"Would be willing to die for my sake?"

"Yes, Adam. For you I went thousand miles across the sea, ran barefoot on burning lava, killed by a god and born back to find you, do you still wonder if I'd die for you?"

A 10 year old boy had a hard time to blink as he watched this woman in white on the television, had her head pulled up by a taller man, then they started kissing. Then suddenly the screen went blank with a buzz.

"Yuchi! You're not supposed to watch that, darling!"

They boy's name is Yuuichi. It has been 8 years since he was adopted, this lady that looks exactly like the brave actress on the television just now, still had trouble pronouncing his name.

"Mummy," Yuuichi called out as the blonde woman took his little hand in hers, guiding him out of the living room.

"Yes, darling?" Her voice is always lovely, her gaze too. Yuuichi never thought much about it, because he doesn't understand it.

"Did you kill a god?" the innocent question made the woman chuckled.

"No, darling, it was called acting, mummy was an actress you see..."

The boy climbed up the king size bed, a bed that might be too big for a little child to sleep alone. The woman tucked the boy then crouched down to peeked below the bed like it was a habit for her.

"Ok, no monster, night-night darling," the retired actress said as she put a kiss on the boy's dark hair.

The boy rolled over to the other side as he murmured before his adopted mother left.

"I'd kill the monster before they even touch me."

The woman turned around. "What was that, darling?"

"Would you be willing to die for my sake?" the boy asked without turning around.

"I'd go across the sea and ran barefoot on lava for you," she said as she rehearsed the dialogue from the movie. She chuckled and flicked the lights off.

"Good night, my love," the voice was so loving it made Yuuichi sick but that helped him sleep soundly that night.

The next morning was the busiest for everyone in the Kurobane manor. A banquet in the garden will be prepared for his father's announcement of his new business adventure. To be able to venture forward with this business, Yuuichi's adopted father needs many partners from all over Europe to make his dream comes true. And with this luxurious banquet in the middle of a stormy spring, he hoped he will attract many.

"Who are you?"

Yuuichi slowly blinked as he opened his eyes to find a pair of lime green eyes looking back at him. He realized he just dozed off in the middle of his reading under the oak tree not too far from the garden banquet. Yuuichi's properly dressed for the party but he was getting bored being shown around by his father like some kind of a show dog. So he decided to go away, he could still see the party going on from this distance.

But who is this blond boy in front of him?

"Who are you?" The little blond boy asked again, the boy has smaller build, must be a few years younger than him, his eyes are so round and too big for that small face.

"Aren't I supposed to ask you that question? This is my house," Yuuichi raised one brow, the blond invited himself to sit down on the grass right opposite of him.

"Uhhh," the younger boy seemed to be thinking, he's frowning as he looked back at Yuuichi and smiled. "You are pretty!" He said in Japanese suddenly as he reached out his small hand to touch Yuuichi's face.

Yuuichi seemed to let his guard down, which almost never happen, the hand touched his face gently. It's a very different feeling than when his mother or the servants touching his face.

"You like fesh?" The kid asked in an unfamiliar english accent as he rummaged into his beige color suits' pocket.

"Fesh...?" Yuuichi wondered which country this kid came from and realized that the kid took out some deep fried fish he hid in his pockets.

The kid gave a piece to him which Yuuichi declined, he watched the kid ate a piece with disgust as he could see some lint on the fried food too.

"Want to play?" The kid asked as he stood up after wiping the grease in his hand onto his short pants.

"No, I'm busy," Yuuichi answered as he leaned back on the tree.

The kid looked a bit dejected and walked away. Yuuichi watched the young stranger walked away as he put a hand on his left chest. He wondered what was that slight sting he felt when he saw the boy's dejected expression. The boy walked further away from the garden, towards the woods area. It's easy to get lost there if you don't know the woods' trails look like. But it's not Yuuichi's business, the kid wandered there on his own, if he's lost or found dead then it's the kid's own fault. So he picked up his book again to read.

"...behavior that conflicts with social norms, difficulty with showing remorse or empathy..."

Yuuichi's black eyes moved from one sentence to other sentences, his father has been reading this book since that doctor came to check on him last year. With his current knowledge he didn't understand what's mostly written here. He just wondered why people around him trying to understand him although he doesn't understand himself?

It has been 15 minutes since the blond disappeared into the woods. In the distance he could see a couple looking around the party, seemed to be looking for something, must be their idiot son who just wandered into the woods by himself, now he just remembered about the feral dogs that have been causing havoc at nearby villages that are appointed as the servants' living space. He overheard one of the servants were attacked by one of the dogs that are making the woods their home at beginning of spring.

