《Over the Bridges to Singing Waterfalls》Timeless Garden
Advertisement
On the morning before school, Glenn goes to the old lady's house to check on her surroundings. As he entered through the gate, he never imagined that Ryou would arrive before he did. At this moment, the young man was watering the lawn and the flowers, and he combed his hair into a ponytail with a rubber band.
"Have you changed your mind?" asked Glenn jokingly, actually admiring the young man.
"As you can see," Ryou replied nonchalantly, avoiding his joke. When he finished pouring flowers, he didn't take his eyes off the lawn. "I thought about what you said yesterday and decided to help. The old lady deserves proper attention."
"She's kind," Glenn said, smiling. "We should wait until her niece arrives. According to Grandma, the niece will take her back to her town where there's no urban unrest after she arrives."
"Good decision," Ryou said, and squatted down, following with his chin tucked into his lap with boredom. "So quiet."
Glenn looked back thoughtfully at the house and walked silently in its direction. As he entered through the curtain netting, he looked out into the room and saw an old lady sitting at the kitchen table. She was sitting without any purpose, just sitting and not interrupting the silence.
"How are you resting?" asked Glenn peacefully, taking off his school shoes. "Don't ruin the silence reigning around the house?"
Turning around, Grandma smiled lawlessly. "Alas, in my house the silence hasn't stopped for decades."
Glenn walked over to the kitchen table, but dared not sit down at the table, listening to the old lady with interest. Placing her frail and sullen hands on the table, Grandma reminisced about the happy past that had overtaken her in her youth. Ryou entered the room gently, and tiptoed toward the nearest corner for him, where he sat down on a wooden chair.
"My husband died about twenty years ago. Fortunately, of old age, and not of any of the diseases that overtook me. He was older than I was, much older than I was... A handsome man for his years."
"I'm sorry you had to go through such a terrible event," Glenn said sincerely, to which Grandma responded with a waving of her hands.
"Come on, there's nothing wrong with that," she said, and looked back at the window beside her. "It happens to everybody. Death is a common occurrence. I just have to believe until today that my hubby didn't go to hell."
Advertisement
"He didn't," Glenn replied decently and sat down at the table across from her. "I'm sure a good man doesn't go to hell."
Grandma was surprised at his conclusion, and it touched her soul. Then Ryou's yearning lips quirked in an effort not to upset the old lady.
"Would you, Mei-san, like to go back to your youth again?"
"I would, of course. Back to the eighties, where youth movements were just beginning to advance from foreign cultures. Hehe, in your day, after all, you would call things from forty years ago old old-fashioned."
"That's true," Ryou replied, putting his cheek to his palm. "The world has evolved without a backward glance."
"How fast time flies," Granny said, glancing at the round clock posted on the wall. "It's half past eleven, you have to leave for school soon."
"We'll make food for you and make your bed, Mei-san," added Glenn, whose conclusion the worried old lady dared not interfere. Glenn got up from his chair and blinked his right eye at Ryou, who also got up to help the young man with the cleaning.
After receiving the old lady's thanks, the boys walked away to the bus stop and got on the bus. Ryou, who was sitting in his headphones, ended up removing his ponytail, thinking that this hairstyle was not suitable for him, since his hair wasn't long enough to have a ponytail yet.
After his last class was over, Ryou was leaving the school office, and he got an unexpected call from Glenn. As he answered the phone, he heard Glenn's anxious and elevated tone.
"Hurry up inside, Grandma's in critical condition!"
The young man's voice boomed out of his soul and involuntarily commanded Ryou, who, upon hearing his words, immediately ran outside.
"Has the ambulance arrived?" asked Ryou loudly. "When did you have time to arrive to her?"
"On its way..." said Glenn, as if lifting a heavy weight in his arms. Following, the young man exhaled. "I barely got to her when I saw her lying unconscious on the floor."
"How come..." replied Ryou, eyes wide. "Hang in there, Glenn-kun! I'm on my way to you now."
After reaching her house in the shortest possible time, a breathless Ryou entered the house. Seeing Glenn, sitting intentionally on his knees and propping his recumbent grandmother's head on them, Ryou noticed the bed slanted to the floor, whose leg had broken along the line. The entire bed was strewn down, and Glenn didn't dare move for fear of hurting his grandmother more.
Advertisement
"She probably slipped getting ready to lay on the bed," said Glenn, whose gaze seemed lifeless and somber. "The leg of the old bed failed, and the bed staggered and fell with sudden force."
"Don't say anything..." replied a depressed Ryou. "You'll make it worse for yourself by thinking. Just... don't say anything."
