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Sakura couldn't remember a moment in his life when he was accompanied by someone. He doesn't remember his parents, he doesn't remember if he ever met them. He only knows that they exist because they gave him life.
If you can put it that way, Sakura doesn't remember them, but that's okay, you can't miss what you don't know.
Sakura always felt like he was walking a tightrope, alone trying to balance himself throughout the long path he has to travel. Maybe if he gets to the end without falling, maybe he can find a meaning to this thing they call life.
But the path is very painful. As he tries not to fall, his body tenses up so he doesn't step off the rope. His breathing becomes heavy and labored, because any single breath could knock him down.
But there's nothing Sakura can do. He's alone. No one will stop him from falling if he can't balance himself. So he keeps going. There's no ground below the rope. If he falls, he's sure he'll die.
The orphanage was chaos that day, the children were going from one place to the other changing clothes, combing their hair, brushing their teeth and wearing the best clothes they could get from the caretakers, they wanted to be perfect.
After all, it was visiting day, which meant that some couples were coming to the orphanage to meet them and if they liked you, they would take you home.
Unlike the other children, Sakura was sitting on his bed just watching, there was no reason for him to get dressed up, he would never be chosen, there was nothing pretty about him, his eyes were different colors, one of them was a blue that bordered on gray and the other a vibrant yellow, his hair was two colors, black and white, sharp canine teeth, giving him an even stranger characteristic when you put it all together.
He hated, hated the color of his eyes, hated the color of his hair.
Why couldn't he be normal like the other children?
Not to mention his smell, almost all the children in the orphanage smelled of delicious things, one of the girls smelled like strawberries, the children loved her and always played with her because her smell made them happy, one of the boys he shared a bunk bed with smelled like a rainy day, so the children loved to hug him because they felt comfortable around him.
Sakura didn't have a sweet smell, sometimes the children said he smelled like something rotten, the caretakers also didn't get too close to him, and there were times when they commented that he looked like he came out of a trash can.
Stinky Rotten Ugly Strange Demon Scary Animal Beast Cursed
These were some of the many words used to describe him, the children hated being around him and if he dared to get close then he would get kicked and punched.
He even tried to fit in, he even wore caps, glasses and thought about asking one of the caretakers for contact lenses, but no matter what he did, his smell didn't change, his hair color remained the same, his eyes had the same color, and the children continued to hate him.
So one day he gave up trying to win them over, if his smell was terrible then he would be too, instead of just receiving punches, now he fought back and knocked down anyone who tried to even lay a finger on him, he became everything they said, but that was okay, at least now no one talked to him anymore.
But they still had that look of fear and disgust, but that was okay, that was normal. He had already received the same looks from some family members and the comments were still the same, nothing was new.
So that day, while the children were going around getting ready, Sakura was in bed wearing a plain white shirt and sweatpants. His hair was messy. There was no reason to fix it, after all, no one had ever asked to talk to him or meet him.
But that was okay, Sakura was already used to it.
After half an hour, when all the children were ready, they were all taken to an open room full of toys. On the walls there were drawings of children playing in a green area, there were also drawings of trees and flowers.
The children were taken to that room so they could play. In addition to the drawings, the walls were surrounded by frosted glass, where couples could observe the children and choose which ones they would like to meet.
As soon as they arrived, some of the children ran to play house, while others started playing with a ball, others started jumping rope, but Sakura remained in the corner of the room. He hated that room, the children didn't play with him, and he didn't know what to do with all those objects he didn't know, on his right was a teddy bear and on his left a toy car. Sakura didn't know what to do with them, he didn't understand why hugging a teddy bear or pushing a toy car around was considered fun. It didn't make sense.
So he sat between them and crossed his arms. He had been in the orphanage for two years, and every fifteenth of the month was visiting day, and Sakura had never been called on any of them. So he learned to just sit and wait, as soon as the day was over, he could go back to his room and lie down on his bed.
