An alternate universe

Ch-14

Tsetseg

I silently walked up the stairs, looking at the greying walls. The paint was peeling off.
Like my disguise.

Disguise of strength, of smile that I had plastered for Shio, of hapiness.

The wind had picked up, bringing with itself slight drops of rain, fanning me across my face, my clothes.

There were still many staircase left to be climbed.

I didn't know the drop that flowed down my cheek was rain or the anguish inside that had channelled in tears.

I had to stop and squint down at my feet, the tears made stairs look smudged and the lights melted in my vision blurred, it looked like a painting,
Worked on with joy and then smeared with dirt.

A completely fine work lost.

Reaching in my apartment, I stood inside the dark for a while.

Ryu Shi-oh had wanted to kill mother, his intentions were direct with no ounce of remorse.
Was it that easy for him to kill people?
Was he beginning to show who he truly was?

Why just why?

I had felt bad for him, for his misfortunes, for everything bad that had happened to him.

I had wanted friendship, to trust him, to understand him.
People had been biased about him, I wanted to see for myself and from my own experiences who he really was rather than believing in rumours blindly.

He hadn't felt like a person who would go around murdering people.

I can definitely sense people, his eyes are not empty and sockets of void like that of a killers but brimming with suppressed emotions.

Were all my judgements wrong?
Was I blinded by my own bias of being non biased and missed important clues?

Did he knew? Who I was? Was he playing around?

I sat down on the chair for a while, drinking a cool glass of water, my own suppressed anger and remorse felt like a noose tightening around my neck.

My phone showed two missed calls, one from mother and other from Ryu Shi-oh.

The urge to chuck the phone away almost won but alas I had to come back to my senses.

'why didn't you pick up my call?' she said worried.

I had to clear my throat multiple times.
'I just arrived' I said composing my voice, draining it from all emotions.
She would fly here if she got to know I cried.

'what was that about? The table and you meddling in my conversation?'
She asked, firing up.

This made me furious, she had started it, what was even the need? She had riled him and deliberately done that to extract that out of him.
There was no denying the pain in his eyes.

'you should've stuck to the talks of investment, he will be hostile now mom! You need to be careful, he said he wants you dead!'
I said exasperated, almost on the verge of tears.

I wished the meeting had never happened, I wished she had not riled him, I wanted everything to go back to normal, like how it was.

'Dont worry Namsoon, I did it to provoke him, he can't hurt me, I have things already in motion.'

What was even the need? My mind screamed in anguish.

'Mother, he's human too, raised by Pavel yes, it was not his choice, you should have been more careful, I don't want you to talk to anyone like that. There is fine line between confidence and arrogance'
My voice was calm but it was laced with dead anger.