Yore Descry (昔日的描述)

Glimpse 8; Muffled

It was night yet again; Haoyu went to wash up and getting ready for bed after his shop was closed. He walked out of the shower with a towel over his wet hair when his eyes fell on the small-sized plastic container on his coffee table. It was evidence regarding the case he was given recently, Wang Xingchen's disappearance case.

Haoyu decided to go through them at that moment and sat down on his couch, the items given to him is able to be counted with one hand, only a red lipstick, a necklace, a pair of earrings, and a hairclip. It was the very few items Mr. Liu can get his hands on while he's still trying to get permission to enter Wang Xingchen's apartment, in order to retrieve more items belonging to her. They weren't items she used frequently enough to give Haoyu the opportunity to see through her point of view, but there was almost nothing useful for her case. With only those very few items, within was stored memories, hazy in fact. But in the remnants, Haoyu saw that Xinchen's daily life was probably hardly eventful.

On the calendar hung on the wall, it was January of the same year. Within the last 24 hours recorded in the pair of earrings, Xinchen was only cleaning the house and doing house chores, occasionally sitting down to rest for a few minutes. More often than resting, she would turn to the door to the apartment, it was as if she was expecting, or hoping for someone to come. It wasn't any different for the other items, despite being in different dates and even months, it was like something she unconsciously does, a habit for a lengthy time.

Haoyu couldn't think of anything to say, he slumped on his sofa with his head looking down to his lap, his eyes grave and his lips feebly shut. Slowly, he slid down further enough to sit on his tail bone, his hands on his stomach as his eyes averted to the side. Haoyu finds himself in Wang Xinchen, her said unconscious habits was something Haoyu deeply once related to.

Haoyu remembers, there're many times he would sit still on his chair behind the counter, sitting next to his grandpa and staring at the door. It was a miracle he had always wished for, to see his parents again. He would imagine where his parents would push open the door, surprising him with big smiles on their faces, rushing to hug him, telling him they were alright. Even after Haoyu moved in, after his grandparents passed, he still found himself turning his head to the same direction whenever he sits behind the counter of the antique shop. He honestly doesn't know how he survived the rest of his education, even graduating early with flying colours, because said miracle was all he could think about for the longest time.

"Nowadays, I refuse to think about it, because I know how painful it is, it aches so much. I could feel my throat swollen and I could hardly breathe," Haoyu sat back up, only to lean back against the backrest of his couch and look up at the ceiling, with his gloomy dark eyes. "My mom's cooking, her scolding and inadvertent loud voice... The smell of my dad fresh out of the shower after a long day, where he's not sticky, oily, or sweaty... I miss all of that, I miss them, I miss them so much... I miss you, mom and dad..."

All of the memories within the five years of his childhood with his parents came flooding back into his head, it frustrates him sometimes, because he was very young with an undeveloped memory. But he remembered the ones memorable to him, or habits and what his parents often say or do with him. Haoyu remembered he loved watching his father make pottery in his free time, his mother's amazing cooking, taking a hike with his family, and even just having dinner on the dining table together. Chatting and happiness, cut short and ended in only 5 years, where Haoyu felt he barely got to know his parents. When they disappeared, it felt like an object handed to him was taken out of his grasp before he even got to wrap his head around, but it was more in a deeper sense where half of his heart was taken away along with it.

"It would be an absolute lie if there's not a day that I wished I could see you two again... I want to hear your voices again, hear you call my name, or even lecture me for living a boring life, telling me to go out and explore the world." tears were pilling and running down the side of his face, reaching his ear before he placed his arm over his eyes.