Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 7, 2010 21:30:46 GMT -5
Sunday mornings were Nina's new meditation time. Before, she would be up on a Saturday, but from now until the end of the semester, Saturdays were spent in detention.
So Nina sat, her legs folded lotus-style, in the middle of a stretch of grass that could stand to be mown. Her hair was bound back, out of her face and off her neck, and her half-closed eyes were oblivious to the world.
She had been like this for the past hour or so.
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 7, 2010 21:43:06 GMT -5
Julien had been climbing the trees in the courtyard and practicing his leaping. What good is a lemur if he can't leap. While he was in mid air a blond someone caught his eye. He landed expertly on the tree that the blond in question was sitting under. He decended the tree quietly to get a closer look. Who would be up this early, besides himself?
He was about halfway down the tree when he suddenly recognized the small girl. "NINAAAAAA!!" Julien shouted excidedly as he slid down the rest of the tree, catching himself on the bottom most branches. He hung by his knees so he was staring at his favorite blond in the upside down fashion.
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 7, 2010 21:50:46 GMT -5
Nina didn't notice Julien's movements, didn't hear Julien's yell, and most certainly didn't notice the boy as he hung upside-down inches from her face.
Nina took in another deep, slow breath, which was let out in a measured, barely audible hum that resonated solidly from her lungs. It was one of the few sounds that wouldn't be affected by her ruined voice.
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 7, 2010 21:56:50 GMT -5
"N-nina?" Julien's smile wavered but did not slip off his face. He fell onto his hands, flipped over and landed in a crouch. He crawled over to the stone-ish figure that looked like Nina but it sure didn't act like her. Julien pushed his lips together and leaned in closer to the blond statue. He got to where his face was mere centimeters from her's and his bright orange eyes were staring into her half-lidded stare.
"You, know," he muttered to himself, "I wasn't expecting much but a 'I missed you' would've been nice . . . "
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 7, 2010 22:10:55 GMT -5
Nina felt a light buzzing at the edges of her senses. The trance she was in stretched thin, permeated by a familiar scent-- a warm, earthy musk, with hints of what might have been papaya.
She blinked several times, each action bringing her eyes into clearer focus. Her vision was completely taken up by bright eyes in a tanned face, framed by light hair. Nina yelped and jerked backward, knocking her head against the tree. "Ch- chegiral!"
She bit her tongue immediately after uttering the curse word, rubbing the back of her head.
"Hi," she said, feeling beneath her ponytail to check for a bump. She didn't seem to be hurt at all. She sat upright and looked at the boy she had become friends with over winter break. "Hi, Jules."
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 7, 2010 22:16:54 GMT -5
Julien quickly brought Nina into a hug. "So it IS you!! I thought it was a statue pretending to be Nina!" He rubbed the back of Nina's head and sighed happily to see that she hadn't hurt herself. "You should be more careful, Nin." Julien said to her, "And I still haven't gotten my 'I MISSED YOU!!'." Julien's perpetual smile began to give into a pout. "Has my noona not missed me?"
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 7, 2010 22:26:05 GMT -5
Julien's constant joy was contagious. Even given the circumstances of the past week (at least Kemekin would talk to her, now,) Nina found a smile curling across her face.
"Aw, of course noona missed you, Jules." Nina hugged the boy back, her voice muffled slightly from being smooshed into Julien's shoulder. "What are you doing up so early?"
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 7, 2010 22:32:14 GMT -5
Julien's smile came back to his lips. He shifted his body positioning so he now sat next to Nina with his right arm around her shoulders and the left caressed her hair. Nina's sent wafted into the air and Julien eagerly smelled it. The citrus-like smell reminded him of home, which was what Julien began to relate Nina with.
"I was practicing," Julien explained, "What good is a lemur that can't leap." He turned away from Nina and yawned. He shook his head to clear it. "Plus sleep has been eluding me," he muttered as a side note.
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 7, 2010 22:41:45 GMT -5
Nina's smile quirked at the corners. Julien was such an affectionate boy; not a bad bone in his body. Even after the infamous demonstration of her trigger temper, which by now the entire school was aware of, Julien treated her as he always had.
"Losing sleep?" she asked, looking sideways at her friend. "What's up?"
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 8, 2010 16:59:32 GMT -5
Julien yawned. "I can't sleep on these slab things that are in the rooms. They aren't comfortable. . ." He stretched, his smile still on his face but a disgruntled smile none the less. His muscles were all tense and in knots. He removed his left hand to rub his neck. "But that's not important, what's been going on with you? I've been hearing your name pop up everywhere."
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 8, 2010 17:44:06 GMT -5
"Aw. You'll get used to it-- every time I visit the monastery over break, I come back and have to sleep on the floor for a while. The mattresses are way too soft-- I'm used to bedrolls on the floor. Here, I can help."
She moved so she sat on her knees behind Julien, and kneaded the boy's neck and shoulders with the expert touch that came only from being taught by monks. "Better?"
After a few minutes, during which she contemplated how to answer his question, she made a face. "It's nothing I care to talk about right now. All you need to know is that I hurt someone."