Yuuichi looked up the oak tree to find a CCTV camera, if the boy found dead later, they're going to check the cameras, and if they found out that he was the last person he interacted with, it's going to get troublesome. Don't get him wrong, he doesn't care if the boy died, he just hate if things get troublesome. And there's also this thing stinging in his chest that he felt when he saw the boy's sad face just now. He needed to know what was that, he's just curious, that's all.

Yuuichi knew the woods well enough to walked around there himself, his father would occasionally brought him there to teach him how to use a hunting rifle. Sometimes he would aim the gun towards his father or the butler just to get a ridiculous reaction from his father.

He saw the little footprints left by the boy, so he tracked him down easily. The blond was crouching in the middle of a clearing. Yuuichi stepped on a branch and the noise startled the younger boy. The boy looked up and smiled at Yuuichi.

"Play together?" The boy asked.

"I guess I have some time to spare," Yuuichi said with a blank expression, with both his hands in his pockets he approached the blond. It seems he's crouching to look at something.

"Ants!" The boy said in Japanese again. One of the blond's parents must be a Japanese, he has trouble speaking between two languages at the same time.

Standing still he stared at the crouching boy, the boy must be one of the guests' child, judging from the clean custom made suits, he could also be from a well-off family. Though he couldn't put his finger where the boy came from with his weird english accent. Who is this boy? Appearing out of nowhere and actually made him feel something different inside him aside from anger and hate?

"Who are you?" Yuuichi asked.

"Fyn-chan," the boy answered. It must be a name his parents called him with.

"Fyn?" Yuuichi asked. The boy nodded. "What's your last name?"

The boy didn't seem to understand.

"What's your last name (名字/myou-ji)?" Yuuichi asked again this time in Japanese.

"Wo...rds(文字/mo-ji)?" Fyn repeated incorrectly.

"Nevermind...," Yuuichi sighed, it doesn't matter anyway. "How old are you?"

"Sex."

Yuuichi blinked at that.

"What?"

"Sex!" The kid said louder that his voice echoed in the woods.

The older boy couldn't help but laughed, he barely find anything aside from his pranks funny before but just seeing an innocent little kid saying 'sex' so loudly made him laughed.

Fyn couldn't help but smiled at Yuuichi's laugh and he too laughed himself.

"Don't you mean six?" Yuuchi asked, his lips are still smiling with dimples on his face.

"Sex!" Fyn insistedly said that made Yuuichi chuckled again. The older boy realized the sky is getting darker and he could smell the rain approaching.

"Let's go back," the taller boy said as he walked away, expecting Fyn to follow him.

The boy said 'okay!' as he ran after Yuuchi with his short legs.

Fyn who finally got to walk beside him suddenly grabbed on the taller boy's hand. Yuuichi's hand stayed motionless, he let the slightly greasy hand grabbed on his pinky finger as they walked through the familiar trails. They were still in the middle of the trails when the sky got a bit darker. Light flashed the surrounding making the two young boys stopped in their tracks.

Boom!

The explosion of thunder followed, startling the little blond, his grasp on Yuuichi's pinky tightened. Yuuichi just looked at the blond's scared face expressionlessly. He walked again not caring that the boy now sticked closer to him every now and then when the lights flashed in the sky. The woods felt quieter after the explosions of thunder. Yuuichi heard a rustling then followed by a growl. The shorter boy was going to open his mouth but Yuuichi covered it with his palm.

"Shhh...," Yuuichi shushed him with a finger in front of his lips, Fyn nodded, his unusually big eyes now looked even bigger as they're widened in fear.

Yuuichi always came here with his father and fully armed. So without the handy rifle, he needed something to protect himself. Oh, and the kid too, perhaps. He wondered if the dogs are dumb enough to be distracted, but this is middle of spring, there's a chance that the wild dogs made the woods their home because they're looking after their offsprings somewhere. They're not looking for prey, they're protecting their pups, so Yuuichi guessed this won't be easy. He looked around the ground wondering if there's any branch that's strong and sharp enough to be used as a weapon.

He looked up to see the predator stalking from the distance. The wild dog was almost as big as him, she's snarling, showing her white canines, they must be near the den where she's keeping her pups. Yuuichi saw a huge stick a few meters away from them, he only needed about 4 big steps to reach it. But it will not be enough time for him as the dog's definitely faster than the boy, and he's not alone, he has the younger boy clutching his pinky finger even tighter to the point he started to feel some pain.

The older boy saw some lights signing that another sound of thunder is approaching, he can use the opportunity of the dog startled by the thunder to grab the stick.

Flash!

Boom!

It's now or never. Yuuichi snatched his hand away from Fyn's hold as he took big leaps towards the stick. One! Two! Thr-

"No!!"

Just another two steps he could reach the stick, but he was distracted as he heard the kid screamed and there's a loud growl, the dog was already sprinted towards his direction. Yuuichi crouched reflexively, it will only take one second for the dog to land her big sharp fangs onto Yuuichi, but it never came.