from august to december

chapter eight

while it was still violently raining against the big windows of the company and the raindrops flowed down on the glass, matio waited in his own office for his partner.

two coffee paper cups stood on the desk, their steam rising to the ceiling, the brown haired man just watched them silently as he mentally prepared himself to tell shino what he had seen last night.

he gaze wandered around the minimalistic office, here and there some lost papers were laying around, but he had no signs of any decorations in the room, no pictures of his family, and no personal belongings in any drawer.

while he was still trying to find the right words and staring at the steam of the coffee cups he freshly made, a soft knock could be heard on the door.

matio quickly adjusted his seating position and walked over to the large door, his cold hand pressing down the handle.

a worried and messy shino stood in front of him, but he wasn't alone, there was a tall dark haired guy behind him, covering his face in his hands.

park gave his assistant a soft smile before turning his head to his accomplice.

"that's yuri himato, an old friend of mine. he knows what's going on and he's staying here for a few days. don't mind him," he explained quickly while matio already opened the door for both of them to come inside.

the three men walked inside, but the assistant quickly noticed that he hadn't made coffee for yuri.

"excuse me, i didn't know shino would bring someone, do you want some coffee?"

the man shook his head gently before looking up to matio so that he could finally see his face.

his eyes were red, probably from crying and he had a dead expression on his white face.

"i don't like coffee anyway, don't worry," yuri reassured but didn't even try to smile, the effort was too big for him at the moment, so shino placed his hand on his back, stroking it.

matio simply nodded and plopped back down onto the office chair.

he cleared his throat while watching him comfort his friend, suddenly he felt nostalgic and wanted to be cared for just like this.

but he pushed those thoughts away as quickly as they surfaced, now wasn't the time.

and nobody could notice he wasn't that blankly shaped after all.

"so, basically i wanted to talk about eden," the assistant began speaking to get the attention of the two, which he succeeded in, immediately their two black eyes were on him, waiting for him to continue.

"sometimes, i work as a bartender at night to get some extra cash, it was a job i did when i was younger and never really stopped, i like the people where i work," he said while shrugging his shoulders.

yuri already could tell which way this was going to go, and so was shino, they locked eyes for a split second before looking back at matio.

"and so i did that last night again, when suddenly eden walked in, looking somewhat lost and like he was in outer space."

the dark haired assistant gesticulated wildly while trying to explain the look on the face of eden that night, how he couldn't tell at all what he was feeling and like actually, he looked like he didn't feel anything at all.

"his face just looked so incredibly empty and flat, it doesn't look like that usually."

the other two stayed silent.

"i tried to get his order about three times, and he still didn't answer, but suddenly walked over to this empty table and started talking to himself the entire time."

both shino's and yuri's gazes softened at the words, they knew what was about to follow.

shino took a sip out of his paper cup, trying to stay focused on matio but losing himself in his thoughts all the time.

"do you know who he thought he was talking to?" yuri asked with a hopeful expression on his face, but the assistant shook his head slowly.

and so, there was silence.
a silence so thick and sad, it could've never been broken, not by any word that could be said.

even when shino tried to smile, like he always did, it didn't do anything for the broken atmosphere in the air.

all of the three were worried about eden, but nobody knew what to do.

"you know, back then when my mother passed away, we tried about everything with my brother. showing him her grave, sending him to therapy, medication and even tried supporting him."

matio finally spoke up after minutes of no sounds, because he had an idea.

it wasn't at all like him to talk that much, to try to offer emotional support in a way.

"i think, sometimes it's only possible to be healed by a person that you love, only they can make you realize certain things."

park looked at him in confusion.

"if you love someone, while not loving yourself, that person helps you to accept yourself, they make you feel warm and bubbly on the inside, and they also help you find out what it is that truly is inside of you."

nobody said anything, because the two friends didn't know what he was talking about.

"of course, eden needs to find this out on his own, but only someone he loves can help him realize, maybe it just takes a gentle push in the right direction by the right person."

yuri let out a heavy breath.

"how can someone that he loves help him but you couldn't help your own family?" he argued back, he thought the words of the other were empty.

but the assistant just smiled at him softly.

"my brother ran away to the girl that made him realize our mother was dead. because he loved her, he had no choice but believe everything she said."

"so you're basically saying we should take advantage of him becoming dependent on somebody else?"

shino looked at both of them, not quite knowing how to intervene.

"no, what i'm saying is if there's a person that's capable of healing him, we shouldn't throw that opportunity to waste."

"and if the person doesn't love him back and his emotional stability becomes dependant on them, how can he ever recover?"

matio sighed.

"you fix them during the process, and even if they get hurt after, they'll be fine, because you made them be."

while yuri wasn't sold on matio's words at all, shino placed the paper cup back onto the desk with a loud thud, making the other two break their intense stare and looking at him instead.

both of them were pretty deep and strong personalities, not afraid to speak their mind when necessary.

"is there anything we have to lose? he's at his worst now, it can only be good for him."

yuri placed his elbows on his knees and rested his head on his hands, closing his eyes.
he was slightly annoyed.

"who can even get that close to him?"

and both of them just looked at him, not giving him an answer with words, but with just a simple look.