Second World Online

My eyelids opened slowly, greeted by the darkness blanketing every corner of the room. The only source of light came from the glow of the streetlamp outside the window piercing through the gap in the curtains, and the blinking green LED light from the ECG monitor machine beside my bed.

The sound of rather heavy raindrops could be heard beating against the window glass, creating a night symphony that was usually very soothing for anyone sound asleep. However, for me who had just opened my eyes, this was a problem.

I turned my head toward the digital clock mounted on the nightstand. The glowing red digital numbers showed 22:15.

"Ugh... damn," I groaned inwardly, feeling a slight dizziness in my head due to my ruined sleep schedule. "My afternoon nap was too long. Waking up at ten at night like this, I will definitely have a hard time closing my eyes again until morning. My sleep cycle is completely messed up."

I tried to stretch my stiff body, intending to sit up and perhaps turn on the small night light. However, right when I shifted my left shoulder, I felt a sensation that stopped all my movements instantly.

There was something or more precisely, someone lying on the left side of my rather spacious medical bed. Something that felt incredibly soft, radiating a very comforting body warmth through the thin layer of my pajamas.

I held my breath, turning my head with a very slow movement so as not to cause any tremors on the mattress.

Under the dim light of the room, my eyes slowly adapted to the darkness. There she was. Mira, my nurse and personal head maid, was fast asleep right beside me. She was lying on her side facing me, both her hands folded over her chest, and her breath flowing in a very regular rhythm.

Apparently, the exhaustion of guarding and caring for me for days without proper rest had finally overcome her professionalism. She must have initially only intended to sit or lie down briefly on the edge of the bed to watch over me, but was eventually lulled by exhaustion and fell completely asleep.

Seeing her beautiful face sleeping so peacefully from this close of a distance made my heart suddenly skip a beat. The soft lines of her face, her curled eyelashes, and her lips slightly parted as she exhaled; everything looked so perfect and fragile at the same time.

I abandoned my intention to wake her up. My hand, which was about to reach for the light switch, was now slowly pulled back. I couldn’t bear to disturb this very precious rest time of hers.

In the silence of the night, filled only by the sound of rain and the ticking of the clock, my mind began to drift far away. Rewinding the reel of memories about the girl now sleeping beside me.

My feelings for Mira were not a sudden, fleeting workplace romance. Deep in the bottom of my heart, I truly liked her. Liked her very much.

We had been together since childhood. Mira was specially educated and trained by my family to be my assistant, personal maid, and protector. From the time I was still running around in the backyard until I was in middle school, Mira was the only figure who was always there. She wasn’t just a maid; she was my childhood friend, my confidante, and slowly... became the girl residing in my heart.

The Hortensia family was a very modern and open-minded family. They never forced business-oriented arranged marriages or looked down on social status. My Father and Mother even loved Mira very much like their own child. If I confessed my feelings to Mira, it was highly likely even certain that my family would one hundred percent agree and support our relationship.

However, there was one giant wall holding back all my feelings all this time. Leukemia.

That damn disease attacked me right at the peak of my teenage years. While other youths my age were busy confessing their love, dating, or planning for the future, I had to struggle with syringes, chemotherapy, and isolation rooms. This disease destroyed my self-confidence until nothing was left.

How could I possibly dare to ask Mira to be my lover, if my own future was uncertain? How could I ask her to tie her heart to a fragile young man who could just die tomorrow morning due to bone marrow complications? Because of that fear and inferiority complex, I chose to bury my feelings deep down, pretending to act like a stiff and professional Young Master in front of her.

Mira’s warm breath brushed my chin, pulling me back from my long daydream to the real world.

I stared intently at her face. From some unknown surge of courage, or perhaps due to the effect of the night’s silence erasing my conscious logic, my right hand moved on its own. My slightly trembling fingers touched the strands of her bangs covering her forehead.

With a touch as light as a feather, I tidied up those bangs, tucking them behind Mira’s ear. The sensation of her alabaster-smooth skin touching my fingertips sent a small jolt of electricity through my entire nervous system.

