Nino placed his head on his arm as he watched people walk past by him. He sang in a soft voice, loud enough for children to go closer to him, swaying with his melody. He didn't ask for money, but instead for company. After all, it’s been such a long time since Nino sang loudly and freely. With his father gone, he could finally smile.

When he used to sing, he made sure his cruel father was out of the country, or nowhere near his room. Nino would sing the same song he first sang when he was 3 years old, and his old friend, Ohno was always there to listen to him

When Ohno was around to hear him sing, he was afraid that the old man would tell his father that he was singing, afraid of getting punished. As soon as he sees Ohno, he rushes to the butler and punches him, telling the butler to leave him be. However, his father never came into the room to punish him for singing. The many times when his father came home, Ohno would bow until the cruel father walked away, leaving Nino’s arms wide open who was expecting a hug. In return, Nino would sulk and embrace the butler instead. He scowled, asking himself why the past even mattered anymore. With Ohno gone, what would have been the point of staying in that cold house

Nino cuddled closer with his school bag trying his best to fight the winter weather as he continued singing his melody as more children came closer.

“What’s the name of that song?” a kid with missing front teeth asked him. Nino opened his eyes and peered his eyes at the dirty kid in front of him.

He could see the playful mood in the child’s eyes as Nino smile and answered, “I don’t know. It’s just a song that came to me.”

“Oh,” the child smiled back. He blinked his eyes a few times and moved closer to Nino, cuddling with him in the cold and winter weather. "I like it," the boy muttered and hummed along with Nino as he learned the song.

+

Nino opened his eyes and found himself back home. He didn’t know how he got there, nor did he remember waking up last night and walked himself to the damned place full of bad memories. “Damn,” Nino muttered under his breath, a cloud of smoke coming from his mouth. “Why am I back home?”

Strange, he thought, there was no one home. He walked around the cold mansion halls, his footsteps echoing heavily towards the end of the halls.  Of all places, he ended up in Ohno's room. It’s been a long time since he entered that place and he almost forgot how it looked like. Despite the fact that Ohno was his butler, the man was rather unorganized. There were empty tubes of paint here and there, dried and fainted spots of paint splattered on the floor or the wall, and blank canvases left neglected all over the room. Within the mess, however, Nino noticed something odd. The room was untouched and everything around him was dark gray. How long has Nino been gone from this house?

He didn’t notice this earlier since he only saw how colorful the paints were. Nino moved his head instead of moving around with his body, lazy to walk to one place to another when he was already at the exit. However, he noticed the only colorful canvas, its corner protruding behind the piles of blank canvases. Curiously, he walked towards it wondering why it was the only thing that had color.

It took him a while to rescue the painting since he didn't want to destroy any canvases. As soon as he hand it in his hands, his eyes widened in surprise. The old man wasn’t such a bad painter, Nino thought to himself as he ran his finger over the smooth lines, where Ohno had accurately painted the lines on his face. The old man was so precise that Nino spotted the same mole on his chin. Who knew that Ohno watched him this closely?

Just as he was about to put the painting back to its place, he heard a set footsteps heading towards Ohno’s room from outside. Quickly and stealthily, Nino put the canvas away, afraid someone would notice, and hid under Ohno’s bed peeking at the tiny holes to see who it was.

Shoot! Nino remembered. I forgot to close the door! He did a mental slap on the forehead but stopped himself when he heard this person crash on the bed just above him. Nino closed his mouth, trying to make his breath steady. He didn't know who this disrespectful, stupid bastard was in Ohno’s room. Nino swore he would have to kill him later.

“Nino!” the person called for his name. Nino jolted from his position, almost hitting his head on the bed. How did this person know he was in there? Instead of going out, he just stayed there and laid flat on his stomach waiting for something to happen next.

