［ house of cards. ］

[ uncovering veiled pasts ]

❧

The atmosphere of the living room brightened up instantly when the floppy-haired, bright-eyed boy showed up skipping eagerly. It was just morning, and the sun had just emerged from behind the cream-coloured clouds, but Oka seemed to be shining so bright already that his energy could rival with the big star itself. The latter had just awoken from a sweet dream he had, which consisted of him getting commissions from all over the world to write lyrics for their songs. The boy was over the moon, and even if he had awoken from his slumber, he felt like he could do anything now, and it was a really pleasant feeling.

"Hmm, everyone's not up and about, huh~" Oka quipped as he hopped around, making his way to the shoerack which shared all eight of their shoes to see whether any of them had left the house to start their day. To his surprise, two pairs were missing.

"Hmm?" he hummed while raising his eyebrows. He pointed at both of the empty slots, trying to recognize whom the missing shoes belonged to. "Yuu-san and... Nao-san..? Hehhh... interesting..."

Oka found it weird that the two elders, one not known for waking up as early as seven-thirty in the morning and another famous for sleeping as long as twenty hours, had already left the house together. He thought that maybe it was an agreement between them; after all, Naoyuki was known for keeping promises until the bitter end. Yuusei would also gladly wake up earlier if it was for a promise between someone dear to him.

"But I thought the two drank and got drunk like mad yesterday..? This is very interesting indeed..." The latter mumbled as he took the slippers of his, another footwear he owns, off the rack to wear them. "Now then," He cried determinedly as he rose up with a triumphant look on his face after putting on his slippers. "What should I do for today?"

❧

The hairs on the boy's neck raised in nervousness as he entered a coffee shop full of customers. He didn't expect it to be this crowded, but he had wanted to try out this bar's caramel macchiato latte, which was its selling breakthrough. Oka had heard from Yuusei that the coffee they serve here tastes really great, and so here he was, inside the coffee shop called "horis speculo: capulus, tea et collyridas olei".

The latter was now in the long queue, wedged between a tired businessnan yelling into his phone, exasperated and angry, and a woman gossiping to another woman behind her about the different types of coffee the bar offers as well as her opinions about each and every one of them. Oka was crying invisible tears; he was stuck with two of the worst people you could ever meet in a queue. The barista at the front was taking his time making the orders, and Oka understood that in order to craft a perfect cup of coffee, a fair amount of time should be poured into the process. But it had been past five minutes, and the line had only decreased a slight bit. He sighed; perhaps he should have came another day.

Then he only realized that the reason the queue wasn't budging was because of a man in his teens whose legs had sprouted roots and had dug deep into the ground. Realistically, his eyes were glued to his phone screen, so much that he didn't bother to move once the people in front of him shuffled their feet foward. The teen only shuffled away ashamed after an old lady behind him tapped his shoulder and pointed in front of him, signalling his ignorance. By the time Oka was closing in to the counter, the angry businessman had already ended the call in frustration, and the group of women behind him were now talking about K-pop idols whose names he wasn't familiar on.

The businessman left with his cup of sweet-smelling americano, and Oka nervously shuffled forward. He didn't like conversing with strangers; they mess up his sentences and make him look more awkward than usual. His eyes darted upwards, but glanced hurriedly to the stack of Styrofoam cups on the counter after making direct eye contact with the barista's dark brown ones. Why oh why must our eyes meet?!