001 - Wish To Be Griffin

“Hey, Leithe!”

The once tranquil atmosphere is shattered by the booming sound of a man's voice emanating from the entrance of their faculty building. Unfortunately for him, the aforementioned Leithe knows the voice's owner without taking a glance. The voice belongs to Griffin, a buddy of his since kindergarten.

"No, Griff," Leithe sighed. "I am not going," he declared as he continued to walk away from his buddy. At least he made an effort, even though he knew it would be difficult to run from his friend.

Never one to accept "no" as an answer, Griffin is that kind of person. Since he was born into a wealthy household and was the only child, he developed a little attitude because his parents were always willing to give him what he wanted. The thing that Leithe has noticed is that Griffin is not the kind to gloat about their mansion, the new Camry that his dad got him for his 20th birthday, or the fact that he rejected his dad's invitation to attend a private university with plenty of facilities just so that he could be with Leithe. He keeps a low profile, and because of that, he cherishes Griffin the most as a result. That kind of friend is rare.

He heard a running noise coming from behind him and heading in his direction a few seconds after he had responded. He will try to run, but given that his friend Griffin is a rugby player, he is not going to put himself in a position where he would be embarrassed by attempting so.

He walks quicker than before, but still casually, to allow himself some room to pass his friend, who is tailing closely behind.

"Come on, man. Nobody ever saw you at a party. It was our last year together. Can’t you let it pass just this once?” His friend's presence at the celebration was something Griffin truly desired.

He is aware that Leithe does not socialize well and is unfamiliar with most of his professors and classmates. While Nathan may not be the most prolific speaker, once he gets the hang of things, he can be completely insane and unpredictable. The reason being, he acted like that towards Griffin as well in the beginning of their friendship.

“Absolutely not, Griff. You go.” He pauses. “You know me. Not only am I not as well known as you are, but I also don’t know many people outside of you.” He looks at Griffin, who is looking disappointed, and says, "It’s okay. Just go and have fun." And he smiles.

“Even if it’s our final year party?” He asks Leithe again in the hope that he will reconsider. Still, Leithe is a man of unwavering resolve.

“Even if it’s our final year party.”

In an effort to convince him, he asked, "Even if there are many pretty girls I can hook you up with?"

“Especially when there are many pretty girls you can hook me up with.” Emphasizing the first word while smiling at the latter.

Even if he wanted to, he simply cannot, and he feels awful about disappointing Griffin. The athlete sighed, but knowing him, he did not take it to heart. Besides, Leithe just knows Griffin is far from upset.

"Just leave, you Grammy actor."

Griffin burst out laughing. "Okay then, Leithe," he responded, smiling. "Just don’t you dare forget about tomorrow. I’ll drown Marshmallow if you forget." He shot Leithe a stare, prompting him to fear slightly.

“No, you won’t.”

“Try me, asshole.”

Since he was in kindergarten, Leithe has treasured Marshmallow, a white teddy bear that was a gift from Griffin. Griffin begged his parents to let him attend the same elementary school as Leithe when they graduated kindergarten.

Due to the fact that Griffin was not yet emotionally prepared to be separated from his friend, he decided to give him the teddy bear as a memento. But after all the tears and goodbyes, Griffin transferred schools to Leithe’s after a year, which was a very touching yet funny reunion.

Leithe sighed. He knew he would never beat him, so he gave up and chuckled. "Okay." he answered, waving his hand as if to shoo Griffin away.

"Are you dismissing me?" he asked, threatening to fight.

All Leithe did was giggle as they walked to their cars—Griffin's black Camry and Leithe's prehistoric silver car.

Griffin headed to the party, while Leithe headed directly to his house, a journey that would take about thirty minutes in non-peak traffic and an hour during rush hour. Not that he has anything negative to say; he simply enjoys the solitude of a solo ride, finding solace in the quiet and taking in the scenery—particularly the area surrounding his home, where he experiences comparatively lesser cars and fewer people.

He does not despise humans in general, but there are specific reasons for his hatred. From the outside, one could assume he is an egotistical loner. There are many ways in which he differs from Griffin and is much more emotional.

Both of them are physically similar and attractive young men. Thanks to Griffin’s athletic pursuits, he now possesses chiseled features with dark blue eyes and brown hair. Leithe, on the other hand, has a trim figure, hazel eyes, and hair, all of which suggest that he works out occasionally.

People who don't know them often mistake them for each other due to their striking similarities in appearance.

Upon returning home, he promptly hung his car keys on the hook next to the door and proceeded straight to his room.