Unconsciously, I moved my head forward. My body leaned closer toward her. The distance between our faces slowly eroded. Ten centimeters... five centimeters... three centimeters. I could smell the chamomile-scented body wash and the sweet fragrance of her breath. The distance between our lips was now very close, almost touching. I closed my eyes, letting my instincts and feelings take control.

However, at that exact second... Mira’s eyelids suddenly opened.

My body instantly froze. My eyes opened wide, colliding directly with her pair of brown eyes which also widened in shock.

Immense shock was clearly depicted on Mira’s face. She had just woken up from her sleep, and the first thing that greeted her sight was her Young Master’s face less than two inches away from her own! We were both in an incredibly intimate position.

Time seemed to stop ticking. The sound of the rain outside evaporated from my hearing. The room was enveloped in a very, very thick ambiguous atmosphere. Neither of us dared to move or make a sound. The air around us felt so hot and dense.

My logic screamed for me to quickly back away, apologize, and make an excuse that I was just trying to shoo a mosquito away from her face. That was a coward’s way out that I always used.

But tonight... for some reason, I didn’t want to back away.

I looked directly into Mira’s eyes, searching for rejection or disgust there. However, I found none. What I saw in her brown eyes was only shock slowly melting into a gentle anticipation.

Ignoring all my doubts and fears about my disease, I moved my momentarily frozen face forward again. That two-inch distance eroded once more.

Seeing my movement, Mira didn’t pull away. She instead closed her eyelids slowly, signaling a wordless consent that made my heart almost explode.

And finally... our lips touched.

The touch was very soft, fragile, and full of care, as if we were both afraid that a movement too rough would shatter the magic of this night. There was no burning lust, only the channeling of affection, a longing buried for years, and a silent confession of our respective feelings.

We kissed for a few moments. The warm and sweet taste of her lips made me forget all the pain and blandness that had tortured my body all this time.

When we finally separated to take a breath, reality immediately hit us both at full speed.

Mira’s eyes opened wide, and her face instantly turned beet red like a boiled crab. Even under the dim lighting of the room, I could see the tips of her ears turn red until they were almost smoking. An overwhelmingly immense embarrassment exploded inside her, shattering the entire calm and elegant demeanor she usually displayed as a head maid.

"I-I... Young Master... I-I..." Mira’s voice stuttered severely. Her eyes darted wildly in all directions, avoiding eye contact with me.

Before I had the chance to calm her down, Mira instantly jumped off the bed like lightning, almost tripping over her own feet.

"I-I will go get dinner for the Young Master right now!" she shrieked, stifling her voice, tidying her slightly wrinkled nurse uniform with a very cute panicked movement, then immediately turning around and running out of the room at full speed, closing the door with a soft thud.

Left alone in the room, I could only lie frozen like a statue. My right hand rose to touch my own lips. My face felt incredibly hot, and I was one hundred percent certain that the blush on my face right now was just as severe or perhaps even more severe than Mira’s.

My heart raced at a speed I had never even experienced when fighting an Elite boss monster in Second World Online. The ECG monitor machine next to me even beeped a bit faster responding to my anomalous spike.

"What did I just do... Oh my God, I really kissed her," I whispered in disbelief, hiding my blushing face behind both my palms while chuckling softly. An extremely foreign euphoria of happiness flooded my chest.

About fifteen minutes later, the room door creaked open again.

Mira walked in with her head bowed deeply. She pushed a small food trolley bearing a bowl of hot porridge. The air in the room, previously filled with romantic tension, now took a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn into an atmosphere of incredibly thick and awkward tension.

Mira walked in absolute silence. She didn’t even dare to raise her gaze to look at my face. With mechanical and stiff movements like a robot, she placed the overbed table on my lap, arranging the bowl of porridge, a glass of water, and a spoon.

