Porridge

It was getting harder and harder for Nagi to just walk right into this state of affairs, but it seemed to have been minutes long before they reached the shabby front door. Nagi knew that Sean lived here, but imagining himself about to step on Sean's house didn't feel right.

Nagi was increasingly pulled and staggered so that the moment the woman flipped through the padlock with the key, Nagi leaned against the wall with his shoulder and closed his eyelids for a while.

"Hey." A small voice called out from the darkness and it took more effort to open his eyes than expected. However, as soon as Nagi opened it, his eyes immediately fell into the green eye, where there were thousands of overflows of fresh foliage color and water clarity lining those shiny eyes.

Beautiful, flashing somewhere behind consciousness and Nagi blinking back in surprise.

What?

"What?" He subconsciously repeated the question inside his head aloud and Sean who until then had kept saying something before Nagi ignored rolled his eyes and repeated.

"I said, at least take your body to the sofa and lie there. Don't expect to sleep on the mattress," said Sean, who had absolutely no tone of politeness there to talk to someone older than her.

Nagi blinked again. Yes. True. They are now in the front hallway of Sean's small apartment. His mind this time moved slowly because of this fever he had.

Still, Nagi ends up moving away from the wall, to follow where Sean is going. His head still hurts and also the world is spinning in his sight.

A worn-out-looking sofa perched in the middle of the room, too small to fit all over Nagi's body, letting his legs hang on the armrest. The pillow on which he buried his nose was old and faded.

Nagi captures every detail with just the tip of his mind, habitually analyzing everything even in the worst situations.

Nagi ruled out the fact that he felt like he had never been so comfortable in his life. However, consciousness still refuses to admit it completely. He closed his eyes, his body buried on that small and old sofa, Nagi made his body relax.

How much time passed, Nagi didn't know, maybe five minutes, maybe also an hour, but now the same voice called his softly again. "Are you asleep?"

Nagi re-opened his eyes and was again confronted by the eyeballs. Green. Like he was in the middle of the forest that Nagi often visited on the full moon.

As the woman continued, her voice grew louder and stronger, but not enough to hit his eardrums. "I made some food for you. It's better to eat and also take his fever pill."

Nagi moved his gaze to the table next to the sofa, he saw a bowl of porridge, and nearby was a fever pill still sealed as well as a mug with water.

Something strange was bubbling inside him, except that he didn't remember the last time someone took care of him. When was the last time someone cared? Nagi wants to destroy this feeling, destroy it because he doesn't need it. What he needs is to leave now.

Instead, Nagi realized that his hand had already grabbed the medicine. Without seeing the name of the medicine, he took it into his hand and put it in his mouth, then drank with a few uprights of water.

Nagi didn't know what possessed him when he instead picked up the bowl that was still poking warm steam out of it.

The first spoon. Second.

Delicious.

"Delicious." Nagi seemed to hear his voice from the side. After many years of eating in the most expensive restaurant, the food there is nothing comparable to the ordinary porridge in his hands now.

How long has it been since Nagi last ate homemade food? It seems that this is the last time she has been treated by someone.

In response, a short snort sounded from somewhere around his, and Nagi slightly raised his head catching the other person's gaze. He didn't think about the facts he had learned about the woman in the past few weeks, but about the little moments, he had witnessed.

About how she took a heavy grocery bag from her mother while ignoring her mother's grunts.

About how she threw her head back and put her hand on her forehead, squinted slightly at the sky, and her expression became as if relaxed, while wrinkles appeared in the corners of her eyes. It's almost always like that.

How she took the kittens from the crowd of boys who decided to have fun by molesting her then she dispersed them. How she pressed the frightened fur ball and screamed into her chest, ignoring the claws that pierced her skin.

Only useless little things shouldn't be a problem and he still doesn't understand what Brian saw in Sean.

Nagi didn't understand.

Or...

"In the meantime, I'll go, you can stay as long as you need. I left the quilt behind the sofa."

While Nagi didn't know anymore what Sean had told him, the woman said looking angry, but she was just like that from what Nagi knew. Seemingly smoldering, having no zest for life, troubles came always to her.

Then Sean turned to leave. Within a split second, Nagi was overwhelmed by a very strange wish that he felt unable to stop her, which was to ask her to stay, but he quickly swallowed the wish, he preferred to pretend that he had never thought of it at all.

However, Nagi ate all the food from inside the bowl, and then he looked at the back of the sofa where there was a small table there was a neatly folded blanket, Nagi pulled it over himself. He buried his nose in the quilt, adjusted his body as comfortably as possible on the small sofa, and then closed his eyes once more.

In the end, Nagi fell back asleep.

Nagi woke up in almost complete darkness, the phone pulled out of his pocket telling more precisely the time just now. The heat of his body was still felt, his head was slightly spinning and his mind was stuck, but even so, Nagi still couldn't remember the last time he felt so rested and satisfied with his sleep.

Nagi can't remember the last time he slept for so long. Usually, sleep is limited to a few hours or even not up to an hour. Up to now caused a trace of black under his eyes.

Turning on the lamp on the table, he accidentally looked at the empty bowl he should have left before, but Nagi again found porridge and also warm tea in the cup. Without thinking about many more things Nagi then ate them all, the porridge was a little bit already cold, but it didn't detract from the taste at all.

After eating, Nagi got up standing washing the dishes in the kitchen, he was thinking about leaving now because he didn't want to make small talk anymore, but then he heard the movement behind him. With one sound of footsteps, he would know who it was.

"I thought you were still asleep," Sean said in a flat voice. "Someone like you washes the dishes more like a boast."

Nagi did not respond. He turned off the water and put a bowl as well as a clean glass onto the shelf. After that he turned around, to glance at Sean.

Nagi was about to open his mouth, but he gave it up when he couldn't say a word of thanks, or rather Nagi felt he had never used it before. So, he instead reached into his pocket to get his wallet.

Nagi then spoke, "I think I owe you for food and medicine."

A quick response from Sean moved backward along with a hiss as if Nagi had insulted her. The calm and also silent attitude had disappeared from the woman much younger than him, replaced by the anger that appeared in her green eyes.

"Now it's clear who Brian learned to behave from."

Yes, there will always be Brian.