On his way to his room, he overheard his mom's greeting. She shouts, "Welcome home, honey!" from the kitchen, where she likely prepares her lunch before heading off to work. Since her job as a nurse at a local hospital is shift-based, she would often return home during her lunch break to prepare meals for her family, thus reducing their food budget.

He said, "Thanks, mom!" before crashing his body onto the bed with his laptop bag, which was still attached to his body.

“I’m off to work! I left some food on the counter! Don’t forget to remind Kairo to do his homework and stop playing games. Bye, love you!” He heard his mother say before the sound of the door downstairs shut.

All he does is shut his eyes and groan. At last, he is by himself.

“Damn it!”

“Language, Kai!” he shouted.

Their rooms were across from each other, so his brother could hear him if he raised his voice slightly.

“Sorry.”

Although he is not truly alone, he is content with the situation so long as he does not have anyone chatting to him at the moment. He continued to lie down for a few more minutes before rising once again to place his bag on the chair that was located close to his study desk.

Thankfully, he had his private restroom right in his room, so he headed over. He pulled the mirror open, exposing a little container along with his personal hygiene products. He took the container and pushed the mirror close.

With a sigh, he examines his reflection in the mirror.

“I can’t believe Bella is that type of girl,” he said, letting out another sigh.

Sighs fill his life. There are abundant disappointments and unexpected turns in it. He was overly anxious and suffered from panic attacks far too frequently. Why? Because he has that stupid ability that no one, not even his parents, knows about.

Leithe has the ability to read people's minds and see their memories through the mere act of making eye contact with them for just five seconds. In addition to the fact that it is absurd to even say it out loud, even he is too afraid to announce it out loud.

Although it may sound like something out of a fairy tale, that is exactly what Leithe had to go through throughout his 23 years of life. The color of his hazel eyes will change to a brilliant yellow each time he reads their minds and learns their past experiences.

Leithe would say yes if you believe it is a human rights violation to invade someone's privacy without their consent. He claims to be as well. Try to picture it this way: you break into a house but manage to leave nothing broken. While you did nothing unlawful, the fact that you invaded the personal space of another person constitutes an invasion of their privacy. It is like stalking supernaturally.

The difficulty is that he is unable to restrain himself, even though he is aware that his actions were wrong.

Once he had a clear glimpse of a person's eye, notably their iris and pupil, he was already in. In the moment that the vision appears, it is as if he were watching a movie from a third person and was visually impaired at the time. The most recent time he read people, he injured himself by walking into a barbed wire that was located close to his faculty. He was in excruciating pain the whole day.

His encounter with it is so frequent that it wears him out. Specifically, it exhausts him on both a mental and physical level.

It causes a shift in both his perspective and his behaviour toward the person in question because he is aware of their deepest, darkest secrets. Over time, without someone to share them with, it takes a mental toll on him.

People around him harassed him because he wore contact lenses. Others were aware that he had brown eyes by nature, yet some believed that he was an e-boy because he was strolling about wearing yellow contact lenses. For the remainder of his time at high school, Leithe had to deal with the reality that being different makes him a target of bullying.

As awful as it sounds, he was rather relieved to have discovered such a way and managed to go through his high school without exposing his ability. Besides, he did take his small amount of vengeance on his bullies by covertly revealing their secrets on the internet with evidence, and the best part is that they were unaware that he was the one who divulged them.

Following the significant altercation that they had with one another, he had not heard from them in a while, and they were no longer visible on any social media platform.

At the time that he was getting ready to start university, he decided to upgrade his way of wearing a colourless or transparent contact lens to divert attention away.

On top of that, Leithe is essentially blind without his glasses or contacts, so he cannot get into people’s minds when he cannot even see their iris or pupil. As a result of his discovery, he occasionally does not mind wearing his prescription glasses or donning contacts. It relieves him to learn that there is a method by which he can exert some control over his condition to preserve his mental health.

He may have only been 23 years old, but the amount of memories he had taken in made him feel like he had lived for a century.

The one and only shortcoming is that he is unable to do it all the time because he will run into people. In addition, he is a university student, which means that he is required to give presentations. He would rather not be blind in situations like this.

The university environment, where everyone tends to mind their own business without much concern for others, is one of his favourite aspects. That's what supports his decision to go with colourless lenses instead of yellow lenses. You do not necessarily know your classmates simply because you are enrolled in the same class as them. Leithe was not even familiar with the student who was sitting next to him in class since they constantly change.

Few individuals in his class are familiar to him. He prefers to keep his circle of friends narrow, not because he is conceited. End of story.

"If only I could be Griffin," he says after a moment of reflection. "I would not be living under this much pressure."