A beautiful pair stood in the living room, watched by a middle-aged couple, in a manga-like pose.
In the girl's ears echoed the unabashed words of her mother.
Your boyfriend.
Boyfriend.
Boyfriend…
"Yes, I'm sure!"
Aretta jumped out of Ian's arms as if burned.
The embarrassment was simply getting too much for her. Teased from beginning to end, her embarrassment gauge was heading into the red and the cap knocked off. Aretta searched for any reason or excuse to get her out of this situation.
In the end, she blurted out something Ian had said before that she didn't believe.
"He's only 9!"
Again, silence. This time, though, the atmosphere completely froze in a different way than before.
"…9…as in age?" Her mother questioned, full of hesitation. A strange expression emerged on her face.
The moment those words came out of Aretta's mouth, she regretted it.
He might've been joking back then and she had acted like she didn't believe it and now she said it as though it were a fact.
Gosh, somebody kill her now…
Whilst wallowing in her self-induced humiliation, someone suddenly broke the silence with their innocent voice and expression.
"Yes! Ian is 9 years old this year! Nice to meet you, Aunt and Uncle!" Ian said properly in a voice that sounded like a teenager's but held the nuances of a child's speech.
At this point, even Aretta's dad had a solemn expression on his face. He turned to his wife and whispered something to which she nodded, and then he turned to his daughter Aretta and said, "Aretta, why don't you take Ian here to the bathroom and give him a change of clothes? He looks like he needs a good wash and clean clothes."
Aretta looked at Ian's appearance and remembered that he had been thrown around by those gangsters and now looked very dusty and covered in dirt. Because he wore mostly black clothing, it wasn't as apparent. His hair was also in a mess having been grabbed and pulled harshly.
"Yes, dad. Come on, Ian. Let me take you to the bathroom." Although she felt confused by her dad's sudden suggestion, Aretta agreed and led the way for Ian.
"Here's the bathroom," Aretta said and pointed. Handing a set of clothes to Ian, she added, "And here's a change of clothes for you."
"Thank you," Ian thanked as he took the clothes. His eyes rolled. 'Oh, no. I did it again.'
"No problem. Just come back to the living room once you're done. You remember the way, right?"
"Yes!" The house wasn't especially huge and with a 9-year-old Ian having an excellent, almost photographic memory, it was easy-peasy.
"That's good. I'll be going then."
Ian waved goodbye temporarily to Aretta as she left and he closed the door.
Aretta walked back to her parents. She saw them talking to each other with weird faces and it perked her curiosity, prompting her to move closer.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"Darling," her mom started, "I know you may think that boy Ian was joking around when he said he was only 9, however, me and your dad think that he might be telling the truth."
Now Aretta was really confused. "What do you mean, mom? There's no way he's 9 with that physical appearance—he looks the same age as me, if not, older—not even a premature growth spurt can explain this!"
"I know, dear. Calm down and listen. Something might have happened to him to make him think he's still 9 years old."
"You mean he's mental?!"
"No. I do not. I am only guessing that he has some problems, not that he's sick in the head, dear." Mother smiled at Aretta, cutting off Aretta's outburst.
Aretta sheepishly smiled back.
"After he comes out, we'll ask him if he knows his parents' phone number, and if he does, we'll call them to inform them of Ian's safety and stay with us. He will have to stay the night in the guest room since it is no longer early. Understood?"
"Yes, but what if he doesn't know his parents' phone number or what if they don't answer? What then?"
Her mother sighed, a little reluctant to answer but had to. "Then most likely, he had been abandoned."
Aretta's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief.
Seeing her daughter stunned, the mother tried to explain her thoughts. Although cruel, she didn't believe it was right to allow her daughter to live ignorantly in this unfair world. "I mean, think about it. Even though you didn't tell us what exactly happened that required you to rescue him, it was obviously from something dangerous—"
"Which we will have to talk to you about later." Her father cut in with a stern look and tone.
"...yes." Aretta sadly pouted.
"—As I was saying, something dangerous. And he had no one by his side then. No one would leave someone in his condition alone by himself, that's a rather thoughtless and reckless move, unless they planned on just leaving him there."
"But there might have been unavoidable circumstances that caused this situation to happen," Aretta tried to argue, feeling bothered with the thought that Ian might have been tossed away by his family.
"Of course, that is also true. He might've gotten lost by himself as well. Though in the end, we don't know what actually happened and how it all happened."
"We can take him in, right? We won't just kick him out, right?" Aretta desperately asked her parents. For some reason, just thinking about him going out there, alone, in his uncertain condition made her heart ache. She didn't want that to happen.
