227 That won’t happen
The dinner went smoothly.
The food was delicious and the people of the house were all nice people. They treated him nicely and did their best so that he would have a fun time there. Reyan’s mother especially was nice to him. She talked about how she was happy that his foolish son had finally found a friend and then started to tell the past memories where his son always wanted to invite his friend to his house like the other kid, but couldn’t do so because he didn’t have a friend.
He could see how Reyan’s face was changing colors from white to red and even blue from embarrassment and also from suppressing his anger. He wanted to laugh loudly at him but had to control his face as he was currently a very gentle and well-behaved guest of a rich family.
And just like that, he spent a few hours of his night in Reyan’s house. After the dinner and everything else was over, it was time to go back. However, the simple act of ‘going back home,’ wasn’t that simple here.
He had prepared himself thought. Just as Reyan had warned him, he was ready to turn down any offers to stay the night immediately and then run away.
“Dear, it’s too late. Why don’t you stay the night?”
Just as he had expected, Reyan’s mom brought up the issue when he said that he would be leaving.
“Thank you but I don’t want to-”
“You don’t look good. I don’t want to send a kid with such a pale face home at such a late hour.”
.....
“Thank you, but I’m fine-”
“You’ve been pinching the bridge of your nose with a frown the whole time and also had been coughing a lot.”
“...That’s nothing to-”
“You didn’t even eat much. Do you want me to call a doctor?”
“No! I’m really fine!”
He glanced at Reyan while doing his best to turn down the offer.
“....”
But Reyan was staring at the air.
‘Hey! Bastard! Help me!’
“.....”
Reyan didn’t look at him. He didn’t answer his call for help! His best frined betrayed his trust!
And just like that, he ended up staying at that huge house the night. He still didn’t get why Reyan didn’t come to his rescue.
No, he knew.
Reyan couldn’t oppose her mom, that was why he had been teaching his friend how to reject his mom’s offer instead of doing something about it himslef.
“Cough cough”
‘Argh, this shit.’
His chest hurt. He was also feeling hotter and hotter the more time passed.
“Reyan.”
As soon as they arrived at the guest room, he plopped down on the bed.
“Can you bring me some painkillers?”
“....”
The boy’s eyes widened.
“Are you... Are you really sick?”
Plop
He laid down on the bed.
“Just a headache.”
“Ah!”
Reyan peeked at his expression.
“If you... If you are not feeling fine I can call a doctor-”
“Give me some painkillers!!”
The boy flinched and took one step towards the door.
“Alright! I’ll tell the workers to bring some!”
He rushed out of the room and came back after a few seconds.
‘I need to inform the orphanage though.’
But that was not an easy task. He didn’t want to go through the questions and all of the things he had to explain.
In the end, he decided that he would send a text to Kain and ask him to inform the orphanage instead. Kain didn’t live there anymore, but he was still better at doing these kinds of things than he.
‘I’m sorry Kain.’
He turned off his phone to avoid any questions from Kain. Tossing his phone aside, he stared at the ceiling.
‘So what now?’
He glanced at Reyan who was sitting on a chair like a dry and stiff broken branch and was staring at him.
‘Should I just go to sleep?’
He wanted to rest, but wasn’t that a waste? It was a lifetime chance to visit such a famous place and all he thought of doing was sleep?
Knock Knock
The door of the room opened after a few knocks and a man with a huge body wearing the staffs’ uniform walked in.
“You requested painkillers, young master?”
He was carrying a glass of water and some pills.
‘Hmm?’
He stared at the staff’s face.
‘Where have I seen him before?’
The staff looked kinda familiar, but he didn’t know him.
“Thank you.”
He pushed the thoughts of the staff being familiar to one side of his mind and just took the medicine.
“I’m going to sleep. Get lost.”
He pointed at the door while looking at Reyan. In the end, he decided to postpone the sightseeing to tomorrow morning and just sleep now.
“O-Okay!”