"P-please enjoy your dinner, Young Master Rian," she squeaked softly, her voice still trembling. She then took two steps back and stood in the corner of the room in a standby posture, pretending to stare at the medical monitor screen very intensely.

I looked down at the bowl of bland chicken porridge that was exactly the same as the lunch menu. My appetite had actually evaporated to who knows where, replaced by butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

The atmosphere between the two of us was truly awkward, feeling very suffocating yet ticklish at the same time. The clinking sound of the porcelain spoon hitting the bowl as I began to eat became the only sound breaking the silence in that room, besides the sound of the rain outside.

In between bites of porridge, I stole glances at Mira. She was still standing stiffly with a slightly flushed face.

A resolute thought crossed my mind.

I was a man. I was 20 years old. I was no longer a 17-year-old teenager who could hide behind the excuse of an illness to run away from my feelings.

If I let this night pass with this awkwardness, our relationship tomorrow morning would become very strange. The distance between us would widen again, and the wall of maid-and-young-master professionalism would stand firm once more, perhaps forever. That kiss would be considered an ’accident’ or a side effect of sedatives.

I didn’t want that to happen. I refused to let this disease rob my happiness any further.

Driven by an iron resolve, I sped up my eating pace. I quickly swallowed the remains of that bland porridge without caring about the taste. As soon as the bowl was clean, I placed it back on the trolley and pushed the overbed table to the side, creating a free space between myself and the side of the bed.

"Mira," I called, my voice sounding much deeper, firmer, and calmer than I expected.

Mira flinched slightly. "Y-yes, Young Master? Is there something wrong with the food?" she asked quickly, finally turning her head to look at me.

"Come here," I commanded softly.

With hesitant and slightly trembling steps, Mira walked closer to the side of the bed. When she was within my reach, I wasted no time. I raised my right hand and directly grabbed her left hand, holding it tightly yet full of tenderness.

Mira gasped. Her eyes widened staring at our clasped hands, then slowly rose to meet my eyes.

"Y-Young Master...?" she whispered in confusion, though she made no attempt to pull her hand away at all.

I took a deep breath, locking my gaze directly into her beautiful eyes, ensuring she saw all the seriousness and sincerity within me.

"Stop calling me Young Master when it’s just the two of us, Mira," I said in a very quiet but firm tone. "I am not a little child anymore. I am twenty years old. And I no longer want to hide behind the shadows of my illness, or let my fear get in the way of what I have truly wanted all this time."

I stroked the back of her hand with my thumb. "I like you, Mira. Since long ago. Long before I fell ill, when we were still running around in the backyard, up to the time you patiently wiped my sweat during my worst times. You are the only woman I want."

Mira’s eyes began to well up with tears. Her lips trembled slightly listening to every word rolling out of my mouth.

"My condition might not be perfect. I might not be as strong as the normal men out there. But if you are willing to accept me with all these flaws of mine..." I swallowed hard, pushing away the last remnants of my doubts. "Mira, will you be my girlfriend?"

The question hung in the air, as if stopping time.

One second. Two seconds.

Mira’s emotional defenses finally crumbled. The tears that had been welling up in her eyes spilled over, wetting her still-blushing cheeks. She didn’t sob, but cried silently with an exceptionally beautiful smile slowly blossoming on her lips. A smile radiating profound emotion, relief, and pure happiness.

She squeezed my hand just as tightly, nodding her head with certainty.

"Yes... I will, Rian. I want to very much," she answered in a hoarse voice trembling with happy tears.

A burden as heavy as a mountain seemed to lift off my shoulders. The euphoria exploding in my chest made me feel as though I could get up and run right this second. I pulled her hand gently, guiding her body to lean closer toward me.

Mira complied. She leaned her body forward, closing her eyes with remnants of tears still adorning her curled eyelashes.

This time, there was no more hesitation. There was no more awkwardness. Under the dim light of the room and the accompanying sound of the rain outside the window, both our lips touched once again. Our second kiss felt much deeper, sweeter, and more real, binding a promise of a future that had just begun between the young man and his protector maiden.