Silent Resilience

Perfect Reality?

"You never met Takashi's parents, have you?" Honey asked, hopping out of the limousine.

Adriel followed right after, with Mori tailing him. "No. I haven't met either of yours, actually"

"Then, today we can introduce them!" Honey chirped, skipping over to the front gates of the compound. He entered the passcode into the keypad, hearing a satisfying click as the gates swung open. "Oh, but Chika-chan and my family aren't here for tonight. Eh, I'm sure we'll meet them another day"

Adriel nodded, nearly tripping over his metal leg on the way through the gates. A servant took his bag silently, leaving before he could even say thank you. He looked up at the place Honey and Mori called 'home'.

He's been here before, so why did it look so different? Did they get a renovation?

Golden patterns dotted across the borders of the estate, with jade green tops shadowing the white ceramic base. Through the setting sun, the sequins shined like diamonds, glittering in a different angle with each step Adriel took forward.

The koi ponds and stone benches were in the same place as before. As the group walked over a short bridge arching a stream, he looked down into the clear water. Gold yellow, carmine red and titanium white fish swam in circles beneath him, elegant tails flipping through the water. When he walked over the bridge, he felt for a moment a sudden pang in his stomach, as though the floor opened up beneath him.

Gold plaques. ¥2306000. Koi ponds. ¥65600.

Adriel was very good at counting, despite his grades in Math. So immersed in this, that he hadn't realized Mori was calling his name until he felt a hand tap his shoulder.

"Are you hungry?" Mori asked, looking down. "We're having dinner soon"

Yes, Adriel was very hungry. "No, I'm not that hungry"

"But you only had a few bites of your lunch earlier" Honey turned around. "Come on, you're our guest! Let's go eat, I'm hungry!"

Adriel could feel himself nodding. His steps lagged behind on the way into the main building.

The main building was just as Adriel remembered it. Except his memory wasn't that good, so it was like walking into a foreign world, getting slammed with deja vu every second. There was an ink painting wherever you looked, with only a meter spared between them. In the empty meter, there sat a vase of flowers that matched the hallway's theme. There was not a speck of dust anywhere in the hall, which made Adriel remember that there must've been cleaning staff that worked here.

It was like an Ikea magazine. Or a plastic dollhouse. So perfect was it that Adriel took each step carefully and hesitantly, in fear that the weight of his feet could end up knocking over a vase or tilting a painting. Mori, who noticed just how slowly the shorter was walking, politely grabbed Adriel's hand and walked a bit faster. The tall male tried to ignore how ice cold the hand felt, and instead focused on Honey's rambling.

"Oba-san and Oji-san are super nice! Oji-san might be a bit stern looking, but he's smart" Honey smiled, waltzing without a care through the hall. "And Oba-san is quiet, but she's nice once you get her to start talking!"

"Is Satoshi the odd one out then?" Adriel asked, staggering to keep up with his companion's pace.

"He's a glitch in the bloodline" Mori stiffly answered, smiling after hearing a quiet laugh from the tan male.

As it turned out, that short laugh was the only time Adriel would emote for the entire night. And it wasn't even genuine.

The dining room was just as beautiful as the rest of the house. It seemed that the Morinozukas went with a traditional Japanese design, with a low bamboo table and cushions seated around it. The dim yellow lamps and wooden serving mats had not even a single scratch nor bug or spider web on them. When they arrived, Mori's parents and Satoshi were already there.