CHAPTER 1 - THE PACKAGE

On a Monday morning, in a house filled with only one person to entertain...

*Ring ring!*

The sound of an alarm saturates the room, it reflects from one object to another, making it very clear and loud to the ears of the one living there. It startled the boy who was comfortably sleeping in his bedsheets. He grunts in annoyance, he blinks his eyes and slowly his vision comes into focus.

"Agh, it's morning already? Can't today come later..?"

He speaks to himself as he gets up from bed. The warm ray of sunlight touches his skin, passing through the blinds, he can hear the chatter of people outside. So hectic, so wild, so irritating, he dislikes the noises. He heads downstairs, ignoring the voices. The outside world is so noisy, but in his world, it's all so empty, so quiet, so peaceful. The white bricked walls, the beautiful light brown yet stained wooden floors, only one's footsteps and creaks of floors can be heard, echoing through the halls, filling the whole room with a sense of loneliness but soothing atmosphere.

He begins to make breakfast, just a bowl of cereal and milk. He pours the cereal, a silly thought occurred to him,

"Who even pours milk first before cereal? I hate those type of people, if there's an easy way, why make it complicated? Not my problem I guess..."

He sits down at the dining table, one that was once filled with love, laughter, and comfort has now changed to a solitary spot filled with harsh memories. He reminisces about the old times, when his family was still intact. A lone teenager, sitting at his usual spot holding a spoon, digging into his bowl of grain cereal.

He remembers the events that happened in the past so clearly, he knows he can't change what has already been done. In frustration, the spoon in his hand fell and clattered to the floor followed by the spill of his cereal grains and milk. He flinched and snaps back to reality, as he was about to clean up the mess, he hears a knock on the door.

"Excuse me! Delivery for Mr. Aikawa!"

"What? I didn't order anything though."

Confused, he walks toward the door and is greeted by a deliveryman,

"Can I help you?"

"You've got a package sir."

"You must be mistaken, I didn't buy anything."

"Well, the address here is for Mr. Aikawa, 142-1293, Kishi, Musashimurayama-shi, Tokyo. And I see that your address is definitely the same as the address written on this package so I doubt there's a mistake here. Maybe it's a surprise package for you!"

The boy did not have a good feeling about the mystery package but despite being suspicious, he chose to accept it just to escape from further conversation.

"Fine. I'll take it, goodbye."

Before Yukito managed to close the door, the deliveryman stopped him and asked him to sign a form,

"Wait! Before you go, could you sign this form right here please?"

"Ugh, this guy is so annoying" the boy mumbled.

"(Sigh) Where should I sign?"

"Right here please!"

He forcefully signs the form, bids farewell to the deliveryman, and shuts the door.

Yukito puts the package on the living room sofa next to the dining table. After cleaning up his cereal mess, he goes to check the package.

"What is this suspicious looking package? Who sent it here? It feels like there's an ominous aura lurking around this package... Should I open it? I've got a bad feeling about this but... AGHH!"

The boy scratches his messy hair in dilemma, should or should he not open the package?

"You know what, I'll just open it later!

..What time is it right now?"

He looks at the clock and the needle shows that it is currently 9 in the morning. He usually goes to school at 7 AM but ever since the incident, he doesn't attend school anymore.

"Hm, 9 AM huh.."

Memories start flooding his mind again. Just a year ago, he attended school with perfect scores, always present, never missed any classes, had many friends, honorable student, but now.. He has drastically changed. Sometimes, he doesn't even recognize himself.

Just like any other day, Yukito opened his computer, put on his headphones, and started playing. He slowly forgets about the strange package.

***

Hours passed by, it is currently 5 PM. He had been so busy gaming, he didn't realize so much time has slipped away. While walking to the bathroom, he overhears the front door creaking open.

"She must be back, I really don't want to deal with her nagging. Let's just quietly take a shower and go back in peace," Yukito thought to himself.

Turns out, his "mother" had just come home from work. Everyday, she constantly pesters him, telling him to go back to school, or go outside, or just touch some grass and other stuff. But, behind all those nagging, she's probably just worried for her son..

