Sweet Devil [BL]

Chapter 59. A Ghost?

Misha looked around the living room with a helpless smile, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He stood at the foot of the stairs for a long time, unable to help but wonder if he was dreaming while awake.

The usually tidy living room had gone through a tremendous change overnight. Colorful decorations hung on the wall here and there, their bright colors contrasting vividly against the gray walls. Balloons floated all over the place; a few also laid on the dark wooden floor, gathered near the L-shaped sofa or the folding table and chairs. Dinosaur-themed tablecloths covered most of the furniture, invaded by unhealthy food, while wrapped gifts piled up in a corner, forming a small mountain.

But the most striking thing was still the big banner in the center of the living room; it wished Misha a happy 10th birthday.

When his eyes landed on it, Misha couldn't help but feel a little ill at ease deep down. Despite his current appearance, he wasn't ten years old but in the middle of his twenties; there was a difference of more than a decade between the two ages! With this in mind, he somewhat felt like a self-conscious woman who refused to accept how old she was, always telling people a number that was obviously not right and insisting on it.

While Misha was busy thinking about how this situation was as bizarre as ridiculous, someone sneaked up on him from behind. A second later, arms wrapped him in a tight hug.

"So? How do you find our work of art? Mom and I worked very hard while you were sleeping to make this. And I don't want to brag, but most of the decorations are handmade, and the result looks quite good. Aren't your sister and mother awesome?" Masha laughed, putting her chin on her brother's head. "I can't believe you're already ten years old. You're a big boy now."

"And you, you're an old girl!" Misha teased back, sticking out his tongue as he tried to escape from her arms. "Hey! I'm not a teddy bear! Let me go! I told you to let me go!!!"

Though his sister's arms appeared slender, her grip was still akin to an iron grip. Misha struggled and struggled, but he was unable to free himself. He had to wait until Masha had enough fun teasing him, and only then did she consent to release him.

Once freed from his sister's clutches, Misha fled to the kitchen as if he had met the devil in the flesh. He quickly ate his breakfast, stuffing his cheeks like a squirrel, before going back to his bedroom and changing his clothes.

When he ran down the stairs and walked to the living room for the second time, he saw his whole family gathered on the sofa, including his father.

It was hard to describe how Misha felt after seeing his father on this particular day. Even before he cut him out of his life, Alexey had long stopped celebrating his birthday with him in their past life. Once, his drunk father had even entered his bedroom to beat him up after midnight. That time, he had repeatedly told him that he should never have been born, that he was a mistake.

Back then, Gabriel slept like the dead in another room, and Masha was out working a night shift, so no one knew what had happened that night and how much it made Misha resent the day he was born. He had never liked celebrating his birthday since then.

At least, the young teenager that he was at the time had been excused from school the following day. He remembered refusing to get out of his bedroom, saying to his sister and Gabriel that he had a stomachache or something along those lines. In a way, it wasn't a complete lie. Dozens of bruises covered half of his stomach, the side that his father kept on kicking. And so, his stomach did indeed hurt like hell, but that wasn't exactly due to eating spoiled food or being constipated.

Misha clenched his fists behind his back, trying to chase away the bad memories. Right now, his father wasn't that man, that violent drunkard; no, he was a loving and doting father. But even though he knew this, he couldn't help but overlap the two persons, always afraid that his father would turn into a monster at the moment he least expected it.