She sighed and continued with her massage.
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 8, 2010 18:01:27 GMT -5
Julien's eyes widened and then . . . he melted. God, this girl knew what she was doing. Julien arched his back and began to make a series of small growls without his knowledge. He bit his lip as he smiled, "That feels so good."
When Nina answered his question, Julien's invisible ears perked. He unwillingly batted Nina's head away and spun to face her. "Wait, you hurt someone?" Julien smiled wearily and gently caressed Nina's hair, "I don't think you could really hurt anyone, Noona . . . unless they really deserved it."
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 8, 2010 18:39:16 GMT -5
Nina pushed his hands away. "He didn't," she insisted. She changed her sitting position and took her hair out of the secure ponytail it had been in. "Kemekin's afraid of me-- I don't know if you understand how upset that makes me."
She frowned. She was getting agitated, and Julien had done nothing more than try to comfort her.
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 8, 2010 18:42:57 GMT -5
Julien's smile slowly slid off his face. A look of seriousness crossed his tan features. "You're right," he said quietly, "I don't understand. But I want to." Julien regained his smile, it was tender and full of concern, "I-I just don't like seeing my Nina-noona sad. I want to help you, if you'll let me?"
Julien reached out to Nina to touch her but remembered how he was brushed away before and slowly began to recoil his hand. Then he felt overwhelmed with an emotion he couldn't tell what though. "Screw it," he thought to himself as he positioned himself behind Nina. He gently wrapped his harms around her and bit his lip. "You're pain is my pain, Nina," he whispered.
Aw, Crap!! Julien began to blush. He wasn't sure what made him say that but hell, it was too late to take it back.
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 8, 2010 18:58:56 GMT -5
Nina had grown so used to the majority of the other students avoiding her-- or at least treating her with caution, as if she could explode at any moment. There was a wall there, one she had built without meaning to, and now this boy had leaped right over it.
Nina had been taught that being stoic was the most effective way to deal with these sort of things-- the enemy is nothing but illusion. Break the illusion and break your enemy. Meditation and perseverance. She was not allowed to cry. She wasn't going to cry-- she had gone through enough to harden her against that sort of thing.
But she was only human. She burrowed her head into the hollow of Julien's throat and covered her face with her hands before breaking down into tears.
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 8, 2010 19:06:51 GMT -5
Julien was confused!! "Nina!!" he half sobed half screamed her name. His smile was officially gone. "Wh-what's wrong?!" Julien shifted his body so that his arms were wrapped around Nina protectively and his left hand held the back of her head carefully.
What was this? Why did he feel this way? Julien began to shake and the first tears he had ever shed slid down his cheeks. He cried quietly with Nina for a few moments before whispering, his voice rough with tension, "It will be ok, Nina. I'm here for you. . . . I'm here."
Julien buried his face in her hair. The smell of home. His home was crying and Julien wanted to know why. But if she couldn't tell him, the least he could do was stay here with her, and that's what he intended to do.
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 8, 2010 19:16:38 GMT -5
Nina wasn't able to calm her breathing for several minutes. She rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes-- they were stinging now. She was very warm, a state contributed to largely by her lemur friend, and it was only then that she noticed that the sobs she was hearing (feeling?) were not her own.
"Julien?" her voice was barely audible, hardly more than a whisper. There was no sound to it-- only air. "What's wrong?"
Silly, she would realize later, how the tables turned several times in this conversation.
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 8, 2010 19:22:08 GMT -5
Julien's eyes were closed and when he felt Nina move he slowly opened them. "I-I don't know what's wrong." He managed to smile weakly at her. His voice had dropped slightly and sounded tight. "Your eyes started raining and mine did too." Julien's eyes only expressed the utmost concern.
He bit his lip and tightened his grip on his noona. "I-I just want you to be ok." He tilted her chin upwards so he could look into her deep eyes. "J-just know that I'm always here for you, Nina. Always. Do you understand?"
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Nina Paem
Keme
Academy Junior: Mage
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly.
Posts: 427
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Post by Nina Paem on Jun 10, 2010 12:31:09 GMT -5
Nina rubbed her face with her hands again. She was getting into dangerous territory here-- bad enough that she was letting herself cry in front of other people, but now that Julien was--
She understood, though. Yes. Julien had told her himself-- she was his first human friend. Nina was a sort of gateway for him. They were bound to be attached to each other.
Nina gave Julien a hug around his middle and then stood, pulling her hair back once more. She sniffed, then straightened her shoulders. "I have to go," she said. She took a few steps away, then glanced back over her shoulder and added, in a softer tone, "We'll sit together at dinner; yeah?"
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Julien
Vi
Bounce to you, bounce to you, nae gaseumeun neol
Posts: 160
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Post by Julien on Jun 13, 2010 16:47:03 GMT -5
Julien's eyes had stopped raining and he smiled softly up at Nina. He wasn't sure what his feelings were doing he just prayed that he hadn't screwed up.
"O-of course," Julien replied happily. He lightly giggled. "If you want me to. It's not like I had any previous plans or anything." He was just happy to see that she wasn't pissed at him.
That was a very good thing.
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