He rushed into his room, threw open his luggage, and stuffed in any clothes he could grab.
His breath came out in gasps as he zipped close the bag. He added his IDs.
If it was really as he feared, that he had been discovered by the doctor who just wanted to confirm his speculations.
His movements slowed as his mind persuaded him, "Maybe that's not true, maybe he didn't see or know anything?"
But the dark brown eyes of the doctor flashed through his mind.
"Forget it." Jidenna resumed his actions, moved things from his bathroom, and put the important ones in his bag.
Those eyes gave him an uneasy feeling, like they knew something.
Impulsively, he decided to trust that feeling and stay far away from that man.
Jidenna did not want to wait around to see exactly what the doctor knew, then proceed to weigh if it had any bad effect on his life.
Rechecking his bag, he headed outside.
"I'll sleep in a hotel tonight." Jidenna had only a few days until he left for university.
"The next few days have to be perfect and peaceful," Jidenna closed his eyes, desperately praying for "peaceful days."
Locking up his apartment, he descended the flight of stairs outside the building.
His eyes scanned around the still-empty but clean street.
"It seems like it was cleaned up," he thought. Yesterday, after the accident, broken shards of glass littered the ground, both from people's windows and unlucky cars parked outside.
It was ghost-quiet, a far cry from the bustling place he had come to be familiar with.
His footsteps echoed as he walked, the wheels on his luggage rubbing against the tarred ground, occasionally climbing over tiny stones and pebbles.
Jidenna's rushed pace slowed, and his eyes did another sweep from post to pillar, looking for any sign of the doctor.
When he saw none, he rejoiced in his mind, thinking, "Ah! Thankfully, I did not run into him."
Jidenna had been worried before.
As he sneaked away from his house, he prayed not to run into the doctor. His footsteps quickened, almost running. He lifted the luggage off the ground to make his exit faster.
Jidenna calculated what would happen if he were to run into the doctor. "It would be plain awkward. If that happens, I'll want the ground to open up and swallow me."
He cringed at the vivid scene his mind made, "But," his eyes flashed, becoming serious, "apart from that, the most troublesome thing that could happen is the suspicion that might follow. It could arouse the doctor's vigilance."
"If I am followed and investigated…" he sighed, cutting off his train of thought. "Let's just focus on escaping first."
Jidenna knew it would be weird—an unfriendly person who you talked to a while ago suddenly packs up and leaves like he is running away.
But knowing and doing are two extremely different things.
He couldn't be rest assured.
Jidenna couldn't just sit down, relax into his chair, and sip wine with his fingers crossed, praying that nothing went wrong.
He wasn't such a person.
But the more he walked, the more Jidenna began to question his decision. For the first time since he came here, Jidenna experienced a disturbing quietness.
Previously, he would secretly complain about all the honking, yelling, and buzzing that never seemed to end.
At times, he would stuff his aching head under his pillow to muffle the noise.
In the day, it was worse, but once the sun went down, it became the worst. It was the nightlife. Feet-tapping and head-bobbing beats would immediately explode from all corners.
That wasn't a problem if you loved to dance, but what if you did not? And you just wanted your beauty sleep?
The houses he passed were all shut tight, windows shattered just like his, and some even had their doors removed.
When he saw that, Jidenna shut his complaining mouth, thinking, "At least my door is still intact."
He only knew someone was inside through the faint whispers he heard, but at other times, there were none.
Just like an abandoned house.
There wasn't any car plying the road, no buses, and he put his phone back into his pocket.
He couldn't book a ride either; no driver was accepting rides from this part of the city.
He tightened his grip on the luggage handle and decided to trek all the way there when he heard a loud ringing.
Jidenna flinched. It was only when he realized the ringing came from his own pocket did his racing heart calm down a bit.
He fished out his phone from his pocket, glaring at the notification until he saw the sender: "Mom."
The message read, "Come back to the house tomorrow. Your father and I have something to tell you."
His eyebrows quirked in response, and an uneasy feeling took over him. He stopped walking, wondering what it could be.
His paranoid whispers fanned the raging flames of anxiety in his mind, "They're aware you're not their son; they're going to disown you."
A groan escaped his lips as the whispers grew louder.
They turned into screams, bombarding his mind from all directions.
"Ring, ring."
Jidenna heard a ringing, breaking him from the condemnation his mind threw at him. In a daze, he answered the call without checking. He only realized it when he heard a familiar voice speaking to him.
"Jidenna, did you receive my message?" to which he gave a "hmm" in reply.
She continued, "Okay, like I texted, your father wants to tell you something about our family. It's something he thinks you should be aware of." At her words, all the clamoring voices in his head ceased.
After she was done, she reminded him once more to come back home before he left, then ended the call.
"So they aren't aware," he concluded, but still questioned it.
Jidenna wasn't fully convinced, but he let out a sigh of relief.
Unconsciously, his tense shoulders relaxed at that revelation.
"But," his thoughts once again trailed off, "what could it be?"