The bed was indeed old, but it did not look so old that it could no longer support the weight of a human. Casting his thoughts aside, Ryou clenched his fists.
"I told her not to get out of bed without our help," Glenn said grimly, continuing to thicken the oppressive atmosphere. In a flash, the house fell silent. The only two things the boys had to do were give themselves first aid or wait for an ambulance to arrive. "I don't know how long she's been unconscious. Maybe an hour, maybe since we left-" muttered Glenn, who was soon interrupted by Ryou.
"Keep silent."
The soft sounds of quick footsteps could already be heard outside, which grew louder and louder with each rumble, and a few seconds later the medical evacuees entered the house in a blink of an eye. That moment, as they walked swiftly toward the victim, crossing Ryou, and Glenn looking desperately at his grandmother, Ryou saw so clearly that it felt as if time had slowed down around him and his heart was beating slower. Soon, the young man began to hear his own heartbeat. The young man could not move, and only watched the scene of the transportation of grandmother to the minibus. After a minute, when all the people were on the evening street, the transporter approached Ryou and politely asked if he would ride with them, to which Ryou nodded silently.
Sitting in the ambulance transport, Ryou thought again about the words Glenn had said the previous evening. Ryou blamed himself for his irresponsibility, and thought that nothing would have ended up like this if Ryou had not left her house for school at all, but had only helped her.
"Why is it now..." muttered Ryou to himself, depressed. "How could this happen..."
Unintentionally, the young man noticed how he began to change. In his mind he wondered where his shift in point of view might lead, and if in a positive direction, he would be happy, but if in a negative direction, he would rather leave things as they were.
The young men were in the central hospital and sitting on benches in the waiting room. Masumi entered excitedly through the glass doors, and noticed Ryou and Glenn deep in thought about some things that were beyond the young teacher's knowledge. Noticing their weary glances, she walked over to them and asked how long they had been sitting in the hospital.
"It's been more than an hour since Mei-san was transported to the hospital."
"Save your strength," Masumi replied, sighing excitedly. "It's late in the evening."
But the boys silently continued to wait for the doctor to arrive. Master Masumi, realizing that it was pointless to persuade them, sat down next to them in the vacant seat.
"You did a great job," she said, comfortingly. "If you hadn't stepped up, death would have played a part. You did a perfect job."
But how could Masumi know about the young men's work if Glenn didn't mention the job when calling with her, Ryou didn't care. He went on and on and on, pushing himself into a dark space with thoughts of guilt.
"You're not guilty of anything," Masumi added.
Ryou realized that once again there was nothing he could do to help the man who had asked for support. It was as if each time no one had given him a word of choice, and his every action was decided for him, and he never had time to keep up. These realizations were not new to him. It was exactly the same feeling he had felt when he had lived earlier in Kyoto with a grumpy father and a defenseless mother.
With his help, the boy wanted to make sure he wasn't useless and had the right to choose. He wanted to make sure he really existed.
A woman enters the waiting room from the corridor, elegantly removing her mask and making her way deliberately toward the waiting benches. She noticed Ryou sitting on one of the front benches. The woman was dressed in a long, white medical gown. As she approached the young man, they slowly met their gazes. Ryou had a devastated look, literally seeing tragedy before his eyes. After a brief pause, the boy's dry lips moved unhurriedly.
Glancing around, a dazzlingly beautiful woman appeared before Masumi and Glenn's gazes, looking at her younger brother. The perfect combination of her fair skin tone, the mole on her left cheek, and graceful lips, accompanied by mesmerizing dark blue eyes, could easily make any man fall in love with her.
"Sister."
Advertisement
- In Serial46 Chapters
Oh, That Russian Accent
"For fucks sake! What did you do?" A very angry voice asks me. Holy shit! That is definitely Dimitri. I can recognize that accent anywhere after our discussion in class today."Holy shit. I'm so sorry. I thought you were a burglar or a rapist following me," I try to apologize. "Shut the fuck up!" He yells, making me flinch. It quickly shut my mouth up though. I didn't like being talked to like that, but then again, I just sprayed him in the eyes with a fuckin' pepper-spray. _____Ruby Derman has to attend college 7 hours away from her home and her dad. She quickly falls into place, but a young, angry guy catches her eye in class. However, she quickly finds out it keep away, as she sees how he treats people. He is arrogant and sinister, but she can't ignore the feeling she gets every time they're near each other. What will happen when two completely opposite people find out, that they're actually not that different from each other? Keep reading to find out.
