The Candle And The Boy

The Hidden Truth

Ren sat on the floor, eyes closed, breathing heavily after facing the reality of his death. But deep inside, he couldn't ignore the growing curiosity within him. Who was the man with the red face really? And why had he always felt that this person had a strange connection to him? Questions began to pile up in his mind, and he could no longer push them aside.

"Tell me... who are you? Why am I here? What is your relation to all this?"

The man with the red face stood in his usual spot, watching Ren with a mysterious gaze from behind his mask. He seemed to have been waiting for this moment for a long time.

"You know, don't you? The truth is starting to reveal itself to you. This place, me, everything is not as it seems."

Ren replied, "I know I'm dead... but why? Who are you?"

The man with the red face quietly sat down in the chair across from Ren, as if preparing to tell a long story.

"My name... is not important. I'm not someone you can easily understand. I came here to help you, Ren. I was here to guide you toward the truth, but you have always rejected it."

Ren bowed his head, as if his mind could no longer bear the weight of this information. What did he mean by rejecting the truth?

"The truth? What truth was I trying to escape from?"

The man with the red face sighed slowly and then pointed to the mirror hanging on the wall.

"You did not die due to a random accident as you believed. The real reason for your death is something much closer... your mother."

Ren felt his heart stop for a moment. His mother? He couldn't comprehend this information.

"My mother? What do you mean?!"

The man with the red face stood up and began to walk slowly around the room, as if his narrative was taking on a special storytelling tone.

"Your mother, Ren, was not as you thought. She pushed you toward the end. She saw you as a burden. Your mental struggles, your wrong decisions-she viewed you as an obstacle in her life, and getting rid of you seemed like a solution."

Memories began to flood Ren's mind, but he refused to believe them. He loved his mother and thought their relationship was normal, but these words started to tear apart everything he knew.

"No, that's not true! She loved me!"

The man with the red face smiled sadly, as if his words carried an undeniable truth.

"She may have loved you. But that love was not enough. She saw you as the embodiment of everything she had lost in her life. Every dream that faded, every opportunity that slipped away. In the end, she was the one who pushed you toward the fate that found you."

Ren burst into tears, unable to bear those painful truths. He remembered the nights he heard his mother crying in her room, recalling her dry words that came out exhausted after long arguments.

"I didn't know... why didn't she tell me? Why didn't I understand?"

The man with the red face moved closer to him and sat beside him.

"Love can be complicated, Ren. Your mother was not evil, but she was lost. You were her mirror for everything she could not achieve, and that weighed heavily on her."

Ren took a shaky breath, confused between feelings of anger, sadness, and regret. Everything made a horrific kind of sense, as if every part of the story was revealing itself to him clearly for the first time.

"But... why? Why are you here?"

The man with the red face paused for a moment, as if the answer to this question required deep thought.

"I was here to help you see the truth, Ren. I have been here since the moment you realized you were dead. I cannot change what happened, but I can help you understand it."

Ren was silent for a moment, then asked quietly, "Were you trying to help me?"

The man with the red face replied, "Yes, all along."

A calm returned to the space, but this time it was different. Ren began to see the bigger picture; he started to understand the reason behind everything.