Walking along the sidewalk of the bridge, a handsome man with a gray coat wrapped around his slender stature, he stopped and stood at the restriction of the iron bridge. His eyes wandered far ahead, gazing at the river that acted calmly. The late winter wind blew, gently dancing his blond mane.
His mouth that was steamy from the cold snorted lightly. "Alright, I'm already here." The words came out loud.
A passerby turned his head towards the cute guy who seemed to be talking to himself on the bridge he was walking on, as the passerby did not see who the cute guy was talking to. Regardless, he continued walking.
"Nate, come out! I know you've been listening to me, right?" the handsome man exclaimed again, and managed to get some of the other pedestrians' attention to turn towards him.
"Why do you always ignore me when I call out to you, Nate?" From his tone, it was clear he was frustrated, kicking at the gravel because he didn't show up.
"I don't care if you strangle or shoot me ..." His teeth bit the edge of his lip. "... You won't be able to, because we're the same body."
"Nate, you heard me, right?" An exhale followed by a closed eye, as he climbed the bridge restriction.
A few pedestrians and two young women passing by were whispering, while looking in his direction. It seemed that the man who was talking to himself did not realize that what he was doing right now was attracting attention. And they didn't even seem to care. To hell with him, that's what they thought.
"Nate IF YOU DON'T COME OUT, I WILL JUMP RIGHT NOW!!!"
Noel yelled as he ran out of patience. The line of cursing he was about to hurl was held back, choked in his throat.
Until someone finally cared.
"Son!" A middle-aged woman lightly tapped the shoulder of the man standing on the bridge.
Noel turned his head, his expression confused. "Yes?"
"This bridge is only three meters high, the water below is only knee deep, if you jump down you won't die immediately, but some parts of your body will be sprained," the middle-aged woman explained.
Noel was silent.
"Oh yes, yesterday my son also often talked to himself like you because he was left married by his girlfriend, but don't worry," She took a piece of paper from someone's business card in her bag. "Take this!" She handed it to Noel.
"Thank you ..." Noel said quietly, as he accepted the small piece of paper.
The middle-aged woman smiled, and continued her delayed speech. "Doctor Illéa is a psychiatrist, maybe he can provide the best solution for you. although it may have to stay in a mental hospital, but he is already a doctor who specializes in mental disorders," she said patting Noel's shoulder lightly and the middle-aged woman left the man who was still silent on the spot.
*
Noel stared at a two-story white-painted building, located in the city center lined with shops. It was not far from his apartment, a twenty-minute walk.
"What am I doing? Why am I here? I'm not crazy." Noel ruffled his hair and turned around. However, after he took three steps to leave, Noel returned, going inside in a bit of a hurry. While surveying the room, a woman at the reception desk asked, "Can I help you?"
"Yes, I'd like to see Doctor Illéa."
"Do you have an appointment?"
"I have his card."
"Well, please wait." she said with a friendly smile. Noel sat back in the waiting chair.
Soon his turn came, Noel entered the room, and sat in the chair that had been provided directly opposite the Psychiatrist. A man came in quite neatly dressed and sat in front of Noel.
"Gr-Gregory?" Noel shouted in front of the man with widened eyes.
A shocked expression also briefly appeared on his face although he quickly regained his composure. "Noel what are you doing here? How do you know this place?" He asked after sitting on the chair and facing Noel directly.
"A middle-aged woman I met on the street gave me your card." Noel replied briefly. However, Gregory didn't take his word for it, how could an aunt give the contact details of a psychiatrist to someone she didn't know especially if the person she gave it to hadn't asked for it before, so he thought Noel was doing something strange.
"Did you do something on the street?" Gregory asked, looking serious.
"I called Nate, and the aunt came to give me your contact."
"You called Nate?"
Noel nodded twice.
"Where?"
"On the bridge, I told him if he didn't come out then I threatened to jump off the bridge."
"That worked?"
Noel shook his head. "I was mistaken for stress."
The one hand that had been tapping on the table went straight to his mouth. Gregory seemed to be holding back his laughter until he let out a pfftt sound from the slit of his mouth that was covered by the back of his hand.