"Oh, darling, nothing is certain yet," her mother started saying and then looked into her daughter's wet and reddened eyes, "...but we can always look after him temporarily."
"Oh." Aretta felt disappointed when her mother attached the word "temporary", but she understood. It's hard to take in and raise a complete stranger who's not even related by blood.
In the midst of their conversation, Ian came back into the living room in a clean outfit. Having just washed up, his previously unkempt and filthy appearance disappeared and what came out was a refreshingly good-looking teen. His purple hair damp from the shower appeared darker than usual, with drops of water still dripping from his face, Ian looked drippingly hot with his previously muddy appearance completely wiped out.
His attractiveness shone through and shot straight into Aretta's heart, making Aretta feel her heart pounding again as she blushed.
She looked away quickly. Then remembering the talk with her mom, she felt sad and distressed again, her whole person wilting.
Then remembering that Ian still considered himself to be a child, she spurned herself for drooling after an unwell person.
She went through a whole range of emotions before her mom asked Ian if he knew his parents' phone numbers.
Suddenly, Ian's expression turned sad.
Aretta's heart skipped a beat. 'Don't tell me he really got abandoned?!'
"You won't be able to reach them even if I tell you," Ian looked depressed as he replied. This made Aretta's mom's expression wrinkle and her dad to frown. Tears were on the edge of Aretta's eyes, threatening to fall at the slightest stimulation. "Brother told me they left for heaven."
Heaven?!
Surprised, the Monah family showed similar surprised expressions.
'So they passed away. No wonder, this might have shocked him enough to stunt his mental growth. Also, he mentioned a brother,' the mother thought as she analyzed Ian's words to get the deeper story behind them.
"Then do you know your brother's number?" She tried asking.
"Mm-hm." Ian nodded. Then he recited his brother's phone number smoothly. 'That's right. Brother must be so worried about me,' Ian thought worriedly to himself. 'I hope he doesn't neglect himself in search of me. Why did I run out in the first place?' Ian was bewildered.
He had been so disoriented and confused when he opened his eyes today that he couldn't clearly recall the situation he woke up to that made him run out. All he remembered was that he had felt a sense of danger and profound sadness that shook his mind, causing his thoughts to forsake everything else and only the desire to escape remained.
The most recent memory Ian could access was the day when he went out on a business trip with his brother and got kidnapped. They wanted to use him to threaten his brother. Ian had felt so scared that day. It wasn't the first time he had encountered something like that, however, the fear at that time had been so intense and deep that he could still remember the sensation clearly.
But more than the fear of torture and death, Ian was disheartened at the thought of becoming the burden that might bring down his brother.
When he came to after losing consciousness from the pain they inflicted on him, Ian found himself in a room he felt strangely familiar with but couldn't remember seeing. Not recognizing his surroundings and still under the impression of his captivity by the bad guys, Ian was overwhelmed with the urge to get out of there.
He recalled himself running endlessly after somehow escaping the place in a blur. Now that he thinks back to it, it should've been his home. He had been rescued from the kidnappers by his brother before he blacked out completely, however, that piece of memory didn't return to him until after he ran away.
Realizing his mistake, Ian wanted to go back but he was lost and didn't have his phone on him or any money to use a public telephone or call a taxi.
That's when he accidentally provoked some scary gangsters and was luckily rescued by Aretta.
All that aside, he had been too busy running away and escaping from everything to realize something wrong with his body.
It was only when he saw himself in the reflection of the mirror in the bathroom did Ian see his current body.
Ian was shocked to discover his voice and body had changed from what he remembered himself to sound like and look like.
His height had been pulled up greatly and his voice, though still immature, sounded less childish and high-pitched than when he was 9.
Seeing his unique dark-to-light shades of purple hair and a pair of purple eyes on the face that resembled the one in his memories, only older, Ian was sure that this was his body. However, he was again shocked to find that one of his eyes changed colors!
He was not born with heterochromia eyes, but for an unknown reason, one of his eyes was the light purple he had always known while the other was a mysterious dark purple.
Staring into it for a few seconds, Ian did not dare to look anymore into that dark purple eye, seeing it unfathomably unnerved him. Bringing a wave of discomfort into his light-filled heart.
A spark of darkness seemed to want to invade his heart, but quickly disappeared due to the disparity in strength and quantity.
What happened for his body to become like this? Did he fall into a coma? Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for his memories to stop at the kidnapping while his body grew.
Just as Ian was about to think deeper into things, Aretta's mom's call went through and Angus picked up the call.