Comfort November

"MMM, I'm thirsty…" Belen twists and turns on her bed until the sunlight strikes her eyelids to open wide at her surroundings, "how did I get home?" She looks around her room, annoyed yet confused with her wavy distressed hair and messed up lipstick on her cheeks.

She groggily sat up, looking at herself within her vanity mirror, "oh Woah! I look like a clown that had a one night stand!" she gets a shiver down her spine when getting off her bed, but she missteps and clumsily falls on something squishy.

"Oww!" two voices collide.

Belen is rubbing her head irritably until she turns to see herself on top of Everest when he annoyingly groans, "damn, don't tell me you're still drunk. Ugh," he covers his forehead wrinkles.

She looks down, noticing her revealing thighs, and immediately moves off him closing her legs, "what are you doing here?" she asks suspiciously, analyzing his distressed clothes for marks.

Everest sits up, rubbing his stomach while grunting as if she was close enough to hit his private area. Fortunately, he felt her weight and moved on time before she could've broken his member.

"Hey! Don't go looking at me like some sort of perv! I didn't do anything to you. I have a good reason for staying here!" he retaliates, trying to prevent her from jumping to conclusions.

But she suspiciously narrows her eyes with a cringe face, "then what were you doing sleeping beside my bed? Or did you fall off?"

Everest annoyingly scoffs, "Are you kidding me? Look! Princess, I did nothing to you. The reason I stayed the night here on the floor was because of YOU!" he bravely points.

Her eyes widen, "me? What did I do?"

"You drank too much!" he sniffs her, quickly pulling away because of the strong smell of alcohol. He winces back as quick as possible, "you stink of alcohol! Wait a minute-"

He looks over the bed in shock, in disbelief, when staring at Belen, "Y-You didn't puke?"

"What are you-?" Belen angrily furrows her brows.

"Did you wake up in the middle of the night and threw up in the toilet or something?" he feels the spreadsheets for spots of puke.

Belen annoyingly pulls him by the collar, "What the hell are you looking for?!"

Everest turns away, cringing at the smell of alcohol coming from her breath, "can you please brush your teeth?"

She furiously lets go sniffing her distressed clothes, "do I really…smell that bad?" She gets up, heading to the bathroom when she pops her head out, "and another thing, I don't puke, no matter how much alcohol I consume," she says arrogantly, locking the door to her bathroom.

"What?! That can't be true! What are you a god?" Everest shouts in disbelief when Belen shouts back, "I normally never throw up. I don't allow my body to do so."

"Everyone throws up, even the Queen of England pukes! What makes you so different?" he stands up, massaging his stomach.

"Think what you want, Everest Fox, but know this, Belen Astares does not vomit, at all!" she confidently claims.

Everest refuses to argue with her about that ridiculous claim and instead heads home thinking, "well, great! I just lost good sleep for nothing. What was I thinking? Sleeping on the floor? But when I put her on the bed, I felt too scared to lay down next to her. What's wrong with me?" He blushes red, "I usually sleep with anyone, even with a log of a woman. So what kept me from sleeping with her? Argh! Whatever! Why is it so hot this morning!?"

He quietly enters the house, walking past the kitchen, realizes the mess of dishes, making him curious, "what the-? Was Noah home last night?" he curiously peeks into the living room only to see it clean tidy. He shrugs, "maybe not," he walks back into his room, grabbing a change of clothes to take a shower.

Immediately after, he gets a phone call from Belen, "Hello?"

"Yeah, I'm almost ready. Huh? Is Noah home? But-" he glances at Noah's bedroom door with a towel wrapped around his waist, "it's quiet, are you sure he's home?"

Belen answers back, "Security said he hasn't left since yesterday night. Check his room."

Everest unsurely obeys grasping the doorknob, but no matter how much strength he uses, it's pointless, "it's locked."

"Knock!" Belen shouts, scaring Everest to pull away from the phone, "okay."

He starts knocking loud enough for Belen to hear, but as he stopped, no response.

Thump thump thump thump! Everest uses his fist to knock, creating a considerable thumping noise.

But again, as he got quiet, he leans over to hear if there is any response, but just as silent minutes went by, Everest gives uplifting the phone to his ear when suddenly he hears Noah weakly reply, "Get out!"

Everest flinches, stepping away from the door, "h-he's here, Belen," he hesitates, "but I don't think he's well."

Belen's voice turns serious, "what do you mean? Did he say something?"

He nervously gulps, "he sounds weak. Maybe, could he be sick?"

