A Flower For A Muse 꽃｜花

In-Bloom 이

Previously-

The blonde boy's face paled.

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CAESAR'S POV:

Flashback-

It was around mid-April in 2007, and Caesar was nearly 6; living in a lower-class neighborhood was cozy to say the least, despite his parents are never at home because of work- Caesar always spent his time with his neighbor, Antheia, and her family, shes a family of 3 kids and being the middle child she didn't like being unseen or neglected so she always chooses to hang out with the boy as well, things were fun, she would invite him for dinner every other day because Caesar's parents sometimes have overtime and often arrive home around 12.

Caesar never experienced parental love, his dad being a businessman was rather corrupted by drug abuse while his mother would go on dates with other men in secret; leaving him always alone which was ideal, he rather be in a silent house than his parents' arguments.

Antheia's family was always welcoming and warm, and it grew on him, he would call her parent's mom and dad and sometimes even secretly sleep over but it's not like his parents ever noticed, eventually throughout the elementary years those two kids became closer, practically twins but one's feeling stayed the same, but on the other hand, another felt something more than the bottom line of friendship, he was completed fine with it being one-sided, he never ask for much except unconditional love and Antheia gives him more than that.

December 25th. CHRISTMAS.

His parents were home and it wasn't pretty, the house wasn't decorated nor there were warm meals to eat, let alone a singular present, Caesar's mom tried to give his son a fresh breakfast but noticed the groceries weren't refilled for a while, and his dad was nowhere to be seen but it was a good thing for the boy, he didn't like his dad at all. The morning was quiet as the two sat in the kitchen and chewed on pancakes.

A call rang and his mom picked it up, although it was muffled, it was clearly a man's voice inside the phone,  his mom smiled at the voice and quickly got up, neatly fixed her clothes and left the house, without another word to Caesar.

He didn't care. The blonde was waiting for her to leave so he could go visit Atheia again, her family told him that he was welcome to come over for Christmas and even prepared a small present for him.

He rushed over to her house and spent the rest of the day with her.A week later, they were hanging out in her room; he noticed the packed bags sitting in the corner, not a moment later Antheia broke the news to him, that she was moving away back to Cuba because of financial difficulties.

The poor kid didn't take the news very well but he also didn't want to cry in front of a girl, all he could think of at the moment was to run back to his room, back to the dull house. Caesar was around 11, a year away from middle school with his only friend, Antheia whom he chose to make because he was afraid the other kids wouldn't be as kind to him as her, and she was moving away. Because Caesar didn't want to witness her moving, causing he to avoid her everywhere until she entirely moved away. That was the biggest regret and mistake he committed in childhood.

Flashback ends-

3RD POV:
With all the color washed out of his face, dread and guilt sunk inside his stomach pit as if all air was knocked out of his lungs. Barely did he manage to stand up with Hoku's arms as a support, every man was confused around him but no one spoke up.

ANTHEIA: Caesar...?

She called out again, in hopes of him answering back.

With no audible respond, he was frozen in guilt.