessive, and willing to fight for her man. Not just fight. That murderous aura never left even when she was not glaring at her directly.

Mina was staring at Harker longingly behind the glass. "Harker is a really good man... So good that I can't even believe someone as good as him can exist. He always put others before himself. He never liked showing how much he's suffering deep inside, and would rather do it all alone if he could."

Joan frowned. "But that's not always a good thing—"

"I know it's not." Mina snapped, obviously irritated that she interrupted. "Harker is good, but he is not perfect. I love him with every piece of me, but I am not blind. I tried so hard..... So hard, before you even came into the picture."

Joan wanted to correct her that she 'came into the picture' earlier than she did, but she knew what Mina was trying to say anyway. Plus that would just aggravate this mermaid more, and Joan had heard stories about her. She does not want to see what this girl could do when she's in 'monster form'.

Mina clenched her jaw. "I know how much Harker loved me, and how much he trusts me too. But why... Why does it have to be you that gets to share his burdens with him?"

Roland cleared his throat, trying to play mediator. "That was just a temporary incident, Mina. If you were there, it would have been you."

"Would it?" Her eyes were turning glassy. "Would it have been me, even if she was also around?"

Joan genuinely said:  "Of course it would be you. You're his girlfriend, after all."

Besides, she remembered that night where Harker told her that he can't accept her love. Not just because his lover wouldn't allow it, but because she needed to fully move on from Edmund. She doesn't want to use him as a rebound either, as there was nothing more terrible than being loved simply because you were a replacement for someone else.

Mina tried not to let the tears welling up her eyes to flow. They dried as a thin lining of gold inside her lower lid.

"I'm his girlfriend, yet we have only been together for not more than 2 months. Not more than a season. I was separated from him so soon, and... With the way things are, it's almost as if it was my fault that someone else got to be there for him when he needed it. It doesn't matter how temporary, it was an important moment in his life. I could feel it."

She saw Harker standing by the glass, his eyes still empty. But everyone felt as if he was staring directly at Mina, and purposefully went to her side.

She placed her hands in front of him, her teary eyes pleading.

"Why not me? Why does it have to be someone else who tamed his inner demons and saved him? Why can't I be the one who had shared that kiss of life with him?"

The other two people in the room were quiet. It wasn't like she was asking anyone in particular, not even Harker. It was like she was asking an invisible force, a force that gets to control the outcome of events…..

Some sort of deity, or perhaps fate itself.

Harker suddenly moved, raising his hand slowly. It was so painstakingly slow, but he managed to eventually lift up his arms and press his palm….

Right in front of where Mina placed hers. They would have been touching if it weren't for the glass separating them.

Mina's eyes brightened, and she chuckled softly. She called out his name.

"Harker... Harker..... Oh whatever shall I do with you, Harker?"

She turned to Roland. "Please let me feel him. I need to feel that he still loves me."

Joan quickly tried to stop her. "But it's too dangerous! The guards must have told you what happened, he attacked anyone but me! You would—"

"Step aside, please." Mina said coldly.

Though she said 'please' it was not a polite request at all. It was an order.

Joan felt a shudder from being commanded like that. There was someone in her life who used to scare her the same way, by using that kind of tone. Someone….

Who genuinely made her feel like she was about to die.

Roland ordered the center to open the door for Mina, and she got in. But not before a round of guards prepared in case of Harker breaking out of the prison he was in.

Mina stepped forward calmly. Everyone held their breath as Harker sniffed her about, like a curious dog smelling someone familiar. Or perhaps, smelling a slab of meat.

He then gripped Mina with his sharp claws, digging into her skin. The guards almost moved closer, if not for Roland holding up his hand to stop them.

Mina did not react at all from this. She instead placed both hands over Harker's shoulders….

And whispered softly.

"It's me. It's still me, right?"

As she said that, Harker's blurry eyes cleared almost instantaneously and his features reverted back to human.

"Mina....."

He kissed her, and everyone felt like they had just witnessed a miracle. They all cheered and clapped their hands. As for Joan…

She felt like she just witnessed a betrayal. A betrayal of what she once believed, of what she foolishly held on to all this time that shattered into pieces.

That belief was that she was special, that she was the only one who could take away the curse.

And yet here was the 'First', the one who actually lifted it. Mina turned to give her a triumphant look after the kiss, a clear message.

No one can defeat the First.