Willow Trees

Exordium: Rejection

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...I’ll never forget how your voice sounds…

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You could say it was RJ’s fault but no one really blamed him though; they couldn’t simply because everyone saw just
how happy Jessica was.

You could argue that Jess was always happy for unfathomable reasons only simple-minded fools like her could appreciate
but no one could deny that her ever-cheerful aura just had something more to it after she realized she was in love.

Her smiles always reflected her unwavering cheerfulness and hope but after getting together with her first love, her
smile’s positive energy seemed to increase tenfold. Even her laughter had a hauntingly, beautifully melodious tone to
it; the kind that echoed in the very recesses of your mind, making you feel guilty every time you let yourself feel sad.
Most people got jealous when they saw someone like Jess--- she had found love and every move she made simply oozed
ecstasy and whenever those lustrous locks of hers swayed in the wind, one could almost imagine honey-colored drops of
euphoria drip off of them --- but they couldn’t bring themselves to hate the lovely brunette. She was beautiful with
those innocent, olive-stained eyes of hers and her naïveté. She embodied whatever hope and innocence mankind still
had left and you just couldn’t bring yourself to be sad around this girl --- she was like a fragile white daisy still
standing after all the others around her had been trampled on; you wouldn’t want to break this daisy like the others;
you wouldn’t want to taint whatever purity was left in our depraved society.

Maybe that was one reason why RJ couldn’t bring himself to justify his own emotions. Jess was thriving on the love he
gave to her --- love RJ was too late to offer. 

Another reason was her eyes. Jess’s eyes never used to be an object of fascination for RJ. They say that a person’s
eyes are the windows to their soul but RJ never needed to peer into her depths to know her innermost thoughts and
emotions --- she always wore her heart on her sleeve, something which he could never do. This was another reason why he
fell for her; she was so easy to read, no facades and no deception. He could read her like an open book and thus could
predict her every move. But her falling for a guy like Jeremy--- no, he definitely did not see that one coming. It was
as much as a shock to him as everyone else when they learned that the two most popular (or notorious) Class members had
gotten together.

After that, it seemed that she only radiated one emotion 24/7 --- bliss. No more anger at his aloofness. No more
disappointment in Samantha, her best friend’s actions. No more self-pity after giving the wrong answer to one of Sr.
Pangilinan’s tricky questions. Just pure, sickening, downright, unreal, and giddy bliss.

That was when RJ noticed the change in Jess’s olive irises.

Very much like herself, Jess’s eyes harbored no hidden emotions of any sort but when she fell in love… The pools of
garbled emerald hues seemed to convex and form an alcove; anybody who got in too deep would get lured by their depths
and discover astonishing levels of devotion and love; this was definitely not some childish, schoolgirl crush.

Every time RJ looked into her eyes, he saw just how much she loved and was loved by that Jeremy. It haunted him and
made him angry with himself --- it was his fault he never treated her special. It was his fault he didn’t tell her
earlier.

He couldn’t bring himself to hate Jess, not even that Jeremy either. He saw their love --- oh, how pure it was; such
a rare kind that many people had already lost hope in ever experiencing --- and he knew that he had no right to
interfere.

Jess and Jeremy --- their romance was wholesome; unconditional love, continuous contentment… They just made the other
complete.

You could say that this kind of monotonous bliss could get boring after a while but the two of them seemed perfectly
happy with it. They shared long bouts of silence just holding each other; no words necessary to be exchanged and
they’d be perfectly content.

You could say it was true love.

But then again, despite this seemingly innocent and content monotony of bliss, there was passion behind closed doors.

...You know, people say that it’s nearly impossible for you to wind up married to your first love...

Jessica landed herself pregnant at sixteen, which shocked everyone and rumors spread like a highly contagious disease.
Some people weren’t as surprised because they reasoned that it was Jeremy after all; it was an affair between a
sempai and a kouhai. Then rumors flew around that Jeremy was going to leave Jess because of “her mistake”.
These rumors infuriated Jess because she knew none of that it was true. It wasn’t the couple’s fault. They were in
love, is all. But was that reason enough?

He was angry and jealous that they actually did… But regardless of that, if Jeremy didn’t take responsibility, RJ
knew what he had to do.
But he never needed to scheme of ways to behead the shadow manipulator or anything of the like because Jeremy was man
enough to face the consequences of his actions. He helped Jessica through her pregnancy and even stayed back at the
Academy after graduation to take care of her and their newborn son. Jess’s studies were put on hold because of her
pregnancy but with help and loving encouragement from Jeremy, she managed to graduate. Looking at his actions, gossip
mongers felt guilty and ashamed that they even doubted Jeremy’s love for Jess.

...You know, most people say that you don’t wind up spending eternity with your first love...

The two of them were going to get married after they left the Academy and moved into an apartment in Tokyo.

They were going to get married and spend the rest of their lives with each other, raising their son and living together
forever.

They were each other’s first love and their non-turbulent relationship almost seemed too good to be true.

But then, fate took him away.

...You know, your first love won’t last forever...

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Every day she resigns herself to her fate.

She’d fumble with her key rings and jab random keys into the hole until she eventually opened the door to her
apartment. Then, she’d kick off her shoes and trudge to her bedroom, shrugging her work coat onto the floor and
falling face-first into her large bed meant for two but she always slept alone. Then when she realizes just how lonely
and miserable she was, she’d cry for a bit then composes herself, commanding her mind and body that she needed to be
strong for her son, their son.

Then she’d head to the kitchen and prepare dinner and practice smiling; to reassure her son that nothing was wrong
when he came home from school.