"Everest Fox," Belen coldly says, giving him goosebumps, "Y-Yes?" he answers anxiously.

"Today is your lucky day. Oversee everything at A Star for today. If anything arises, call me. Though I'd rather you not, is that clear?"

Catching her serious tone makes Everest realize she's putting her trust in him to look over A Star in her place or rather in both of their positions. Instead of asking any further, he decides to accept, "okay, very well. I'll be on my way" he hangs up, walking back to his room but stops for a second to glance back at Noah's room suspiciously, "what's going on?"

***

Thirty minutes later, Everest left to A Star. Meanwhile, Belen went over to check on Noah.

As soon as she entered his house, she made her way straight to Noah's bedroom except the door, which was the only thing coming in between her and Noah.

She rose her hand to the door, taking a deep breath before finally knocking, "Noah~" she calls out sweetly.

"Noah, it's Belen. Can you unlock the door for me? Noah~ Noah!"

It didn't take long for Noah to unlock the door using a remote control allowing Belen inside his room. Though as she stepped foot inside, she couldn't help but feel the depressing air in the darkroom. Everything was dark. The only thing that gave Belen light was the bits of sunlight seeping out from the cracks of his blackout curtains.

As she glanced at the darkroom, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until her eyes made their way to see Noah's lifeless body on the bed.

She quietly walks over to the other side of the bed to get a better look at him, "Noah," she whispers, "it's me, Belen. How are you feeling?" she cautiously climbs the bed placing the back of her hand against his burning forehead.

It became clear to Belen that Noah is suffering from a high fever without touching his forehead because his body is drenched in sweat. Still, he seemed to be shivering as well, making Belen even more confused, "are you cold?" she grazes her hand on his bare shoulder and open chest, "your body isn't cold. Why are you shivering?" she questions, looking at his weak reaction.

She quickly takes out her phone, "I'm going to call Dr.-"

"No…please," Noah weakly begs, reaching out for her hand, "please, don't leave me," he begs sadly, cringing his face like a newborn baby.

Belen puts her phone away, "I need to know what I can do for you to get better, okay, Noah?"

"Liar! You're going to abandon me, just like my mom did…" he childishly whines, holding onto Belen's hand with the only strength he has left.

Belen deeply sighs, softening her expression, "I know for certain I won't do such a thing. Don't worry, Noah. I won't ever leave you," as she said these words, Noah let go and pat the bed.

Belen's eyes widened, "you want me to lay down?"

He merely nods, making her smile "…okay," she gently lays facing him when he's fallen asleep. Belen stares at him, quietly whispering underneath her breath, "If anything, I'm afraid of you leaving me."

Noah doesn't know that as soon as he fell asleep, Belen managed to text her Dr about Noah's condition. Unfortunately, he is away at a conference and only advised Belen to drink traditional medicine and a special tea, but he mustn't consume it with an empty stomach.

Belen quietly got up and made her way to the kitchen to cook some soup for Noah to drink.

"You normally never get sick. Did you finally reach your limit, Noah?" Belen huffs out, feeling angry towards the cause of his distress, which she guesses to be Mabel.

***

Noah continued suffering in his sleep from his fever, recalling the past when his mother abandoned him near a convenience store.

"Eomma! Eomma!" he cries, running after his mom when she turns around with a disgusted expression. "Be good and stay here, okay!"

Hearing her strict tone made Noah immediately obey and went back to the place beside the convenience store. Noah noticed many coming in and out of the store within each passing time, looking at him in shock. Some even tried to approach him, but he dashed into hiding within the dark alley.

This continued for days. The only way Noah was able to keep track of the day was by a lullaby he'd sing depicting the time of day. He started living like a street cat, often digging through the trash or even eating leftovers strangers left outside the convenience store.

Only once did he manage to steal food from the store, because the second time he tried to steal was when he got caught and police officers took him in.

Something strange about him was that he was mute. He only knows when it's day and night. But he has no idea about counting days or months. How long has it been since his mother left? He can't remember.

Soon after, he got adopted into an orphanage, but he had to spend his days indoors. Once he was allowed to roam free, he took the opportunity to run back to the store to check in the same spot if perhaps his mother came back to pick him up.

Instead, the person he saw was Mi-sun. He tearfully ran into her embrace, crying like a baby, claiming that his mother promised to pick him up.

"I-I miss Eomma!" he wailed, feeling the warm embrace of Mi-sun, who soon became a mother to him. That was the first time he broke his silence.

