321 Need
“...Yes?”
For a moment, Kairen doubted his hearing.
“Welcome to where?”
Afterlife?
His eyes then widened in realization.
“Ah! Right! I’m dead so this can only be the afterlife...”
But why was he feeling pain even after death? He, from the depth of his heart, felt that this was unjust! He was literally dead so couldn’t he finally be at ease?
“Pfftt!”
Kairen’s attention was drawn to the red-haired man once again after hearing him chuckle. The man was covering his mouth with a hand and quietly snickering.
.....
“What?”
Kairen asked, his voice a little bit annoyed.
“Don’t you know that you shouldn’t laugh at the dead?”
“Hahahaha!”
The man’s laughter intensified.
“....”
Kairen closed his mouth and stared at the man in silence. The redhead laughed for a little while before finally coughing and returning to his normal face.
“Ahem!”
He coughed before looking at Kairen.
“Don’t worry. You are not dead.”
“....”
Kairen tilted his head and raised his body a little, just a tiny bit, up.
“Then how am I in the afterlife?”
“Pffft- Ahem!”
The man suppressed his laughter and moved forward to help Kairen up.
“You are not in the afterlife. I was just joking.”
“...”
Kairen pushed the man away.
“That’s not something you should joke about, you know?”
Slightly taken aback, the redhead raised an eyebrow before lowering his head.
“Yeah yeah sorry.”
He then got up from the bed and walked over to the table on the other side of the room.
“Then... Where is this place?”
Kairen looked around once again. He could see nothing outside the window before, but now that he was sitting up, he could see some small shiny dots scattered around in the darkness. There were some that were moving around and some that were still in one place.
“It’s not the afterlife, but it’s not much different from it.”
The man was moving back towards Kairen while holding a cup of water and some other stuff in his hands.
“I can’t really understand what you are saying.”
“Sigh!”
The man sat on the bed once again.
“This place... Has a lot of names. Some call it the afterlife, though it isn’t really the right name to give it... Some call it the land of the dead... And perhaps... no one knows what the real name of the place is...”
The man slowly took out some round things that looked like medical pills while explaining.
“But let’s just call it the Void.”
“The... Void?”
The redhead nodded his head.
“Yeah.”
He grabbed the cup of water and handed it to Kairen. He accepted the cup but didn’t drink it immediately.
“Yeah. The void. The world of naught. The land of nothingness.”
The man shrugged his shoulders.
“I don’t think you will understand what I mean unless you see the place for yourself.”
He then handed the things that looked like pills to Kairen. Kairen again accepted them but didn’t take any of the pills.
“Then, how am I alive?”
There was no way he could survive that explosion and on top of that, the fall down from that height. He could also clearly say that he was indeed in the explosion as he had felt the heat and the pain before... coming here.
“I saved you.”
The man blurted that in a casual tone as if it was nothing important at all.
“Yes?”
But it was actually the most important thing here!
“You saved me? How? When? How come I didn’t notice?”
The man smiled at him.
“Picking you up and leaving that place before you died from that explosion isn’t something hard for me... And I don’t guess anyone would notice me there.”
He shrugged his shoulders again before pointing at the pills inside Kairen’s palm.
“Take them.”
“What are these?”
“Medicine.”
“How would I know if they are medicine?”
“...”
The redhead blinked his eyes.
“Yes?”
Kairen clenched his fist.
“My mom had taught me not to eat anything given to me by strangers!”
“....”
“....”
“....”
“....”
A heavy silence descended on the room. The man was staring at Kairen with a blank face at first, before his brows slightly frowned and he lowered his head a little bit, his expression changing from a surprised one to that of pity.
“Poor child...”
“Pardon?”
“Sigh!”
He shook his head.
“I guess these are also the after-effects of that incident.”
“Yes? What after effect?”
“Sigh!”
“What the-”
.....
Pat
The man suddenly placed his hand on Kairen’s head.
“If there is anyone to blame things on, that must be me.”
“.....”
Kairen looked at the hand placed on his head that was slowly stroking his hair.
“B-Blame what things on...?”
He was starting to feel creeped out. He wanted to move away from the hand, but his surroundings were blocked by the walls and the man himself.
“I must’ve known that the damage would also impact the mind...”
The man quietly mumbled.
‘The damage impacts the mind...?’
Those words were oddly familiar as if Kairen had heard someone say something similar to them not long ago.
And he didn’t need to think long to remember what those words were and who had said them to him.
Who else other than his brother could say to him that his mind has aged back more than his body while he was moving to this world? Huh! Even thinking about those words made him feel pissed off!
How can these people talk like this about him? He wasn’t... He wasn’t THAT stupid!