As Sakura watched his hands, three children were called, he hadn't seen who it was, it didn't matter either, he didn't know anyone's name. After a few minutes Sakura heard the door to the room open once more and heard a name being called by one of the caregivers, but again why would he care, so he started making circles on the floor with one of his fingers, sitting there all day wasn't the least bit fun.
As he continued to make an invisible circle on the floor, the caregiver called someone's name once more and the only thing Sakura could think was, can this boy go fast so that this caregiver can go away.
Until he finally heard the name being called.
"Sakura Haruka" When Sakura looked up the caregiver was standing in front of him and all the children had stopped playing to look at both
"What's wrong?" The youngest asked crossing his arms, why was he standing in front of him and wasn't going to call one of the children to go to their visit. “I didn’t take anything, I’m just sitting.” Sakura hated that caretaker, he was a tall alpha, with black hair and sharp eyes, he smelled like cigars, Sakura hated that smell, almost every time he was near him, Sakura felt like he couldn’t breathe.
And he always approached Sakura to complain and yell at him.
“There’s someone wanting to talk to you.” The man in front of him said, looking at the paper that was attached to his clipboard, Sakura just raised an eyebrow. “A couple wants to meet you.” He finally said, looking at him again.
A couple wanted to meet him? This could only be a joke, for two years Sakura had been there and never once had any of the couples shown interest in him, this could only be a prank.
“Get up, you’re coming with me.” The black-haired alpha said, turning around and heading towards the door, Sakura hadn’t noticed, but his legs were weak, he was on the tightrope again, and the way he made his way now was very important, he needed to be careful.
Before he walked out the door, Sakura the faces full of surprises and also heard all the comments.
“Did a family asked to meet him? You have to be kidding me.”
“Who would want a piece of trash like that?”
“I hope the family that’s going to meet him is wearing a mask, no one deserves to smell that rotten scent.”
“I hope they have a collar, just so they can tame him.”
Sakura clenched his fist, if he could he would go back right then and punch each of them, but instead he just followed the caretaker down the hall.
Sakura had never been called for one of these visits so he didn’t know what to do, the moment he got to the room where he would meet his unlikely new family, what should he do?
The caregivers had never explained anything to him, after all, who would even want to meet him?
At that moment Sakura felt small, he felt the clothes on his body, a plain white shirt and sweatpants, his hair was a mess and his eyes... were still the same color.
Should he have chosen different clothes that morning? Or maybe he should have combed his hair? Or maybe he should have taken glasses with him, or put on some perfume to hide his smell.
No... it didn't make sense even if he did all that, he would still have two eye colors, his hair would still be black and white, his teeth would still be sharp and his smell would still be rotten. He would still be weird.
"Here we are." The caregiver stopped in front of a yellow door and placed the clipboard under his arm and stared at the little boy. "The family that wants to meet you is inside, make sure you don't try to do anything stupid and steal anything, you might not get another chance." Idiot, that's what Sakura thought, that wasn't a chance, it was a lame prank.
But those words made Sakura almost fall off the rope, what the hell, he needed to take a deep breath and take another step carefully.
The alpha then put his hand on the doorknob. "Try to reduce that rotten smell of yours, you'll end up scaring them."
Take a deep breath, one step at a time, you can't fall off the rope, that was all Sakura thought.
And then the caretaker opened the door, Sakura took a deep breath and walked into the room, the door closed behind him.
Sakura kept his eyes on the floor, that was definitely a prank, the orphanage caretakers must have been playing with him, so he went to one of the sofas and sat down.
He hadn't looked up, but he knew there were two people sitting on the sofa in front of him, he could see their shoes, one of them was wearing a dress shoe and the other a sports one.
There were two different smells in the room. The first and strongest was coffee, and he could also smell something he couldn't identify yet, but it sounded a lot like the materials the caretakers used to clean the orphanage. The other was much weaker, but sweet and light. For some reason, the rope Sakura was walking on stopped swinging, and he was finally able to relax and take a deep breath.
