from august to december

chapter four

the sun was back.
and so was the comforting warmth that came with it.

shino tossed and turned inside his bed, the soft sheets brushing against his skin and golden sunlight tickling his nose.
it was wednesday, and today he would meet an old friend who was still left.

with this thought that brought him a lot more energy, he groaned and finally decided to sit up, his eyes still half closed because the room was way too bright.

golden light made its way through the large windows to his left, little pieces of dust floated around peacefully.
it was calm at quiet at nine in the morning, the only thing he heard was minnie walking around on her little paws downstairs.

"right, i have a dog," shino lazily climbed out of his large bed when realization hit him that since a few weeks, he had a purpose to get up, staring at himself in the mirror opposite him.

somehow he still looked exhausted, even after getting enough sleep last night.

his blond hair which was already growing back black at the roots fell around messy on his oily forehead, his eyes and lips were still swollen.

his gaze wandered to his marvel shirt, he gently smiled and caressed the blue fabric in his hand, remembering how leo had gifted it to him six years ago.

with one last look at himself, he finally opened the door and looked down to see his little puppy jumping around in the big living room.
she sniffed the black couch and tried to scratch the marble chimney, barking when she didn't succeed.

when she heard her owner, she screeched excitedly and almost fell on her face a couple of times while running towards him.

shino laughed and nearly ran down the stairs to cuddle minnies soft brown fur.

she was still very little, he had only gotten her a few weeks ago but she seemed to already be enjoying park's company.

she rubbed her nose against his chest and some cute sneezes escaped her little nose.

after an intense cuddling session, the blond softly placed his puppy down to make breakfast for the two.
"are you hungry, minnie?" he asked in his husky morning voice and swept his hair back.

minnie barked at her name and laid down on the big, soft carpet on her stomach to watch shino prepare the food, her eyes growing excited when he filled the little bowl next to the kitchen counter.

in an instant, she tumbled towards it and started to eat hungrily.

at first the blond doubted that minnie would enjoy living in such a huge house, but she turned out to love exploring every corner and sniffing every piece of furniture when she got the chance.

shino pulled out a bowl, filling it with some cheap cereal and then pouring milk over it.
out of habit, he almost called for his sister when he remembered that she had moved out last week.

it was empty without anyone.

earlier, before all of his friends had left, the house used to be loud and cheerful, now everything that was heard inside the walls was shino occasionally singing or the annoying tv commercial sounds every evening.

he had only gotten the little dog to have a bit of company when it was nighttime and the grief and sadness of losing his loved ones washed over him all over again.

with a loud sigh he sat down at the large glass dining table, he stirred through his breakfast but suddenly lost all of his appetite.

just now, he didn't really know how to deal with leo's death. he was heartbroken, not in way he was remembered "heartbreak", the pain was so deep, at some point he didn't even know he could feel it anymore.

the moment he saw him jumping off the roof, it felt like all of his guts and bones had been ripped apart.

as if he had lost the floor underneath his feet.

like he had lost one of his family members. but he knew he had to be strong, for eden and for the remaining friends.
even when he hadn't seen any of them except eden in a long time.

and this was already the third death.
it was val first, in that horrible car accident.

but the blond haired man hadn't been at a single funeral of all of them.

shino looked at minnie for a second and the pain seemed to be gone for that exact second.
the puppy caused him to be calm for this snippet of time, everytime he locked eyes with her black ones, he felt okay.

as if everything that happened in the past, hadn't really happened.

as if every memory they all lived through together was still in the future.

and as if in this moment, all of them were sitting at this table together, having breakfast, laughing about each other's jokes, talking about silly things and making new plans for the day.

they always used to do everything together.
shino could almost see val's smile and hear hiroto's laugh.
a salty tear fell out of his eye, onto the clean glass table.

directly next to him, on the white dresser, the same one that eden had, a photo of all of the seven was standing.
coincidentally, the sun shined directly onto the glass frame, making it look like it was some holy picure.
when in reality it was just an old polaroid.

shino smiled.

leo used to always take a million of pictures of them, he had every single one framed in his old room.

after his death, leo had taken all of them and stuffed them into the drawers, until today he couldn't bring himself to look at them.

he was sure that at this exact moment, the youngest was looking at him from above, observing him and probably grinning while thinking about all of their adventures together.

and that's why the picture was glowing and creating little rainbows on the dark wooden floor.
he wanted to give his older a hint.

"leo, are you here?" he asked more or less himself, but in his heart, he actually already knew the answer.

slowly standing up, he took the fragile and dusty picture into his hand, scanning over each of the people.

wide smiles filled their lively faces, hiroto had his arm around leo's waist, probably tickling him, because the younger bent his body in a strange way, pushing against eden, who was smiling gently and ruffling his at the time blond hair.
shino stood in the middle, throwing his hands above his head, laughing with his eyes squeezed shut.
val and yuri held a bottle of beer in their hands, grinning directly into the camera.
and eli was the only one that didn't look into the camera, he had his warm eyes on his friends, smiling at them proudly.

they were right at the beach, the sun was just setting, this was where they spent their last night together before everything fell apart.

only four of the seven were left, and eden and shino were two.
one of them he would meet again today.

he nodded to himself.
"he might be the only one who's able to help him," he whispered while shrugging his shoulders.

park tried to calmly place the photo back onto the dresser, but his hands were shaking violently when he thought about todays plans.