"Don't laugh, it's not funny."
Noel's reprimand managed to bring back the seriousness from his face. Gregory looked at Noel who had been playing with a small donkey statue made of polished wood, which had long been a decoration on the table.
A minute passed with no one asking questions. Gregory looked at his watch, the center tread counting the time for a few moments, his eyes returning to Noel. "Noel," he called.
The man placed the wooden donkey back on the table. Gregory continued, "I wanted to ask you one thing." This time his expression turned serious, "What exactly is your relationship with the Director of Zwick and Sons?"
Like being doused with cold water on a hot day, Noel froze instantly after Gregory asked him a question he never expected to be asked. Unwillingly, pieces of his past memories came rushing back.
His mind brought back the image of a young man smiling at him against the backdrop of a beach and blue sea. Shouting that he loved him. The crashing waves obscured his shout, but Noel could still hear it. Now, every second of memory is empty, useless. Love was the sweet word that he had praised to everyone, but in fact it had created a cavity of pain in his heart. Like candy that creates a hole in the tooth.
"Noel, are you daydreaming?" The call echoed, displaying a blank call from within the retina of the name's owner.
Noel gasped as Gregory's palm swung in front of his face. Suddenly the cute guy blinked a few times. Remembering that Gregory was waiting for a response from him. Noel took a deep breath, his eyes dazed. He wanted to lie. However, his tongue betrayed him by saying, "He's my ex-boyfriend."
Gregory was momentarily stunned, when the unexpected answer reached Gregory's eardrums like a thunderbolt. A former lover? As far as Gregory knew, Walther had never been close to anyone, except for his father's business partners. The news of the Director of Zwick and Sons having a lover was unheard of, although there had been a few times but they were all just stale gossip of some actresses who wanted to increase his popularity, or were eyeing his fortune. However, now the man in front of his had said that he was Walther's lover. That's right, the former lover of Director Zwick and Sons.
After how the expression explained Noel's feelings when he told him about being detained by Walther two days ago, Gregory was skeptical of him. When he looked at Noel, a bad taste tugged at his heart. Especially when it comes to Nate and Walther's relationship. Between Nate and Noel, neither of them wanted to talk about the relationship between them and Walther. However, if seen from any side, both of them seem to have a dark relationship with the cold-faced handsome man.
"I'm sorry, it seems like it was too soon for me to ask about that." Gregory's husky voice broke the silence that had fallen between them. He was sure Noel wouldn't want to talk to him about his problems, and it was obvious that the man wanted to forget about him.
Noel lifted his head after recalling old memories that had become nostalgic and brought a tightness to his chest. "It's okay."
As Gregory had expected, Noel would have said that. "So, have some of your memories returned?"
Noel shook his head slowly. "Just a little, when I try to remember it my head feels like it's going to burst."
"Don't force yourself, you're just experiencing temporary memory loss due to trauma."
"Yes, I know. You already said it, I won't force it anymore."
Trying to convince that everything will end up fine in the future even though reality is sometimes so painful.
***
A week had passed, Noel was going about his day as usual with Gregory, and now one more chick named Rolan. Ever since he told him about his and Walther's relationship, Gregory hadn't talked about anything related to Nate at all.
Noel found Sunday afternoon TV shows very boring, unlike Sunday morning where there were many of his favorite cartoons, especially SpongeBob SquarePants. Lying on the sofa, he pressed the remote button many times, changing the TV channel looking for interesting television programs. The cute guy was alone in the apartment because Gregory was still working at the clinic. Meanwhile, Rolan had nowhere else to go, with whom and what he was doing. All Noel knew was that the teenager left immediately after receiving a message from someone, a teenage boy around his age.
Bored because he couldn't find a show that he found enjoyable, Noel finally turned off the television and threw the remote on the table. Occasionally yawning from the growing drowsiness. Closing his eyes, he thought, maybe sleep would be a better way to pass the time.
Ding Dong
The apartment door rang. Who's visiting on a lazy afternoon like this? Noel thought with his eyes closed, seemingly reluctant to open them.
