"Good morning, Erin. I see you've slept well," the same nurse from earlier chirped, brightening his day, just a tad. No nurse could burn as bright in the dimmest of rooms as she did, for she was one of those rare glistening gems who inflicted an unmatched calibre of love for her job, even Erin. It was a bond similar to a distant aunt and nephew, which Erin truly treasured.
Erin himself wore a smile, despite the dull ache in his thin cheeks. He arose as if the ongoing saga of bruises didn't cling to his back, as if he wore the same sickly smile every single day of his life. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that's a bad thing. Erin can't decide. "Morning. What shot is it today?" Erin enquired, readying his arm for his usual dose of medicinal drugs.
She had a yellow glint in her round eyes, pushed into thin lines as she squeezed a smile through her plump cheeks.
"Actually, surprise! I threw on a few bits of cash to pay for
The sun dazzlingly shone in the blue, like a diamond glimmering in the cerulean sea. With a light bounce, Uriel skipped his way home chewing some gum, kicking a few pebbles on the way. Despite nearing the demeaning mansion he called home, the toothy grin never once seeped away. His less than stellar report card clearly didn't bother him all too much. Good for him. Seeing his mother, he prepared himself for the conversation mentally, aware of the next sentence. 'I'm probably getting home-schooled.' "You're getting home-schooled." "Meh." Uriel saw it coming anyways. It was obvious, all things considered. She had been egging it on for the past few weeks, and this term's report card was undeniably the tipping point. "He'll be coming to assess you in two hours. Freshen up," she finalised, flinging her full length navy dress away from her feet,
Erin went to bed that night feeling warm. A campfire warm, not the searing kind. It was so warm. Uriel made him feel both exposed and protected, seeing his eyes even when Erin thinks Uriel is looking the other way. He always sees. He always sees and is always so quiet about it. Blink, and you might miss it. Erin's learning to keep his eyes peeled. Time was slowly unraveling Erin from the knots of reality, freeing him into the universal song of life. It could not be commanded by wind as water can. Time was healing the wounds he didn't even know were bleeding. Uriel came in blind, but saw all that he needed to. He saw a friend. Erin didn't know how to exit his line of vision, and he knew he didn't want to. He loved being seen by Uriel, but there are some things Erin really doesn't want him to see if he himself hasn't figured it out yet. Erin may be a novice to friendship, but he is quite sure that the average person doesn't get the u
"You need to stop being pessimistic.""Look, all I'm trying to say is, you can't bloody jump off the Burj Khalifa and not get some kind of permanent damage, if you even miraculously survived.""I don't need that kind of negativity, Erin," Uriel scoffed, walking a little faster through the virtual town."I'm not beingnegative, I'm being realistic.""Whatever you say, Pessimistic Park.""You're too stupid to be scared of things you're supposed to be scared of," Erin murmured."Too stupid," Uriel pointed, "or too smart?""I feel like they're the same thing for you." Running to catch up with
"Is he gonna come or not..?"Uriel grunted, sitting atop the desk they had studied on together previously, rocking a chair out of its place with his foot. Dawdling around a little longer, he contemplated if he should go to the real world, and call Erin to remind him."The hell? Who shows up late to something planned a day ago? He has the memory of a goldfish," he ranted beneath his breath, hopping off the desk, ready to log out. Activating his scroll, he heard a familiar shimmer, turning around in relief. Park Erin had arrived, to his pleasure."Erin! Took your time, little weasel," Uriel chuckled, reaching out to hold his hand, though, he immediately snapped his hand away. Furrowing his brows, Uriel lucked up to meet Erin's eyes, only to receive a twitching glare."Who shoved a stick up your ass..?" Uriel remarked, rather salty. "You're being weird."Erin still hadn't moved, or
Just before Gihyun had logged onto Erin's character, the brothers were reaching their first heated argument in a while. Erin was beyond Gihyun, absolutely downright refusing the mere idea of listening to him. He felt as if he lost his senses. "Erin, I'm serious. You need to get another round today, you can't keep putting this off; especially not for some stupid game," he asserted. "Your health is irrefutably worth more than that, so stop being difficult," Gihyun tutted. It didn't make sense to him, or to Erin, for that matter. Why put off the very thing you've worked ever so hard for? "Please, at least wait a few more hours; Uri's waiting for me to do a mission, I promised him yesterday-" "Uri this, Uri that," he mimicked distastefully. "Can we just get this done first, I think he'd understand perfectly fine that you're trying to avoid death, no?" he glared. "No, really, it wouldn't take long
