A tragic story

GamingWolf1: Before reading this, make sure you read the author's note - Glitch in volume 0. A few passages were added to the beginning of Haruto's story in chapter 48 to make the story more coherent. Thank you for being patient through this technical difficulty.

After living at her mother's house for two years, Tina and Phan finally moved out. However, their relationship didn't improve as she thought. She asked him to help with the chores and look after Haruto but he said that it was a woman's job.

One day she had to be there for her mother's birthing and so she asked Phan to look after Haruto. When she came home after midnight, she found Haruto asleep on the ground in the living room and Phan was sleeping on the couch.

She had only asked him to put Haruto to bed because she couldn't be there for him but he didn't even do that.

One day her husband had returned home and 10 minutes after receiving a phone call, he ran out of the house without mentioning his whereabouts.

30 minutes later, there was a loud knocking on the door. When she opened it, she found a mob of Chinese gangsters at the door.

They asked for Phan to come out. She held Haruto close by and said that Phan left before they came and didn't tell her where he went to.

Surprisingly they didn't break into the house and left. When Phan returned home, she demanded some answers and was shocked. Phan was making a lot of money through dealing drugs but he was in debt. However, he quickly resolved that problem by pulling out all his savings.

The last nail in the coffin came soon enough. While arguing with her friend, she told Tina that her husband had tried asking her out even though she was married.

Tina then asked for proof but she had already deleted her chat history with him. She confronted him about this but he refused to give her a straight answer.

After five years of an unfruitful marriage, she had finally kicked him out of the apartment. A few months later she looked through her Facebook and found Phillip's friend request from a few years ago.

After Phillip received notification, he sent her a message. She had never given him the light of the day but now she felt drawn to him like a magnet.

He wasn't perfect but he felt like the right match. He was dedicated to his work as much as Phan except the nature of his work was legal. Their arguments were never one-sided and both of them would listen to the other. He earnestly played with Haruto and genuinely loved him.

It was tough for Haruto at first. The first day they met, he completely ignored and stayed away like he was a pedophile. However, Haruto's first smile came from watching Phillip clumsily mess up or fail miserably. Eventually, the smile became genuine and there was much laughter. His mum was also happy.

Phillip's serenity was so infectious that it scared him. His insecurities launched on this opportunity. Deep down inside, he couldn't trust Phillip who might leave like his biological father.

At a young age, he found out that even a parent can be replaced. His mother was the only person he could trust. Her love was the only thing that was forever in this fluttering world.

Then Phillip came and quickly stole his mother's heart. He was just content living day by day with just his mother. He liked Phillip too, but his insecurities greatly conflicted him.

When Tina told him that she was getting married, he got happy and mad. His whole world was changing and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing.

Haruto ran out of the house afterwards. Phillip and Tina were panic-stricken when they found the front door was wide open. Phillip told Tina to stay in the house in case Haruto came back and went to look for him. He had found Haruto and gently encouraged him to go back home.

Phillip could feel the anger rising from Haruto's back. The kid was shrouded in flames of anger and his fumes wafted off to him. Phillip was the opposite in that he was shielded by a clear force field of serene purity and kindness that deflected Haruto's fumes. He kept close to Haruto as the moon was up.

After a 10-minute walk - which was a 5-minute walk that had been dragged out by Haruto – they had reached their apartment but found that the door was still open.

They both thought that was strange as it was common sense to close it. Phillip thought that maybe Tina left it open because it was more convenient than to repeatedly open the door to see if they were coming.

The sight upon entering the room chilled their blood to ice.

A man was holding Tina up by the neck with one hand. Her skin was pale blue and she wasn't struggling but made a gasp when she saw the two arrive.

Tina's legs were dangling in the air. The man wasn't muscular and so it defied common sense. However, they both recognised him, it was Phan.

"Mom!!"

Phan let go of Tina and she fell to the floor coughing.

Haruto ran over to Tina.

"Haruto don't!"

It was too late. He had run from Phillip's side. Luckily, Phan didn't make a move like he thought he would. Instead, he seemed pleased like that was his plan all along. Phillip slowly moved towards Haruto but Phan stepped in between them, grinning.

'He lifted her with one hand! Does he have the parasite?' Phillip thought.

"Mom! Please wake up! Please! I'm so sorry! Please wake up Mommy... sob."

Phillip charged at Phan and swiped at him with his left and right but Phan swiftly dodged each attack by a single step each time.

Phillip kept swinging at him, left, right, left, right until Phan's back hit the wall. This was what he was aiming for.

Phillip threw a right hook at Phan's face but his fist smashed into dry concrete. Phan had disappeared from the front and was directly behind Phillip. A kick to his side blew Phillip into the kitchen.

Phan was intrigued by the hole in the wall which could fit a fist. Phillip got up and sputtered out blood from his mouth. He had three broken ribs and a pulverised spleen and kidney but he was still standing in those conditions.

He reached out to grab a knife from the kitchen drawer but a tentacle wrapped around his wrist and crushed it. The knife dropped to the kitchen bench.

"So, you're a parasite... but these two aren't. Why is that?"