Reyan kept glancing at him with a worried face while he was leaving the room.
“I’m in the next room on the right so call me if you-”
“Get out already!”
“O-okay!”
Clack
As he left the room, the place was once again silent.
“Hng, but their beds are so soft...”
And the foods are delicious.
And the house is warm.
Too warm.
Maybe it was hot...
“Ugh...”
A groan left the lips of the sleeping boy. His closed eyes twitched and his eyebrows frowned.
-You know what, Kairen?
-I’m really a coward.
A cold and limp body leaning on him and the sounds of explosions were heard from every corner. The sky was lit brightly by the light of some strange floating objects that shone the same color as the bracelet around the wrist of the man he was hugging.
“Gasp!”
.....
He opened his eyes, gasping for air.
“What?”
The thing he saw once he opened his eyes was a huge room and a big bed he was sleeping in.
“Gasp!”
Clenching his chest, he sat up in the bed.
“Huff! Gasp!”
What was that? What was that?
He curled up in his spot while still gasping for air. Sweat was dripping down his forehead and his whole body was trembling.
“K-Kain?”
Tapping his painful chest, he moved his shaking hands.
“Phone... Huff... M-my phone... Where- Gasp...”
Where did he toss that goddamned phone?
“Ah!”
He pulled out his phone from under one of the pillows and turned it on, immediately calling the number on the top of his call list. The call was answered after a long while of waiting.
“Uh? Yes?”
He heard a familiar and sleepy voice from the other side.
“Kain!”
“....”
“K-Kain? Kain? Kain!!!”
“Y-yes? What’s it Kairen? Did something-”
“K-Kain! Where... W-where are y-you?”
“In my house? What’s the matter? Why is your voice shaking?”
“Kain... K-Kain... Kain...”
He curled up more from pain while still repeating that name.
“Kairen? Are you fine?”
The voice on the other side of the call changed from a sleepy voice to a concerned one.
“I... I’m coming there...”
He moved out of the bed.
“Where? It’s 4 AM Kairen what-”
CRASH
Kain stopped talking after hearing the sound of something crashing on the other side.
“What happened? Hey?”
“Gasp!”
He only heard the sound of rough breathing.
“Hey! Answer me!”
“Gasp... Argh...”
He looked at the jar that fell down and shattered to pieces after he staggered and fell on the table beside the door. His phone had fallen out of his hand and he too had fallen to the ground beside the broken jar.
He leaned his throbbing head on the wall, too exhausted to move and pick up the phone again.
‘Argh, I messed up...’
BANG
“Kairen, what happened-”
Reyan rushed into the room, only to find a valuable jar broken and his friend leaning on the wall, gasping with a pale face, and a phone on one side of the room that he could hear the sound of someone from.
‘That jar must’ve been expensive...’
He glanced at the broken jar.
‘Ah, why did I even call him because of such a stupid dream?’
Everything around him was going blurry all of a sudden.
‘It was just a... stupid dream...’
Plop
And he felt his body hit the cold ground. There were some voices calling for him, telling him something about breathing, but he couldn’t hear them properly.
‘There is no way Kain...’
His eyelids were heavy, so he just decided to close them.
‘Nothing is ever going to happen to him...’
. . . . .
“Kairen!!!”
As soon as he opened his eyes, a teary face popped up before his face.
“You woke up!”
His friend, who was about to break into tears, was clinging to his arm.
“Huh?”
He looked around.
‘Ah, hospital.’
He knew right away where he was.
“What happened?”
He tried to sit up, but as soon as he moved a little bit, a mixture of nausea, dizziness, and headache rushed at him so, no. He gave up and laid down.
“I don’t know! I heard a loud sound so I came to your room but you suddenly fainted!!!!!!”
Reyan’s eyes got teary as he remembered the events of last night.
“Why didn’t you tell me that you had an illness!?”
“I don’t have an illness.”
