Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
***
I've always wondered what it would feel like to control your dreams.
Fly, talk to animals, explore every inch of any world. As long as you can imagine it, you can do whatever you wish in your sleep.
And so, surfaces the question: If I could do, see or have anything, what would it be?
The first thing that came to mind, was to go back in time three years ago, to the moment I watched Saya leave.
I regret staying more than I can bare.
We would have travelled the world together, gone to the beach, seen it all until it was time to settle down. We would find a place where no one knew about the Kurokis or the Yakuza and buy a normal house, have a normal job.
But then, I realized this life I created in my head would never come to be. The problem with dreaming is that, eventually, you have to wake up.
In reality, the odds of us finding somewhere so remote he won't be able to find us, is scarily close to none. We sold a piece of our soul to him, and no property of his will ever belong to someone else, or will ever be more or less than what he designed it for.
He owned us.
"Jun?" Hiroshi stepped quietly into my room and slid the door back closed. "I heard you were sick."
I remember this day. Perhaps the best I've had in a long time.
It had been a week since Saya ran away and I have never been more scared. We agreed she wouldn't tell me where she would go so that, when I was questioned, no knowledge I held would lead to her. But I had picked up on some things.
The marks on my face and hands were beginning to heal, but I needed them to hurt me again. I didn't deserve to heal so quickly when I may have just cost Saya her life.
I expected torture, but not the way it happened. They didn't just beat me, they played with my head.
For hours on end, I fought to keep what I knew to myself, but my head forgot the part of my brain that thought rationally. Then came a time where I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't remember my sister or the possibility of him finding her, I just needed it to stop.
Like a sinner looking for salvation, I confessed. I told them everything I knew.
Hiroshi, the son of the lady who'd been cooking for my family for years, noticed I hadn't come out of my room in a while and came to visit me.
No one knew I had been tortured, he made sure of it, because I was still his niece. We still had to maintain the image of the Kuroki family. Stable and unwavering.
I was, in fact, being held inside my room until I 'recovered' and no one was allowed inside. However, the only advantage of being a servant in the Kuroki household is to be completely overlooked.
I pull up the blanket and turn to the wall.
"I thought maybe I could distract you a bit." I hear a metal tray be placed on my desk. Anytime he manages to come to my room, Hiroshi brings a tray full of the desserts his mom made that day. "Being sick alone sucks."
"I'm fine, Hiroshi, I just want to be alone." I say.
"I know you, you don't want to be alone." A pause. He places a hand on top of the blanket. "Are you okay?"
"I told you, I'm fine." My voices falters and I mentally curse at myself.
"You're not." He concludes, sitting by my feet and gently turning my head towards him.
I hiss.
"Jun..." His horrified expression makes me want to cry again. "Your face..."
"It's nothing." I turn away and close my eyes.
"What did they do to you?" He seems to already know the answer to that question.
"Can we not talk about it?" I run my finger through the bumps on my hand. "Please."
"...Right." He'd let it go, but I knew the bruises still bothered him. He took a deep breath and turned his lips into a smile. "I came here to distract you, and that's what I'll do."
"Thank you." Little did he know that small gesture had meant the world to me.
"You have no idea what happened today." And his usual cheerful demeanor returned, or he was doing a good job of faking it. "I was bringing muffins to the common room for the afternoon tea and I happened to pass by Akemi's bedroom. She screamed so loudly, I'm surprised you didn't hear it from here. Apparently, she found out her boyfriend is a regular at a 'dysfunctional men's club", as she so kindly put it."
"What is that?"
"A gay club." He let out a pained laugh and I gasped. "She was with him on the phone. Oh, the words I heard, Jun. You would be disgusted. She threatened him, said she would have him fixed. You don't really think your cousin would do such a thing, do you?"
"After my sister left, I have no idea of the extends of hers and my uncle's morals." I clench my jaw, but in doing so, the whole left side of my face hurt.
"May the stars have mercy on his soul." He mumbles.
I didn't want to tell him, but I had no doubt Akemi's threats were a real possibility.
She will find him, even if he was smart enough to go into hiding, and she will carry out her 'fixing'.
I know what being homosexual out here means. They are seen as deficient, degenerate. My uncle would never tolerate to be near one. But it was worse this time. Not only did Akemi's boyfriend dared to be near us, but he'd fooled everyone. Including the mad princess and tyrant king of this castle.
But Akemi was walking towards a rude awakening. She would soon find out he is not fixable, because he isn't sick. And when it happens, then he will truly need all the mercy he can get.
"Well, it's getting late." He stands from the bed suddenly and walks towards my desk.
Hiroshi takes the white plate filled with sweets from the platter and leaves it beside my bed.
But there is something else he holds in his hands.
"I forgot to tell you, I've brought a book to cheer you up." He speaks loudly and places a finger on his lips when I go to question. "Do you know the tales of Urashima Taro?"
"Yes, I adore this book." I watch him suspiciously.
"Great, my friend let me borrow it some time ago." He hands me the children's story. "I thought you might make good use of it."
"I appreciated that, Hiroshi." I eye the object. It looks as ordinary as a book can be.
"Try reading tonight, perhaps it will help with your condition." He slides the door open and nods to someone outside."Good night, Jun."
For a moment, I thought being confined for so long had rendered me insane. I could swear Hiroshi had winked at me before closing the door. However, as I analyzed his gift, I begin to think I might not have imagined it. By the looks of it, someone has been reading Urashima Taro.
It has a book mark halfway through the pages.
This is not a coincidence. The way he nodded to someone outside-
Oh. The guards.
I forgot my uncle had assigned men to guard my door at all times. They could hear us.
Hiroshi is smart. Whatever he wished to say, can't be said here.
I widen my eyes and skim through the pages as fast as I can, until I arrived at the bookmark and a folded piece of paper falls out.
It was indeed a message. One that could never get to my uncle.