“Stop that!”
Kairen showed the hand away and glared at the man.
“Did you save me only to bring me to a creepy place and annoy me?”
He placed the cup of water and the pills on the small table beside the bed. Despite Kairen’s rash words and rude behavior, the man was warmly smiling at him.
Which made Kairen feel even more creeped out.
“Why did you save me?”
He folded his arms, though that made his body ache even more.
“And why did you bring me here?”
“....”
The redhead sighed before shaking his head.
“Because I had to.”
“....”
The man didn’t wait for Kairen to ask more and kept on explaining.
“Because I couldn’t let you die there. Because there are still things you have to do. Because there are problems you can solve. Because there are still people who need you...”
The man paused for a few seconds.
“Because I didn’t want the same thing to repeat itself again...”
He mumbled the last sentence in a low voice that Kairen barely heard as if he was saying that to himself. But the man’s quiet mumbles weren’t the most important issue for Kairen right now.
“There problems I can solve and things that I have to do?”
He asked in a doubtful voice.
“There are people who need me?”
Why was this man saying nonsense?
What could Kairen even do? What problem could he solve? Had he ever managed to solve anything in his life by himself? Who in the world would even need him, a good for nothing?
“You don’t believe me?”
“...”
Kairen didn’t need to utter his answer out loud for the man to hear it. The frown on the light-brown-haired boy’s face was proof that he wasn’t believing him in the slightest.
Kairen’s expression made the man chuckle.
“You just don’t know.”
He shook his head.
“You don’t know what things you can do and how much of a help you are to others.”
“....”
‘Is he mocking me?’
Kairen wanted to punch the man in the face for making fun of him. There was no need for anyone to say it for Kairen to understand how useless he was. He knew himself. He knew that he wasn’t good at anything. He knew that he couldn’t do anything. And he also knew that he couldn’t help anyone.
For a while in his life, back when he was still on earth and was struggling with his life, he used to think about different fantasy scenarios. He liked to imagine himself being a cool and wise person who could do everything, like one of those protagonists in novels whom people liked a lot. He wanted to be like that once he grows up.
But he knew that he was nothing like cool and wise. He was a stupid creature who was too timid and reversed to be called cool and too silly to be called wise. If he was in a novel, he would most likely be an extra than the main character. If his life was a novel... Probably someone like his brother could be the main character. Someone who was actually cool, wise, and strong.
So Kairen knew well that he wasn’t someone people would need. He knew that there wasn’t anyone who relied on him, someone whose life would be ruined if he was not around, or someone who benefitted from Kairen. Kairen was just there in their lives.
That was probably why he didn’t feel really sad about his death. He knew that nothing much would happen to the other’s lives if he was not around. He knew that there were people who would miss him from time to time but nothing more.
That was why this man was saying complete bullshit! That was why he was a scammer!
Kairen suppressed his anger and talked through gritted teeth.
“Yeah! I don’t know! You tell me sir if you know more than me!”
The man looked at Kairen’s face before the corners of his lips rose to a gentle smile.
“There is no need for any of that...”
He shook his head.
“There is no need to be perfect to be on the people’s minds and hearts. There is no need to be ‘Needed’ for people to ‘Need’ you. There is no need to be strong to make changes... and there is not even a need to make a change... It’s not only strong people whom people need...”
The man smiled more and shook his head.
“Those strong people who people ‘Need’ also need someone... Someone who is not perfect nor strong, and probably acts stupid and is a fool. You don’t need to be strong for people to rely on you... or be cool for them to remember your name throughout their lives.”
“...”
Kairen blinked a few times and moved a little bit back.
‘Did he just...’
Did this man just read his mind?
Kairen was feeling even more creeped out. His previous anger was completely gone and he was now looking at the man with a scared look.
“H-how did you-”
The redhead chuckled.
“Well, I know you well. It isn’t hard to understand what’s in your mind!”
He said that as he stood up from the bed.
“You know me well? How?”
Kairen tilted his head.
“Who are you even?”
“Oh!”
The man turned back to Kairen.
“You are asking that just now? Shouldn’t that be the first question you ask when you see a stranger beside you when you wake up?”
“....”
Now that Kairen thought about it... He was right. He had to ask that question before.
But there was a reason he didn’t ask about the man’s identity from the beginning.
“You are Roy...”
It was because he had heard his name before. Hearing that name, the redhead smiled.
“That’s right, I’m Roy.”
He completely turned back to face Kairen.
“But I guess I shouldn’t use that name for now... And also as long as I’m here...”
“...Then what?”
“Reyn.”
The man muttered, a found and nostalgic smile forming on his face.
“Call me Reynold.”
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