"Tell me, Clara, about the boy sitting on the swing all by himself in the garden. I would like to know more about him."
After the short interaction he had with the boy, Elias left to continue playing with other children as John had managed to find all of them. After they finished, he decided to have a little break and talk with Clara about the boy he started having an interest in.
"By the way, those ponytails really suit you, Mai… pff!"
Despite wanting to have a serious conversation about the boy, he couldn't really concentrate all that well due to the new look the girls had given Mai. It was both funny and cute at the same time, but he knew he couldn't say that because he would get a smackdown from her. Therefore he held in the laughter as well as the comments he had.
"Yes! Yes! You laugh, but they did their best, and I like it."
Despite not showing it, Mai still knew what her master was thinking and brushed it off as she thought the work the girls did was cute and she was happy with it.
"Well, about the boy... You see, he's somewhat special!"
Clara looked extremely sad as she started talking about him, she tried to put on a brave face and pretend like it wasn't hard to talk about him, but it was. She felt sorry for the poor child and the abnormality he had.
"You see, despite being very intelligent for his age, he was also born with a unique disposition. The doctors said he was a special child as there were only a few born like him into the world."
"His ears are way more developed than those of a normal person. He can hear the faintest of sounds around him, and because of that, he can't stand being in crowds, especially other children, because of their constant laughing and yelling."
"...So, that's why he's always alone."
"Yes, he told me he couldn't take the pain any longer and that he would prefer being alone, as it hurts less that way."
Both Elias and Mai had sad looks on their faces after hearing about the boy's story, some even more than others.
"Still, isn't it bad for a child his age to be constantly alone and not interacting with anyone?"
Mai asked, concerned about him and thinking that it wasn't healthy what they were doing here no matter the occasion.
"Of course it isn't! I know that very well. I tried various things to help him, from earplugs to telling others to quiet down, but in the end, nothing worked. No matter how quiet they became, it was still too loud for him."
"We even asked doctors for their opinions on the matter, but the best they told us was to remove him from the cause of the pain, and so we did."
"Even so…"
"Stop it, Mai! It's not Clara's fault. The world gave him a gift, and it is on him to figure out how to use it."
"...Yes, master."
The three of them continued their talk for a little while longer before the time finally came for Elias and Mai to take their leave for today. Before they did so, Elias still had something he wished to do, and he once again made his way to the garden, where the little, black-haired boy sat alone listening to the sound of the leaves falling.
"Isn't it hard being alone all the time?"
Elias asked the boy who turned his attention from the falling leaves onto him, and for the first time, took a proper look at him. The boy was surprised at his appearance because of his voice. He had imagined him to look a lot scarier, so he didn't open his eyes the first time they met.
But now, he was surprised to see how wrong he actually was and just how friendly and kind the man standing in front of him looked.
"It's not as hard once you get used to it."
He answered Eliases question with a simple lie which he could see straight through.
"..."
"..."
"Miss Clara told me about your unique disposition and how sensitive your ears are to sound."
"Is that so? Well, it is the trough. I can hear better than other people. The more of them and the closer they are, the more it hurts."
Elias kept quiet and looked at the boy as he talked and explained his condition, and from what he could see, one with which he wasn't too happy to have.
"I can assume how hard it must be on your ears, but the question from earlier wasn't meant for the pain in your ears, but the pain you feel in your heart."
"I'll rephrase myself…"
"It must be hard, having to hear the people around you talking behind your back…"
The boy was left speechless as silence covered the entire garden. He tried to deny it, but no words came out from his mouth, and the reason behind it was because Elias hit the nail right on the mark.
One by one, tears started falling down the boy's eyes as he looked towards the ground, trying to hide his crying expression from Elias.
Slowly the number of tears falling down the boy's face onto the grassy fields increased, and gasps could be heard, and he tried taking a breath of air but couldn't from all the sadness he felt at that moment.
Watching this scene unfold in front of him, Elias kept quiet as there were no words he could tell the boy to make him feel better, only actions that could show his care. He got down on his knees and hugged the boy tightly, giving him an indication he was not alone and that he could cry as much as he wanted.