“But, the first time we met too! And they said you had records of-”
SLAM
The door opened wide before Reyan could finish his whining.
“Kairen!”
And a tall young man with green hair and dark brown hair rushed in.
“Ah!”
Seeing that face, he couldn’t help but be reminded of the dream he saw last night.
“Kain!”
Forgetting about his headache and the boy clinging to his arm, he jumped out of the bed and rushed towards his brother.
“Kain!”
“Woah what?”
Kain was stuck dumbfounded from the hug he had received one second after entering the room.
“Kain!”
“Yes?”
Pat Pat
He patted his little brother’s back. The kid was different from how he usually was for some reason. He glanced at the other boy in the room who was looking at the two with a puzzled face.
‘Was that the one who answered the call?’
After the call was abruptly cut last night, Kain kept calling back his brother again and again until finally someone picked up the phone and told him about what has happened.
“Let’s go home...”
Kain looked away from Reyan and looked down.
“Home?”
“Your home...”
Pat Pat
“Kairen you are sick you should stay in the-”
“No! I want to go home with you now!”
“....”
“Please...”
Kain looked up and sighed.
“Alright. Let me talk to your doctor first.”
Kain said that and left the room.
‘Hah! Really, why did this happen?’
Every time he saw one of those visions, he would be sick for a few days before having a strange dream, then he would get better after that. But this time was different.
‘Hah, it’ll probably happen again...’
But this time, he really didn’t want to see the rest of the dream.
. . . . . .
“This won’t happen! Such a thing won’t happen! I won’t give a damn about these memories anymore!”
He threw his pillow towards the door while shouting angrily.
“Fuck you all!”
He threw the book he had put on the table beside his bed.
“I won’t give a damn about these stupid memories anymore!”
SLAMMM
The book fell down with a loud face.
“Kairen, what are you-”
As soon as Kain opened the door, a backpack landed before his feet.
“Get lost already!!!”
Kain picked up the backpack and walked toward his brother who was shouting angrily late at night while sitting on his bed.
“....”
He put down the backpack and peeked at the boy. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do with him. Since four days ago that Kain had brought the boy to his house, he had been like this every night. Well, he wasn’t this angry for the first few days, he would only cling to him and ask him to stay by his side.
“Ah!”
The teenager suddenly gasped after seeing his backpack.
“This shitty-”
He jumped towards the bag, pulled out a notebook from it, and started to flip the pages.
[Bread – Egg – Milk – Butter – Tomato – Medium-sized potato – Onion – Ice cream – Candy]
“This shitty-”
Flip Flip Flip
He flipped the pages until he reached an empty one.
[I won’t write them. I don’t want to. I was stupid to think about them too much. Anyway, I’ve decided to ignore all those visions. They are all crap. Fake and bullshit. There is no way things like that can possibly happen. Yeah, that won’t happen.]
Writing those words down angrily, he slammed the notebook close and then threw it on the ground as well.
“Fucking garbage!”
“.....”
Sitting beside him, Kain only could softly pat his brother’s back and watch him throw things helplessly.
“Kain!”
He suddenly turned to Kian.
“I will join SMF as well.”
“What?”
The smile vanished from Kain’s lips.
“What did you say?”
“I said I’ll join SMF. I have to join SMF.”
“No! That’s not allowed!”
“I said I will! I will become an agent.”
Kain’s brows frowned and his eyes turned fierce.
“Becoming an agent is not allowed! Never! Don’t ever talk about it again! I won’t let you get yourself killed! There are a lot of other jobs for a mage! Think of another carrier!”
He grabbed Kain’s arms.
“I’m not the one who will get killed! I... I don’t believe it, but I’ll join! I have to join!”
“Kairen!”
The teenager lowered his head.
“I don’t let such a thing happen. I will join and fight with you. I have to...”
The trembling hands let go of Kain’s sleeves.
He had to be there. He had to do something.
He didn’t want to lose Kain at any costs.