"Uriel, please come down to your father's office," his mother ordered passively. There was no hint of happiness, nor anger laced in her vapid tone: it just sounded like grey, like nothing. Bowing lightly, Uriel submissively nodded, trudging to his father's office as he left the pampered lady behind.What could he possibly want? His father rarely spoke to him unless he was scolding him, or needed something, or both. Anxiety nipped away at his skin like the pesky cold of snow, all the way through to the pits of his stomach.Reaching the grand, oak door, he bit the inside of his cheek rather harshly, drawing the metallic tinge of blood. He shook his hand, desperate to just get this over with, so he could go visit his friend. He knocked thrice.A short moment of silence hovered incessantly over Uriel's head, weighing down heavily on his nerves. He heard a muffled voice slip through the cracks of the sound proof door, and he
Uriel had finally reached inside the plane, cosying up to the window seat. The plush seats cushioned his lean frame, and he swore he could've curled up and slept as easily as dozing away on his little couch back at his parents' house. The engines roared and the winded buffeted, it was his sky-born cradle, rocked by the winds far above the ground. Even as the engines turned, his brain relaxed into dreaming mode, there were thousands of miles to go and all he had to do was let this technological bird fly him there. The plane moved onward into the hallowed space between the heavens and Earth, the graceful bird of silver-wing. Soaring above the cotton clouds was something Uriel forever felt thrilled by. To be so high up made him feel as if nothing on Earth mattered anymore. Every second passing by only made him that much more impatient to see Erin.Dipping lower, the airplane landed upon the brightly lit tarmac, wheels kissing the earth with a small, joyous bounce.
What do the small flowers of autumn's arms do in October, in the grass, in bushes? Roses and peonies, who had bloomed to show off their true selves with leaves of green and petals of red. From spring to autumn, the clouds etch closer to the darker skies, blanketing our scenery with the cold warmth. Twigs sprawled in all directions, reaching for our sun dulled by those clouds. The landscape where nothing and everything changes, where shadows rise and fall, hover and veil, where the sun rises and sets became Uriel's view.It's not just the flowers. All kinds of flora and fauna endure this harsh time in the same way. How do we dare to compare? How so very anxious and fretful we are not, believing that all things are waiting silently like rocks against ruthless nature. How ignorant. How flimsily plastic would our patience be, not being able to stay still to fill the void of every moment within something? Uriel can only hope that in the face of autumn, he learns to b
A week before Erin's birthday."At least I could say that I tried," he played with Rae's paws. "I really did, you know? It's not like I wanted this."He gnawed at his lip, a twisted red. "I...I mean I did want it. Of course I did, but I tried not to, Mr Blue. I really did." he wistfully looked out the window. "I didn't want to love him, because now I'm stuck up here," he jabbed a finger at his skull."God damnit, I'm stuck here. God damnit!"Fingers knotted deeply into his hair, pulling at his roots. "I don't want him alone, please, please," he silently pleaded to no one in particular.His cacophanous whispers were carried by the breeze and crumbled into ashes.Because, from the very beginning, Erin knew he shouldn't. Shouldn't get involved and create something only to leave it unfinished, forever. He knew, and yet
Uriel was blue, too. As blue as the poem Erin wrote months and months ago. As blue as Gihyun's quivering lips when he read it to him aloud. He wished he could reach beyond the glass barrier and warm his small hands up.-Blue, blue like the moonlight,Bluer than every blue,I'm speaking of your eyes,those blue mendacities,Oceans of restlessness.Blue is my heart,The sea that is held captive,This is destiny's visage,That takes its colour from you.When I stare at the depth of the tiled pond,I feel like I'm staring into you,Even though you are absent.I see your eyes in the color of the universe,I genuflect to you.Blue, blue like the moonlight,Bluer than every blue,I'm speaking of your eyes;those blue mendacities,Oceans of restle
"Several news reports have amassed over the last eight months regarding the virtual headset. It has broken all barriers humanity had believed could never be broken, but has some extremely grave consequences. A total of 52 patients have developed psychotic symptoms after extensive use of the headset, and even catalysing brain malfuction and death in one young patient named Park Erin. Park Erin passed away upon turning 20, and post-mortems show extreme levels of plasticity in his brain, as his parts of his somatosensory cortex severely decreased in volume." "Thank you, Ms Byun. For what reason were the reports delayed?" "In all actuality, speculation was always made regarding the headset as more and more cases of psychosis, and even neurosis, emerged. Officials deemed it too early to take this case to court and further examine the reports. However, as of two days ago, data regarding the origins and maintenance of the
