Chapter 2

"She's doesn't do kids". The guy who had said that had been observing the other person looking at his mother for quite some time now, it was irritating. He originally wanted to plant a slap on the other's face but the other party had still not done anything too promiscuous to deserve that...just yet. If he did something like so then he was sure to beat him to pulp. So like a predator seeking it's prey, he stood there by the door watching every move that the other person made.

The person on the receiving end of the harsh words was a bit taken aback for a moment or two. He had never done nor thought of things like that in his short little life and had also never received such comments from absolute strangers. He had thought that was something only limited to his home and his father but now he understood, a little, that what he had thought ,wasn't really the case,people were all the same,everywhere. The comment echoed in his ears, like burning hot iron being pierced through his bones, to others it might not have been a big deal but Hiroshi was a special case from the very beginning of his life. He didn't like the tone in which the comment was made,more over he didn't like people at all. He really wanted to say "I don't do old people too" but he couldn't not only because of his speech disorder but that would kind of make him disrespect the woman standing in front of her. Hiroshi's mother had taught him one thing over and over maybe due to her own tragic life filled with disrespect and that was to respect woman, so keeping that in mind he stopped himself from making the embarrassing statement, instead he decided to ignore the guy standing by the door, all together. He just took the key and made haste, up the stairs to find the room that he had booked. He was indeed tired and wanted to sleep and did not have any energy to argue with a complete stranger when his own life and living conditions for the next day were not certain in the least. Turning the key in the lock he entered the small room, it smelled a bit musty but it was bearable,more so, it was livable and that was already more then he could ask for. The walls of the room were painted off white,there was a small bed which seemed to be quite clean with new bedsheets and all. There were two windows side by side,facing towards the street and also a small cupboard like thing but it wasn't really a cupboard. His eyes then fell on the two plug points which reminded him to charge his phone. He took out the charger from his bag and balanced his phone on top of the charger since both of the plug points were pretty far from the bed, this was all he could do, after doing so, without taking a shower he lay down on the bed with his eyes closed. He was thinking about taking a shower but his thoughts didn't correspond with his actions and he immediately fell asleep, that was it, that was the end of the day for him but on the other side of his room, the night was young.

The then empty front desk was now buzzing with people, booking rooms. Drunkards, rich haggards, police officers, who had just got off of work, young brats that were looking for fun for a night, all had crowded the streets. The lust motel was the most renowned one of the motels here, much more popular then the five star hotels of the area, after all the hotels did not provide these sinners a place to hide their sins and feed there lust as the employees of the brightly lit motel did.

"Bloody coward", kenji, mumbled under his breath. He had been in a bad mood since the very beginning of his shift and on top of his raging temper, he kept on calling someone, a coward. Kenji's classmate who was also a bar tender at the lust motel couldn't really understand what had happened. "Was he calling himself a coward or me?", Ren thought to himself as he kept on glancing at his not so happy looking acquaintance. By the end of an hour, he couldn't take the constant repeatition of the word 'coward' from the lips of kenji anymore, and blurted out "Who is the damn coward, here, huh?!!". Kenji obviously didn't bother to reply and looking at his extremely irritated expression Ren didn't bother to ask a second time. Subconsciously kenji cursed the boy for the 100th time, who first ever so coquettishly looked at his mother for over a total of 15 minutes. Yes, after noticing the boys strange behavior,he had timed the exact duration of his stare and then when he was confronted, he avoided him, like he was some diseased pest, well that brat how dare he ,he thought of how he would always remember this incident and the face of that weirdo but after working his whole shift through, he slowly began to forget the entire incident in itself, being the partial owner of the bar simply by being his mother's son kenji used to take shifts according to his own desire, he mostly took the evening shift in accordance with his school hours, he was quite a bright student though he didn't needed to be so but fate was always a bit partial in it's dealings with humans. As the dawn started to haze out the night's darkness, the Dragon street night slowly entered it's state of slumber, the brightness of artificial light's faded into the oblivion as the sun took control, raising it's head above all to announce the beginning of the day. Kenji walked in his state of utter drowsiness to the world outside and somehow walked to his apartment which was a few blocks away from the motel, this memory of him reaching his apartment would always be a big blur in his head. He didn't know, if he used to crawl or sleep walk his way back to the apartment but he always reached there intact so he never put much thought into such a trivial matter. After his daily dose of mysterious amnesia, he meticulously used to take a shower and drop dead on his bed and sleep for an hour or so before deciding to turn up late at his school but today was different it was a pleasant Saturday morning, so there was no school, hence he could sleep all he wanted without thinking of his dutiful late schedule of reaching his destination. The morning trance was always a pleasant time for kenji, he liked to take in the cool breeze before it turned humid by the exasperated rays of the sun, after getting enough rest for the day he was used to making his own breakfast, which would mostly be a piece of toast and eggs and a glass of orange juice. Today he did things a bit differently though,he sat down with his food on the sofa instead of the massive dining table of the living room . The sofa was placed in a perfect spot,kenji had decided it's position himself,it had a clear view of the open balcony without being to close to it, so as to let other people notice him from outside, as he observed the phenomenon of the change in weather from a briefly pleasant sunny day to a clouded morning that carried a little bit of it's melancholic sadness along with itself,he started feeling euphoric for some reason,unknown. The sky looked as if it was overwhelmed, like it was on the verge of tears but was holding back, so much that the darkness inside it grew and grew until the point it couldn't take it anymore and burst into a raging thunderstorm wrecking everyone around and itself by it's constant howl of pain but kenji was not scared of thunderstorms, he very much adored the rain, the cool drops of it brought him peace, as if it were sharing it's pain with him, he wanted to somewhat caresse it with his hands, if only it had a tangible form but that wasn't the case, so he slowly walked out to the balcony and let the rain pour it's heart out to him, all the time remaining unphased by it's strikes of thunders and howling winds, he really wasn't scared of thunderstorms what he was scared of was silence and people. Nasty people, corrupt people, people that were much worse than wild beasts, the ones that had hurt his mother, the ones that were responsible for turning his mother to a beast herself, the ones that made her hate herself so much that she locked herself in a jail of her own design. She always had the key but she never wanted to leave the jail in the first place, it was her penance, her way of paying of her debts to the unending list of sins she had committed. She always used to tell her son, ever so confidently that by doing so she was only hurting herself and no one else, all the while committing the biggest sin of her life of captivating her own blood,her most prized possession, in this bizarre network of complexities that had nothing to do with him in the first place, at the end of the day it wasn't his decision to be born into this world and it also wasn't his decision to be born to her. After being completely drenched, when the rain still didn't show any signs, to halt, kenji decided to go inside and keep it company with his silence, after changing into some fresh clothes, he again sat down on the sofa and picked up a book, he undeniably felt a lot peaceful like this, as if all his worries were being washed away at a steady pace. He took a sip of his orange juice, then plugged in his earphones started a random song on his playlist, as it echoed in his ears, he liked the song, he slowly started humming it to himself, as it neared it's ending.

