Home sweet home

Ike.

A sixteen-year-old high school student and an orphan since two years ago after his mother's death; he never met his father. Thanks to his mother's sacrifices and unconditional love, Ike was left with a trust fund, which explained how he survived even before the traffic collision.

"Fortunately, the medical expenses were settled by the company of that truck. So I didn't use my money for a year, and that means I can do something about this place." Ike scrunched his nose up, looking at the dirty and dusty house from the entrance where he apparently lived.

Ike was finally discharged from the hospital after a year of confinement, and everyone was amazed at his quick recovery. It didn't really matter to him, honestly. He just wanted to go out because staying in the hospital started to make him even sicker.

"Ah… right." Ike snapped his tongue, dragging his feet to the pallet bed in the small courtyard of his small two-storey house on the outskirts of the major city. "I'm not entering that hellhole in this state."

He plopped his butt down on the pallet bed, fishing his phone out of his pockets to find someone to clean this home for him. Fortunately, he learned many things in the hospital and he could say these mobile phones were truly helpful.

"Immediately. Means right now," he mumbled whilst putting his request to the cleaning service company for the deep cleaning of his home. The transaction was quick, settling everything in just minutes.

"Good thing people act fast." Ike gazed up at the place he would live from now on. "It's not bad… better than wandering around, I guess?"

Ike patiently waited for the people to arrive and they did after thirty minutes. He didn't say much and simply asked them to clean the entire home to make it tolerable to live in. If he was going to start anew, having a clean home was the first step.

So while people come in and out of the house, taking out obvious trash and boxes for Ike to segregate, he idled for some time. But once boredom struck, he shifted his attention to the boxes and did what he was told to do. It was not like it was necessary for him and he could just throw everything out since he had no sentimental value in anything in this world.

"What the hell is this…" Ike cocked his head, picking up an old magazine. He dusted it off, revealing a sexy woman as a cover. "What a naughty boy, but I understand. Let's see…"

Ike happily went through the pages of women with little to no clothes. It helped him kill some time, but he didn't dwell on it like a boy in heat. Instead, Ike searched the box to find something more interesting, but what he found was a dirty and ripped school uniform.

"Hmm?" His brows rose, lifting the uniform that radiated this foul smell. "So this is where that smells comes from, huh?"

He held the cloth in between his fingers, assessing it out of pure curiosity. Aside from the dust and dirt, there were other colors on it, as if a sauce was spilled on its shoulder part. Some buttons were missing and what piqued his curiosity was the way the back part was ripped. It was as though someone ripped it with their bare hands.

"Does he hate his school?" he wondered while looking at the uniform. "He seemed he had taken out his anger… is this a shoe print?"

Because of the foul smell, Ike didn't check closer, but it did seem like a muddy shoe stepped foot on the uniform. Ike didn't think too much about it, assuming the real owner of this body loathed his school so much that he took out his anger on his uniform.

Apparently, Ike didn't have memories of the owner of this body and what sort of life he led. The only reason he knew about the general details was because of the hospital. So other than those, everything was blank. Not that it mattered; it was not his life and whatever life this young boy had wasn't the new soul business.

"He probably threw it on the floor in anger and stomped on it like a maniac." Ike shrugged, tossing the uniform into the plastic trash as it was irreparable. He continued to search the boxes, ending up throwing unnecessary things and keeping some interesting ones in the other box.

After what seemed to be forever, the people he hired finally finished cleaning the house. His face brightened upon checking the result. Unlike the dusty and gloomy house he came into, it was now a sparkling clean home as if it had just become a totally different place.

"Home sweet home!" he announced with a grin, taking a step inside. As dramatic as it appeared, Ike drew a deep breath as he entered his new home, looking around in satisfaction. "This… is what you call home."

Since Ike was now in the mood, he toured the small two-storey home leisurely. The house only had three rooms: one on the first floor and two on the second floor. It was pretty "small" for a family of five or more, but Ike was all alone in life. This space was enough for him.

He checked each room, but the only one he stayed in was the room that seemed to be his personal space. He looked around; everything was clean thanks to the people who did the job, and it was also very plain, simple, and dark.

"What a gloomy-looking room," he commented under his breath. "Not even a single poster of a sexy young miss on the wall."

Ike marched toward the small bookshelf attached to the wall, tipping a few books for no reason. It was all just mangas and things that a normal teenage boy would have. Nothing special. So he went to the study desk where a computer was placed. He dragged the chair and sat on it, starting up the computer just because he saw a more advanced model being used in the hospital.

"Bonnie said something about…" he trailed off, furrowing his brows as the computer wasn't properly turned off. Hence, the moment he opened it, all the previous tabs and files resurfaced on the screen. But what caught his attention was the video clip on pause that popped on the side of the large monitor screen.

"Erotica?"

Curious, Ike played the clip and, much to his dismay, it wasn't what he expected. It wasn't a perverted video clip that could arouse a young guy like him, but something else.

"Haha! What a pig!" someone — a young woman's voice — in the clip laughed mockingly. "Pigs don't wear clothes, though. Why is he wearing one?"

Because of that comment, the rest of the young students in the video laughed and seemed to have agreed with her. And thus, one male student grabbed the hair of the person they were bullying. The moment he did, Ike saw the victim's face and gasped in horror.

"What the — oi, oi, oi! That's me, ah?!"