Somehow, we have always been living for each other, without each other. I had never seen the caring side of Jade Martin. Our families had managed to lock us together for more than an hour and in that one hour, there was not a single minute when Jade had troubled me. Rather he was concerned about my feet. His behavior sure was alarming because he never did anything for free but whatever it was, the little piece in my heart that loved him was enjoying itself really well.

"Stop staring at me." He said burying his face a little more on his laptop.

I turned my face away glaring outside the window. "Why are you being so nice?"

"Why? Already tired of me?" He asked.

His golden eyes moved rhythmically with his fingers tapping on the keyboard. Tired of him? How can I ever get tired of him?

"Jade," I called.

"What?"

"I wanna go out, I don't like it in here." I pouted playing with my red waves.

His eyelids slowly spaced up glaring at me, "I'm busy."

"I know, right?" I smiled.

"The doctor told you to rest and not stress your feet. Better stay in this room and let me work. I need to submit this assignment today." He scolded returning his attention to his laptop. Jade was a music major, unlike Noah who was a business major.

"When's the deadline due?" I rolled my hair on my fingers continuously.

"20th November."

"Isn't is 28th November today?" I blinked.

"Yeah, I know. I'm a week late. Big deal?" He groaned.

I tied my lips up, pulled the blanket over my shoulders and stopped disturbing him. The only thing I did best was to vanish while still being present.

He continued to edit some of his piano tunes while they sounded like lullabies to my ears. His music had depth, emotions and so much pain, I could feel myself floating in the ocean. His scent was much denser today, he himself was like a warm piece of art.

"Mimin." He called.

I opened my eyes and turned to face him. "Hmm."

"How do we tell our families the truth?" His eyes still buried in the laptop as he managed to remind me of his amazing deeds. Technically, I was at fault too but he could have at least checked the envelopes.

"I don't know." I covered my face under the blanket. "They seem to be falling for each other, I'm not sure if we tell them," my jawline tightened, "they might not take it smoothly."

"I think you're right." He finally looked up. "Let's not tell them then."

"Are you crazy?" I asked sitting up erect, "we have to tell them!"

"Say one thing then." He clapped his laptop's wings together, "I'm already confused as fuck!"

Gaining the courage to face reality, I finally concluded this age-long debate, "No matter what, we tell them tomorrow. Let Noah and Miael deal with their relationship themselves then."

His eyes locked at my face as I tucked my red waves behind both my ears, "then what about us?"

His intense gaze made my words run dry, so I repeated his question, "what about us?"

"Yeah, what about our relationship?" He stood up and walked towards the bed. "You know, if we tell them tomorrow, you and I are going to be forced by our parents to stay together. We don't know how they're going to handle it, yet."

His scent kept on growing strong till he reached my side and sat beside me leaving not much room for me to escape if he tries to kill me.

"That I don't know." I looked at my hands juggling my hairpins lowly. "Maybe, we can tell them not to force us."

"Maybe." He leaned back on the bed stretching his hands beneath his head. "Or maybe we can let them force us. After all, sooner or later you'll have to agree to marry me in a chapel."

"Never happening." I smiled leaning back as well.

"Mrs. Martin, you're stuck with me for this lifetime,
..." he rolled over to my side almost hovering, "...till death do us apart."

"I want to be with my ocean not with you." I pushed him away.

"We'll see about that." He stood up jerking his body and twirling around walked out of the room.

I was getting a very crazy feeling that Jade was up to something. Why was he being so caring? Why did he want me to marry him traditionally? What was going on in his mind? He was behaving as if he was Caleb. These two idiots have been the most important men in my life in terms of outside people. Caleb was the only friend I could lean on to and Jade was the only foe I dared not to mess with after the blunder at the auction day. Plus, he was the only guy whose proximity made my heart flutter. Somewhere, I always knew I was meant to be his, but just knowing was never enough to believe it.

"Do you mind?" Miael knocked at the door before opening it.

"Hey." I invited her.

"How's your leg?" She asked shoving her hands into her hoodie.

"Ugly and painful." I snorted.

She took a close look at my wound, clinched her nose and bit her lower lip, "seems pretty bad."

"Still not worse than the punishment you gave me." I smiled keeping the hairpins aside. "Been long."

"Yeah, we haven't been away for this long before, have we?" She side hugged me sitting closer.

"No, we haven't." I snuggled wrapping my arms around her sideways. "I missed you."

"I know," she rubbed my arm, "I'm sorry. I didn't know how to react and it was all so sudden... I just had to act in the moment."

Her face turned guilty and her eyes way too apologetic than I could handle, "Don't worry, I'm much more at fault this time."

"How?" She laughed a little. Her little laughter had the strength to make a lava rock smile, no wonder Noah was falling for her.

"Just like that." I closed my eyes to gather the courage to ask a very important question. "How's it going between you and Noah? You both seem pretty close?"

She brushed her almost blonde hair from her face hiding a little disappointment on her face. I was surely expecting a blush, but disappointment would do too.

"I don't really know. It hasn't been a week since I returned and he is just so different to me." She pouted.

"Oka..ay?" I speared through her face trying to read the exact expressions, "so, what I saw this morning is a part of him being different?"

"No! No! No!" Her hands waved in a cross as she denied the most important charges of all. "I swear I don't know how we ended up that way. Noah slept earlier, I changed into my pajamas and continued to work on his laptop, the next morning we woke up like that. None of us know what happened in between."

"What?" My cheeks lifted up, "so, you mean there's nothing going on between you two?"

"I don't know that either." She sighed throwing her head backward. "He has just turned into a romance freak all of a sudden when I returned, he saved me from Dad's wrath, he saved me from Jade's stupid allegations and became too sweet to handle."

"What is wrong with these Martin boys? Why do they become so caring after getting married?" I gritted my teeth covering my eyes.

"Martin boys? There's another Martin boy who got married?" She raised her brows removing my hand from her face.

Damn it!

I snorted a little laugh in hesitation, "N-no... I mean, I think that Jade and Liam are going to be the same as Noah. Aren't they all about family and traditions?"

She hummed nodding her head. "I think you're right. Maybe Jade's wife is going to be the luckiest after all. If he could care for his brother's wife's sister so much, how much would he be caring towards his own wife?"

"I don't want to know that." I rolled my eyes pretending to yawn.

"Someone who thinks Jade has got the scent of the ocean doesn't want to know how caring he would towards his lover?" Miael teased laughing faintly.

"Don't use that word. No one can be his Lover! Ever!"

How long was I going to run from these stupid facts? How long was I going to chase my feelings away? It never mattered how hard I tried, the first thought when I woke up and the last before I slept always belonged to the guy with the scent of the ocean.