Five Months And Eight Days

Twilight had arrived again in town X for Luca, marking the numerous fruitless nights that had gone by simply him chilling to the fullest.

Per his usual fancy, he's strolling around befitted of his title as a wandering vagabond he claimed the day Luca stepped out of his residency.

White of high transparency snows ascended the dark sky, garnishing the glooms anywhere the chills contacted alike drops of glitters being showered onto a black paper.

In spite of that, the busy world proceeded with, simply overlooking the breezy sleets.

Ah... the night is still young, or so he thought at the sight of young couples entering a motel arms in arms.

His cheeks paled into a tender pink, couldn't be bothered to decide whether it was the climate or the embarrassing content that swiftly crossed his mind seeing the young pairs checking into a love hotel.

In passing times, Luca buzzed through the crowds, making his way to scour for something palatable and fulfilling, granting the urgent needs of his grumbling stomach.

He couldn't wonder less of the famish he's feeling as his scheduled mealtime no longer existed for months now.

The street hawker's delectable foods were yet to bait his interest. Luca's hunting proceeded until he spotted a convenience store ahead of him.

His last trip to the store before hung an abstruse smile as he browsed the sections inside the mini-store.

It was something one will expect to be neatly stacked on the high and low shelves. It stocked a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks,  tobacco products, over-the-counter drugs, toiletries, newspapers and even magazines.

Luca's craving tastebuds came in favour of a cup of instant porridge, a bottle of green matcha beverage, a bar of chocolate with hazelnuts as his night snack.

Later on, the goodies were brought to be paid for at the front counter. There, a short line of two buyers in line biding their time awaited for theirs turn.

As boredom seized him, his thumb scrolled down the smartphone, handling the gadget onehandedly. Five hundred and more new messages surged his various messaging application the instant he opened it.

He more often than not put his phone in silence, avoiding any potential distractions that might lead him astray from his purpose on this supposed vacation.

From time to time, he did read the message and the message contents never had taken him aback as he figured most of them would plead his return. As so, the wisest move would be to leave them to cool their heels.

A soft sigh escaped Luca's lips.

Needless to say, he's tired of having to face their anticipating words in hopes of taking him back. As sorry he felt, it was the sole thing he's willingly turning his back on.

Hushed mutterings dissipated in the air and his innate keen hearing bettered in making those stifled voices audible to his recognition. Those low-keyed chatters were from the clerks responsible for overseeing the storehouse.

One of the ladies said under her breath in incredulity with mouth gaping, "D-Did you see that? Am I hallucinating?" The other clerk jostled her friend's mouth shut before mumbling in hushed tones despite her eyes of awe;

"Oh Lord, bless me. That's insanity...ten packs of condom and XXL in size?" She kept chanting her prayer juggling her scanning works along. "What a shame, he's gay." She retorted as she lifted her shoulders with her head shook to express the disappointment.

It was two guys making their payment.

The two guys paying together were not exactly an issue, leading to the clerk's suspicion. Rather, it's that the guy in the orange hoodie sternly clinging to the tall guy's well-toned arm in that way a child would to their mother.

Except that it's not a pure love of a mother and her child.

Let's not mention the way the hooded guy addressed his partner. Extravagantly coated with melted honey -- inappropriate enough that it should be censored for the sake of others. How did Luca even know that detail?

Directly from the guy himself.

Blamed him not, as he simply stood behind them in the line and not by choice obviously. As so, it was inevitable that his ears were to be served such pollutes.

Listening to the conversation exchanged by the two, dug out his curiosity regarding their looks.

Since their back was facing him and both of their faces was kind of covered by something too, making it difficult to see it properly unless you actually faced them.

Generally speaking, it's rather normal to be interested after listening to the conversation course of an odd flow as in offbeat.

The clingy behaviour of the hooded guy seemed to be annoying the other one. To be more precise, their conversation in the first place was one-sided with just "Mmm" replies or just silence from that tall guy. His indifferent responses just had bore and dispassion written all over his face.

Even as a spectator, Luca sympathised with the hooded guy for being treated unenthusiastically.

The aloof tall guy made his payment soon after. Truth be told, he truly didn't want to be speculating anything but the tall guy did emit the aura of the riches.

Reeking of money, or so they said. He slipped his black wallet back into the back pocket as he left with his companion.

*thud* A noise evoked but he just gave it an insouciant shrug, paying it no heed. In less than no time, Luca finally made his purchase and was ready to head out of the convenience store until he stomped on an object laid on the floor.