"Good morning, how are you?" A singing voice caught his attention. Sakura didn't want to look up, but the scent of lavender was so calming that he did. As soon as he looked up, Sakura was a little surprised.
Two men were sitting in front of him.
The one wearing sports shoes had such strong red eyes that they resembled blood, his blond hair with green tips seemed to float - Sakura wanted to understand how he did that - he was wearing a button-up shirt and a white lab coat over it.
Beside him was the man wearing formal shoes, gray checked tailored pants, a black turtleneck shirt and over it a dark blue overcoat, on his head he wore a cap and sunglasses. Sakura didn't know who the scents he smelled belonged to, much less who had addressed him, so he preferred to remain silent, the rope wasn't swinging, but...just a false step and...
“Good morning.” The voice spoke to him again in the same sing-song way and the boy realized that it belonged to the man in the cap.
Sakura didn’t know what to do...should he answer? “G-good morning.”
“Ah, so he can talk.” The man with red eyes said as he brought his little finger to his ear.
“Senku-chan, you can’t say things like that.” The man with the cap scolded the man next to him and soon sighed. “You really can’t help it, can you?”
“It was just a observation mentalist, and you're the only one upset, he didn’t seem to care.” And then those red eyes turned to Sakura who swallowed hard.
“You’re so insensitive, you know that? That’s why you have problems with your coworkers.” The man in dress shoes said as he crossed his arms.
“Huh? It’s not my fault that my coworkers get hurt by anything I say.” And then he crossed his arms and made a “tsc” sound with his tongue.
Sakura was surprised, he didn't know what to do, they were talking to each other and it seemed like he wasn't even there, but that feeling soon disappeared when the man with the cap smiled at him, it was a strange smile.
"Sorry about that cabbage head, sometimes he's too honest in a way... a little rude." And then he laughed weakly. "My name is Ishigami Gen and this guy here." He nudged the man next to him with his elbow. "It's Ishigami Senku, don't worry too much about his ugly look, he doesn't bite."
"What the hell are you talking about Gen?" The blond-haired man stared at the man he now knew as Gen.
"Nothing much, I'm just trying to make sure your grimace doesn't scare our little friend here." And then Gen shrugged.
"But I'm not making any grimaces at all," Senku said, still staring at the man next to him.
"Exactly" Gen then gave an ironic smile.
Beside him, Senku gritted his teeth, his eye seemed to have developed a twitch. “Oh yeah? Then why don’t we take off that stupid cap and glasses of yours?” Senku didn’t wait for an answer and grabbed the cap along with the glasses, scaring the man beside him a little.
“Senku-chan, you’re a brute,” Gen said as he fixed his hair.
The man in front of him had the same hair as him, one part was white being longer and the other black, his eyes were strange, Sakura was sure they were blue, but the more he blinked they seemed to gain a grayish color.
Sakura felt the rope swing at his feet again.
This was definitely a prank, his caretakers had outdone themselves on this one, he had to admit, they had called a man who was wearing a blond wig that looked more like a cabbage and they had also hired someone to dye his hair like his.
The rope at his feet now seemed to dance more than usual.
“Ah, so this is what's happening.” Sakura bit his lower lip. “This is a prank, isn’t it?” And then he looked at the men in front of him. “How much did they pay you to do this? Or did you just find the idea of humiliating me amusing?”
If his scent had been rotten before, it was definitely worse now, after all the men in front of him wrinkled their noses a little.
“What hell are you talking about?” The man named Senku asked, raising an eyebrow, and now he recognized who the coffee smell was coming from, and Sakura also realized that he was an alpha.
“Do you really want me to believe...” Sakura lowered his head, looking at his hands and then clenched them. “That there is someone like me? That there is someone with the same hair color... and eyes as me?” And then he raised his face irritated with his canines showing. “You’re just here to humiliate me and make those idiot caretakers laugh at me.” The rope at his feet was swaying more and more, no matter how much he tried to balance himself it seemed like he was going to fall at any moment.
But instead of answering his question, the man in front of him with the same type of hair as his laughed weakly.
