Zorome X Miku: The Forgotten Plantation

32: Downcast

It was very hard for Miku to get any sleep that night. She couldn't stop thinking about Zorome's odd behaviour. The way he had been acting lately chilled her deep to her very core. It was unlike anything she had ever seen with him. He was normally very upfront with his emotions and would quite loudly voice his thoughts and various opinions on things. He had sulked in the past from time to time but he had simply been grumpy. He hadn't actually gone off on his own. The fact that he had done that made her wonder what the severity of his issues was. She decided that she'd go to him first thing in the morning and demand an answer for his very worrying antics. Otherwise, she knew she wouldn't be able to get any peace. She needed to know what her partner's problem was and her concern for him was eating away at her mind.

***

When Miku awoke the next morning, the first thing she did was leave the room to see where Zorome was. She looked upstairs first and ran into Hiro, who told her that he saw Zorome in the bathroom a few minutes earlier, detangling his hair in the mirror. 

The blizzard had ended at some point during the night and now a fresh, thick blanket of snow lay outside. Whenever she looked outside one of the windows, she was greeted with the sight of glittering snow. It reminded her of gemstones and jewelry. Even though the snow was cold and inconvenient, it wasn't ugly by any means. Quite the contrary, in fact. The glittering white blanket of snow was a pretty sight to behold. It was really a sight for sore eyes.

Now, Miku waited outside the boys' bathroom door. The parasites no longer used the utilities in the bathroom, though they went there to fix themselves up and sometimes give themselves some privacy when they didn't feel like interacting with the others. Now that the weather was growing colder, she guessed that most of her squadmates would seek refuge in the bathroom for alone time since they now couldn't go into the woods as much as they had for the past several months. 

Futoshi left the boys' room and noticed Miku standing outside the bathroom. He went over to her, causing her to look at him questioningly.

"Did Zorome tell you anything?" She asked. To her utter disappointment, Futoshi shook his head.

"No. He told me he wanted to go to sleep and I don't think he's said a word to anyone else since. Is he in the bathroom?" Futoshi's worried brown gaze flickered briefly over to the bathroom door.

Miku sighed and nodded. "Yep. Hiro told me he went in there. I wonder what's up with him." She clenched her fingers into tight fists and let out a frustrated growl. "I swear, I'm going to give him a very stern talking to for making us all worry like that!"

Futoshi just sighed. "I'll talk to him about it. He won't like you being in the bathroom. Just wait here, okay?" He stepped into the boys' bathroom, leaving Miku all by herself in the hallway. 

It felt odd standing there in the boys' wing. It wasn't the first time she had done so but she didn't really go there very often. When she did, she was only usually there for a few seconds or so just to find someone or tell one of the boys something. Even though they lived on their own now and didn't really have any rules saying they had to stay on their own respective wings, Miku still found it very weird whenever she did end up going to the boys' wing. 

The sound of muffled voices coming from inside the bathroom caught Miku's attention. She immediately pressed her ear against the door, listening to what Zorome and Futoshi were talking about there.

"...worried a lot about you." Futoshi had just finished a sentence. He sounded worried and somewhat bewildered at the same time. "Don't you want to talk to us?"

"I said I'm fine!"  Zorome's irritated snappy voice caused Miku to roll her eyes. He was probably just trying to play it cool. He wasn't the type of boy who liked it when others were worried about him. Miku wouldn't have been surprised if he had simply been too dense to think about worrying them before heading off into the snowstorm. 

"You don't seem fine," Futoshi asserted himself in a firm yet fretful tone of voice. "We were all worried about you. We still are worried about you, Zorome. If there's something wrong, you know you can tell us about it, right?"

Zorome let out a long sigh. "Yeah, sure, I guess."

"Are you going to tell me why you wandered off yesterday, at least?" Futoshi asked softly. 

"No." The sound of Zorome's footsteps coming closer to the door caused Miku to back away. She managed to be out of the door's range just in time for it to fly open. 

"What gives?" Miku demanded, glaring at Zorome's sulky face. "Why did you wander around yesterday in that blizzard? You're out of your mind!"

Zorome's eyes flashed with annoyance. "I wish you would all get off my back," He muttered. "I just wanted a bit of time to myself, alright? I wanted the exact opposite of what you are doing right now." He cast his gaze down at his feet again and began walking down the hall. "Whatever. I'll just go see if breakfast is ready, I guess."

"What's wrong with you?" Miku cried after him in frustration. He only grunted and didn't look at her as he turned the corner to go downstairs. 

Futoshi just sighed. "Well, that's Zorome for you. He's too stubborn to change his mind about this. I'll just try talking to him later. Maybe I'll get him to play catch with me or something."

"Yeah...maybe." Miku hoped that her friend was right. She hoped that Zorome would lighten up a bit more and spend time doing what he usually did with his friends.