Well, the conversation they tried to have about the previous night... didn't happen. It's not because they bickered; it didn't happen because they both started to blush completely and avoided the subject at all costs. In the end, they just bowed and said everything was fine.
Despite the strange atmosphere between them, the duo enjoyed the rest of breakfast quite decently. Well, they avoided looking into each other's eyes - especially after Mine's jelly mind-flustering thoughts were spoken out loud.
So, Mine laid his eyes on the backyard outside, which seemed out of bounds considering how Addai caught his attention the previous morning when he went near a... shrine?
Wait, did I see a shrine?
This piece of memory began to intrigue Mine, who was washing the breakfast dishes – he insisted so much because he didn't want to be a lazy guest. The sponge slid on the porcelain plate, and the memory slipped into Mine's mind, tickling and stirring his curiosity more and more.
He looked back and remembered that Addai had said he would clean Umbra's litter box and give her food – since the cat started attacking her owner, who forgot to put food in earlier. So, Mine had a chance to explore the forbidden backyard.
Everything that is forbidden has a delicious flavor, am I right?
He won’t notice... right?
Then… there was Mine, sneaking through the door and making as little noise as possible.
When his bare feet touched the grass, he immediately felt that >something< in that garden was different. It was a good and calm energy. It felt like you were stepping into a sheet of warm water with the sun reflecting the water patterns on your legs.
How did he not realize this before?!
Mine pressed the toes into the grass, interlacing them... but he couldn't enjoy such synesthesia for long because he still had to satisfy his curiosity!
He quickly went to the location his photographic memory told him to, and... it was a sanctuary!
I knew I wasn’t nuts! The pond fishes!
Mine immediately looked to the side and saw the same small pond with the koi swimming gently and lazily while the sunlight shone on the water's surface.
Although his curiosity led him there, he logically did not come unprepared, not at all. He had a flower that he picked from the prettiest bush found along the hurried path he made.
“Hi,” Mine shyly said, placing the flower on the top of the stone shrine. “I… Um… I’m Mine Karawaga,” and suddenly, he found himself without words and surprisingly flustered as he looked at the cold stone shrine.
He found no names or similar things. Usually, there would be a sentence or the family name, but… there were only two carved beautifully carved flowers intertwined. The tips of his fingers ran through the drawings and the irregular stoned surface-
“It’s my family’s Sanctuary,” a deep voice said from behind.
“@#$%!” Mine almost cursed, but incomprehensive words came out instead.
A ghost?! No! It was his feeble friend with an incense stick in his hands.
Addai crouched in the front of the shrine and lit an incense, placing it on the burner next to the shrine. A flowery and sweet scent filled the air. Some could say it had musky dots or even acidic touches, but Mine only felt flowery and sweet, picturing which flower it could be… then, he felt a slight pressure on his back.
“I know you're curious to feel this place, so… go ahead,” Addai said, his hand pressed on Mine’s back and taking him closer. "They would be curious to meet you too," he took one of Mine's hands, placing it on the shrine, and Mine didn't protest a bit.
Mine looked at Addai – who was close to him – and looked back at the shrine.
Excuse me.
Sorrow, happiness, and nostalgia, that place and Addai's essence were intriguing. Mine couldn't touch the grass to feel its energies because it was too full of life, which would interfere with his searching, so his friend was a conductor, sorting the right energy he wanted to explore.
Soon, the thin veil appeared on Mine's back, and so did his glowing hair, but he was still himself, just dazing at the shrine and letting all the mana flow in him. But he wasn't only enjoying it because something in his friend intrigued him: an already recorded energy among all the essences he had seen.
His dazing turned into gazing, turning towards Addai's eyes, which were closed because he was focusing on his essence’s direction. He needed to dig deeper.
Among that specific energy, Mine reached a faint image of a boy wearing always dark, long-sleeved clothes. When the boy looked at him, he could feel slightly familiar with his smile despite the bruises on his face.
You... you'll come back, right?
"Ugh..." Mine felt a headache kick, which meant he couldn't explore further.
Breaking the hand-holding connection, the green-haired boy reached his friend's forehead with his index finger, touching a spot between his eyebrows. He whispered something foreign, redirecting all those energies back to their place and equalizing them before the headache progressed.
Do I… What was that…? Why do I feel nostalgic?
That boy... that sorrowful smile... that sentence... it felt oddly nostalgic...
"Are you ok?" Addai asked, looking at Mine.
"Y-yes,"' Mine shook the headache off. "It's beautiful, all of this. Thank you for letting me feel it," he smiled, and the veil vanished like the rest of his Chronos' features.