The dream took a turn into Noah's hidden memories that recently got unlocked.

"Hyeong! Let's play!" Noah cheerfully brings out two toys into a blurry figure's face, "come on hyeong! I'll be the kitty, and you are the dog," he says, giggling.

The person he called brother so favorably slapped the toys from his hand, harshly clicking his tongue, "get away from me!"

Noah couldn't believe his eyes and only stared at the toys that were on the ground, "I HATE YOU! I WISH YOU WERE NEVER BORN!!" his brother screams at Noah as he bends down to pick up the toys.

He couldn't believe his ears, making his eyes wet, "…hyeong" he calls gently with puppy-like eyes.

The boy he called brother angrily snaps at him, "SHUT UP! I'M NOT YOUR BROTHER! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" But before Noah can do anything, his eyes widen in shock to see the person in front of him cough out blood.

"HYEONG!!" Noah loudly yells with tears streaming down his cheeks, frightenedly shaking.

At that moment, their parents rush in, alarmed to see blood when Noah's mom yells at him, "what did you do to your brother?! You bad child!" she angrily slapped his bottom, making Noah wail.

But what is this? Noah thought, looking back at these unknown memories, were these really his?

He overheard his father click his tongue at him in disappointment, "get out of here before I throw you out!" he threatens Noah to run away in a closet, which so happens to be his safe spot.

"I'm sorry, hyeong. I'm sorry, Eomma. I'm sorry, Appa," Noah repeatedly says while rocking himself to sleep, "sorry, sorry…sorry."

Noah twitches awake, opening his eyelids to see and hear clacking dishes, "you're awake!" Belen brightly smiles, sitting next to him with a bowl of soup on her lap, "can you sit up?"

Noah does not know how to react, but he blankly obeys her without hesitation, not uttering a single word until, "atsss…hot!" he winces away from the spoonful of soup.

Belen becomes flustered, "oh! Sorry!" she uses a napkin to clean his lips when she doubts herself aloud, "maybe it wasn't a great idea to give you soup," she shyly smiles about to put it away when Noah cutely taps her arm making her confused.

He moves his chin, pointing to the soup in her hands, "you still want to eat?"

Instead of saying anything, he merely nods like a puppy making Belen smile, "okay," she blows on it and carefully feeds him. This went on for ten minutes until he refused to eat anymore, and Belen gave him medicine.

The atmosphere was quiet but tranquil because even as Belen came back and forth from the kitchen into his bedroom. Noah did not speak at all. Instead, he observed her. Unable to believe if he were awake or dreaming.

Soon after, the medicine took effect, making him fall asleep. Belen got tired and fell asleep next to him, both unconsciously facing each other.

They looked like lost children who craved love from someone, but at the same time, their fears kept them from chasing after it.

***

Belen fell asleep exhausted and with a bit of a hangover. Luckily, the soup worked out best for both of them.

She found herself within a dark hallow room, "this feels familiar," she claims aloud, hearing an echo within the room.

"Belen. Belen." a familiar voice calls out, echoing into her ears.

"I recognize that voice!" Belen turns in the voice's direction when a marble of light appears, making a pathway for her to follow.

"Belen, Belen!" the voice grows louder, making Belen realize that she's getting closer when finally the marble light shines on a cage making her eyes widen in surprise, "I knew it! It's you again!" Belen shouts in amazement, running to the cell only to see her malnourished inner self again.

As she touched the cage, they both hear a loud creak making them look in the direction of opening the door to the cell.

"It-It opened…IT'S OPENED!" Belen excitedly shouts with a cracked voice at the Belen inside the cage, "come on! You can get out!" she runs to the opened side of the cell.

Belen stood outside waving at Belen to come out, but seeing as how long it took for her to take a step forward, Belen was about to step inside to help her until she yelled, "DON'T COME IN!" startling Belen to cringe but at the same time step away from the cage.

"W-Why not?" she timidly asks, "I-I want to help you."

"You already are," the inner Belen sincerely answers, "thanks to you, the cage is now open."

Belen touches the door to the cage, "then…why can't you come outside?"

The inner Belen looks at the cold steel ground, "I'll show you," she uses her strength to walk over to the entrance where Belen is waiting for her.

The closer she came to the entrance, the faster Belen's anxious heart began to beat against her chest. Finally, the inner Belen stops at the entrance facing Belen with a smile, this time a lot clearly without the metal bars in the way.

Belen nods when the inner Belen slowly lifts her left foot and right hand out the cage, but just as Belen was about to celebrate, she's quickly taken aback to see her stop in mid-air.

