Chapter song: Ayase - SHOCK!
December 24, 2022
"Oh, honey. I still don't understand why you can't come home for Christmas. You know how your father gets this time of the year if he cannot see you. We all miss you so much," your mother's soft voice rang through the phone.
"Is that sis?! I want to talk to her too, mama!" The sound of toy robots and background cartoons subsided, leaving room for your brother's usual chirpiness as he spoke next. "Give it to me!"
A smile bloomed on your face when you heard him, heart also shifting slightly in your chest. You realized this was yet another Christmas you wouldn't get to spend with your family.
Quietly sighing to yourself, your fingers loosened around the pen you were writing with no more than a few minutes prior, hand running through your hair.
"And Edgar asks when you're coming home every day now," your mother continued, tone lowering so as not to alert the young child currently distracted by your father's silly antics. The sound of your brother's bell-like laughter made you slightly jealous that you were only hearing it through the phone. "I don't know what to tell him anymore. He just doesn't understand why you can't study from home while you're on a school break."
"I know, mom, I just..." You trailed off, letting the silence speak in your stead.
You didn't know how you could explain to your family that no matter how much you studied, it would never be enough.
Studying from home was easier said than done; the house overflowing with the comfort of childhood and dear memories was far from an ideal place to dedicate yourself 100% to your work. It was not like you would even want to do that, while your family would be just downstairs, ready to spoil you rotten for two weeks straight.
You loved them and you would die for them any second. You truly would.
However, if there was another thing you were sure of, that was how hard you needed to work if you wanted to achieve anything in this life. If you wanted to make your dream come true.
And you would do anything to make it happen.
To finally become the architect, you'd always dreamed of; to create everlasting monuments, beloved homes, or lush towers. To leave your own imprint on this world for as long as possible, even after death's claws would sink into your flesh.
One year or ten. A century or a millennium - the world would know you had once existed and walked the earth, and your memory would be safe a while longer from the oblivion humanity was inevitably fated to.
Leaning in your chair, your eyes slid from the heavy textbook perched on your desk to the glistening moon reigning over the frosty winter sky. The silvery queen of the night shone so brightly, not even the light from the lamp reflected in the window blotted out its majesty.
It was a chilly night. No dark clouds in sight yet, despite the snow forecast you listened to this morning on your way to the library.
Your eyes fell on your own reflection, and the dark circles beneath them made you realize just how badly you wanted to go home right now. How much you needed true rest and peace, even briefly. To be with your family for the holidays, to play with your brother and to exchange presents.
To have a Christmas like when you were a child. When things were far easier, and the world seemed yours to conquer. When the innocence of childhood coated everything in vibrant colors and genuine hope. Pure happiness.
But the distant howl of the wind snapped you back to the present, the reality of being an adult creeping up on you all too suddenly and without warning.
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