[CONTENTID1] MEMORY [/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]25/01/17[/CONTENTID2]

[CONTENTID3]AshHossain[/CONTENTID3]

[CONTENTID4]The loud cheer was always too annoying for me to find any importance of it. And today, the irritation was multiplied.

The deafening applause after the announcement of my father, finally calmed down a bit, while I bowed my head before the guests rather unwillingly. My body hardly resisting the urge of not running out of this banquet hall to meet the person standing outside.

Yes, he did not even wait for this so called happy occasion to come to an end.

The moment of announcement brought clouds of darkness in his eyes, I could see it well, but could not grasp the thought behind, I could never see what was going on in his mind. I wanted to know it.

After all, it was I who was hurt by his words.. Not him...

Unknowingly I took a step ahead, stopping by a sudden tug. I turned around, Sophie was standing with her head down, fringes hiding her eyes. She had been doing that lately. No talk, just tugging onto my clothes, then letting go.

It was annoying.

Then I didn't repel that unwanted silence. It was better than that sultry voice of her.

Small breathing on her part, she looked up, hand still tightening her tug on my white suite. I stiffened up, looking at her. Light giggles from my cousins to see us did not go unheard. A full Ten seconds passed by. Her lips finally parting a little.

“Are you going to him?” voice breathy. No movement on my side.

“He does not feel anything special for you Leo…. It's his nature to be friendly…..sweet…. affectionate…”

Did I want him to feel something for me? And his nature….Like I already had not figured it out.

But I remained silent, waiting for her to finish.She inhaled a deep breath, hands slowly letting go of me.

“This is your final chance,” a low whisper.

“Excuse me?”

“If you are really going to walk away from here then make sure that you can return in with him.” she said quietly, voice still breathy.

“Or else there is no going back for you, you should kn-”

“Are you threatening me?”words left my mouth, before she could finish hers. A soft sigh left her lips.

“No….. I’m reminding you that this will be the only chance you will get before you are officially bounded with me…. if not mentally or romantically…” her whispers was a stark contrast to the raucous laughter that filled the hall. While I yet once again looked upon her with disgust.

Not was she annoying now but also confusing…..what did she want actually?

I pried my hands away from her, breaking the eye contact I walked towards the exit. I p shoved the doors open.And as they closed behind me, then began my fateful night. The night  that in my own oblivion, had once  longed to shun…..I longed to escape….

The darkness of night greeted me only with coldness, even the bright moon that splattered its motherly soothing silver light seemed daringly pale at that moment. And my eyes caught him. He stood there, firm, eyes filled with betrayal and pain. My pace slow, I walked forward.

If the inside of the luxurious banquet hall was filled with deafening raucous then the outside was ensued with oppressed silence. I walked light footed, trying hard not to disturb this unwelcoming quietness.

I stopped before him. His breathing were unusual and short, I could tell even by standing this away from him.

“Was it fun?” He hissed through his clenched teeth. My expression remained unchanged.

“Which part did you enjoy the most? Seeing me still searching for you after 15 years?” His voice thick from the unshed tears, yet he held strong, while I, shocked at his words left unchanged. His words really was going over my head, but yet a part of me stopped me from protesting. It somehow told me that whatever the latter was saying, was not something to be stopped from being said.

“Or was it pretending to be my friend, lending me a listening ear or…” he winced,

“Proving to me that I would still wait for you even it was for at least one hour EVERYDAY without even knowing that it was you.”

What?...No….

I wanted to shout out that he was wrong, but I couldn't. My lips as if were glued together, promising not to move even if someone were to shove a dagger in me at that very moment.

A low chuckle from his side, and a silent exhale from mine.

“It's really funny how you yet managed to make me wait even after you came before me when I didn't even know it was you... How could I...ow lord!” his eyes glassy with disbelief, I looked into it. There was no lie in it, no.

Nothing seemed like a lie to me, my mind froze.

