[BL]Sounds of the Heart (Abandoned)

Chapter 1: Guide and Escape

I can hear.

Lily stifles his burgeoning cries, rubbing away his pitiful tears.

[Host? Host are you in pain?] Came a white washed voice, a clear smooth high note. Curious.

He jumped, looking away. "Hello?" He asks, emerald starry orbs scanning the room.

[Is host alright? You are crying?] Despite the concerned question it's still that monotone white.

It interests him enough to answer back. "I'm fine. Thank you for your concern." It's polite like always. His body aches and chest burns but it's something he's used to.

The voice is quiet for a while. [I am system 0, your guide.]

Lily listens attentively. He has read a few book, suggested by his fans, that have a system setting in them helping the protagonist to their goals. "My guide?"

[You were not supposed to die. Bái Wēi is an anomaly in that world. He should not have been there and you two should have never met in that lifetime.]

He squinted his eyes, turning over the words in his head. "He came from another world didn't he?" He says, certain of his claim. If so, it would explain multiple inconsistencies he noticed about him. Especially his changing colors and song.

[Yes. He's from this world.]

Lily flinched then calmed down. He hadn't expected that. "Okay. What do you mean by 'never should have met in that lifetime'? He jumped the gun?"

Again System 0 fell silent. [Smart. I like you.] A smile curls the corners of his lips at the words. [Yes, he jumped the gun as you say. As a intruder in that world he was under heavy restrictions and could not easily befriend you or should have. You ignored the warnings the world gave you and persisted regardless.]

He froze. The sudden unease when they met that never faded and the loud sirens blaring whenever Bái Wēi got close. "The unease and loud sirens." He morosely regrets, wishing he had listened.

[The world is prohibited from directly communicating but it has its ways.]

He says nothing. He had been ignoring the signs. He wants to beat himself up.

[The goddess Lore is the one who blessed you at birth and the one who brought your soul here after you were killed. As well as given you gifts to protect yourself. She wishes for you to live a long happy life.]

"What was my fate had Bái Wēi not interfered?"

[You would have grown old and happy, traveling the world to find new music and eat. Having two younger sisters you would spoil and care for. Fall in love and get married to your soulmate.]

That gives Lily pause, eyes misted over in grief and despair. "I lost ...a fair bit because of that psycho." He sneers bitterly. "How are my parents now? In my old life?"

[...] System 0 pauses, observing its host before noticing movement on its sensors. [No time now. You must run. I will be actively cloaking your presence to keep you from being discovered. Please follow the path I provided.] A map appears in his brain.

Lily wants to question System 0 over the pause but stops and follows its instructions, stopping to snatch a deep green robe from the floor and putting it on messily before running. It aggravates his body but he ignores it. Behind him he can hear a fast paced tempo filled with urgency and dread, slipping around the corner as it stops in front of the room he left. The tempo freezes.

Then suddenly crescendo violently and he blocks both his ears, the sudden rise nearly knocking him off his feet. Still, he keeps moving through elaborate and regal looking halls, ducking into tiny alcoves when that tempo came to close, heart pounding.

It's during the fifth time it happens that he asks in his mind, 'who is chasing him?' He remembers that the protagonist and system can communicate through their minds so it should work for him.

[Bái Wēi.] He's unable to feel smug over his idea being right, the answer ruining it.

Lily nearly choked on his tongue, heart skipping in horror as he sways. "What." He states calmly, not at all reflecting his inner state of fear, rage and a mishmash of horror.

[Move.] System 0 huffs and he notices the tempo fading away, bolting with suspiciously weak legs. He moves with a new urgency, knowing who is chasing him far more terrifying than not.

'What! Why am I here if he is here?' He hisses vehemently, darting through what looks like a kitchen before noticing the open window. The path leads to it and he jumps out without hesitation, hitting the ground feet first and with a soft thud as he finally reaches the outside.

[Once he killed you, he returned here and sought out others who reminded him of you. He would treat them kindly however the moment they fell in love he would kill them. That is what happened to this body. His name is Bǎihé, a commoner who acted similar to you that Bái Wēi kidnapped. Ironically, Bǎihé is the intended body Goddess Lore prepared for you, however when Bái Wēi killed you it jarred the timeline and he appeared too earlier.]

"Damn psycho," he curses quietly, simply following the map as it leads him further and further from that violent tempo. "He kills them when they fall in love, huh." Lily breathes out annoyed, "annoying. How can he treat others so cruelly. If he didn't love them he shouldn't have led them on."

[You are angry?] System 0 asks, white wavering around the edges and Lily nearly trips distracted by it. Oof he needs to pay more attention to the roots at his feet.

'Of course I am! Love is precious. It is not a game and that psycho even claims he loves me. Haha! He doesn't know the first thing about love.' He puts down that psycho viciously, 'Bǎihé and the other victims of that bastard are innocent. He treated them kindly from the beginning and I bet he slept with them as well. So it is obvious they'll think he cares deeply about them. Truly eye opening that psycho is, killing them off the moment they feel a reasonable emotion. How digusting.'

System 0 listens to its host spit vitriol and silently lights rows of candles for Bái Wēi, hoping he stays far from his host or he might suffer worse than a broken heart.

[You can rest here it's safe.] It interrupts its host increasingly violent thoughts, taking back the map as its host just flops over, a messy but beautiful picture. It wonders if its host had noticed the cosmetic changes.

Doubtful. Host is surprisingly obtuse.

Lily rolls in the grass, sucking in needy gasps of air for a moment before closing his mouth and breathing through his nose. Tremors wreck his body, muscle acid burning his legs and lungs shuttering in his chest. But despite that a shaky grin is on his face, delight making starry emerald eyes glitter brilliantly as he chokes back a sob.

[Host?]

"Lily." He lays on the grass letting the forest sing to his, lids fluttering as he basks in his freedom. "Sorry. Sorry. I... finally escaped." He says it so softly as if afraid Bái Wēi would suddenly appear and drag him back. When nothing happens he laughs loudly, the sound choking off into heavy sobs as he curls into a ball, all the emotions he felt when he woke up crashing down. "I'm free." He sobs, "but what do I have? My family is worlds away, that psycho is hunting me, and I don't know what to do. Why is this so painful?"

[I do not know. You are also like Bǎihé and the others. A victim.]