Behind his dimpled smile and sugary eyes lies a past of hardships. Zee lives aimlessly, hopping from job to job, unable to keep stable employment. But when he is invited to take a position at the prestigious Haven Hotel, Zee's life changes from a le...
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The air was thick and sticky from the heat, making their breaths feel like mirages. The perspiration falling along Zee's temple was hot and could pass for the crawling of a critter along his skin as he stared at Chawarin's gaze upon the tree by his mother's grave. The last time he'd visited his parents' graves, there was a tree here too. Right by the head of his mother's gravestone. But that was the first anniversary of their death. And thirteen years later... the same tree had been there, flourishing even more than it did before. Having been uprooted and torn down, yet the tree eerily continued to bloom. Zee stared deep into Chawarin's tight lips.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Chawarin rolled his bottom lip in, clasping it under his teeth, "I... I've only seen the Blood Tree in full bloom once before. And yet... there's one here."
"What Blood Tree?" Zee was trying to deny what he'd understood. His mother's corpse... Her buried body had become—
"Zee," Chawarin pulled Zee's arm, making their eyes flick towards each other, locking into each other, "Your mother was planted. She was a Blood Seed."
Tremors occurred along Zee's knees, threatening to make him fall from his firm stance. He didn't understand anything, but he had understood everything. It made him quiver. It made him shake. Not from fear or disgust. It made him concerned.
"Zee." Chawarin held onto Zee's arm as he took a half-step back. Zee glanced down at him and his eyes were wide, concerned.
Zee smiled, "Nhu."
"Are you okay?"
"Would it disgust you to meet my mother, a Blood Seed?"
Chawarin froze, blinking. Then the tense muscles around his lips relaxed and his grip around Zee's arm loosened, still firm to hold onto Zee but not in an effort to hold him afloat, "What nonsense. I'd be honored to meet your mother and father."
Zee smiled and pulled Chawarin in by the waist, his hand still wavering. However, he sternly walked back to the grave stones and picked up the flowers he'd thrown on the headstones. The shade of the tree made the breeze cool as it blew past them, making the shadows under the tree dance and wave. He opened the bouquet and pulled the flowers out. Chawarin watched him with wide eyes and Zee chuckled. Then he placed a single stem on his father's headstone and the remaining on his mother's. He picked up the singular flower and plucked off the head of the flower. Chawarin let out a soft gasp as he watched Zee place the head of the white petals on his mother's grave along with the others. Then he placed the decapitated stem back on his father's headstone.
Zee laughed as he watched Chawarin's expression. He pulled his arms to the front of his thighs, rubbing them with his palms, "My father—" he explained as he kept his eyes on the stem, "—He often joked that when he died, he wanted my mother and I to visit his grave with a single white flower. And he wanted us to pluck off the petals of the flower and to keep them. He wanted us to keep them and then he would look at me and tell me that he wanted me to save all those petals and give those petals to my mother when she died. He said he wanted her to be buried with the beautiful parts of his farewell."
