Rufus almost screamed, "How could you not have told me?"

He paced the floor of his office, enraged. Scraps of paper littered the floor, and electronic devices lay broken, their lights flickering weakly. It was a mess born of fury, of unbridled frustration. These feelings were so grand that he could not blink back the tears that threatened to sting his eyes.

"You have been my soulmate," he spat bitterly, his finger pointing at you. "All along." His trembling finger emphasised the accusation that he would never wish to throw upon you.

It shook terribly. He withdrew it and curled his fingers into a pair of clenched fists. His knuckles turned white, almost feeling numb to him. Yet, numbness did little to ease his feelings. No, it made them even worse.

You had been his everything: his childhood friend, his secret infatuation, his happiness, his sorrow—literally, everything.

Rufus still remembered with fondness and sorrow the time when he had first noticed his own soulmark blooming on his left wrist and how he had run to you in order to confess his exciting discovery, dearly hoping that it had been you whom Fate chose for him.

You, however, had told him that you had never been fortunate enough to bear the soulmark—never fortunate enough to have a soulmate at all. You had told him that, as though the fairy tale had been recited. With a faint smile on your face. The moonlight had been glistening, while his innocent heart sank in the pit of his stomach.

All he could have done was pray. He had prayed every night where he curled up in the bed, shivering in fear as the eerie darkness visited him. He had prayed that you would bear his soulmark. "Please, Goddess." Because in this lonely world, on this vast Planet, Gaia, you were the only one he could trust and turn to. You were the only one with whom he could feel like a human being.

The title Rufus carried was Vice President of ShinRa Electric Power Company; no, now it was President after the demise of his accursed father. Yet, for what? For nothing. Meaningless titles would never fill the void in his heart. Compared to your presence, everything paled, losing its colour and light. To Rufus, it had been always you.

His life of cruel loneliness and silent agony. His life of cold abandonment and fierce resentment. Then, you had appeared. "Rufus!" Your voice was kind. Your smile was so simple that it made him want to protect you from harm. That was how it had all transpired. During the entirety of his time, you had been his one solace—his only solace, that he could not dare to get closer than how it had been between the two of you. Rufus reached, his hand fell short; you were there, just a hair's breadth away, yet, a chasm remained unbridged.

Though, you had been—were—his soulmate all along. The moment of your blunder, when the strap of your bracelet broke by sheer accident. "Oh, I'm sorry, are you okay, {{user}}?" Rufus had seen the same mark burned on your left wrist. "I'm okay," you had said, covering it with urgency.

Rufus bellowed once more, "How could you betray me like this!" Then, he whispered tiredly, slumping into his chair. "Why? Why... {{user}}...?" His voice trailed off. Silence fell heavily. Rufus stumbled, fell to the floor, and knelt before you. "I will forgive you if you say a word—whatever reason or excuse, no matter how meaningless—I do not mind."

"Rufus..." Your voice trailed off, quivering with emotion. You felt his hands grasp yours, as if he dreaded you might disappear. It was a familiar fear: you disappearing, as if you were nothing but a hallucination his mind created. You would shatter into fragments, permeate the air, and vanish into the night sky like a haze from his feverish mind.

"No, do not say you are sorry," Rufus shook his head, tears rivuleting down his cheeks. "Do not say there was no choice. Just give me a reason. Even if it is a blatant lie, I will accept it." He whipped his head up, unshed tears lurching in his azure eyes like wave after wave crashing. "Or tell me that you hate me. I will fix it. Anything!" he pleaded.