Ding Dong
The bell rang again. Forced to open his eyes, Noel muttered, "Wait, didn't Gregory say that no acquaintance knows where he lives. So it's impossible, but if it's Rolan, he'll definitely come in soon."
"Is there anyone? We're from the police!" The exclamation was heard from outside.
"Tck, it must be Gregory, stop scaring me!" Noel got up and walked towards the door grumbling. "You know Gregory, the same tricks won't fool me."
Noel opened the door a little annoyed, he didn't like this type of trickery as it almost gave him a heart attack the first time the guy pranked him. However, this time Noel's guess was completely wrong, when the door opened, what he saw was not Gregory. Instead, two well-built, plainclothes men stood at the door.
"With Mr. Nathaniel?" asked one of them who was facing Noel, while the other was looking at the left side of the apartment corridor.
"I-yeah?" Noel was a little nervous about answering. He remembered Gregory's message to avoid the police, but they came to his apartment instead.
One of them showed an ID card. "I'm Detective Dmitry Vorobev, can I have your statement for a moment?"
"My statement?" Noel asked back with a confused look on his face.
The man named Dmitry Vorobev called out to his partner by tapping him lightly on the shoulder. Making his partner turn around.
Noel rounded his eyes, staring at the man through an expression that seemed incredulous at who was standing in front of him now.
"Yuri ..." The name simply escaped Noel's lips, as if to imply something profound.
The man called Yuri was a little confused by the expression that the man in front of him was wearing, as if the man named Nathanael had known him for a long time.
The sun slowly set in the western horizon, burning the embers of twilight on the horizon. The shadows of the city crept in slowly, hidden behind the skyscrapers. From the east, darkness was falling as night began to fall.
"Mr. Nathanael!"
Noel gasped, his eyes rounding. Coming to his senses after what had been a blank stare as a pair of hands swung several times in front of his face successfully broke his reverie.
Noel looked at the two men in front of him in turn.
"We don't want to waste time, answer everything you know," Dmitry Vorobev asked with a short sigh.
Noel, who was being spoken to, did not heed the man's words at all.
Noel's blue eyes kept stealing glances at the man named Yuri Viktorovich. How could he not, Noel missed his best friend. The desire in his heart was to hug Yuri right now - just to let go. He wanted to tell him what had happened to him all this time. But Noel couldn't, not now or later. Circumstances forced him to remain silent. Even if Noel told him all the truths that made no sense to anyone; the soul that transmigrated into the body of a hitman named Nate. Yuri would never believe it. Instead, it would only make things more complicated.
As Noel was lost in his thoughts about Yuri, twilight was fast approaching.
Unexpectedly, Noel felt his head throbbing with pain. He reflexively fell to his knees while clutching his temples. As Noel tried to focus on what he was seeing, his vision became blurry. His head swam, Noel winced as he felt the pain.
"Are you okay?" Dmitry Vorobev was puzzled by the sudden reaction of the man in front. So he lowered his head slightly, checking the state of the man whose face now looked pale. Yuri, likewise, watched with an unreadable expression.
Noel was about to respond, but his speech was stifled by an unnerving dizziness. His five fingers pressed against the area around his temple. After a few seconds, the pain unexpectedly subsided. Noel finally breathed a sigh of relief and returned his gesture to its original position, facing the two men in front of him.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Wait, something is wrong.
Noel had obviously said something, but why hadn't his mouth moved at all? And now to Noel's surprise his body wasn't listening to his commands.
What was going on? Noel was confused. He looked at the man in front of him who was already standing tall. A look of confusion flashed briefly across their faces as they witnessed how the aura of the man in front of them changed in an instant.
Sensing something was wrong, Dmitry's hand was about to reach out, to make sure the man was okay, but in an unexpected move, his wrist was already gripped tightly by the man.
"Yes, I'm fine," he replied in a tone that seemed flat.
Dmitry sighed in reply, as he felt the fingers wrapped around his right wrist begin to tighten, Dmitry said, "Can you let go of my hand."
"Nate, are you back?" Noel asked.
Nate had regained control of his body and released Noel's soul control completely. Only Nate could hear Noel's voice, because Noel's soul was inside him.