But it had to be…

Unable to think or move or register the words that escaped the latter's mouth. I just stood there, as if I were to considered to be a block of wood rather than a living human being.

“Why?” He asked...no ….ask would be too much of a strong word to express his question. He begged to know the answer. The answer that I did not know of... Did I?

“I feel like you’ve mistaken me as someone else…” I announced rather emotionlessly. It was not as if I had wanted to act as a brick wall but, I rather found the capability of understanding how to react to this confusing accusation missing within me. So what expression were I to show him at that moment?

“Mistake?”

“yes, perhaps it could have been a mistake. I don't understand anything that you are saying,” my eyes automatically darting to somewhere far.

“Stop lying…,” he cried, “are your parents a mistake too? Did you have a dead twin brother?” Striding towards me he held me by my shoulders, a little too roughly, eyes fixed on me.

“Look at me Jung Taekwoon!” he ordered, and so did I did. I looked into his eyes, they were a light shade of red. My eyes wide open from the shock of his sudden strong hold, I had never imagined that latter to actually have that much strength neither have I ever expected him to be capable of being this much angry.

His eyes almost narrowed to a slit. His eyes held millions of questions in it, as if each question would cost him an organ of his own...but the questions soon got replaced by a mysterious confusion, his grip loosened on me, but not letting go.

“Do you not….” He winced, “remember me?” His voice barely above a whisper.

I contemplated it for a moment before finally deciding to reply it.

“N-sshi…. I know you are N.”

“No..”he whimpered, shaking his head lightly, eyelids looking rather burdened to keep it open.

“No...not that.. Do you not know my real name? Do you not recognize me?”

I gulped, biting my lower lip. Too perplexed as to what I was supposed to answer to his question. I had never ever considered the fact of his name being a fake one. How could I not have asked that? It was a basic knowledge to understand that his name was not a real name to use, yet I had never asked it before.

But then, I know that he also knew very well how I had no idea about it. Yet he asked.

And his eyes held the belief of me knowing those answers so deeply that I again became bewildered at his query.

The only thing that I had managed to do after giving it serious thought for a while was to just shake my head a little lightly, his grips again tightening ever so lightly around me.

“You are not serious..are you?” A drop of tear fell from his left eye.

I looked at his lips that trembled to find words to say next, eyes that quivered to find the lie in my icy stare. At this point, my common question should have been what he was talking about. But my question rather reformed on its own before leaving my lips slowly,

“What should I know of?”

Another two drops of his tears rolled down on his cheeks, and he whispered almost inaudibly,

“What happened to you in these past 15 years?”

“W-what?” my eyes widened to its maximum.

The timing that he announced had struck me like a bolt from the sky. He gave me a strong jerk, before his next question,

“Where is your color Taekwoonie?! You said you could see people's color! Then how could you say you don't know me?”

He kept on shaking me by my shoulders, when his words almost felt as if they were daggers that someone had shoveled inside of my heart slowly. My dreams started to play in my mind.

What is the color of our relationship Taekwoonie?

Can you really see the colors of human?

A dream of 15 years…

.

.

Could I still say that his words made no sense to me whatsoever?

It did make sense. It made more sense then it ever could. He was the one. He really was the one that I have dreamt of uptil now. But...who was he? What was his name?

He slowly released my shoulders. There were no drops of tears now. He dissolved in heavy sobs while his slender frame shook incoherently. His arms gracefully wrapping around my waist. A faint warmth growing between us. The wrap was loose, it was not to hold on to me. It somehow seemed as if he used me as a shelter to lean on perhaps to make sure that he kept on standing.

His breathing against my bare neck, still warm today, but . I could not enjoy it. It was my time to be stiffened when someone held me into an embrace.

My heart beaitng against his.

There was alot that I was to know. It was my term to question. But where was I to start from.

I found my eyes drying up rather disturbingly to the point that it started to sting. It was not only my eyes, my mouth felt desert. He slowly murmured,

“Your color….” his voice broke, he looked up. I had a damp spot on my neck now, damp from his tears. He continued,

“What happened to your color Taekwoonie?” His tears rolled down as if they had a mind of its own. He was the one tearing up, while I was the one dying with his each words.

