Chapter 3

When the phone call ended, it gave Hiroshi, a strong sense of deja vu but the fleeting sense of it started to be overpowered by the throbbing and excruciating pain of a headache. It seemed as if someone had hit him on his head with a brick. He held his head in his hand trying not to move too much, for every movement made him shudder with a new bout of pain. He was panting heavily, his foot curled up, his eyes watery, his entire body trembled like the fluttering flame of a candle before quietly burning out. He couldn't take it, in an attempt to ease this unknown torture, he closed his eyes and when he woke up it was already 1pm, it had also stopped raining outside. He felt somewhat suffocated, all of a sudden, the room seemed too small, he felt like he was unable to breathe, his lungs seemed to be crushed under some unknown weight. He felt giddy as if about to loose consciousness but the entire process of this baseless torture shot him back to his panic mode. He desperately ran for the door, almost crawling down the stairs,thank god the front desk was mostly empty at that time,saving him from some embarrassment but at that moment he didn't really care of embarrassing himself he just wanted to go out,he wanted to breathe in some fresh air, as if doing so would bring him back to being normal. Was he normal? He couldn't understand the question that he had asked himself, he was about to ask it again but, he noticed that the streets were covered with something red. The puddles on it, had been filled with the some red fluid, blood?, was it blood?. The thought of it being blood made him gag, he retched for a while but nothing came out, he suddenly seemed to remember that he hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday but the supposed 'blood' on the street made him loose his appetite all together. A few droplets of rain struck him, it had started to rain again. He decided to go inside but saw that the droplets dripping down his forehead were red too, he almost lost his balance at the sight. "Th... The rain! It's red! How?!", he stuttered,screaming internally but just then a tap on his shoulder startled him, he lost his balance completely this time, landing straight on his butt, directly sitting upright on the street. He looked up at the carrier of the hand that had touched him. The person in front of him who had been observing him from a distance, seemed startled by his actions as well, "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you really have a loose screw in your head", as soon as he spoke the other person knew that this was the guy from yesterday. The 'She doesn't do kids' guy. Not quite being able to figure out his next move, the fallen soldier silently kept staring at Kenji for a long time but kenji on the other hand wasn't really having it. He was tired of this guy's staring games. He actually wanted to mock him a little more and beat some sense into his thick head but when he noticed that the guy in front of him was actually scared out his mind, trembling like a leaf in front of him, he changed his mind. He bent down to the person in front of him, and asked in almost a too soft and too gentle of a tone tone,which was very unlike his usual rough raspy one, "What's wrong? ". Hiroshi didn't reply for a good one minute but when he saw that the other person waited patiently for his answer, so he finally admitted his defeat and said almost in a whisper, "The rain drops....They're red!". The other person didn't quite understand what he meant, was this person serious. Yes the rain drops are red, they've always been like that, what the f**k, he cursed in his head but still managed to not curse him out loud, instead he maintained his composure and calmly asked, "So? ". Hiroshi didn't know what to tell this man, the rain was red, what does he mean by that 'so?'. The rain is not supposed to be red, what else. "The rain is red!, it's not supposed to be red?! ", he said, frantically trying to make the other person understand. Okay this guy has completely lost it, Kenji thought to himself, but he was also kind of having fun, so he wanted to stretch out the conversation a bit further. "What color is it supposed to be then? ", he asked, his tone, extremely mocking. Hiroshi didn't understand what the guy meant, neither could he understand his mockery, he looked at him in disbelief. "It's supposed to be like water. Water is colourless." As soon as the words were spoken, Kenji burst into laughter, "You're messing with me right?! ", when did the water turn colouless? , he was still laughing heartily, when he noticed that the other person stood in front of him, rather dumbfounded. He had a serious expression on his face and seemed to be trying to stand up again with all his might but as soon as he stood up, a second bout of dizziness overtook him and he was about to fall, head first on to the ground but was caught by the boy in front of him. Kenji thought to himself again, that this guy is surely on some drugs, to be speaking such nonsense and acting like a completely insane person, he had to had taken some strong as hell narcotics. Now that the guy had lost consciousness, Kenji had the time to look and observe how the other person actually looked like. Yes, he had taken a glance yesterday but he couldn't really make out how exactly he looked and just now due to his all over the place behavior,he didn't have time to be focusing on the other's looks either but now the person in front of him was all relaxed. His face didn't have any complicated expression, he looked almost a bit too relaxed, given his over the top frantic behavior, a moment before. Kenji finally began to notice his distinct features, the sleeping guy who had just fallen onto him was not that tall but neither was he short. He had a thick curly hair structure,there were some freckles around his nose and cheek bones. His eyelashes were quite long for that of a guy and he had a small cigarette burn right under his naturally pink tinged ears. His complexion had a warm tone, it wasn't too pale nor too bright, it just fitted into his aesthetics completely but the most prominent feature on his delicate face was his cherry coloured lips. It was perfectly carved, as if burning, a bit too bright for his eyes to comprehend. Finally being able to grasp a hold of the situation, he carried or mostly dragged the other guy to the room he had booked, laying him down on the bed, he sat on the other side of it. Yes his mother, that is the lady at the front desk who had gone to fetch a glass of water had witnessed the entire scene while walking back to her designated place, seeing the entire scene unfold before her eyes,she first gave her son, some questionable stares before passing a slight grin to him. Kenji literally had no idea of what it meant. He was a bit out of breath after seemingly, what it felt like carrying a pig back to it's farm. The guy was unnaturally heavier then his estimation but looking at the other person sleeping peacefully without a care in the world, strangely made Kenji feel a bit overwhelmed he felt a bit protective towards him and that itself was creeping him out, since yesterday only he was cursing this guy out and if he was being real then he truly didn't even know who this guy was or as a matter of fact he didn't even know what his name was but just as he thought about it a strange almost mechanical voice chirped into his ears almost a bit too happily "Hiroshi!",it even dragged out the letters like a excited little school girl calling out her crush's name for the first time. " What the fuck was that! " ,kenji almost jumped out of the bed then looked at the other guy strangely after that through out the entirety of his sleep, he monitored the other without batting an eye as if the other was some ghost playing tricks on him. He even checked his pulse and breathing to confirm that the he was in fact alive and really not just some paranormal being.