A wallet, a thick black wallet...seems familiar yet? He picked it up, turning it from right to left and right to left with a question mark stamped onto his face.

He was about to hand in the wallet to the staff or maybe even to the police station but then, when he opened the wallet, his remaining rationality went numb.

It wasn't the superior amount of cards or amounts of cash inside the wallet that surprised him. There's a picture, seemingly old picture of two young boys around the ages of six playing together.

A long light-haired boy was sat on a swing while being pushed by the black-haired boy. The closeness of the two, playing together with bright wide smiles without a care of the world proved their close relationship.

Luca was dumbstruck with astonishment, enough to mummified him on spot.

The question was what's the likelihood of someone to have this picture? He's still in a denial mode, refusing to believe in this peerless eventuality. H-How...? And why?

No matter how much he tried to deny the possibility, it was indisputable that the only person who would be bringing this picture of the two boys would be him. Noah... was it really him?

Then he snapped out of his thinking bubble, realising where he was standing. Luca lifted his head that was hanging low from inspecting the wallet. At that moment, as if fate's smiling at him, he spotted the same person that stood out from the crowds from his height like a sore thumb.

He...made a rash decision which he'll soon regret. Luca rushed his steps with the foods that eventually was left on a bench and at a breakneck speed, he broke his high school track record. Anxiety, anticipation, excitement was stirred together inside his heart.

He then hastened through the crowd's flows and was barricaded with walls of humans that ceaselessly get in his way.

Believe it or not, he had to run to escape the rush of people in this town that seemed to behold a festival? Fortunately for him, the wallet's owner was remarkably towering in height like a lamp pole of some sort.

The crowd's getting nowhere...

Luca sighed as he glanced at the wallet in his hand. Why was it a tough job done for him to meet the owner, handing in his lost belonging to the rightful owner?

He didn't plan for what to expect or to do when he met that person. He wasn't even sure if this was the right person he's searching for.

Luca bit his freezing lips at that thought.

Perhaps it was because of the crowds or his fogged mind, he had almost forgotten how it was two guys that he's chasing after instead of just that person. They abruptly took a turn, leading him into a dark and narrow backstreet alley looking rather shady.

What kind of chasing game are they playing? A game of tag?

He was rather on the horn of a dilemma and in all sincerity, if not to chase after that person and also returning the wallet, he will never step into a scary-looking street where thugs tend to hang around every nook.

Ha.ha.ha... he won't be able to come out in one piece if he were to meet one.

* gulp *

The sensation of choking on his saliva strained his mind of thinking. Luca followed the two silhouettes from afar pacing fully cautious. He caught up to them.

Out of the blue, they stopped walking, making a sudden stop. Luca was about to breathe out his relief when another display infelicitous to him began playing.

Luca's mortified into a statue, he could even have himself bid as a masterpiece interpreted on how to react when being placed in a heavenly awkward annexed of multilevel of awkwardness. He doesn't genuinely know how to react to this unforeseen circumstance.

He's feeling ill at ease, bafflement was expressed quite egregiously on his facial expression.

Luca's mind was replaying four words on repeat like a broken cassette;

"THEY'RE LITERALLY MAKING OUT-----"

His maintained tight grip over the wallet loosened, failing to serve its function as the one holding it had his soul in the process leaving the body behind.

The fallen wallet make a sound 'thump' as it touched the unsanitary ground.

Luca who was down on his luck still suffered from the jinx he thought was a fortune. The noise incited that person - the wallet's owner attention. That same person who's currently requiting a steamy kiss with his partner, that very hooded male he saw a few minutes before.

'Holy shxt...' was the word he silently mouthed when their eyes interweave. He gasped, covering his mouth with his hand.

Somehow, his rationality was failing, refusing to be awakened from their intertwined gazes. It was a moment of silence although it was anything but stillness for the other hooded guy.

He still hadn't noticed Luca, apparently except for 'him'.

In a way, he could laugh at himself, of the naive and silliness for the beautiful fluke he prayed for. If earlier, it was as if fate's smiling at him, now it was as if fate's taunting him with that very smile. This uneventful coincidence was presenting him with an unwanted twist of fate.

Under the dim light of the ancient street lamp, Luca barely managed to make something out of that face. Alexander once showed him a picture of Noah. That rather reminded Luca how time had altered everything he once treasures.

Noah's a lot taller now, even taller than Luca compared to when they're little. The small boy from before whose height doesn't even equal to him had grown.

His appearance was more manly with sharper jawlines but his beautiful features remained. His eyes were still the same but the passion that once was there's been submerged.

He recognised all of the distinctively visible visuals that he dreamt of, thought of and yearned for years to come.

