░▒▓█ 𝙺𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚞𝚒 █▓▒░

-Chapter Three

Even more wowed, Gumi's eyes widened. "Is that so? How old are you right now?," she questioned suspiciously.
"I think I'm supposed to be twenty-one right now. Earlier I was seventeen. I'm kinda getting used to the whole body changing thing, even though it's only recently started happening so often. Used to be it wasn't as often as it is. Then I had time to understand what was going on. Now it happens so fast that I really don't know what to do. Erm..how old are you?" he asked after explaining to Gumi.
"Well I'm eighteen, and I'll be nineteen sooner or later. I guess you're not that much older than me huh," she replied, slowly becoming more calm the more they carried on a conversation.
"Say," she started again, "are you really human? Normal humans don't do crazy stuff like that. I mean, they do crazy stuff but, it's all on their own will. How do you just morph like that? It's kinda..kinda cool," she smiled a little. "Don't get me wrong though it's somewhat creepy. I mean, just imagine you're dating someone who's sixteen or seventeen, and then all of a sudden your body ages to like..forty or something..!," she suddenly became alarmed.
"The oldest I can get is about 32 I believe. I'm not totally sure what triggers this, but I agree, it's probably weird. But, I think like, maybe one day, I'll find a way to stop it. I have faith that I will."
Hearing how reassuring Roro's voice sounded, Gumi gave a short sigh of relief. "It's amazing that you can just be so confident in yourself. Most people I know aren't that self confident," she smiled a bit. Roro cocked his head. "What do you mean? It's not that hard. Anything can happen, you know. If someone as different as you can exist in a normal place like this, I think anything else is possible. So tell me. Where are you from?"
Gumi ignored the question and was a little frustrated by what Roro said previously. "Uh- excuse me, you think this place is normal? How on earth is it normal? It doesn't even look real!" Her voice raised a little, getting riled up and a little bit anxious.
"Neither do you! You're the strangest thing I've seen ever since that handsome fire hydrant! Manbou must be really creative to come up with something like that, much less you. You're the most unique looking girl I've ever seen," he said honestly. Gumi just ignored the fire hydrant thing, honestly too scared to ask.
The women Roro's seen his whole life usually wear exquisite clothes or have something extremely weird (to a normal person such as Gumi) physical features. Gumi's normal clothes and personality was not so normal to Roro. In fact, it was weird to see a human walking around in such boring attire. Usually the common folk did that, but not the humans. The humans were a slowly disappearing population, and were treated pretty respectfully.
"You're not some kind of princess, are you? 'Cause if you are, you're so strange to be walking around in something like that,"
he pointed to her average crop top. "If you want, I can let you come shoppin' with me and we can find you something beautiful."
"You say that as if you yourself aren't beautiful. I mean, your skin is literally glowing with such a sweet hue. Normal people don't do that," Gumi muttered.
"A-are you saying I'm beautiful?...Hahah, don't be so silly, not someone like me!" he exclaimed, as if trying to change the subject. Right as he said that, the glow on his skin stared to fade away, along with the coloration in his skin and hair. His eyes went a cold color of green, and his bright pink hair faded back to a more cotton candy colored pink. What happened? Even the atmosphere changed. The atmosphere felt kinda..depressing, with cold colors of grey and light pink filling the sky, and even his bedroom. Roro was so much more...comforting...before he changed back.

[art by Manbou no Ane]

Now it felt more real that he was a stranger, rather than someone she'd known for a couple days. The feeling of comfort she felt earlier slipped away.
"No, I'm good with what I've got. I don't really like fancy clothes on me anyway. I like to save that stuff for the pretty people," Gumi said in a very nonchalant attitude.
Roro shook his head in disbelief. "It just can't be helped them, can it? Ah, alright then. I tried," Roro shrugged. His determined attitude from earlier when he was all glowy slipped away just as Gumi's comfort did.
Roro's eyes changed again, but his skin stayed the same. This time, his eyes were a pink color that was a little darker than his hair. His voice was a little bit lower pitched than before, and some walls appeared for some reason too! Sighing, Roro turned to the newly appeared walls and closed a door. This made Gumi feel even more anxious.
Now, she was alone, and for no reason too.
"What's up with that guy...," she muttered, mildly annoyed. Anxiety slowly creeped back into her bones. She felt herself shake again as she watched the room change colors.
"I wonder what he's doing in there," Gumi though to herself after she sat on the couch unattended for about fifteen minutes. "Aren't you coming back out?," she called aloud for Roro to hear. She didn't receive a vocal reply, which made her think this guy was ignoring her. "Hey? What's up," she stood up, continuously calling to Roro as she headed to this strange room.
She knocked on the door she saw him slump into. "Is this his bedroom?" she wondered. When she knocked, on the other side of the door Roro shot up from his desk. He opened the door, peeking his head out. "Erm..nothing, you don't have to worry about a thing," he assured her.
Gumi glanced into a space between the door and the doorframe in which his face was not covering up. Inside this room, she saw that there was hardly any light peeking through the window, but the only source of light was a candle. Other than that, she could barely make out white envelopes all over the place. On his bed, his desk, and his floor. The room looked super messy.
Gumi was annoyed by his obvious lie. "Seriously, what's up! I need to talk to you about how to get back home. Sure this place is uh...nice..," she hesitated because of the dire state his bedroom was in, "but I really just want to go back. I'm really scared..and what if my friends miss me?" she sort of whimpered saying that.
Roro's face fell again. "But you can make friends here can't you? I don't really understand what you mean by 'go home' anyway. This is your home! You must come from a different part of the world if you're this worried then," he decided.
"I don't even know what this place is. What's it even called??," Gumi snapped a little bit.
"What do you mean, 'what's it called'? It's just where we all live. I don't understand why it should be called something new," he said totally honestly.
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To be continued...