"It must have been hard… Listening to them, unable to do anything…"
"But don't worry, I'm here now, and I'll lend you a shoulder to cry on whenever you need one."
The boy's tears started flowing harder and harder. He was overflowing with happiness and sadness at the same time and decided to let everything he was feeling deep down out all at once as it seemed that for the first time in his life, there was some way to whom he could do that.
And so time slowly passed, and the two spent it in the same position until his tears had finally stopped. Clara and Mai saw the scene between the two of them and decided to give them some alone time for a little while longer as that was the right thing to do.
The time given to them was spent listening to the boy's words. Ones who were hard for him to say, but he still did as it seemed as Elias would listen to everything he said.
"Because of my disposition, I could always hear what others around me were saying, even the things that were supposed to be kept secret."
"I don't really mind all of the sounds I hear, and they don't particularly hurt my ears. That was just a lie I made up to distance myself from the other kids and Miss Clara."
"...Was it because their words hurt you?"
"Yes, I was always given special attention from Clara and the doctors because of it, and that made the others angry."
"They would often talk amongst themselves and say mean things about me, and it hurt hearing it, especially because I didn't do any of it on purpose."
"I didn't ask to be born with this curse…"
"I tried distancing myself from Miss Clara and the doctors in hopes of them stopping, but it only made things worse, and they started saying I was mean towards her, and that only made them not like me even more."
"I tried talking to them more and making friends with them, pretending like I didn't know what they thought about me, but that wasn't easy. I often wished I wasn't born with this curse and could be normal like everyone else around me."
"At some point, I gave up on trying to be friends with them and decided to be by myself. I realized I don't want to be friends with people who say bad things behind my back. Those kinds of people aren't real friends and can't do anything else but hurt me."
"...But don't you feel lonely, all by yourself?"
"...No, not really?"
"You don't have to lie to me, and I was once alone, just like you. I had no one and grew up all by myself, without a name for myself or anything to call home."
"Just like you, I was also born with something that made me different from everyone, something which made me hated by others because I never tried to hide it."
"I know how it feels being alone, having no one to whom you can turn to or express all of your sadness towards."
"Because of that difference, I was always alone, and everyone avoided me, was scared of me, and wouldn't even come close to me."
"I often asked myself why was it me, why did I have to be different from everyone else, I even went as far as to hide my difference and pretend to be someone who I wasn't, but in the end, it was all futile because even if I made friends that way, I knew they were not friends with the real me, but the persona I created."
"I soon gave up on trying to be someone who I want and decided from then onwards always to stay true to myself and who I was, even if that made others scared of me or even hate me. It was better than lying to myself and pretending to be someone whom I wasn't."
"But even when I decided to do so, I was still all alone, with no one by my side to comfort me or give me a shoulder to cry. The only thing I ever wanted back then was someone who could be there for me and help me when I needed it."
"Even though I was poor, I never desired money, nor food, or power. All I ever wanted was someone whom I could call a friend."
Elias's words hit deep and made the boy feel a little better, knowing he wasn't alone in the world. That there were others like him and that they felt exactly like he is right now. He felt like if he could tell how lonely he actually was, that maybe, just maybe, Elias could help him.
"I-I-I…"
All he needed was courage, enough of it to say the words that described how he really felt, but the fear deep down his heart was greater. The fear of saying what he wanted and once again getting hurt, what point is there too, hoping if, in the end, it will all turn out the same way.
Just like always.
"I-I…"
He wanted to reach out and take the hand that offered him a possibility of a better life, one in which he could rely on someone, have fun and have a person who he can call a friend, someone who could understand him and be there for him, but the fear of everything turning out like before and ending up in him being hurt was great.
"I…"
Even so, the fear of being alone with no one to turn to for the rest of his life was even greater, and even if it ended up leading to the same thing as before, the boy decided to take a risk and accept the hand that was offered to him.
"I'm lonely… and scared… and…"
Towards those words, Elias replied with a simple but still very reassuring hug that the boy was more than happy to receive. Unlike before, this time, he didn't cry. He tried his very hardest to keep it all in because the emotion he felt right now was greater than sadness, and he wanted to express it to the best of his abilities.
Happiness.
"Thank you…"