🎼I'm burning home

I'll burn alone

And everything I should have been

Would be gone.... ( Song:- Flamed by Waterbased, I advise you to read this chapter with the song, if you wish to do so, of course, haha!)

On the other hand, Hiroshi had already started his day with an unhealthy dose of overthinking. His sleep wasn't that good as well, it was as if he was in a daze but was fully aware of his surroundings. He woke up, startled multiple times, cold sweat dripping down his forehead, after repeating the vicious cycle for more than twenty times, he finally decided that he didn't want to sleep anymore. It was 7 o'clock in the morning, as he checked it on his phone. There was a text message from his father to call him at 10 o'clock sharp. This strange message from his father who had never cared about his son's life or death, had suddenly ignited a sort of unknown hope in his heart. Hiroshi thought to himself, maybe his father wasn't that of a bad person, maybe he would take him back. He really wanted to go back, he was in a daze yesterday but the happenings of the motel were very clear to him, the world was not as pleasant a place as he had thought and if it was like this then he'd rather be abused by his father his entire life then be out in this vicious world to be abused by every other person, who could see through his weaknesses and need for money. He really wanted to go back it didn't matter if his father actually killed him that would be a good escape as well though. Hiroshi just sat on his bed constantly checking his phone, to check if it was 10 o'clock yet or not but finally when the clock struck 10 and he called his father, his hopes of retreat were shattered. The man had not texted him to bring him back but he had texted him to shut him off completely. He told Hiroshi in his usual unbothered casual tone of voice to never show his face or open his mouth about him being his son, he explained to him, in details the consequences he would face if he tried to go against him. As to shut him off completely but to still keep him somewhat dependant, so he would not get any chance of rebellion, he told his son that he would take care of his education and living expenses until his college and after that he would not have anything to do with him ever again, he also informed him about his change of school for it would be troublesome if they were to call his guardian in his current school. His father had almost overlooked an important detail that he had signed as his father in his application form at the time of his admission but he didn't want to keep up with this major mistake of his, so a new school was preferable were Hiroshi would be registered as an orphan, being backed of by his father's company all in the name of charity that would completely free the man of his ties with this useless little son of his. It was a well thought out plan that had already begun it's execution, accordingly devised for the utmost benefit of Mr. Tanaka. After the call Hiroshi gritted his teeth, gnawing them against each other. He wanted to laugh at his own helplessness but he could not do so anymore. He could neither cry nor laugh, life had taken the final bout of revenge from him and he was also done with it as well. He had exhausted all of his emotions, not even one of them was with him anymore, happiness was the first one to leave him stranded, then one by one, love, excitement, all of them had left him, today even sadness had left him to die alone, the only ones that had remained were a little bit of hope that remained and the pangs of absolute anxiety and panic and he didn't know whether to be grateful for or not. He lay on the bed motionless for a while, letting life devour him, until it was satisfied. He could choose death but he was still a bit afraid of it. That day he decided that he would die as soon as he conquered this fear of his but compared to his decision,he was calm about it, for a fraction of a second, he felt like he had lived through this then the next moment he felt fear again, creepily crawling up his spine but right then his phone vibrated again with a text message from his father giving him the details of his new school and the address of the apartment in which he was going to stay from now on. Hiroshi stared at the text for a while, then kept his phone on his right side and fell asleep on the floor of the motel room. At around 10 o'clock, when he woke up, panting like a beaten street dog, who had for the first time faced humans, lacking humanity. His memories seemed a bit hazy, all the happenings of the previous day seemed to be too hasty, as if all logic and reason had left his mind, he sat up on the floor, thinking again, he glanced at the phone to check the time, it was 10 o'clock, he called his father.