"What's the matter?" she walks closer to her.

"I can't, don't you see it," she bitterly smiles until Belen gets a closer look at her and gasps in surprise to see chains that were once invisible, visible to her eyes.

Now she understands that even though the cage is open, the chains around her neck, wrist, and legs keep her restrained from leaving.

"…Why" Belen quietly yet angrily clenches the metal bars of the entrance to the cage. She looks up to see inner Belen's bitter smile and sad eyes, "why aren't you crying?!"

"Because you're already crying for me, Belen."

She answers back in a muffled voice, "but I want you to be free!"

The other shakes her head, "I'm already one step closer to freedom, and it's all thanks to you, Belen. Thank you."

"No!" she aguishly shouts, unable to hold back her tears, "what more can I do?!"

"Be yourself. That will set me free. I am your little darling, Belen," she says gently.

She looks at her confused when her eyes widen in shock to see herself as a child, "I am you," she chirps, fading away.

Belen panics, trying not to lose sight of her as she faded into the air, "WAIT! PLEASE! DON'T GO! BELEN!!!" she screams in agony.

In that instant, Belen flinches awake, slowly opening one of her eyelids to see Noah squirming in his sleep. She mumbles out, "shhhh, it's okay, Noah. I'm here" she gently pats his back while falling back to sleep.

***

Once Noah took medicine, he found himself feeling extraordinarily tired and sleepy. He ended up falling into a deep sleep having inexplicably vivid dreams.

"Wh-Where am I?" Noah questions his surroundings, but they seem to be entirely foreign.

"A ranch? OLIVER!" he runs to the crops, but something does not feel right, "this isn't-where the hell am I?!"

It's as if he's somehow transported to another world, or area of the world that he has no clue even existed. He's so confused that all he can do is run through the sidewalk, noticing the small houses and farms.

"This is different. They have pigs, goats, and cows here" he peeks over the fence when someone comes close to him, waving. Noah freaks out, running away from the tall, fat, scruffy-looking man.

"That's odd," he continues walking throughout the small town, "have I transported to the past or something? There's a bunch of white people here. It's weird."

Though the more he walked alongside the small townhouses' fences, he notices everyone smiling and waving at him. He can't hear anything from them. It's as if someone muted them from his conscious.

"Do I know you?" Noah only guessed while staring at them walk past him. The more people came to pass him with a smile. He analyzed them.

"I don't feel disgusted for once," he sighs, "their smiles don't feel fake, but warm."

He came to a stop within a large sun blazing yellow field, "when did I get here? Damn! Seriously! Where am I?!" he frustratedly glances around the large crop of fields to find any hidden clue of his whereabouts.

Until he stepped foot out of the maze-like crop field, he overhears cars, "could it be a highway?" He desperately runs in the direction only to bump into a low fence, "argh! That hurts! Wait! Hurts?! What the heck?!" he shakingly panics, crawling away from the fence.

He overhears footsteps for once, "huh?" Noah turns to see a tall slim man looking over at him on the ground. "Who are you?" the man's deep tone somehow scares Noah to ask, "I should be asking you that hastily!"

Noah has no idea who this man is, but somehow he does not feel unsafe around him. He looks up to see his face, only to look back down again because the blazing sun hid the tall man's face.

"Damn it!" Noah curses underneath his breath.

"Do you need help?" the man gently offers.

But before Noah accepts his help, he quickly tries his best to stand up, "how-no! why am I only able to hear you?"

The man's voice turns deeper, maliciously stating, "BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ALIVE!" the man sinisterly laughs at Noah's pale expression.

In an instant, Noah wakes up from that nightmare amazed to see Belen sleeping peacefully beside him, "ah…" he thinks, "this is probably another dream or a nightmare?" he flinches, rolling his eyes to the corner of his room for once feeling a bit scared of the dark.

He brings his attention to Belen's peacefully sleeping face, "another vivid dream?" he thinks, while carefully reaching his index finger to graze it against her eyes, nose lightly, and lastly, her irresistible lips.

He slowly moves closer to feel her breath intertwine with his, feeling his heart beat faster and faster within every second closer he got to her lips.

That is until Belen flinched, smacking her lips together. Noah couldn't believe his eyes and simply froze insight as soon as he saw Belen open an eye. Lucky for him her vision was blurry enough to mistake him as having a hard time sleeping and instead cuddled him, caringly mumbling, "shhhh, it's okay, Noah…I'm here" while patting his back.