"Yeah right, son? She doesn't even see me that way. That's such nonsense."

As he walks through the hallway, the sun starts to set, leaving hints of orangeness passing through the glassed window behind his back. The warm atmosphere makes him feel suffocated, he hopes to reach the bathroom quickly. But a voice snatches his attention,

"Yukito? Are you there?"

He stays silent.

"Have you eaten yet?"

He doesn't respond and stays still,

"..."

"Okay then, I'll prepare dinner for you. Just..." She sighs,

"...Come down and eat when you're finished."

After the voice disappeared, he eases up and starts to make his way to the bathroom again. Step by step, the thuds and squeaking of floorboards can be heard from downstairs. Eventually, he reaches his destination. Time felt so long in that narrow sun-filled hall, it was warm but the air stifled him. It's alright now, all that matters is that he's finally inside the bathroom.

The room is filled with different colored square ceramic pieces on its walls, a faucet sits next to the door. The moon can be seen from the ventilation gap above the shiny silver showerhead. He takes off his shirt and closes the polyester curtains to prevent eyes from spying on him.

He's refreshed, the dark circles that were hanging under his eyes are now gone. Even so, the feeling of having to go downstairs and meeting the woman who had delivered him to this world drains him. His eyes are as empty as a night sky without its moon and stars. It is as deep as the ocean, and there is no way to understand what's going on inside his head.

Even he, himself, doesn't understand what he yearns for. His mind is always puzzled, his heart always heavy,

"How long will this go on?"

He exits the shower and begins to shake his head, tiny drops of water splashes everywhere. His raven black hair is dried up by the soaking wet used beige towel, such a boring color to be quite honest. He wipes his face, puts on his clothes, and heads downstairs. His heart beats fast, confused on what to say the next he sees his "mother", the thought vexed him.

As he walks down the vintage wooden staircase, he glances over the pictures hanging alongside the walls. He remembers every bit of the story behind each picture and it just made his mood worse. At last, he is now met face to face with his so called "mother".

"Yukito..."

The dining room is filled with awkwardness. Silence filled the air for a moment. Instantly, it was broken by another sentence,

"Let's eat, shall we?"

Yukito, the boy who was alone in the morning till the evening nods his head. He and his "mother" sit at the same dining table. He stares at the food served by his "mother", it's his favorite meal. Omelette rice with a hint of seaweed sprinkled on top.

It sickened him, "I'm not hungry."

"You should at least eat a little, I'm worried about you Yukito..."

"How dare she say something like that. After everything that happened?! Now she's pretending to be worried, what a fake face. I'm so sick of that fake smile, fake affection, fake attitude, fake, fake, EVERYTHING IS FAKE." Those words ran through his mind, filling up every room in his brain, he can't think about anything else.

"I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE!" He screamed inside his head,

"Yukito? Is something wrong?"

He snaps back to reality, he stands up and slams the table. The deafening bang caught his "mother" off-guard, confused and shocked, she couldn't say another word. Yukito spins around and walks away in frustration. He goes upstairs, this time he doesn't glance at the pictures on the walls. He walks through the initially warm luminous hallway, now dark and cold, towards his room.

As he arrives, he suddenly remembers about the package he had received earlier but there was no way he could go back downstairs to grab it. Especially after what just happened.

A few moments later, at 12 AM, he rose from his bed and went downstairs. There's no one here, his "mother" is probably asleep by now. It's pitch-black, no light can be seen in the room. He tiptoed across to grab the package.

He sharply analysed the package, the name of the sender is smudged. There is zero information about this mysterious box.

"No sender? No date or place?"

With curiousity and cautiousness, he slowly unwraps the odd package,

"What.? How did this get here...?"

There, he sees his old necklace, the one he lost when he was a kid. It was still as shiny as the day he first received it, the yellow necklace glimmered and twinkled. Hanging under the chains, an oval-shaped locket swayed, back and forth. The necklace is made from gold and beautiful motifs are drawn over it. He recalls the person who gave him that necklace.

Now, he doesn't want anything related to them as it just gives him bad memories. He instantly closes the package and hurls it into the trash bin outside of his room. 

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