He couldn't. He couldn't help himself, couldn't resist the urge, couldn't silence the lust-coated pleas dripping from his mouth, couldn't deny his body from curving and rolling up inches higher just to meet Erin. He couldn't resist, and no deity would be able to either.He has never been so glad to be so useless at something. He was so glad his pitiful efforts poured into resisting was all but futile.He chanted and chanted his name, shuddering breaths lacing and weavings its way into every tenebroussyllable, begging for his beautiful name to be etched into the air and ceaselessly lingering. He wants to always feel Erin."I want you to love me. But I don't just want to know it. I want to feel it. I want to feel your love filling me up and splitting me wide open at the seam, I want to feel it drag across my walls and paint me crystalline white. Let me feel it, Uri, I'm begging you. ple
The red almost drowned Uriel in its drunken tang of delusion, and Dionysus could only slur scraps of a sentence Uriel longed to hear.His limbs ached so terribly. And oddly enough, all he can begin to remember is being slumped against a tree with the redness of raw meat thrown at him. Could almostfeelthe glimmer of something that shouldn't have a physical sensation, the greenish glimmer, tingling and healing.It took the scrape of something against the balcony floor to snap him back to the present. He scoffed, shook his head, and walked up.His steps were quiet, feathery, almost as if he wasn't there: walked as if he entered a room full of nails with no shoes. He didn't know why he was being so mute, but figured it had something to do with the fact that this person could be armed. He couldn't help the nth scoff he released at his own stupidity."Hey, the fuck do you think you're doing in my pent
"Uriel, please just straighten your tie. You shan't ruin this business meeting with such a haggard countenance," his father bellowed, his mother nodding in agreement behind him, lips stained red. Uriel's suit was ill-fitting, just barely sitting at his hips. All this money and they still didn't know how to mould it upon Uriel; if it wasn't something that made his heart rip, it would almost be comical. No one cared as much as he did. He even measured him to make sure the clothes fit well.They had reached a ridiculously lavish, costly five-star restaurant, owned by some of the most well-known Persian chefs to reside in Japan. Of course, the restaurant had to be Persian. Fate was so damn cruel.At first, Uriel used to love that Erin shared so much of himself with him. Now, it only picked at scars.After the twinge in his heart settled, Uriel's steps increased once more. Heading in, he was faced with a grand hallway, carpet
Uriel's father's voice resonated loud and clear through his ears, but he felt as if he couldn't hear, ending the call with an empty mind. They were spewed like a foreign language, which he's never been more elated he didn't understand. He turned his phone off and faced the TV."...urge utmost caution. Reports of another casualty with similar symptoms has appeared within the central hospital-"Uriel turned the TV off.Mind wandering back to his other half, he began to wonder if he was doing okay. Was he eating well? Sleeping well? Making new friends? Looking down on him? It shattered his very being knowing that the first touch was his last. He wanted to eat mochi with him, tell him he started liking it a lot. Wanted to visit Angel Falls, and chuck him in the same way he chucked Uriel into a lake, he wanted to go to university together, visit the Japanese caves and witness the dazzling quartz caves in person. Abov
Its vivacious rhythms and beats and off-key notes keep the spring in your steps alive. It's finite, but feels endlessly long at the same time.It's a beautiful song that plays from the moment you bloom, to the day you die. The song that puts one at ease, that reminds you of your existence, that proves you're alive. It's a song stained red, pulsing through your veins at a million miles per hour. It's a song that works hard to keep you uplifted, and moving. The song of life, the song that would play until the universe itself ceases to exist.It was Uriel's favourite song. The song he grew to love with a bit of time, and a bit of patience. Or, as Erin put it, he always loved it. He just didn't know it yet.The more you hear it, the more you can't be without it.To be is being, and he is not so sure he can continue being anymore.The song he loved with every fibre of his being, with
The dangerous combination of his voice, the beautifully gentle lilt to it,his countenance, and enchanting words ascended Uriel's heart into an unreachable altitude, thumping away on a cloud of longing.Eyes clouded by this unfamiliar emotion, Uriel complied to Erin's request. Yearned for it. He captured Erin's lips between his. It was safe to say that the younger was moonstruck. Totally, utterly drowning in the deep blue sea that was Erin, yet soaring in the sky that was his mere touch. He was everything with Erin, and nothing without him. Nostrils flaring, Uriel breathed in Erin's sweet rosy aroma, wanting nothing more than to get drenched in his scent.He can see it in Erin's eyes. They're full of wonder, they razzle and dazzle under the blanket of twilight, they smile without prompt. He could see the haze that used to coat his irises when he was smiling or crying or both, he could see the light in them when the two of them got into