As David stepped out of Kaede's room, he heard the doorbell ring, the chime echoing through the quiet house.
Sighing, he made his way down the hall and toward the front door, his mind still half-focused on Kaede and her fragile state.
When he opened the door, he was greeted by a familiar face—Rin, Kaede's daughter, who was roughly the same age as him.
[IMAGE]
Rin stood on the doorstep, her expression immediately darkening as soon as she saw him.
She crossed her arms, clearly unimpressed, and frowned at him, her sharp eyes scanning him as if she was evaluating some kind of intruder.
"Oh. It's you," she said flatly. "Freeloading again?"
David gave her a blank stare, unamused by the snide remark.
He didn't feel like explaining himself, and frankly, he wasn't in the mood for a verbal sparring match.
Without a word, he stepped aside, making room for her to walk in.
Rin hesitated for a moment before brushing past him, but not without giving him another disapproving glance.
Just as she passed, David spoke up, his voice dry and calm. "The frown will only make you look like a grandma. There's no need for that to be there."
Rin stopped in her tracks, turning slightly to shoot him a glare over her shoulder. "Excuse me?"
David shrugged. "Just saying. You'll get wrinkles early if you keep it up."
Rin rolled her eyes and sighed, clearly annoyed. "Whatever," she muttered, making her way further into the house. "Where's my mom?"
"She's... resting," David said, his tone softening as he remembered Kaede's fragile state. "Had a bit of a rough night."
Rin raised an eyebrow but didn't press for details.
She simply gave him one last glance before heading toward her mother's room, leaving David standing by the door, wondering how long it would take before Rin warmed up to his presence—or if she ever would.
David had always been the source of envy—and frustration—for Kaede's children, including Rin.
None of them had a particularly close relationship with him, partly because, in their eyes, he had always overshadowed them in ways that they couldn't quite reconcile.
David wasn't just smart in academics ; he was on a whole different level. He qualified for the International Mathematical Olympiad, scored a perfect 42, and brought home a gold medal.
His academic prowess was something they could never touch.
And on top of that, he had a quirk that, while seemingly unremarkable, could've been so much more powerful than theirs with the right development.
But after high school, something changed.
David stopped pushing himself.
He stopped doing anything, really.
While they moved on to college, careers, and social circles, he drifted into a life that seemed like a wasteland.
His life became one of barely livable apartments, dead-end jobs, and a constant struggle just to get by.
It baffled them, gnawed at them, really—how could someone with so much potential willingly choose to live like that? Someome who their parents spent so much resources on choose to waste it ?
But to David, it wasn't really a mystery at all.
He knew exactly why he had taken that path, why he had allowed himself to slip into a life that seemed meaningless on the surface.
It was simple the old David was far more unstable than anyone could ever imagine.
While he excelled in school, while he achieved accolades and honors, none of it brought him any real joy.
The excitement of winning, of achieving more, began to fade until one day, it simply disappeared altogether.
He lost the will to chase the things others would have killed for, and instead, he started living paycheck to paycheck, looking for something—anything—that could keep him occupied.
In truth, David was practically suicidal, though he hid it well behind a quiet facade.
The world he had once excelled in held no interest for him anymore, and all he could do now was bide his time, searching for something that would make him feel alive again.
Until The new david reincarnated / transmigrated or whatever jargon it is considered on the cosmic scale.
David chuckled to himself as he remembered the day the previous him tossed that gold medal into the garbage.
A perfect score in the International Mathematical Olympiad, a prize others would cherish, meant absolutely nothing to him.
It was just another hollow achievement, a weight he didn't want to carry.
The medal, a symbol of his potential, lay buried in the trash, forgotten and unwanted—much like the ambitions he had once held.
Shaking off the memories, David made his way to Kaede's room.
After knocking lightly, he poked his head in.
"Hey, Kaede," he said, his voice calm, "I need to know how many people are coming to the party. I'll start preparing things."
Kaede looked up, slightly surprised. "Oh, right! There should be about twelve or thirteen people in total. Family, mostly."
David nodded, already calculating in his head. "Alright. I'll handle the groceries, and I'll order a cake for you."
Without waiting for a response, he left the room and began making a list, methodically checking off the things he'd need to make the party work smoothly.
He had always been meticulous, even when it came to tasks that seemed mundane.
It was just another trait carried on from the memories of the Old David.
---
Kaede's POV
Kaede sighed as she leaned against her rooms wall, watching Rin glare at the door David had just passed through. She could sense the tension immediately.
"Rin," Kaede began, her voice soft but firm, "I don't appreciate how you're treating David."
Rin crossed her arms, her frown deepening. "He's freeloading again, Mom. Like always. It's like he doesn't even try anymore."
Kaede shook her head. "That's not fair, and you know it. David isn't freeloading—he's helping with the party. Besides, you have no idea what he's been through."
"I know enough," Rin muttered, her frustration barely contained. "He had everything. He threw it away and is now being a burden on you. How is that not his fault?"
Kaede exhaled heavily, her heart aching as she remembered the long, agonizing road David had been walking down, one Rin didn't understand.
She had been slow to notice what was happening to him—too caught up in her own world to realize just how much pain he had been carrying.
By the time she figured it out, it was already too late.
"He didn't throw anything away," Kaede said, her voice more forceful now. "He's been struggling for years, Rin. And I... I wasn't there for him like I should've been. You think he's wasting his life, but you don't understand how much he's been suffering."
Rin turned away, her frustration evident. "Mom, you don't get it either. He's doing nothing with his life. He doesn't even try."
Kaede wanted to argue, to defend David, but she knew it was futile.
Rin's resentment ran deep, and she wasn't ready to see the truth.
After a long pause, Kaede sighed again. "You may not understand, but at least show him some respect. You owe him that."
Rin stayed silent, unwilling to concede the point.
As Kaede watched her daughter walk away, she remembered the difficult conversation she'd had with David years ago.
She had tried to confront him, to figure out what went wrong.
She had noticed the shift in him, the way his light had dimmed, but when she finally worked up the courage to ask, his response had been vague and dismissive.
He hadn't wanted to talk about it.
And in the end, they had agreed to never bring it up again.
But it still hurt. Kaede had always hoped she could reach him, help him somehow.
Now, she just had to accept that David would only let her in as far as he was willing, and no more.
Even though she'd seen the depth of his pain, the fact remained that he was a closed book, and some pages would never be revealed to her.
The best she could do now was make sure he didn't feel isolated.
After all she wasn't one to be deterred by simple words so she had been consistently talking to him and calling him over for years.
Though it didn't result in much as he still felt distant enough at times.
As her thoights wandered a blush crept up on her face as it heated up, remembering how she had kissed the boy her daughter's age in her drunken stupor.
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