Prologue
Old Love and Sweet MelodiesOhno stayed silent about his feelings. Even if his young master talked to him about things that bothered him, Ohno just listened. He would say a few things, but the young master doesn’t seem to understand what he was saying and just left, stomping his foot hard on the wooden floor. Ohno knew he should offer more than verbal advice, but he was afraid that his young master would only make matters worse for himself.
“Ohno!” His young master had rung the bell for lunch time. “It’s about time for lunch!”
He dared not to yell from across the hall, afraid that the Master would raise a hand (the Master had done it once and Ohno swore he’d control his behavior). After the head chef had finished with his young master’s food, Ohno dared to taste each dish in case of poison. Sure enough, the head chef was not a villain himself.
Once he entered his young master’s room, he bowed out of custom and placed the tray on a lavish table standing proudly in the middle of the room. Just as he was about to head back to his duties, however, he heard the soft and melodic voice of his young master. Oh, how he longed for that voice. His young master’s voice was the only comfort he could seek refuge in.
“Ahem,” the young master coughed. “Care to leave me be?”
“Ah,” Ohno snapped from his dreamy thoughts. “I’ll leave, Ninomiya-sama.” With that said, Ohno bowed again, and rushed from his young master’s bedroom, to his tiny cramped bedroom.
He sighed, hitting himself on the forehead for being so stupid. He knows that the young master hated it when he was listening to him singing, but he couldn’t help it: the boy’s had an alluring voice.
Ever since his young master learned to sing when he was just three years old, Ohno smiled for the first time in his life. He remembered dancing secretly while the boy sang the same song in his soft voice, and Ohno would cry after, remembering about his family and the horrid life he had before he met the Master. He remembered Nino’s tiny fist punching him for listening and he would silently comment the boy so he wouldn’t hear it. Whenever he pressed his ear to Nino’s bedroom door, his heart would soften and remember those good memories still left in him. Such a beautiful voice… But all those practices stopped when one day, Nino’s cruel father stormed in the boy’s room, punishing him for singing like a girl. Ever since then, Nino changed. He neglected his talent, and grew up living with what his dad told him that day.
Ohno closed his eyes, his heart ached from remembering those memories he so wanted to get rid of.
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Ohno lived to be 40 when he just died from a tragic accident to keep Nino from taking his own life. Everyone in their small town heard of it, including the young man’s parents, and mourned for the sweet old man that took care of Nino. Nobody ever found his body in the rushing river.
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Nino found himself crying that day. He blamed himself for trying to kill himself when someone else had died for him and called himself a stupid, selfish brat. He knows now, how he came to love the old man for always being there by his side, despite the fact that Ohno was his butler, when his parents gave him the cold shoulder and ignored him.
Why didn’t he appreciate what Ohno had done for him in his young life, and took Ohno’s weird subtle advices? Because he didn’t care about what Ohno did as long as the butler did whatever was satisfying for him.
A stupid and selfish brat, he mentally wrote all over his skin. If only Ohno wasn’t there that day, he would have died instead of the old man.
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“Get over it!” one of his classmates yelled across the classroom. “He’s old and he never really did anything!”
Nino shook his head and stood from his luxurious chair that he didn’t deserve, and angrily stomped his feet towards the stupid bastard that talked carelessly about his old friend. He grabbed the idiot‘s collar and punched him square in the jaw. “Shut the up!” Nino yelled as he punched the careless bastard again. “Don’t talk about him like you know him!”
A crowd of students gasped and they immediately formed a circle around the two. All of them chanted the word ‘fight’, and pushed the two delinquents to each other urging them to fight. However, the chanting and the crowd dispersed as their cranky teacher entered the room. Nino released his grip on the bastard, and rushed out of the room taking his stuff with him.
Nobody has ever heard of Nino since then.
Back at home, since Nino’s disappearance, his parents were in a disaster and they gave up on looking for their child. They knew that ever since Nino was born, the boy was nothing but bad luck to their lives. In hopes of desperation, they immediately produced a new child to success for them, turning their cold backs away from Nino.
TBC
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