8 220 - In Serial46 Chapters
Tears of Blood ✔
Cover by @auroralustCassandra Verano has lived her whole life as the Nightstalker, a globally known thief and assassin working for the Organisation, hell-bent on regaining power from the Werewolves and their allies. Regardless of her own wolf heritage, Cassandra is a soldier, carrying out each mission assigned to perfection.She's the best, so when Cassandra is assigned three seperate missions to the Bloodlust Pack, the most feared pack in the country, led by none other than Alpha Cain, she's hardly surprised. The first two missions go perfectly, but the third contains a hidden brief, an order to infiltrate the pack and kill the Alpha.Cassandra needs to find a reason to get the Bloodlust leaders, and their Alpha, to trust her. However, a mating bond between her and Alpha Cain certainly wasn't what she had in mind.----------------------------------The nightstalkers body was bleeding out on my floor, a long, detailed dagger sticking out from her stomach. But the moment I laid my eyes on her, it was as if my whole world started to spin.She was my mate.I collapsed onto the floor, hanging over her as I slid my arms underneath her back, propping her up. She was still awake, her brown eyes watching me. I watched her lips move, mouthing the word mate as if it were a silent prayer. A slow rush of tingles ran up my arm, filling my body with an unfamiliar warmth.I had found my mate,And she was dying.----------------------------------*Contains Mature Content
8 325 - In Serial138 Chapters
The Vampire Always Bites Twice
Criminal necromancer & vampire private eye team up to solve the case of the missing barista.***When a client drops dead in her parlor, former necromancer turned fortune teller, Isla, has no choice but to illegally resurrect the poor gal. Better that than go back to jail for keeping a corpse, am I right? The gal's just a Tourist. Isla is certain nobody will notice... At least she was until a handsome vampire strolled in.When vampire private investigator, Gregorio, is hired to find where another vamp misplaced their favorite barista, he never expected the case to lead him into the parlor of a fraudulent psychic with a secret. Or that that psychic would be so distractingly attractive. Neither expected they'd need to team up to find the not-dead girl before both the authorities and a lovesick vampire discover there's a new reanimated corpse in town. Sparks fly and blood splatters as Greg and Isla investigate Philadelphia's underground magical Society, negotiate with the werewolf mafia, dodge arrest by anti-necromantic wizards, and occasionally pop off for late night cheesesteaks.💀⚰️🖤🍷🦇☕🦇🍷🖤⚰️💀See final chapter for reviews, awards, & accomplishments. Reviews may contain spoilers.
8 177 - In Serial51 Chapters
Princess of Dragons
Ciara Tarakona is the youngest princess of the Dragon Kingdom - known across the waters for their affinity with the mighty, winged beasts. One day, the southern Fire Kingdom sent for an alliance which would promise prosperity and crops in return for their airborne army in case of war. Only, to assure the deal would be upheld, the Fire Kingdom demanded one of the princesses would marry their king. That is how Ciara ended up across the waters in a kingdom filled with people terrified of her and the dragons she brings. With no one on her side, save for a single dragon, she is to face a whole kingdom filled with hatred. Not to mention a king, who likes her just as little as she does him.
8 283 - In Serial138 Chapters
Blue - My 8 Brothers
❛❛If only you could see yourself the way we saw you, you wouldn't wonder why no one deserved your kindness..❜❜...Blue has been living in an orphanage as far as back she can remember, with mental and physical abuse, and a never leaving feeling of loneliness.She was put in foster care at the age of 8 and her foster parents have been mercilessly abusing her ever since. And the worst part? She feels like she deserves this. How could she expect love from anyone when her own parents had resented her just when she was a baby? Feeling lost in this sea of pain, she doesn't even blame anyone but herself. Her foster parents' abuse is just the part of the punishment of her worthless being. And now that her foster parents have forced her to work as a maid in a prestigious summer school, she has no choice but to do what she has been told.The first day, she saw The West Brothers walking down the hallways like they owned the place. Not even the slightest bit affected by their popularity as she noticed everyone swooning over them as if they were the last drops of water in a drought.As she looked at them while they walked by, she saw the youngest one to enter at last. Sweat began to rush down her temples as she rubbed her eyes to make sure what she saw was right.Was her mind playing tricks on her? Because he looked exactly like her . . .***
8 70 - In Serial28 Chapters
Another Pedrad | ✓
What if Tris Prior was dauntless born? What if she was the sister of Uriah and Zeke Pedrad? What if all this, came true? This is the story of Tris Pedrad, beautiful, brave, kind, basically all out awesome, and one third of the famous Pedrad siblings. Say goodbye to Tris Prior, because Tris Pedrad is taking over.
8 182

