There are many versions of the phrase "Home is where . . ."
Home is where you hang your hat. I don't have a hat.
Home is where your heart is. I do have a heart (obviously) and even if I didn't I'd still want to live here.
My home is beautiful, a small paradise inside a traditional home, with a careful selection of light and dark woods, tatami, shoji and a beautiful garden in the centre and all around the outside. There are rocks, grass, shrubs, small trees, and a gently flowing river with a tiny waterfall into the koi pond. Most days I almost forget that it's artificial.
The whole environment is artificial. It has to be, or I could die.
I'm sick.
I have one of the rarest, if not, the rarest disease in the world, SCID. It stands for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. It's a miracle I've lived so long, and it's only because of my parents. They'd do anything for me, including modifying the house with air filters, and special glass.
Because traditional houses are hard to modify with modern additions, the whole property is encased in glass and filters. It's like a snow globe. I love snow. Whenever it snows, I stand outside and watch the flakes land on top of the glass, forming a white barrier blocking out the sky, an artificial night. It's my favourite thing.
It must have cost a lot, but I didn't muster up the courage to ask until I was nine. Mum shushed me and told me that it was worth it because I'd be spending the rest of my life here.
I started crying then, about all the things I wouldn't be able to do, begging to go outside. Of course, she didn't let me, or I would've died. That's what would happen if I ever went outside because I am essentially allergic to the world. Anything could make me sick, from brushing against a plant to the very air most people breathe, full of pollution and germ droplets from countless coughs and sneezes.
Now I'm 17 and I don't want to leave anyway. I stopped wanting that years ago. Everything I know and love is within these walls, My parents, my sister, everything. It's far better than living in some sealed-off hospital ward.
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EVERYTHING EVERY THING + TACHIZAKI +
FanficAfter the death of his sister due to childhood illness, Jun's mother hides him and his sister away from the world. When a new neighbour arrives his life starts to unravel and he starts to question why things are how they are in the first place. (Abi...