Soon, another set of footsteps came and this time, it sounded so fast and rapid almost like the person was running. “Ohno!” a boy piped up. “Can we play now?” Nino yet again closed his mouth, realizing that the bastard on the bed was Ohno. Tears were b on his eyes as he remembered the smiles that Ohno flashed so many times towards him. He was about to go out when the boy screamed and yelled as he jumped onto the bed.

“Please?!” the boy he heard earlier beg. He could feel the boy jumping up and down, screaming and yelling of wanting to play. This voice, Nino pondered, it sounds so familiar. “Pretty please Ohno!” He heard the boy beg. “Can we play?! Papa hates me and won’t play with me!”

Papa?

He heard Ohno sigh as Nino’s eyes were starting to tear up again. “Fine,” Ohno finally admitted. “Let’s play Nino.”

+

It was a weird dream to have. How was there two of them in one place, when in most of his dreams it was only one Nino? Perhaps it was a memory? He shook his head, trying to get rid of the dream and memories of his house altogether. He turned to his left, seeing the same kid yesterday still sleeping on his shoulder.

Nino giggled at the boy as he poked the boy awake, telling him that it was time to leave. The boy nodded his head and followed Nino like a lost puppy.

+

The two walked down the busy streets of Tokyo, pick pocketing businessmen and businesswomen alike as they went to find their rest stop. Nino held onto the boy’s hand dragging him closer, afraid that the bundle of mess would go missing. He felt a tug on his arm as the boy pointed to a park. “Let’s stop there!” The boy jumped up and down, obviously excited about seeing the playground.

Nino shook his head. He knows that if he stopped by the park and stayed there for the night, the curfew officers would ask them for his and the boy’s ID, afraid that he will be sent back home and the boy somewhere else. The boy looked at him with puppy eyes and tugged at his arm again.

“No,” Nino firmly said. “I can’t let us be sent home.”

“Aw,” he heard the boy sigh in defeat. Nino didn’t want to be unfair but he was to let them go there, bye-bye to freedom and hello solitary.

“I’m sorry,” Nino bent down so he could see eye-to-eye with the boy. “I promise we’ll be back here when it’s night time.” He saw the boy nod his head, and turn his face away from Nino making a sniffling sound.

+++

As the two settle down on the cold hard floor, the boy took a few stuff out of Nino’s bag: a pencil and a paper. The boy struggled to open the book, but Nino helped him and he watched the boy scribble something on the clean paper.

“Ai…Ai…” Nino struggled to read the kanji. “Aiba…” The boy looked up from his paper, blinked a few times, smiled, and went back to writing. Nino continued to read the kanji out loud. “Aiba Masa…Masa…Masaki?”

The boy looked up again and smiled, hugging Nino on the neck almost strangling him. “I’m sorry if I didn’t tell you my name earlier onii-chan. I didn’t know if I could trust you.”

Nino laughed hard at this, not believing every word he says. “You probably just couldn't say your name because you were nervous.”

“NO!!!” Aiba blushed, releasing his grip on Nino’s neck. “I was just-”

“Your kanji too,” Nino continued on taunting the small boy.

“Hpmh!” the boy turned away, crossing his arms. “It’s ‘cause I never finished the 5th grade.”

Nino laughed again, grabbing his stomach from the boy’s humiliation. “Seriously?!” Nino paused and panted from laughing hard. “Why?”

“Because,” Aiba turned around again this time, his eyes full of tears. “I ran away from home!!” Nino finally stopped laughing, feeling stupid yet again for laughing at the miserable boy in front of him.

He pulled the young boy towards him and hugged him saying, “It’s ok Aiba. I’m Nino by the way. I can help you since I’m was senior at high school.”

+++

Somewhere far away where Nino and Aiba were resting, a young man three years older than Nino woke up from a strange dream. He heard himself screaming for a boy he didn’t know, and saved him from committing suicide from falling out of a bridge. Unfortunately, he died in the dream and never learned who the boy was. All he remembered was that the boy's name was Nino.

TBC