The Tainted Hypocrite Man

Ryuu woke up from the constant thuds of the floor. Someone was running around all this time. As he raised his half body on his bed, the sapphire blue eyes widened meeting the same reaction of the lad on his bed. Arlert screamed a little and Ryuu facepalmed himself. The blonde lad hurried inside the bathroom.

"Why are you running around naked? This isn't just your room!" shouted Ryuu. With a few shades of pink on his cheek, he sighed a horrible one. The blonde did not close the door of the bathroom.

"I'm sorry! I was in a hurry! I forgot I have an early service today," Arlert wailed, echoed in the bathroom. He stepped out of the lavatory wearing the usual Servers uniform. However, the blonde locks were holding a headband with a pair of long cotton pink ears attached to it. He watched his roommate fixed his necktie in front of the bedside table, then put the headband on his head.

"What's that?" emphasized Ryuu. Arlert gazed down at him, he giggled and played with the cotton ear on his head,

"Do I look cute with this? It's so cute, right?" elated the blonde boy. Ryuu's thin lips were stuck, as if they were glued. He looked upfront. He did not want to demoralize the cheerful lad or some sort, although that was not what he meant from his question. He did not even want to acknowledge the boy's self-proclamation. They were males and in legal age of 18. It was not normal to call a young adult man cute. Yet, the man who gave him a book was equal to the likeness of a beautiful person. Ryuu diverted his attention at his roommate who was busy fixing his hair, smearing a small amount of gel on it while facing the wall mirror. Oval shape face, pointed nose, thin naturally pinkish lips, sapphire blue eyes, golden hair, white skin-

His preoccupation halted as the owner of those thoughts chortled and moved closer to his face, big eyes were only millimeters apart. The air around them paused. Ryuu skipped a beat of his heart as warm air came out from the other's mouth in front of him, his open hand raised in the air reaching the boy's head as he smacked him down the floor. "What are you doing?!" a yell came outside the room.

Arlert bawled out, touching his swollen cheek. "You idiot, I'm gonna attend to a client!" Arlert gasped as his eyes laid on the headband on the floor. Ryuu gulped. He did it impulsively. The blonde locks slowly picked up the headband, the artificial ear attached to it dropped.

"Ryuu! You broke the bunny ear!" His cheeks colored like a tomato.

The silence loitered around the room. The sound of a page flipped next. It had a smell of dried wood and the autumn leaves. Ryuu was already in his Servers uniform. His service for today was unannounced and for the meantime, he resumed from reading the book where he left off. Sitting on the vintage chair of the bedside table, he wandered in his new world again.

The traveller was unaware of what happened to the talkative tree. The unknown world was full of similar trees, and some of them wanted to journey with him. As the man shaded to one of them as the scorching heat of their so-called Supreme Being, burning his skin; the silent tree let him. The leaves left on one of their comrades gusted through the wind, carried out images of them withered, a symbol in which the comrade lasted his journey together with the traveller. The rustling of the trunks, branches and leaves of the other comrades unfolded the brave story of the certain tree, creating sorrowful roars all over the woodland.

"Are you lost, young man?" asked the silent tree. The traveller lifted his head to see the wide foliage lowering down at him.

"I may or may not. No marks to distinguish the pathways," the man affirmed. The silent tree hummed. A wise one showed up in his journey.

"Why not create them, then?"

Ryuu formed a warm smile. A sudden euphoria of internal desires.

The young man ambled through the corridor with Aika. He glanced at the staircase as they passed by it. Another room six meters apart from each, materialized in his memory. There were rooms from both sides of the hallway. Same as the ones in row of his own room. A loud thud startled the rookie, it broke out from the room he stood still. Aika beckoned him. The attentive eyes of the lad glanced at the door again as he dragged his feet forward. A vague choke and constant coughing moved past his ears.

His shallow breathing began. Aika stopped from a door, three doors next to the one which lingered the familiar sound through the new lad. His finger moved as the Lady walked her way off, leaving him to an unknown man who had inconceivable intentions. His right hand hardly reached the doorknob, a familiar design of a room came into light, and another man appeared leaning his back on the headboard of the bed, with a small book in his hands.

Ryuu blinked, breathing became steady. A book was manifesting strange stillness of his mind, like the ticking sounds of a clock, the continual droplets of water from a faucet, and the humming noise of the wooden ceiling fan the Hub could take a hold of.

"He booked the regular service number five, he did not mention if it was blindfold or a rope," the intel of Aika reminded him.

The black-haired man tilted his Helvetica glasses as he raised his head to see the young boy. Ryuu bowed in half. The man was reported as a lawyer and scrupulous. A Japanese man who holds the tradition of his origin, however a tainted hypocrite person.

The man of his late twenties put down the small book on the nightstand, the title of the cover clearly stated. 'The Righteous Man of Immorality'. Ryuu swallowed compulsively. When he started middle school, the gift bestowed to him from above was a trump card. The quick sound judgements whereas 90% of the conclusions were accurate. It was a blessing to favor his complacency, but now, his life was being tested and the gift became a trigger to his anxiety.

"Should we start?" asked the man with a straight face.