Oh… that view… the skin turning back to its usual tone, the eyes regaining that beautiful rose color, his fingers turning less cold and warmer, and that delicate veil turning into mana "ashes" falling on themselves (equalizing their mana exposition) …
Addai gazed at Mine and, for an instant, forgot how to talk, so he reached for a falling cherry blossom flower and placed it on Mine's hair.
“You’re beautiful,” Addai shyly said.
"That's gross," Mine grumbled, flustered. "Pfffff,” he then started laughing.
“What?” Addai asked, confused and tilting his head to the side.
“You… what do I do with you?” Mine chuckled. "Ah! Give me an incense to light,” and Addai handed him one.
He lit the incense, and his green hair faintly glowed, such as his eyes and fingertips. The moment he placed the incense on the burner, it made a bell noise, and a misty wind brewed both boys' bodies and nearby leaves.
Finishing his feeble ritual, he paid sincere respects to the shrine.
“I think I’ll reach them wherever they are,” Mine grinned happily. “I wished them serenity,” he smiled.
Once vivid, Addai's gaze slowly turned blue. Somehow, he was and wasn't there at the same time. It felt like his soul wandered somewhere else while the incense burned.
“Who liked this exquisite scent?” Mine asked with a smile on his face, and, fortunately, Addai hadn't wandered too far away.
“My grandmother did,” Addai smiled bashfully, memories flooding his mind. “She said she would plant a field of jasmines herself to smell it all day,” he chuckled, remembering his old granny saying it all smiley.
He also remembered her planting her first Jasmine bud, which died terribly due to caterpillars - even if she did her best to repel birds and those slow devils. But she didn't give up! She managed to keep a sole bud alive for a good amount of time, but it also died of dehydration.
Addai still seemed distant as he dazed the shrine.
Mine, contradicting his own nature, patiently waited for his friend to ponder everything he needed to.
Then, his friend muttered something almost inaudible, but it could be heard since he was close enough to do so.
“My grandmother liked the blossoms just as… my mother.”
Mine paused for a moment and fondly looked at Addai, "How… was she like?”
“Ah… she was amazing,” Addai faintly smiled. “She was the gentlest woman I’ve ever seen… the most caring and…” he started wiping something off his face, but it stubbornly kept disturbing his view. "I would die to see her again…”
In front of Mine, his friend was reduced to a lost child.
It was a shocking view.
He had never seen Addai cry. Well, Mine was sure he was the crybaby one, not Addai – seriously, he had no shame in crying a bit – and seeing his friend losing his dignity in those terrible sobs was… heartbreaking.
Deep inside, Mine felt bad because he touched a sensitive subject. He didn’t even imagine it was that… hurtful.
Mine didn't wait a second and tightly hugged Addai.
Someone could be a huge loss, especially if they wrote big and sweet chapters in someone's else book of life.
"She died... because of me…" Addai said mid-sobbing. “I was left alone… thrown in an orphanage because God dammit, it was the last place my father trusted before he died in front of me…"
Mine felt the heaviness of those sentences and how tense Addai's back became.
"All those years... trying to survive the frequent exorcising attempts… f-from all the mistreatment… only to know I-I’m a cursed child,” and that sentence was said with so much resentment Mine could sense his own hair tips turn black, reacting to Addai’s emotions.
Still, Mine had no words.
He had nothing to calm his friend's sorrow. It was... terrifyingly sad.
“God knows how much I prayed to leave with my parents, but…" Addai breathed, and Mine now knew what those scars on his friend's arms were from, suddenly feeling his body weight. "My bloodline is a tough mess. Who could guess I survived every single time?" he chuckled miserably, gripping Mine's shirt more. "Every time I remember her… I feel troubled… I-I’m sorry to behave this way… I’m truly sorry…”
Mine felt a knot in his throat, but he gathered enough strength to cup his friend’s soaked face and lift it.
“Don’t apologize! You… you’re not all those terrible things you told me…” Mine started, ignoring his own eyes swelling in tears. “You told me for me to go easy on myself… can I ask you the same?”
Addai fell silent for a few seconds before answering.
“My sins are far too wide for me to be that indulgent.”
“Share them with me,” Mine looked at Addai, his eyes conveying the same naiveness Addai saw in that boy from his dreams. “It’s ok if it hurts. Let it bleed. Let it hurt. Let yourself feel it, but please…" he wiped off some tears that insisted on rolling down his friend’s cheeks, “… don’t lose yourself in the sea of sorrow.”
“C-can you help me?” Addai took some air, and his chin trembled a little. “P-please?” he asked hopelessly, contrasting his usual behavior.
Cupping Addai's cheeks, Mine held his own tears and nodded.
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