Paper Bags

Paper Bags 02

Obviously, breaking the news that this 'fact' was not actually a fact was harder than it seemed. Mainly because well, no one would believe them. It didn't take a genius to know the outcome would be laughter at their face or worse, be yelled at for causing chaos and mayhem. Maybe Haru would see a day in the Isolation Centre, a similar system to a prison, if he even tried.

When he glanced at his best friend, sporting a pair of furrowed eyebrows and tilted downwards lips, Haru was sure he felt the same way.

But that shouldn't stop them.

They walked side by side down the hallways, walls in dark orange that resembled of a fruit harbouring the same name. The grounds had bits of dust around the edges, mostly from the debris that the residents of this place brought in with them from outside. And with each thud of the friends' shoes on the concrete floor, the particles jumped to their beat — serving as a hammer against their reality that they had found something that none of these people had even realised.

How surreal was that.

"Well, what's the plan?" Jason asked once they took a sharp turn to the right, the hallway now branched out further to four other halls, this time the walls were painted in different colours.

They headed down the purple corridor.

Doors apart in even space greeted them with wooden plaques nailed against them — on it were numbers and names of the people who resided behind these barriers, frankly looking like they were written on with a marker. Haru reached the space shared with his family, Jason by his side.

"I'm not sure," Haru said, giving him a smile when the other man raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know?" Jason frowned. "For someone so adamant in proving that the fact is wrong, you really didn't have a plan on what to do next?"

He shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a do-first-and-think-later kind of guy."

That earned a snort from his friend, those green eyes twinkled in mirth. He grasped the knob to his house door, yanking it open. Inside consisted of a narrower hallway, in beige this time, and wooden planks for floors. Just ahead was a step made out of the same wood before it opened up to a big, rectangular space divided into a small kitchen on the left, a living room and further on the left side were three doors for two bedrooms and a bathroom.

Haru took off his shoes, his socks — his left one had a hole on his big toe — mopped the floor almost as he walked past the couch and coffee table before he reached his room. He glanced over his shoulders, noting that his best friend was following him and wandered to his bed. Sitting down with a flop, the springs creaking with high-pitched squeaks, he waited until the other man had stood in front of him to open his mouth.

"I suggest we talk to Fatima and Rain first," Jason said, cutting him off before he could even get a word out.

That... sounded fair. Haru nodded once, leaning onto his palms that were planted on the mattress. "Right! Then what?"

"And then, we hope Fatima has some idea on what to do next." Jason grinned.

It made sense. Fatima was smarter than both of their heads combined and she was more logical than anyone gave her credit for. Still, bringing up the 'fact' that the air does not turn anyone into a frog if exposed to it was a difficult feat. Haru leaned forward, hooking his feet at the frame of his bed and let his elbows rest on his knees, eyebrows furrowed.

"What if she doesn't believe us?" he asked his friend.

Jason hummed, placing a hand on his hip. "We just have to take the chance. When have we ever lied to her or Rain?"

Haru opened his mouth, staring at the other man. "I can think of a few times. Like when we ditched her at the library pretending to be sick but really it's to venture outside to collect barks of wood for a prank on our Maths teacher. Or when we managed to switch Rain's tube of lipstick with a crayon that changed colours and she wore blue lips all day." After a beat he added, "Or when we gave Fatima—"

"Those are not lies," Jason said, cheeks a bit redder than before. "We just omitted the truth."

"No, the first one is definitely a lie." Haru chuckled when his friend sighed and rolled his eyes. "Geez, how did we ended up having friends?"

"Because..." And then there was a brief silence. "Yeah, I don't know either."

Haru chuckled again, because by some miracle, they managed to find the two incredible women as their friends, forming a group that called themselves 'The Four Musketeers — Because Why Be Three When You Can Be Four'. It was a long name... but they couldn't agree on shortening it so there it was.

"Fine," Haru said, dropping a leg onto the floor. "Let's go see Fatima and Rain. Where do you think they'll be at?"

"The library?"

Typical. If there was one place the two women liked to huddle up in, it was at the Underground Books and Papers Shelter. He nodded, standing up. The quicker they head there, the quicker they could persuade their other friends to join in this battle against the lies spouted at them! Haru could already see it. Once they formed a proper plan to unleash the truth the citizen of this town, no, the whole world deserved to know, they would be heroes.

Their faces would be plastered all over media and people would respect and bow down at their feet. Maybe people would even reward him with tons of money, enough to make towers out of it and have him swimming in it.

The adoration, the fans screaming for him, the—

"Your face looks weird," Jason said, shattering his dreams and dragging him back to reality faster than he could blink. He gestured at Haru's face. "Like... constipation. Are you constipated?"

"What? No," he said, rolling his eyes. "I was just imagining how it would be when we are famous for revealing the truth! Revolutionaries, they would call us!"

"Or..." Jason took a step towards him. "We'll be thrown into jail for trying to overthrow a well-known rule in place to protect people. And then we'll rot in cells until the day we die."

Haru scoffed, placing his hands on his best friend's shoulders. "You, my friend, are so fucking pessimistic, you make grey clouds look like the sun."

"And you are so high up in cloud nine, I'm surprised your feet still on the ground." Jason shook of his hands, gesturing him to get a move on. "Come on, let's go before the girls decide that they'll find a new place to share their interest in whatever it is they like."

Haru conceded but not before he said, "You may laugh now, but you'll see I'm right when we're in front of millions of adoring fans."

"Sure, hotshot. Let's try to get the girls on board first before trying to get any 'fans'."