The Omega is a Novelist

Chapter Three

"Hideaki Oshiro, accountant." The small white card continued to state the name of the company and his business contact number. On the reverse, a personal phone number had been added by hand.

"I thought Hideaki had been studying to become a lawyer," Yori murmured to himself before he dropped the card onto the coffee table.

After the coincidental meeting, Yori had returned home, his planned visit to Keko's cafe all but forgotten. It had been a long time since the last reminder of his unhappy past. Even the first two novels, written based on experiences within his childhood, now seemed to him as if they were completely fictional pieces with no link to anything but his imagination. His parents were strangers, his sister more so, as he failed to even recall her face. Thinking of his brother had always enveloped him in a warmth, though he'd never known why and it was also his brother who had helped him escape that life. However meeting him now elicited mixed emotions.

He sighed and stretched out on his sofa. He'd been a ghost stuck in a physical body, an unloved, unwanted shadow lurking within the cold light of that family. It had taken a long time before he'd been able to trust Uncle Himura, let alone return the affection of the old man, who treated him as another grandchild within his brood. Nay, perhaps better. In his own words, his grandchildren were as spoilt and petulant as their parents had raised them to be, though he had hopes for one or two. Yori vaguely wondered if his new editor, Tatsuya numbered amongst the hopeful.

Almost three years after Yori had left that house, his first book Beta Friend, had been published and by some miracle became an eventual top-seller, though that had occurred after the publication of his third book. It was based on the relationship he had in elementary school. Generally, as an Omega, he had been shunned. If there were any other Omega in the school, he never met them or heard about them. Most likely they, if they existed, had kept their gender secret. However, despite the isolation, there had been one girl, who had insisted on talking to him and in doing so, had ushered away the dark feelings of loneliness he hadn't realised he'd been experiencing. Looking back, he believed it was most likely that she had just loved the sound of her own voice, a little chatterbox, she used to ramble on about everything and anything and nothing all at the same time. Yori, having already learnt to remain silent, allowed her to talk endlessly, without interruption for as long as she desired. Whilst it may not have been a true or deep friendship, when her family had relocated during the final year of elementary school, he felt the loss immensely. The book had been a sort of thank you to her, for keeping him company, for not treating him as abnormal or dirty. She was the first to show him that there was more to life than the isolation of his bedroom.

The other was Tomo, the servant, who his parents had hired to bring him food and clean his room. They never spoke much to each other in the beginning, possibly in part to his parents manipulations and in part due to Yori's introverted nature. But then Tomo had collapsed during a bout of illness. The young man had begged Yori to keep his condition quiet; he was the breadwinner of his house, his mother was an Omega like Yori and struggled to find work. When he did not show up for work the next day, Yori had become worried, though hunger swept away any concern he had for the servant and when everyone slept, he had crept out of his room to seek out something to eat from the kitchens. His father had caught him, having had returned home late for reasons unknown and had beaten him badly before locking him in his room. Tomo had returned a day later, asking for forgiveness as he helped clean Yori's wounds.

Tomo would talk a little more openly after that, even if it was just to talk about the weather or the books that Yori had snuck out of the library while his parents were at work. It was from Tomo that he discovered things about his brother and his sister. But Tomo's illnesses would lead to difficulties in his own health. He resorted to hiding bottles of water and bits of food in his room and only once did he risk a second beating to steal from the kitchen. Fortunately, nothing came of that excursion, but his body was weakening and it became to tiresome to leave his room, even to gather up the books and scribbles he'd left in the library before Tomo's last sickness, which just happened to lead to his final escape. He often wondered what had happened to the servant and now he supposed he could ask Hideaki, but did he really wish to open that door to the past once more?