Chapter 23:
The Dream and the Disdain
ECLIPSE: I DON'T REMEMBER YOUR NAME, BUT MY HEART KNOWS YOU ARE MINE
Ren remained frozen in the middle of the sidewalk, deaf to the noise of Shibuya traffic. People swirled around him, but he didn't move.
He was sure. He had felt it.
It hadn't been a single sound, but a sensation; a tingling at the back of her neck so familiar that her body had reacted before her brain. For a moment, she swore she had heard her name whispered by the wind. But she saw no one. Just a sea of ordinary faces.
His logic desperately tried to process the anomaly. Sensory data: anomalous. Auditory source: unidentified. Visual correlation: zero. Conclusion: auditory hallucination due to stress.
And yet, her instinct rebelled. For a moment, for a second, she felt that she was there.
Confused and defeated, Ren finally moved from the spot. Failure was a weight that weighed heavily on his shoulders, so he decided to go home. There was no point in continuing to search; his goal had evaporated. He slipped away through the alleys he already knew, a maze he used to change. The ritual of stowing his “plebeian” clothes in his backpack felt hollow. He already had enough problems without his father scolding him for his attire as well.
He was so lost in his thoughts, so engrossed in analyzing his own failure, that he completely ignored Naoki, who was waiting for him with the car parked discreetly a block away from the mansion. Naoki opened his mouth to speak, but Ren walked past him, his gaze lost, and entered the property through a side entrance.
All he wanted to do was sleep. Shut down his system.
He went up to his room, a huge, minimalist, cold space. His eyes fell on the can of Nexus he had bought on his last failed visit. The can he had bought on an illogical, almost superstitious impulse.
He sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the can on the desk. The colors of the can were an affront to the gray aesthetics of his room. He stared at it for several minutes, his mind blank, his internal processor stuck in an error loop. Exhaustion finally overcame him. He collapsed onto the expensive sheets, still fully clothed, and fell asleep.
Ren had a dream.
It was fragmented, lived. I was in a park. And in it, a man, seen from behind, opening one of those famous cans of Nexus. And next to him, a girl with pink hair. Unfortunately, I couldn't see her face. A blurry spot, like an error in a digital file, covered it. The girl was laughing, but the sound didn't reach me.
The last thing he could see clearly was a glint in her hair: a bunny pin.
Ren woke up with a start, his heart beating wildly. He had fallen asleep for just a few moments. He sat up, confused. What was that dream about? The man from Nexus? The girl with the pin?He didn't have time to think about it. The distinct sound of a luxury car pulling up to the main entrance broke the silence. The crunch of tires on gravel.
He looked out the window of his room. It was Akira's car.
The door opened and she came out. Akira Takashima. Perfect, like a porcelain doll with an impeccable dress and a cold expression that rivaled his. She had her cell phone pressed to her ear; she seemed to be finishing a conversation, because she hung up seconds later with a sharp gesture.
Just then, Pochi, the Shinomiya family's Shiba Inu, a normally cheerful and confident dog, ran out of the house to greet the visitor, wagging his tail enthusiastically.
Ren just watched from above.
The dog approached Akira, barking happily, and prepared to jump on her, seeking affection. Akira's reaction was instantaneous and devoid of emotion.
She looked at the dog with blood-curdling disdain. And, without changing her facial expression one iota, she kicked the dog.
It wasn't a brutal kick, but a sharp, calculated blow with the tip of her designer shoe, straight to the animal's side. A gesture of pure impatience.
“ Get out of here, stupid dog. ” said Akira.
His voice was so cold that Ren could almost feel it from the window.
Hachiko let out a sharp yelp, more from surprise and fear than pain, and fled with his tail between his legs, taking refuge with the gardening staff.
Akira Takashima simply smoothed her dress, as if she had brushed away an invisible speck of dust, and resolutely entered the mansion.
From his room, Ren felt a wave of deep disgust wash over him. “ Tsk “. It was the same abuse of power. The same casual cruelty toward anything considered inferior. “ She's just like my father. “
His worst suspicions had been confirmed: she was cold, ruthless, and only cared about appearances. His contempt for her was now personal.
Her bedroom door rattled. It was Naoki. “ Young master... your father says to come downstairs. Right now. Miss Takashima is here. ”
Ren was furious. It was a cold, silent rage that made Naoki instinctively take a step back. “ Young master? Is everything all right? ”
Ren just looked outside, at the exact spot where the dog had been kicked. “ ...I don't know. ”
Ren's world was slipping through his fingers. For the first time, he didn't know what to do. His cold, calculating mind couldn't handle it.
Please sign in to leave a comment.