“Why did you change? You covered it up with white…”

“I..” I murmured softly, but failed to say another word. It just wouldn't come out. I felt something salty on my lips, salty water.

His tears… how did it reach…

Then another drop, then another, that landed on his face , it wasn't long before I realized that not only his, but my tears had also found a brain of their own. We became a sobbing mess, and I could no longer say if my clothes were damp from his tears or mine.

“I’m still me Taekwoonie...then how could You…..”

I grabbed his shoulders, gently pushing him a little far from my body, his slender fram looked vulnerable at that moment. As if he seemed like someone who was still praying as if it was all just a dream. I felt a strange sensation running down my body, as if every limb, every organ of my body screaming to me for not to ask him his name.. as if they knew something that I did not.

I ignored it. The odd sensation was strong, but my heart's will was stronger.

“What...is your name?” - I asked.

His sobs died down, he took a few breaths to calm his tone.

“You really don't know…” he whispered, his hands slowly letting go of me, his raised his hand, wrist putting calmly against mine, and started to shove my hands away, gently as his name left his lips,

“Cha….Hak.….”

Then…..

Then all went black.

A low hum, soft whispers in my ears, whispers that I didn't understand what they meant. I opened my eyes, black disappeared, white filled in. I sat up, putting all my weight on the ground. Looking before me was white, looking behind me the shade still remained unchanged.

Wherever I looked, there was endless white.

“Hello…” standing up I whispered. Even my whisper echoed through the emptiness. I stood baffled.

How did I end up here? Wasn't I with N...then..

I raised my hand to comb through my hair, if felt as if it was a mess. Something touched my hand as it went close to my forehead. I reached my both hand to feel it, it was hard, covering my face.

A….mask…..

I took it off, it really was a mask. A white mask. I looked at it with shocked stare. The front, the back, it was all white.

Why am I wearing a mask? How...did it come here? Where am I?

I stood all alone, without having any idea what I was to do. Perplexed as to what was going on.

“Taekwoonie!” it was then that I heard the call. Voice, that I have always dreamed of, that childish jolly voice. A kid of 7-8 years old passed by me.

I felt as if the time froze when he went across me. His small little feature, barely above my knee, he passed me by, I shifted my gaze from the mask to him, his sun kissed skin, eyes shaping crescent that's focused on somewhere, a bright smile shinning on his face. He had scarlet auora all around him. Time became slow only for a second as he passed by, then his running pace as fast as before.

A light squeaky noise from not so far. I looked at the kid’s back, he jumped on another fairer skinned boy, who sat on the swing. His color was dark blue. I fully turned around again shocked how there was a swing now in the emptiness and how I knew the new kid.

That's….me….what’s going on?

“Did you miss me? I missed you so much Taekwoonie!! You missed me as well, right? I love you so much!!”

The tanned one kept on rubbing his cheek with the fairer one, squishing him with all the energy that he had in that small figure of his.  

“I Hate you..”

And the fair one first looking all annoyed tried to hide the small smile that flashed on his feature.

“Meanie! I know that you love me!”

Is this….huh? I don't understand…

“Excuse me!” I said in rather a loud voice, but they didn't look. I again shouted, but no answer. As if I didn't exist.

Again a squeaky sound of swing, this time from my back. I whirled around, two kids, the same ones from before sat together, on swing. A bit older than before, 10 years perhaps.. I thought.. one was swinging, other sat still…. I sat still….

“Can you really see the colors of people and relationship?”

“Colors? Yes I can..”

“Wah! I'm jealous. I wish I could see them as well” (kids laughing sound from nowhere started to fill the emptiness.)

I took a step back, my mind failing to register what was going on. I knew that scenario, I saw it before. It was my dream…

Am I dreaming? Am I in my memory...what is going on?

Sobbing sound.

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