Chapter Text
“Mydeimos.”
The room was quiet save for the buzzing of the electric fan and his mother's sweet honey voice. Mydei sat, legs crossed on the stained couch. Piss, blood, and ale. He flicks to the next page, ignoring the sweat that trickles down his chin. Ignoring the calls of his persistent mother and the dampness of the air confined within the cracked walls.
“You have school tomorrow.”
Mydei looks up to her under the flickering lights. They were too yellow, too dim for his eyes. His mother, with tired purple-rimmed eyes, had warned him. He would hurt his eyes, as if it was unblemished in the very first place. He would tire in the morning, as if sleep ever came so easily. But the walls were thin, and he could hear the soft snoring coming from the bedroom. A long day it was, but at least it was over.
An apology sat on his tongue, but nothing came out. At least it was over, he thought. But it wasn't, it never stopped. It began and began again every time he woke with sweat clinging to his forehead. And every day he woke on that bed, in that room, next to the monstrosity that lingered next door.
“Mydeimos,” she warned again.
He closed his book and left to retreat to his bedroom.
—
“Mydeimos?”
Mydei looks up from an array of cabbages, taking the singing bud out of his ear upon surprise of hearing someone calling his name. There he meets blue eyes and silver locks. The farmer’s market bustles, and the wind blows his fringes away. So many things are ordinary, and so many things have changed, but dawn shines upon him just as Mydei remembered.
“You're Mydeimos, right?” the man asks, as if he can not believe it. Mydei does not blame him, though, because it is difficult to believe that he is here either. “You are! I can never forget you. It's been… how long? I don't know. A decade, perhaps. Or longer. Wait… do you remember me?”
Mydei remembers. He can never forget. There were no eyes brighter than his. No laugh more vibrant. No smile more genuine. He remembers every touch of those fingertips, every brush strokes painting vibrance all over his skin. Every step on the porch. All the muddy trail left to stain the wood. Every creak of the floorboards, and the youthful bodies tumbling over. How can he forget?
The name sits on his lips, one that was left abandoned for years. One that was taken away from him forcefully. One that he left behind intentionally. Many lines are blurry when it comes to his past. Yet, for this one, he remembers.
“Phainon.”
Phainon's eyes light up immediately and a wide grin forms across his face.
He's different now. He grew up as well as Mydei could imagine. The boyish fullness of his cheeks now gone, leaving a sharper lean edge around his jaw. His attire more polished and proper — no more of those bright clashing colors, only simple white tunic shirt tucked into gold-buckled belted trousers. And strikingly, he's tall now, even taller than Mydei, and a lot leaner too. He finds oddity in that fact, recalling how he had to go on his tippy toes and even asked Mydei for help when reaching the top shelf of the small library they have here. How Mydei used to overpower him all the time in their playful wrestles. Were that to happen now, Mydei thinks he definitely stands a good chance.
“Yes, that's me, Phainon!” the bright-eyed man beams. His gaze shifts down and up again, scanning every inch of Mydei. The light never left his eyes. “God, Mydei. I can hardly believe it. I never thought I'd see you again.”
Even after everything, Mydei finds himself smiling.
“Likewise, Phainon.”
—
“So much has changed since you left, Mydei,” Phainon says enthusiastically. The roads are quiet, as it usually is around here. A striking contrast to the bustling of Okhema, which Mydei had gotten used to for the past decade. Time feels slower here, where nobody is hurried and rushing — where everyone walks in slow strides like there's no urgency in their lives. They have been walking for a couple of minutes ever since the encounter at the fresh market.
“The city hall was renovated, but you probably already know that. It looks really different now. So many places have closed down too, though, like that video rental we used to go to all the time, or that bakery with the lady who liked to give you free bagels. And oh! We have a sports center now. I go swimming there sometimes. There's a hot bath and a sauna too. I can take you there later if you'd like.”
It comes as a relief, to stumble upon Phainon, and to have him exactly the way Mydei remembers. Bright and talkative. He supposed that time had treated him well, though he can't wrap his head around why one could be so enthusiastic about such a lifeless place.
They walk at a slow pace, he clutches his paper bag full of groceries close to his chest. It wasn't much, some produce, pomegranates, just enough for the short stay he plans to have.
