Chapter 08

Shadawn had made it back on time to his room, successfully dodging the rest of the Fernandos that had gotten back from their little trip to the grocery store. The majority of the times that Hyaté had attempted talking to him, Shadawn had always slipped out of any interactions by pretending to be asleep. Cooped up in the room he spent his time under the heavy fluffy blankets with his sketch pad and pencils.

This time, however, he made the decision to greet Hyaté as he entered the room by giving him a slight nod in acknowledgment.

"You're up!"

The boy grinned, not at all bothered by the fact that Shadawn had obviously been avoiding him up until then. He made his way to his blue-themed mattress to drop off some groceries he had bought for himself.

"What have you been up to? Hope you had some of the left overs Hynata told you about. We're just about to have lunch, want to join us?"

Hyaté had a habit of asking a couple of questions in one breath, that Shadawn always faltered on which question to answer, considering the fact that his responses were mostly a nod or a shake.

He went with answering the latter by shaking his head no.

Shadawn looked away, signaling that he wanted to end the conversation by opening his suitcase to grab one of his old novels. It was quiet for a while, none of them wanting to break the prevailing silence. However soon Hyaté would be the one to break it with a question he had been itching to ask his older brother.

"Why don't we go shopping tomorrow? It looks like you could use a few sets of new clothes"

As Shadawn looked up at him with a frown, he found Hyaté biting his lower lip, slightly frowning while looking at the meagre contents housed by his worn out suit case.

Shadawn shook his head no.

"I don't have that much money to waste on clothes. "

He mumbled monotonously.

"Oh don't worry about that! I've got Dada's credit card at hand."

The younger grinned, beaming with his usual positive energy as Shadawn was taken aback at the offer.

"I don't have to pay?"

he questioned curiously with a slight frown.

"Of course not"

Hyaté frowned in confusion.

Shadawn couldn't help but feel as if there was some catch to the generous offer. Surely no one would offer a stranger such generosity without expecting something in return. If there was one thing life had taught him, it was that everything comes with a price, and behind every action is a very calculated intention. Looking up at Hyaté, Shadawn couldn't really detect any hint of an ulterior motive, his face was painted with a grin so wide it would have been contagious to anyone else.

"So what do you say?"

Shadawn did contemplate the offer. He needed clothes. Badly. But...

"No thank you."

Hyaté's grin was wiped off like the back space of a key board within the next second.

"Why not?!"

Shadawn refused to answer. He didn't want to let him know of how much he hated being there. And how much he really failed to trust any of them. They were all pretending, and never giving into any form of interaction or connection was the only way of not getting caught in something that would make him turn to unwanted decisions.

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Hyaté walked into the occupied hall and pounced onto the long mustard couch. His two brothers and their father were amidst a discussion regarding an article about tax rates that had been published last Sunday. Hyaté occupied himself with his phone, scrolling through social media, waiting for the older men to snap out of the topic. Hynata joining the topic got them even more invested in the conversation that half an hour later he decided to intrude.

"Guys."

He tried grabbing their attention, but to no avail.

"Guys!"

He spoke louder, to have his sister snap back at him in annoyance.

"What!?"

He finally had everyone's attention. Rolling his eyes at his sister he continued.

"It's about Shadawn"

At the mention of the new comer, their heads perked with interest.

"It seems..... that he hasn't really bought that many clothes with him... I think he just has like 3 sets or something."

"Why don't you guys take him shopping?"

Asithe kindly offered, to which the brunette shook his head.

"I asked him... but he refused. I just don't know how to get him to agree."

He exclaimed ruffling his hair in frustration.

There was an unspoken thought present in the room that questioned Shadawn's uncooperative attitude. But none of them had Hyacyth's rebelliousness to comment on it.

"Why don't I talk to him."

Asithe concluded.

"He won't listen trust me."

"I've got an Idea. Just let me handle it. "

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For dinner today there was some type of rice dish that Shadawn was curious to taste. It had to be some type of South Asian rice dish. Only remembering to have having had rice thrice before he was silently intrigued by some of the other occupants using their hands to eat it. He didn't feel put off by it, despite knowing a lot of people out side South Asia considered the idea taboo. Being quarter Asian himself, he, unfortunately, did not have the opportunity to discover the flavors of Asia. His plate had a single scoop of rice with a red looking curry. He did enjoy the rice, however as much as he loved the flavors evoked by the curry he felt his face heat up and tongue tingle with painful sensations. Not being used to such strong flavors, in fact most food at all rendered him incapable of tolerating the Fernando's claim of mediocre spice.

"I'm sorry that you found the curry spicy. I hope you at least enjoyed the Biriyani."

Asithe apologized guiltily, being the one to have cooked all the dishes.

"I liked the Biriyani"

Shadawn mumbled between breaths, trying to gasp in the air to lessen the sting on his tongue.

"I'm so used to cooking Sri Lankan dishes at least once a day, I tend to go over board with the flavors."

So he's Sri Lankan. Shadawn finally found an answer to one of the questions that had been plaguing his mind for the past few days. He hadn't really met a Sri Lankan before, considering the country was so small. But he did know a lot about the tiny island through travel vlogs that he had seen on television and the tea his father used to import, which was famously known as 'Ceylon tea', using the country's old colonial name.

"I don't suppose you know of Sri Lanka, It's a tiny island in the Indian Ocean-"

Asithe continued but stopped when Shadawn shook his head indicating he knew of it.

"You do?"

he nodded and pointed at a few tea bags that were laid in a fancy wooden box.

"Well glad to know that at least someone knows where it is. Cynthia over here had no idea what it was when I met her she thought it was some sort of food."

Asithe laughed with pleasant nostalgia, eyes dazed as if going through the good old days when he met Cynthia. The mention of Cynthia snapped Shadawn out of the little episode of interaction and his neutral expression was replaced by a scowl.

Cynthia blushed swatting her husband on his forearm for exposing her.

Not wanting to witness any more of their cheesy reminiscing, with a frustrated eye roll Shadawn quietly pushed his chair back, and stood up to leave.

"Shadawn before you go, there's something you need to know."

Asithe stopped him. The young boy looked at the older brown man with confusion and slight nervousness.

"Hyna, Hya, and Cinthe will be starting school next week. I managed to get you enrolled for this semester."

School.... The idea of having to attend school had completely escaped his mind.

"We'll be going to the city tomorrow, so I hope you don't mind coming with us to get some documents filled out as well as get you some necessary supplies for school."