Jessica was tired, to say the least.

She was tired of living a half-life. She was tired of pretending to be strong for others. She was tired of waking up to
an empty bed.

She was still so young and yet so old.

Her life felt like a monotonous routine, devoid of meanings and only living for the sake of living. She was amazed that
she could keep up with this charade for so long yet she could just drop out of the game of life at any moment…

...Who was going to save Jessica from herself?...

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Willow Trees
Overture 1: Blame

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...I need your words just to get by…

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The young boy walked along the sidewalk, alone.

A year ago, both his parents would have been there, waiting for him outside the school gates and smiling with their
arms outstretched to embrace him. 

Then his dad would carry him on his shoulders, the young boy clutching onto his father’s charcoal-colored spikes for
support and laughing with glee all the while. His mom would walk side by side with them, asking her only son how his
day at kindergarten was. JR would converse excitedly about a new friend he had made at playtime or a hapless classmate
he had saved from the class bully. From his perch, JR was fascinated at how his mom seemed to glow in the light of the
setting sun.

But those days were long over now. There was no one waiting for JR after school any more.

Living in the “outside world”, every day proved to be constant fascination for young JR. He had spent the first
five years of his life at the Alice Academy. He left when his mother graduated from the Academy College.

After school and on weekends, his parents would take him out and his father would point out little quirks in the city
to amuse and fascinate the young boy. At least once a month, they’d go to an amusement park and every Sunday morning,
they’d have parfaits for brunch at a dessert shop run by Isabelle, his mom’s ex-classmate.

There was no doubt that JR was a very, very happy child. His parents took care of him well and lavished their love on
him though he wasn’t spoilt. But after his dad’s death, things just changed.

He was forced to understand the concept of death at such a young age. He was forced to understand just how broken
Jeremy’s death made Jessica. He was a little kid forced to grow up.

He was forced to feel like he wasn’t wanted any more.

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Jessica put down the knife and blinked back the tears that were clouding her vision.

Three days from now, it would be the first anniversary of Jeremy’s death.

It wasn’t fair, really. It’s been one year and you think she would’ve been over it by now… But she wasn’t
because she was never given the time to heal.

She couldn’t just let her world stop to mourn for him. Life needed to go on and she needed to continue working to
support her son…

...His son… 

JR was the spitting image of his father.

Jessica couldn’t get over that. Whenever she looked at him, she couldn’t help but get reminded of her lost love.
Her lost dreams… Her lost hope…

Ever since Jeremy’s death, JR had become a reminder of him; symbolizing the love they had and the love they lost.
Every fiber of JR’s being haunted and plagued her widowed mind. Though she and Jeremy never did get married, she felt
like they already were the moment they fornicated.

The tears were threatening to spill out again.

It wasn’t fair, really. Jessica found that she couldn’t be the same loving, doting mother to JR like she had been
before. She spent as little time around him as possible. She stopped picking him up from school. Nowadays she just left
his allowance on the tabletop for him to collect and she stopped taking him out on weekends except when he absolutely
needed to buy something new. She left his breakfast and lunch up to him and only cooked dinner in the evenings. The
only times they ever did see each other and talked, though minimally, they still talked, was at dinner time.

Jessica knew she wasn’t being fair to JR. He deserved to be around people that would give him the attention he
needed… He didn’t do anything to deserve having a broken mother like Jessica… It wasn’t his fault he was born.

Jeremy took a temporary post as an assistant teacher for the Special Ability types; that let him stay on at the
Academy. But after Jessica graduated, they took JR and moved to Tokyo.

The only reason the Academy let JR go was because his Alice hadn’t shown itself yet.

With two Alices for parents, there was no doubt that JR would turn out as an Alice as well. It was only a matter of
time before his gift revealed itself.

When that time came, he would leave for the Academy; leave Jessica to herself. It would leave Jess time to heal… They
say that only time can heal a broken heart and with time, maybe when JR came back to her, she’d be able to provide him
with motherly love again… But isn’t there also a saying that absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Time would let Jessica get over Jeremy but time would also make her pine for him more. Time would let Jess regain her
love for her son but time would push him away from her…

It wasn’t fair, really. Maybe Jessica was really stupid, the way her friends always told her in elementary school.
But she just couldn’t understand it at all.

She gave up chopping the carrots as tears rapidly trickled down her cheeks.

And this time, she didn’t stop them.

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RJ was guilty of a lot of things, most of which only he knew.

One thing he was guilty of was erasing the smile off of Jess’s pretty face. When they were fifteen, he told her she
looked ugly when she smiled, which was a lie. From then on, she stopped smiling, just for him.

Of course everyone else noticed the change in the brunette. That made Jeremy come forward and tells Jessica that she
looked prettier when she smiled.

One thing led to another and Jessica was always smiling from then on… It was RJ who erased her smile and it was
Jeremy who brought it back. You could say RJ was indirectly guilty of bringing the two together.

Once again, RJ was guilty of wiping the smile off Jess’s face. It was his fault that the two of them fell in love and
it was his fault that Jeremy died, eradicating Mikan’s sweet smile once again.

...He was there when Jeremy died...

...He knew how Jeremy died...

...He knew he was to blame...

RJ knew what he had to do. He took away Jessica’s happiness a year ago and he felt obligated to bring it back.

He couldn’t resurrect Jeremy for her but he could give her a new happiness… A new love…

He rounded the corner, following the small boy with the charcoal spikes. JR was going to lead him straight to Jessica.

RJ knew what to do. And he knew it wasn’t wrong because his heart was telling him to do this.

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