They walk, although Mydei doesn't know exactly where they are going. It just feels right, like time had never passed and he never left. Like they were fourteen again, walking back from school, to the library and to his yard to stir up trouble once again. The streets speak his name, remembering the long lost presence of the child he once was.
“I'd like that,” he decides, as there wasn't much he could do here anyways. Company is always welcome for someone like him, who runs cold and is drifting away in aloneness.
“Where are you staying?”
Mydei shrugs. “Some shitty motel.”
Phainon thinks for a moment before he asks again. “Marmoreal?”
“How did you know?”
To this, Phainon chuckles, gaze flickering down, kicking a pebble away from the sidewalk. He looks at Mydei with that honey gaze again, the smile never leaves his lips.
“Look at the size of this town, Mydei. It's either that or Chrysos.”
“So, it hasn't changed that much, then,” Mydei comments.
They walk in silence again. Mydei swears he recognizes these roads, with the overgrown roots of trees and ivy-worn houses. Although in this town, everywhere looks the same, and every road leads to the edge, so he isn't entirely sure. He wonders how many people have felt caged by this monotony, and therefore left just as he did. Perhaps it had always been this quiet, and he was never as observant as he thought he was.
Phainon takes a turn, Mydei follows.
“For how long?”
“Hmm?”
“Like… when do you leave?”
Mydei remains quiet, his lips devoid of an answer. The train ticket he bought didn't include a return. He didn't make any reservations for accomodations. He didn't need to because nobody goes here, motels are barely running businesses. A ghost town, it almost feels like. It was quiet then. Somehow, it is even quieter now.
He feels Phainon staring at him, waiting.
“I don't know,” he chooses to answer honestly.
“You don't know? You're staying indefinitely?”
“I suppose.”
A breath of quietness again. Mydei isn't sure of what to say. He didn't really expect to be having company today. He didn't think anyone would recognize him, remember him, or even care about him still.
“It's unlike you, Mydei. To be so unprepared,” Phainon says, as if he knows him, observed him all his life, and this wasn't a sudden reunion of two long lost friends.
“You always knew what to do, where you wanna go, and all that, whether it's to just sit on your yard to read books… or to take a trip to the store and feed the stray cats at the park. I think that's why I liked to stick around with you a lot, it's nice to be led around, even if you pushed me away at first.”
“Well, time changes people.”
“Indeed they do.”
Mydei hums, then suddenly it dawns upon him the gravity of Phainon's words. That last comment he made when recalling back to Mydei's behaviors, then he frowns. He knew he had always been reserved, and that Phainon's clinginess was a constant presence. But he didn't think…
“Did I push you away?”
Phainon stops and turns towards him. Mydei casts his gaze to the metal structure that stands behind his friend. A bus stop, one he doesn't recall existing back in the day.
“That's how I felt, at least, even if that wasn't your intention.”
Mydei scratches the back of his neck. “Sorry…”
Phainon smiles again, and gives his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Mydei doesn't remember it being so blinding, but there are many things he doesn't — choose not to remember.
“Don't worry about it, Mydei. You grew warmer eventually.”
The sound of engine and wheels grinding across the cemented road fills the air. Mydei sees from the distance that it's the bus, slowly coming to a halt as it grows near them.
Phainon realizes this and so he pulls his phone out from his pocket. Then he hands it to him, the screen open to dial a number.
When Mydei doesn't move, Phainon clarifies. “You changed your number when you left, Mydei.”
“Right,” Mydei mutters under his breath before taking the phone and typing his numbers in.
When he's done, Phainon takes his phone back and pockets it.
“I have to go, Mydei, before the bus leaves. I'll text you later. Remember to answer me, alright?”
“Where are you going?” Mydei asks as the familiar thorns start to prickle in his throat again. He doesn't want to feel lost again. Not here, even though this was a product of his own doing.
“To work,” Phainon says and Mydei realizes that he doesn't even know what day it is. It felt no different from back then, right when he left these damned roads, when time blurs with no purpose anymore. He was lucky that Aglaea allowed him to take indefinite leave. The world was kinder now than it had ever been back then. Still, he stands back in the same town he cursed in his nightmares. Alone and lost.
Phainon hurries to the large vehicle's open door. He looks at Mydei one last time and gives him the same bright smile he will never forget.
“I'll see you later, Mydei. It was lovely meeting you again.”
—
Later at night, in the solitary of his motel room, Mydei’s phone lights up. He knows who it is from. It excites him just the same.