"He thought I was some school girl 01?".....the voice cried as if some bullet was struck into his heart. " I request you to maintain a little bit of silence. If it wasn't for your stupidity then we would not have been repeating this entire thing again. I really thought I was dreaming! What strange place. How can water be red? ". " It's already our 2nd time 01 and your still not used to it".02 spoke in his usual casually flirtatious tone. 01 didn't reply, he was still mad, it seemed to him that his anger would literally blow his head to smithereens this time around. The other two people didn't have a trace of this exchange of words between the two.

When Hiroshi finally woke up, the sun had already set. Kenji was still staring at him. Hiroshi at first didn't sense the presence of the other boy but as soon as he did, his heart almost jumped out of his mouth. "What?.... Who? .... How? "..... he stuttered all those questions in one single breath. " Breathe" , the other replied. "Inhale- exhale, do it with me", Hiroshi didn't know whether to smack this person out of his room or really try doing what he said, he really did need to breathe but instead he decided to surprise the other with a " Huh?! ". Kenji just had one question to ask the other person, " What is the color of water? ". " R.... Red... Ob... Obviously? " , the other stuttered. "Okayyyy now tell me what drugs had you taken?". " D.... Du... Drugs? I d... don't...d.... do d....drugs? ". Kenji sharply commented " Speak properly",without thinking twice. This was the longest Hiroshi had ever spoken to someone, he had a speech disorder, which made it hard for him to talk, on top of that his voice sounded a bit weird, even to his own ears and he stuttered a lot so after saying all those words out he was kind of feeling a bit ashamed of himself but after the sharp comment made by Kenji, his motive of speaking any further had been shattered to dust, staying at his father's place with such defects and continuously being put forth in front of scrutiny, he had already developed a deep rooted inferiority complex. Kenji could not understand what he had done wrong but what he did understand was that he really was puzzled by all the fast paced events that had him slowly and steadily loosing his cool and his mind. He looked at the other person, who now had his face down, looking at the floor, Kenji felt a bit guilty of his own inconsiderate words, maybe he has some problem,why didn't I think of that he thought to himself so as an unofficial apology he poured out his sincerity into words as he asked the other "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you with that, do you have some kind of problem with your speech or something? ". The other person didn't reply. He just picked up his phone typed a long text and passed it to the other.

" I have a speech disorder but you don't need to worry about it, I won't be using words to communicate with you anymore, also I don't do drugs, so I don't know what you are talking about and last but not the least, what are you doing in my room? If you don't give me the answer in the next five minutes after reading this, I'll beat the hell out of you. I don't care who you are."

Kenji stared at the typed text for a moment, then shortened the distance between the two of them looking down to face the other guy, "If you aren't on drugs then you need to get your brain checked. I really don't care if you use words with me or actions but as far as beating the hell out of each other is concerned, then I'd like to warn you, to choose your words and opponents a bit more wisely and as per your strength and as far as me being in your room is concerned then I'd like to enlighten you on the fact that you were the one who fell on me. It's my goodwill to have carried you all the way here or else I could have easily left you on the road, if you're still not out of your drug daze or mental sickness or whatever the heck it is then go ask the lady in the front desk for confirmation."

Hiroshi didn't really need any confirmation. He could feel that some fragments of his memories were missing. He also was aware that he had locked the door last night and also fastened the bolts on it so there is no way someone could have entered without damaging the bolts, atleast. All the while that Kenji spoke, he looked at the bolts on the door for any possible trace of damage and there wasn't any such thing, which could only mean that he had opened the door on his own free will. The bed didn't have any trace of being too out of order as well,so the other person hadn't really done anything perverted to him. He also thought that the other person really didn't look to be interested in him at all, so there was no reason to worry about it in the first place. Analysing the entire situation, he breathed in a sigh of relief and asked for his phone back from Kenji. Then he typed for a second on it and passed it to him again. A thank you had been written on the notes section of the other's phone. Kenji didn't know what to do with this guy, did he have a split personality disorder or something,well there had to be something wrong with him. After a few moments of thinking he quietly decided to leave before this guy drove him to insanity as well, before leaving though, he looked back and asked, "What's your name? ", the guy started typing again then passed the phone to him as usual. "I won't tell you" was written in all capital letters. Kenji passed the phone to it's owner and left with a smile on his face which the other was not able to notice.