EARTHBOUND

Lonely

It's Saturday again, and Johanne Wayland waits patiently in the outlandish men's usual seat.

Something about this day makes him feel uneasy, maybe because it's been two hours and he's still alone. No Wise, no Fool, to play and converse with. The ignorant is no stranger to loneliness. He just didn't think the cause of his loneliness were two unlikely people who he knew nothing about. Well, except for one.

He accepted a baggage. A name. The Wise, Alaric Faustus is now probably a friend. He wanted to know The Fool as well, but then the kid was so adamant in drawing the line in staying in this stranger-like relationship.

And now The Ignorant doesn't know where he stands.

Maybe they've cut him off completely? They've never talked about severing their connection nor said that they would stop showing up in their weekend escapade. There was no warning that he'd feel this shitty waiting for two guys he never should've known in the first place.

The Wise had said that there's no such thing as a coincidence, he said that everything is preordained. He didn't look like it but maybe he's more faithful than The Ignorant. Maybe he believed more than Johanne Wayland.

The Fool once said that you'd never feel lonely if no one was around. The ignorant has never understood the meaning of those words until today. They used to be around and now that they're gone, the hole they left behind is so big you'd notice it a mile away.

To be fair, The Ignorant didn't know he'd be this invested in other people. He didn't know the impact they'd had on him, how much influence they had on his daily life. Every single day he had to wake up hearing their words of wisdom, wishing that it would be Saturday again and looking forward to their routine.

It's not even a breakup but to Johanne Wayland it feels worse than that.

It's just one day! Maybe they'll show up next weekend? But for some reason The Ignorant knew that this would be the last time he'd come to this McDonald's.

But he couldn't just leave. So even if he's lonely, he takes a bite of his burger and continues to wait.

The person who sat down in front of him, on The Wise's usual seat, wasn't Alaric Faustus.

"Heya, Wayland, what you doin' here, mate?" the bright, all smiles, stranger, said.

"Stiles, what are you doing here?" Hunter Stiles, Johanne Wayland's former flatmate. They roomed together at the start of the year for Architecture's term, but Stiles wanted to be a doctor more than draw houses, so he just knew that his friend ran away from home to be a physician in the neighboring med school.

"Running an errand for my roommate." The man named Stiles smiled cryptically and fished something from his pockets and gave it to The Ignorant. "He said to give it to a blonde guy who looked all lonely sitting alone on the far end corner of the diner. I didn't realise he was talking about you, but the kid has always been obtuse, so here you go."

"What is this?" The Ignorant asked. He held the piece of paper Hunter Stiles gave him.

"A note, or a threat. I'm not sure. The kid said: 'The Wise thought I wouldn't know he would burden the poor guy, to make the gameboard fair, I too shall burden him,'."

Hearing those words, The Ignorant hurriedly unfolded the note. It only has two words. Or a name. Is what Johanne Wayland suspected.

Rindelle Snow.

"Is this his name?" The Ignorant mumbled.

"Yeah, he said it's a secret. I will tell him your name if you allow me." The Ignorant can only nod and stared confusedly at Stiles. What is his role in all this madness? "Great, then this is the next piece of information he told me to give you. There once was a kingdom in a far-off land in the highlands of the Northwest. There were two brothers who fought for their country's freedom—"