Ah...so it really was a prank, Sakura thought to herself.
"So...how much did they pay you?" The smaller boy crossed his arms and stared at the man named Gen.
"Well...Senku-chan, how much did it cost us to get here?" Gen asked, crossing his legs.
"Hmm..." The red-eyed man then held up two fingers and closed his eyes. "We left home at seven and then stopped at the gas station to fill up the tank and then stopped at a convenience store for coffee, ¥1273.55 yen for gas, your breakfast was ¥500 yen, my coffee was ¥100 yen, all in all it was ¥1873.55." And then he lowered his fingers and opened his eyes.
“Senku-chan, Senku-chan” Gen’s sing-song voice rang out once more. “Don’t forget we bought a box of chocolates.”
“Oh right, so it would be ¥1873.55 plus ¥180, so in total it was ¥2053.55” The red-eyed alpha finished as if it were nothing.
Sakura was surprised, he had never seen anyone add up like that and it seemed like it was nothing to the man in front of him, next to him Gen just smiled again.
“Then that’s the amount we’ll charge them.” The blue-eyed man replied finishing with a clap of his hands.
“Didn’t you guys charge before?” Sakura said, raising an eyebrow. What kind of actors were these?
“Why would we?” Senku shrugged. “This isn’t a prank, we’d really like to talk to you.”
“Stop it.” Sakura replied angrily. These two were already starting to irritate him. “There’s no way someone could be born like me, not with the same...curse.” The last part was spoken much lower than he wanted.
But unfortunately, the two men heard him.
“Curse?” Senku said, crossing his arms once more. “Curse...people are really idiots, it’s called poliosis.”
“Poliosis?” Sakura had never heard that word before. What the hell was that man talking about.
“You better get ready.” Gen sighed and looked at Sakura. “Now you’re going to have to listen to a science lesson.”
And then Senku looked at him again. “Circumscribed poliosis is the occurrence of white or hypopigmented hair, it usually occurs on the scalp, selectively, eyebrows and other hairy areas of the body, there are still no concrete studies on why poliosis occurs, but some research says that it exists due to genetic conditions, autoimmune diseases, damage to the hair follicles or even medications, such as the antibiotic chloramphenicol and the anticancer drug cetuximab.”
If Sakura was already confused then now he was even more.
circumsomenthing
polisomenthing
hypopisomenthing
Those words were too big for him to understand, and then Gen laughed again and caught his attention. "My dear Senku explains very well, doesn't he? But sometimes it can be difficult for ordinary people like us to understand."
What? There was nothing ordinary about Sakura and he knew it. What were these strange guys trying to say?
"Do you know why plants are green?" Gen said looking at Sakura who shook his head from side to side. “Plants need something called chlorophyll, they absorb sunlight and make the green color appear on plants.” At that moment, Senku opened his mouth, but Gen stopped him. “Senku-chan, now is not the time to listen to another huge explanation of why plants are green.”
The alpha then rolled his eyes and rested his face on one of his hands, which was supported by his elbow on the arm of the sofa.
“Just like plants.” Gen spoke to him again. “Our body has something called Melanin that makes our hair black, but when you and I were born, well, let's say something stole our melanin and we were left without it.” Gen laughed to himself, closing his eyes. But he soon opened them and revealed in a way that Sakura had never seen before, there seemed to be no malice in him. “To tell the truth, I had never seen anyone like me either, at least not to the same extent.” Gen then took one of his locks behind his ear. “I was quite surprised to see someone in that room with the same condition as me.”
“That’s because it’s estimated that only one person in forty thousand to one hundred thousand develops poliosis circumscripta, or in the case of you being born with it.” Senku then looked at Sakura again. “There’s nothing cursed about it, just science.”
“Science?” Sakura asked confused.
“That’s right, science.” Senku smirked. “Science explains and researches everything, there’s no such thing as a curse or whatever else people invent, all that is 10 billion percent nonsense.”
Sakura felt a lump form in his throat.
Isn't this really a prank?