Noah... Noah Octavius. It was him, not some imagination or a hallucination but the breathing Noah in flesh.

Luca's azure eyes adored with flecks of baby blue intertwined Noah's smokey grey eyes of red wine flecks.

Both were bewitched in a translucent thin link of a nameless charm. Bemusement messed the way his mind operated when Noah's honed gazes directed at him showing no absolute sign of faltering any sooner.

May he kindly remind you how Noah's still exchanging a passionate contact despite having his eyes nailed on him?

Horrible timing for a confrontation was all he could say as a justification. He was taken aback as to why was he staring at himself despite making out with someone else?

The hooded guy was moreover coming aggressively at him but only retorted with indifferent motions by him.

Weirdly enough, his eyes appeared dead even when met with amorous attempts of seduction from his partner. It was as if he were forced into this situation by obligation.

Realising the incoherent situation, Luca snapped to reality and severed their staring contest. Never mind the wallet laid on the street, he needs to bolt away making his getaway.

His steps staggered as he's slowly retreating, almost causing him to stumble and multiply the awkwardness.

With minds blanked out, he scurried away intending to be distant from them.

Noah simply stared at his every motion, doesn't even bother to react or anything. He let Luca paced away with eyes pursuing his silhouettes that slowly sank into the darkness of the night.

Regardless of his foot shaking like leaves, Luca ran and ran... and then ran and ran again, growing farther and farther from the spot he left. His heart beat madly, forfeiting its usual rhythm. He gasped for air, creating small fogs of his heated breath against the cold winter.

His chest crept of a tightening sensation that spread all over his chest, embracing his torso tightly, nearly knocking the heart out of its cages of ribs.

It pained him mentally and physically.

His foot surrendered this fleeing ploy he's pulling off, landing him gently in a kneeling position onto the huge piles of white snow on a barren field that's now surfaced in sleet.

The piercing iciness that enlaced his delicate shin meekly was numbing his sense away. His gaze was fixed on the snows. With no hesitation, Luca grasped the innocent snows smushing every little bit barehanded.

Some merged into an oddly-shaped snowball in his palm while the remains were scattered back home by the strong wind.

"W-we met again..." Luca tried to smile, only to etch an eccentric stiff smile across his face. His stiff trembling hands caressed his face wholly, transferring its frigid temperature with a touch.

He slumped onto his legs tongue-tied.

Warm... An unforeseen warmth in form of liquid greeted his benumbed palm that's shading his face.

His beads of tears that trickled from his eyes landed on the snow, melting tiny fragments of it from the heat it bore.

"...t-tears... w-why am I crying...haha..." Luca immediately wiped his eyes with his sleeves yet the tears adamantly forced their way out, gushing down his porcelain white skin.

Faint pathetic sobbing escaped his pale shuddering lips, resonating the isolated field. The mild sleet helped to muffle his cry as he helplessly shed tears undergoing the inexplicable anguish in his heart.

It's draining his sanity away...

He knew-- he understood that he should be delighted by their encounter, yet why... what's this agony buried deep in his heart? An internal discomfort far greater than his numbing legs... It's a happy occasion yet not even a smile adorned his face.

Smile, smile, smile...! Frustrated from the smile he didn't manage to frame, Luca punched the ground times and times with clenched hands, pouring out his exasperation continuously it dyed the white snow with his scarlet blood.

He hit something sharp underneath the piles of fluffy snows, creating cuts on the skin of his hand.

Eventually, he toned down noticing the blood that painted the snows. He'd stopped his knuckles from throwing pointless punches yet why did tears keep streaming down his cheek?

"...it's tiring, I'm so tired of this... just ended this, please...please..."

Luca resolutely pleaded with fingers grasping his chest, begging and imploring to anyone, anything at all as his knuckles oozed of fresh blood.

The pain in his chest intensified causing him immense pain, this time its real pain. His voice sounded raspy and hoarse from wearying himself out though, he couldn't care enough.

And then! As if the wishes he desperately pleads for were granted, a hollow smile dangled his mouth despite the teardrops.

A delicate yet empty smile graced his tear-soaked face. Oh so lastly, a smile adorned his face.

"...hey, Noah... save me, will you?"

As he spouted his last wishes, Luca's world gradually blackened, wrapping up his remaining pieces of conscience.

Will this impulsive doing make it the last time he's to witness the fine snow and the light of the day? If so, then he earnestly hoped that his last wishes were at least to be granted before that...

What a shame...

"If only we could meet once again, for the very last time, Noah... "

•To be continued...

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