Master's doll [𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝]

【ＧＥＡＲ １６】

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𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚒𝚝 𝙾𝙱𝚂𝙴𝚂𝚂𝙸𝙾𝙽, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝙸 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙻𝙾𝚅𝙴

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"I want to talk," Rea firmly stated.

"You know you don't need to," Taurent objected. Rea opened his mouth again to reply, but a cough was what the adult got. Taurent extended his arm to give the boy a glass of water to soothe the other's throat. Rea gulped down the water and held his neck.

"You will hurt your throat some more if you try to," a caring statement coated with a warning. Rea shook his head and looked into the reflection of himself in the soup. The boy heaved a soft audible sigh, and it made Taurent feel anxious. What else was the boy unsatisfied with for him to need to have his voice back?

"Let's finish our meal first."

The dinner continued in silence. It was not that both of them could have a two-way conversation with each other. Although Taurent could guess what the boy was thinking most of the time, that moment was not one of them.

Rea slurped the soup; the warm liquid passed his throat, and it gave him a bit of relief. He put the bowl down and the masculine hand of the adult was right in front of him, waiting for him to give his bowl to him so he could wash it. Rea ignored him and walked to the sink.

Taurent's forehead crumpled and he walked to Rea with his dish in his hands. "Let me do it," Taurent said, gently pushing on the boy's shoulder in a way to tell him to move. Rea shook his head and stayed on the other side. He wanted to help.

"What happened to you? Did Emily say something that bothers you?" Noticing that he was just waiting for an answer that would not come any moment, Taurent gave up. He foamed up the dishes and handed them to Rea. The boy, who had never done the chores, carefully washed off the bubbles.

He used to live in poverty; the rubbish was his food and barefooted he continued his days. Well, he guessed that living in a proper house also needed hard work, to clean and to maintain. Yet, all of it was shouldered by the blonde. The chores, the money making, and cooking food. Taurent didn't rely on him because he was supposed to be... just a doll. A doll didn't need to think or do anything. All he had to do was to stay put, eat and live, or was he really alive?

"Rea." Concern was plastered on the handsome face of the blonde. Rea had been holding the same bowl with the water running down on it. "Let me finish it. You must be tired."

Rea stepped away, still in a daze. What did he want to achieve, actually? What did he want to change? Looking at the back of the man who had been taking care of him, the man who had put him up high on a pedestal. The boy knew he meant no harm, but how long could they live like this?

Rea walked away. His steps rarely made any sounds, but Taurent had been living with him for around a year, it was long enough for the adult to feel his presence slipping away. Taurent called up to him, his eyes sad, his face that was bright in the morning was no longer there, "Don't leave me alone."

Rea never wanted to, but he knew he needed to change something. The boy rushed to the man who stayed there with loneliness filling him. He wrapped his arms around the bigger figure, breathing in his scent.

I don't want to.

Taurent couldn't hear it, but he knew pretty well from the action alone. The adult lowered down and brought the boy deeper in his embrace. Was it pathetic of him to put his happiness in a small body such as Rea? Was it a wrong thing to completely offer his whole thoughts just for the boy?

"Master, we need to change," Rea tried to begin the discussion. Although Taurent always listened to what he wants most of the time, this topic was not one of them.

"What is it that we need to change?"

"Everything." The boy's throat started to have needles prickling inside.

"We don't need any changes, Rea," he objected, hands already wrapping around the slender neck, "I should have crushed it completely." His hands tightened, but Rea didn't try to push him away. The adult's teeth were gritting against each other, face distorted, his lips curled down and breathing unevenly.

"You don't need me anymore, do you?" His voice cracked as his grip slowly loosened. Rea coughed endlessly and felt light-headed. Taurent froze, his hands in his now disheveled hair. Eyebrows in knots and face drawn with distress.

"I should have locked you."

Rea looked up when the man raised on his feet. Taurent marched to his doll room. Sensing something, Rea followed right behind him. The boy waited outside, watching Taurent emptying a big glass container like the one in Emily's bookstore. The man pulled the item without any hardship to Rea's room.

That didn't seem like a good thing. Rea reversed, but he couldn't get away when Taurent called him with that gentle voice. The boy walked in the room to the man who cared about him too much, way too much than normal people should.

"Get in."

Rea shook his head.

"Get in, Rea."

Again, Rea rejected him. With anger, Taurent harshly pulled Rea by his arm and forced him into the transparent container. Rea pushed on the door, but his strength was not enough to fight against the man. The door was shut and sealed with a lock. Taurent stepped back, looking at Rea who was easily contained.

"Why are you making that face?" Taurent walked forward, his hands on the glass, lips quivering and eyes full of worry. Rea looked straight into his eyes. Things had started to change from the day Haemi accidentally broke Rea's leg. Haemi running his mouth with nonsense like Rea needed to get out of the place, Taurent started to act like how he was before and Rea who finally saw something was wrong.

He should have escaped from the first time he saw Taurent murdering his own wife, when he killed the others with poison and yet he still went on with life as if he had done nothing wrong. Rea was only thinking about himself, wasn't it? Was it for the sake of an easy life, he was willing to give up his mind and voice?

Are you really living or are you just a mere shell that is controlled by threads?

The words that were uttered by Haemi rang in his ears. Maybe he did choose to become the master's puppet. He was living in the other's perfect world and now his creation was crumbling down. He had willingly exchanged his necessities by giving Taurent a total control over his life.

That night, Taurent sat in front of him. His arms pulled his legs closer to his chest with Rea's blanket covering him. His blue eyes intently watched him, afraid that Rea might escape. His nails from his left hand were between his teeth, bitten down continuously. Rea shifted his gaze to the right hand of the man, bloodied from the fingertips.

"Am I not enough, Rea? For you to want us to change?"

Rea couldn't answer. Even if he did, he was unsure if the other could hear him from outside.