"So this really isn't a prank?" Sakura asked, feeling like he could fall at any moment.
Senku sighed and looked back at Sakura, the scent of coffee was now weaker. "We already said no."
"Well, since that issue has been resolved and we've answered your questions, why don't you answer one of mine?" Gen smiled at him.
"What?" Sakura asked as he lowered his gaze again and played with the hem of his shirt.
This wasn't a prank, were those people really there for him?
"What's your name?" The scent of lavender was still there.
Sakura looked up and stared into blue eyes.
"Sakura...Sakura Haruka."
Gen's smile grew and he clapped his hands a few times. "What a beautiful name." Then he uncrossed his legs and clapped his hands together, resting them in his lap. “So Sakura-chan, let’s start over, my name is Ishigami Gen and the one next to me is my dear Senku, my husband and we would both love to get to know you.”
Sakura felt the lump in his throat tighten even more, he was already so tired.
“I...I’m not that cool.” Sakura looked at his hands again this time clasping them. “I don’t...I don’t know much about myself.”
Was this day about to end?
In fact, did he really want it to end?
People had never talked to him for so long without shouting or at least not caring to answer his questions, or looking into his eyes.
Senku and Gen didn’t seem afraid to do that. Their eyes were also colors he had never seen before. Their scents, unlike the caregivers he knew, didn’t seem to suffocate him, they were present, but light and even...comfortable?
“I see.” He heard Gen say.
Sakura swallowed hard, now he had ruined everything, he no longer had a chance, he wasn't like the other boys, he wasn't handsome, he wasn't interesting, he was (common?) strange.
"So how about we find out together?" When Sakura looked up, Gen was crouched in front of him. "Do you like chocolate Sakura-chan?"
"Chocolate?" Sakura had heard that word before, but he couldn't associate it with any image.
“Chocolate is the result of processing fermented seeds of Theobroma cacao L., which are roasted and crushed until they become a paste rich in flavor.” Sakura then noticed that Gen was staring at Senku, who rolled his eyes and then crouched down next to his husband. “Soon, after all this process, it turns into a 10 billion percent delicious sweet.”
And then Gen made a box of chocolates appear out of nowhere in front of Sakura’s eyes.
“How about we try it together to see if you like it?” And then Gen opened it, took out a chocolate and handed it to Sakura, who took it a little hesitantly.
It smelled good, he felt his mouth watering and then took a bite of it.
The chocolate was... delicious... he had never eaten anything like it before, he didn’t know and hadn’t been able to understand how it was made, but if he could, he would eat it every day.
When he looked up again, Senku and Gen were staring at him, that smile on their faces again, a smile without malice.
Sakura felt his cheeks heat up and turned his face away.
"So what did you think? 10 billion percent delicious?" Senku smirked one more time.
Sakura felt his cheeks heat up even more.
"Y-y-yes..."
The scent of lavender and coffee seemed to get a little stronger with that answer.
"So Sakura-chan? Do you want to discover more things with us??" Gen asked, smiling at the younger boy.
"W-will there be more chocolate?"
Senku and Gen's eyes widened for a few seconds, but they both soon laughed, throwing their heads back.
"WHAT'S SO FUNNY?" Sakura asked irritably, feeling his cheeks heat up even more.
"You're cute, you know that, Sakura-chan?" Gen smiled at the younger boy.
“I’M NOT CUTE” The little boy with two-colored eyes shouted, putting the rest of the chocolate in his mouth.
“Ku Ku Ku, you’re all red” Senku laughed as he put his little finger to one of his ears.
“I’M NOT AT ALL” Sakura shouted, taking another chocolate.
“Sakura-chan, you’re not a good liar, you know.” Gen spoke in a melodious voice and soon pinched Sakura’s cheek. “So cute!”
“AAAAAAAHHHHHH”
At that moment, Sakura was so absorbed in the new flavor and in the conversation with those two strange adults that he didn’t notice that his previously bitter and sad aroma had turned into something sweet.
The rope at his feet stopped swinging.