Soul

Inhale

Levi

There I was, trying so hard not to breathe the air around me, aside from pollution coming from the smoke and burning fuels, I had to avoid inhaling the scent of other people, not literally their scents, that's gross, what I meant for scents was their souls.

But this is futile, I lost my mask and I have no other choice but to hold in my breathe, the crowd began to gather and their scents were all over the place, all over me. I fell to my knees, unable to take any step further due to the tightness over my chest, the crowd passed by and I wished they would all just disappear.

Get away

Stop it

Don't get close to me

I don't want this...

I don't want to...

"Are you okay?" a voice asked, and I looked up and saw a stranger, he wasn't wearing a mask so I could clearly see his face, his eyes. I've held my breathe for too long, I think I'm about to faint, he tried to help me get up but I can't anymore.

"You don't have your mask on, is the scents bothering you?" he asked and I nodded, afraid to speak in case I took a gasp of air. "You're a strong guy for having held out for so long, here" he handed me a cloth mask, I quickly took it from his hand to cover my mouth and nose, I took shallow breathes, and felt relief all over me.

"Th-Thank you..." I told the stranger and he smiled at me, I've never seen another person's face without a mask before, but his expression was sincere. "You're not affected by the scents?" I asked him and he smiled again, he sure likes smiling a lot.

"Oh, I'm affected by them, but I don't mind", "B-but that means you already lost yourself!" I said, quickly pitying him because when you inhale so much of other people's scents, you lose yourself in them and you... become them.

"I don't see myself as lost though..." he said, helping me up "It's more like I have no particular destination and merely taking in everything I can, kind of like a detour", "The scents have truly ruined you! We can share the mask!" I said but he just laughed at me.

"I don't need it, my mom just asks me to bring it... But you can have it" he said "Why don't we start with introducing ourselves? My name is Eren", "I'm Levi... Just Levi" I said, and we shook hands. "Levi is a nice name, it's a Hebrew name that means: Attached or Pledged", "What? Where'd you learn that??" 

"Google told me"

"As I thought you really inhaled too many scents!"

......

I don't want to change

Once you are surrounded by others, you breathe in their scents, a part of their souls, and that small part will get mixed into yours and they will take over you, they will change you, and you will get lost.

But this person, Eren, never changed despite being exposed to them. Ever since he helped me that day, we had met frequently on the street, I found out that he works near there and we head home together. Eventually we started hanging out, Eren wasn't like everyone else, the not-wearing-a-mask part reveals it, but it's also the way he talks about a lot of things he read in google and tumblr.

He invited me over to his apartment once, to play video games and when I told him I've never played before he literally sat me down in front of the computer and taught me about Counter Strike which is a really cool game, it was old for Eren but to me it was new, and he was glad he got to show it to me.

He then told me how to create my own blog, but I'm barely out of work to ever use it. Then he introduced me to Fanfiction. net and I already published a fanfic there, I would have continued to write there had I not forgotten my password, so Eren introduced me to 9gag and I already uploaded a lot of memes, most were suggested by Eren.

We had fun together, we simply hung out and chatted about almost anything, usually it was about this meme he found about Ash using an Escape rope but on the picture it was Ash hanging himself (it's real btw). I never played pokemon, I'm not even hyped about pokemon go which immediately died out because everyone got too lazy to go outside.

Eren works in a publishing company, he's in the manga department and he's very passionate about it, he told me that almost everyone there wasn't wearing any mask, it was a free place, and I like how he described it, but at the same time I was worried.

There was a time where he asked me to try and take off the mask, but when I strongly refused he just said "Okay okay, I won't force you..." and he never mentioned it again.

To be honest I am kind of curious, at the same time I'm scared, what if this isn't the real Eren? What if he really just inhaled a lot of scents that he's really lost? If that's the case then I have to help him get himself back, the same way he helped me when we first met.

"I told you Levi, I'm not going to wear a mask...", "Just for a day, please?" I asked, handing him one but he only shook his head. "I don't need to wear it, I don't like wearing it, I enjoy other people's scents anyway" he said and I looked at him coldly, "Are you some kind of pervert? Don't go sniffing people around, that's disgus--", "Levi, enough!"

This was new, Eren never gets angry, this is definitely because of the souls, he inhaled too many scents. "I'm not a pervert Levi, I don't go around sniffing people I don't like so please just drop it..." he said, and I fell silent, quietly figuring out how I can get him to listen.

"This isn't you Eren, you just inhaled so much scents that's why you're...", "What? a guy can't be angry after being offended for being who he is? Huh, Levi?" he stood up and grabbed me by my wrists and pushed me down the floor.

"After all this time we spent together, do you still think that it's not me? Hm?", "Th-That's not what I meant!" I struggled by he was weighing me down, "I never forced you take off the mask didn't I? So why are you forcing me to wear one? Do you want me to be just like everyone else? Just like you?" he grabbed my mask and threw it away.

"No!" I held in my breathe and struggled to free myself from him, what's happening to Eren? He would never do that to me, it's the souls, they're changing him! "You can hold in your breathe for as long as you like Levi, but it's already too late..." he whispered

"A mask doesn't fully protect you from the souls, it only lessens the amount of souls you take in, and how many days, weeks, or months have we've been spending our time together, yet you're still the same, I'm still the same when we first met and now, nothing's changed between us Levi..." he said

"There is!" I said, finally exhaling and gasping for breathe. "Do you think I would never figure it out Eren?! Your scent is all over me, You're all over me, we do almost everything together now, we even eat out after work and we'd crash into each other's place without telling the other, everything's changed Eren! We started out as strangers and now look at you, look at me! We're in this situation with this weird atmosphere around us, and you tell me nothing's changed?!"

"And is that wrong?!" he punched his fist near my head, scaring me "I-I'm sorry..." he said, fighting back tears, Eren never cries. He quickly stood up and grabbed his things, "Wait!" I called out, and he stopped before he reached for the door, "Right now, I don't know what I might do to you..." He said and I let him leave.

I lifted my mask from the floor and looked at it, it was the same mask that Eren gave me months ago, I wash it every now and then but then I realized that no matter how many times it was dirtied, no matter how many times I clean it...

It always smells like Eren.