TABERU ─ Fushiguro M.

75 | Garden

"Come on, Kimoto." He says with a scoff, "You watched me get beaten down to the ground. You got so used to seeing me all bloody and wounded that i'm sure a few corpses wouldn't you ."

Asato gulps.

"Sei, this is different. You're still alive- these people.. They're not even breathing anymore!"

Seikatsu keeps his crimson eyes on Asato as he took a step forward. This makes the nervous boy back away.

The eldest Hoshino then starts, "So you're fine seeing someone get tortured but you wouldn't want them dead? What kind of sick freak are you..?"

"Ah, i expected this anyway."

Asato grits his teeth before reaching his hand to grab Seikatsu's collar. The boy with dark hair doesn't drop his unscathed katana- even if he were to face danger head on, Asato's never afraid.

"Expected?" Asato raises his voice, violently shaking the boy, "Expected?! Sei, you better stop playing around! Of course i wouldn't like people getting killed or tortured!"

Seikatsu huffs, watching his friend breathing heavily. The tight hold he has on Seikatsu is enough to tell that Asato's furious.

"Then why was I the exception? You and Haru spent those three years wearing blindfolds in the dojo, so wasn't my screams enough? God! What you animals would do for the fucking MONEY!"

Taken aback by his outburst, the boy with white hair loosens his grip. Seikatsu took this as a chance to swing his fist at him—it didn't matter which arm since he learned how to use both in a fight.

Asato doesn't fight back, enduring the pain that shot through his whole face. His nose started to feel runny, yet the punch he received on the face isn't as painful as what he had inflicted on Seikatsu.

"What were we supposed to do..?" Asato looks away, rubbing his reddening cheek, "Haru's mom and my parents needed the cash.. It's either sell us or become your personal bodyguards.."

"You could've earned a lot more without needing to hurt me in the process." Seikatsu says, brows furrowed. He emphasizes, making sure Asato knows.

He's not the one to make friends. All he had is Haru, whom he sees as a little sister, and his parents who work under the Hoshino Clan. A child like Asato would eventually be familiar with the members of the clan that he's serving.

He'd know everything—the busiest and quietest parts of the house, the rooms he shouldn't be going to, and then the treatment Seikatsu gets from his family.

Asato would look at the boy across the hall, starry-eyed. He would watch as the young heir, who's also his age, run around the green and beautiful garden with his father. Both are smiling and it's the happiest that Asato saw them- was it because the heir's twelfth birthday is near?

How exciting!

The moment Seikatsu turned twelve, the flowers have never been taken care of. Not a single drop of water, one of the few things it needed, was given. Too bad it was spring.

Like his life, everything began to fade and wilt.

"I'm.. I'm sorry, Sei."

Asato forces himself to look at the boy despite his stomach churning with disgust. Is it because of himself? Or Seikatsu's crime?