Feel, Listen, Hear 🎶 RoChu Short Story

🎶World Conference🎶

Before you begin, here are a few warnings.

>Temporary Blindness
> Minor Cussing
> RoChu

Yao frowned as his gaze swept over the representations sitting at the large table around him.  Arthur continued to drone about the basic worldly conflicts, which were nothing new to anyone in the room. The meeting was boring, and nothing new seemed to be happening around the world.

Looking back down at his paper, Yao's frown deepened when he realized that the words were slightly blurred.

He rubbed his eyes quickly, and sighed when he still found the letters to be mixed together in one blur of black and white.

Kiku, who sat to his right, seemed to notice Yao's dilemma and gently rested a hand on his 'older brother's' shoulder.

"Yao, are you alright?" He asked softly, to which Yao responded with a small nod. He motioned to his eyes, and Kiku blinked sadly in understanding.

The pollution in China was no joke; nor was it something to be trifled with. People wore masks for a reason, as the smoke and other pollutants could cause serious health damage to those who weren't careful.

Still, the people of China found themselves getting sick more often than usual. And though it wasn't the entire country, nor was the country going to collapse because of this, Yao still had to deal with the effects of the pollution on his people.

Whether this meant a coughing fit here and there, or a small fever another time, Yao had seen it all. Since breathing in pollution in the long-term also caused heart disease and cancers, Yao also felt the effects of that as well.

While he would never contract a fatal disease as such and have to go through the full velocity of it, Yao clear as day could feel symptoms similar to what his people went through.

So some days, this may mean having high blood pressure. On his unlucky days, Yao's vision would get out of whack and go completely blurry. This could be derived from the high blood pressure, and also from plain exposure to the smoke.

Whatever the case, Yao made sure to keep it a secret from all of the countries. He feared that if they ever were to find out about his issues, they would cast Yao out. Treat him like a child. Or worse, shut down his industries.

Which, they all knew would be a completely stupid idea; China's industries were what made the world go 'round. China was close to beating even America in economical makings.

None of the countries had found out, that is, except for Kiku.

Yao trusted Kiku to keep his secret. So on particularly bad days, Kiku may spend an evening at Yao's home to keep an eye on him. Yao was grateful, but had always wished that Kiku would let him take care of himself.

He'd lived for 4,600 years and counting for crying-out-loud. He'd made it through scorching summers, freezing winters, wars, and plagues. He could make it through a bit of pollution.

Yao sighed, looking down at his watch. Holding it a bit closer to his face than normal so he could read the bright red numbers, he exhaled in relief as he realized the meeting would be over soon enough.

He had a flight back to China early the next morning. Since this meeting was being held in London, he'd have a long flight back to his own home.

So when the meeting concluded, Yao quickly stood and followed the dispersing nations out the door. He made his way outside, using his limited English to call a taxi and tell them the name of his hotel.

The drive was silent, and Yao watched as other cars and building with flashing signs flew by out the window. Despite it being nighttime and probably close to 10:00 p.m., the sidewalks lit with the bright lampposts were filled with bustling people. It was the weekend after all.