Subclinical Manifestation

14

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the eyes (1,2)

(1) a pair of globular organs in the head through which people see; (2) used to refer to someone's opinion or attitude toward something

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Sasuke found himself working on Kakashi's research and only when his stomach grumbled out of hunger did he finally realize it was already nine and Hinata hadn't come home. What could possibly the two cousins have to be talked about until this late? He glanced at his phone and no message had arrived since he replied to Neji's text in the afternoon. He had just eased his feet off his shoes when his phone vibrated.

Did something happen?

Lifting an eyebrow, he immediately replied.

What did?

He pocketed back his phone and had a quick scan to the living room, feeling eerily alone inside the apartment. Briefly he wondered was this what Hinata had been feeling back then almost a year ago.

And something... something about their apartment was off. The very same thing he had tried to pinpoint from the previous day but to no avail.

After he took a shower, there was still no reply from Neji. Having no better thing to do he started searching through files on his laptop to have something to work on. And sure did, the file named "For Kakashi's Money" had him stop scrolling down. Reluctantly he opened the file.

And after reading a lot of references, typing a lot of sentences, then proofreading everything for hours, he stood grimly, turning around then sauntered toward the fridge, hoping to find something to eat. In all his lackluster trip toward the fridge, he managed to knock over the bin and spilled all of its content, which fortunately the one with the dry waste. Sighing (and cursing) he crouched down and began collecting all the waste and briefly caught the sight of another bin, the one supposed to have the wet waste, and found it to be practically vacant.

He felt relieved somehow. If it were that bin that he knocked over...it wouldn't make any difference anyways. He mentally thanked his schedule for making him unable to come home the past few days but found his logic to be illogical because there was Hinata still. She should have cooked something, or eaten something, or whatever that affiliated with wet waste.

So, this was weird. He narrowed his eyes and a mauve tinted glass bottle on the tiled floor caught his attention. It was a perfume bottle. He turned the bottle on his hand to look at the writings on the back, instantly recalled Hinata had thrown away the bottle on Sunday before their movie date. It read Midnight Rose.

Rose.

Then, suddenly it clicked. And all thought about food was left forgotten.

Something was definitely off.

Instead of the usual rosy citrus he had been smelling in everything inside of his apartment, it was cheap striking citrus for the past days. Because definitely the very person holding that rosy scent wasn't around for the past days.

He was an idiot.

It occurred to him then, all the riddle he had been personally having about the scent of his apartment, turned out the answer wasn't simply because they had always bought everything citrus. It was the scent of Hinata he had been smelling all along.

This apartment was theirs. Without her scent around, it wasn't the same. And it struck him hard that it was Hinata that had made this very apartment was as good as home to him.