"Does she think I'm having a nightmare?" he thinks while looking up at her sleeping face.

"I guess she does" he pauses for a moment to get comfortable, only to hear Belen move again.

"What is she doing?" Noah internally freaks out as Belen nuzzled her way into his bare chest. He couldn't help but feel as if she were unknowingly trying to seduce him in her sleep. But he felt his head feel extremely hot, "I need to take my meds," he hesitates, feeling her warmth, "later," he falls back to sleep, wrapping his arms around Belen.

***

"I'm home, Leah" Edy walks near the kitchen, happy to see Leah cooking, "you're back! How was it?" she gently welcomes him home, "sit down, I just finished cooking."

Edy excitedly pulls a chair to sit down and talks to Leah while she's serving him a plate of food, "it went unexpectedly well. All of the brothers welcomed me. It was nice seeing them again."

"What about the Rabbi?" Leah asks, serving herself a plate to eat with him too.

"Ooh!" Edy answers, trying to finish chewing his food, "I spoke with him."

"Really?! What did he say? What did you two talk about?"

"Mm, well, about my life. I told him everything that's happened, and well, it was nice" he looks down, continuing his food.

"What did he say?" she asks carefully.

"He only asked about my children."

"Does he-"

Edy boldly stops Leah from finishing her sentence, "No. He does not. It's not something I can bring up to just anyone. You know that better than I do, Leah. Don't bring that subject up."

Leah nervously gulps her food when nodding, "…yes, sorry. I'll remember."

Edy breaks the tension with a smile, "anyways, they all asked about her," he happily brags.

"Oh! Mabel?" Leah astonishingly asks.

He scoffs, "No!" he breaks out into a haughty laugh, "My Belen, of course!"

"He remembers her?" she tilts her head.

"Of course, everyone remembers MY Belen. She was the only one who always stood out from her sisters," he proudly laughs.

"Will you start attending that congregation?"

Edy pauses for a second, staring at his empty plate, "I think I will. It's been years since I last assembled myself there. And to think it's still the same, anyway, no one really remembers Ernestina since she never stood out."

"I see, but are you sure it will be okay for me to go there? I miss my church," she asks, feeling a bit unsure.

"You might like it. Why don't you come with me next week? Oh! That reminds me, I have to buy the things for Shabbat."

"Shabbat?"

"I invited the brothers to have Shabbat here, next week!" he excitedly claims-making Leah almost spit out her water, "you invited them here? Why?"

"Why not? Ah! That reminds me! I'm going to call Belen and ask her to visit the congregation too!"

"W-Wait, Edy. Isn't this a little too fast?"

"What are you talking about? I'm Jewish. Belen used to love going there too. But things got out of hand, and we both stopped going," he says disappointedly.

"It's time for Belen to return!" Edy firmly announces, heading to his office, leaving Leah speechless.

She heavily sighs, putting the plates in the sink, and starts washing them, lost in thought, "he didn't even ask about my day. I need to tell him the news that my son will be here on thanksgiving" she slumps her shoulders looking at the soap of the dishes with a sad gaze.

"…Thanksgiving is the 23rd this year."

***

The next day, Noah was all better. Fortunately, the Dr. arrived in time to secretly give Noah his meds and a few extra supplements.

Noah had a good rest, and Belen sobered up perfectly well, so the two were in tip-top shape.

Though as the two were alone in the office, Noah nervously asks, "Madam."

"Yes," Belen coldly answers while working on a few documents.

"…Belen," he calls out softly, making her look up at him bewildered because she knows that when he uses her first name at work, it means he wants to talk about something based outside of work.

"Yes?" she narrows her eyes to see him bravely ask, "do you have any plans to celebrate your birthday day this year?"

She's flabbergasted, "Um, no. Wait a minute, when does my birthday even fall on this year?"

Just as she was about to check, Noah immediately answers, "Thursday, on Thanksgiving," surprising Belen when she sighs, shaking her head, "hmm, then no. I don't. Why do you ask?"

He excitedly continues, "Then! Will you please take a vacation with me? I mean, well, I planned out a birthday for you…" Noah timidly meets her shocked, bright eyes making his heart flutter.

"U-Uh, unless," he stutters, chickening out.

"Sure," she answers casually, making Noah's eyes unbelievably wide, "what did you?"

Belen cheerfully strikes a pearl white smile. From his point of view, he can tell that she means it.

"Sounds like fun, I'm in!" she winks at him making his ears red but at the same time relieved, unable to hide his pleased expression, "Great!"