#zhou qilou

Saudade is a profound melancholic yearning for the absent of that which one loves, that is often accompanied by the denied fact that it might never return. In other words, it is the feeling of missing someone dear to you who is no longer by your side.

Words: 1386 words

For the past one minute, Kiro had been staring at the constantly blinking vertical line on the half-completed email that was displayed on his laptop screen. His hands that were on the keyboard had remained motionless, even though his mind was whirling with various choices of words to convey his thoughts. It was strange since he didn’t usually have this much trouble in putting his thoughts into words.

After all, this wasn’t his first email and it was also unlikely to be his last.

There wasn’t a defined limit to the length of his emails. Some of them were as short as a few sentences, while others could be as lengthy as a few pages. Nevertheless, the words that he wished to say would come to him naturally and guided the movements of his fingers on the keyboard, much like when he was struck by a sudden spark of inspiration while in the middle of composing a new song. However, unlike his songs, which he would gladly share to the world without reservations, the words on this digital form of letters were something that was meant for his one and only recipient.

An irreplaceable and important person in Kiro’s life.

After much hesitation, Kiro eventually typed out the finishing sentence for his email. He sent the email immediately and received a confirmation from the system a moment later regarding his email being delivered successfully. The young man then leaned back onto his chair and stretched his arms up in the air. Nonchalantly, he glanced at the time that was shown at the bottom right corner of his laptop. Most people would be eager to retire to bed after realizing the current time, but for Kiro, he merely sighed before smiling wryly.

If Savin knew that he had been staying up late while knowing full well that he will be having a photo shooting session in the morning, he would not only be nagging at Kiro, he would confiscate all of his devices and games to prevent him from staying up late again. It was already bad enough to have his snacks confiscated before this. If he was to lose his games and devices as well…Kiro didn’t even want to imagine it. Thus, it would be best to hide this from his manager’s knowledge.

Anyway, considering the current time, it wouldn’t make much difference for him to go to bed now or later. Not to mention, he wasn’t feeling sleepy at all right now. Rather than tossing and turning in bed as he tried to fall asleep, he might as well stay up for a little while longer. Having made up his mind about that, Kiro reached out to his laptop once again. He scrolled through the long list of emails that existed within his inbox in the encrypted mailing system. His azure eyes grew wistful as he skimmed through the simplified previews for the contents of each of the emails.

[How’s your day today?]

[Happy birthday, Kiro.]

[Are you staying up late to play games again?]

[I have listened to your latest song.]

On the list of emails that could be dated as far back as fifteen years ago, there were only two names. Needless to say, Kiro was one of them. As for the other name, it was none other than his mentor, KEY.

As a matter of fact, this encrypted mailing system was actually something that was set up by KEY as a private means of communication between him and Kiro when the latter was sent abroad as a child. Nonetheless, if one was to examine the list of emails closely, they will notice that starting from five years ago, Kiro had been the one sending emails to his mentor, while there had never been an email from KEY to him.

This was because KEY had been missing without a trace in the past five years.

While The Twelve of Black Swan had deemed KEY to no longer be in this world, Kiro refused to accept that. Instead, he believed that his mentor had merely hidden himself so well throughout the years that no one was able to find any traces of him. Even now, his mentor must certainly be waiting somewhere in the world for the opportunity to reunite with him.

Ever since Kiro solved the first coding puzzle that was left behind by KEY and received the subsequent message of encouragement that was attached to the hint for the next riddle, he had continued to believe in his mentor’s survival.

If not, how could the occasional messages from his mentor, which appeared every time he solved one of those riddles, fit with the latest events and Kiro’s current situation in life?

Still, despite Kiro having accepted his mentor’s disappearance as a temporary circumstance, that didn’t mean that he was completely unaffected by it.

Back when Kiro was still staying abroad, he and his mentor had still maintained contact with one another through the encrypted emails in spite of not being able to meet with each other. Now, there was completely no contact between them. So, of course, this had made Kiro feel lonelier than before. The only solace for this loneliness would be when the blonde youth was immersed in his work as a celebrity, solving his mentor’s riddles … or when he was sending emails to his mentor via the encrypted system.

Kiro had started actively sending emails to his mentor after the latter had been missing for more than a year. To be honest, he didn’t know why he started doing that or if there was any meaning in doing so. Still, the only thing Kiro knew for certain was that the weight on his chest had felt a little lighter after he had sent out those emails. Even though there hadn’t been a single reply for any of his emails, Kiro wasn’t disheartened and continued sending out his emails whenever he could do so.

Since the contents of the emails were about the things that Kiro had experienced in his daily life, this habit of composing emails to his mentor was akin to writing a diary entry, which led him to come up with a certain idea.

That, someday, if he could meet up with his mentor, he would retrieve all of these unread mails from the system and recite them back to his mentor, letter by letter, just to inform him on how he had been doing for the past years during his mentor’s absence. In return, Kiro would then request to hear about his mentor’s experiences.

With so many things to talk about between them, a day would certainly not be enough. So, Kiro might as well take a few days off from work during that time. While it may be difficult to take a long leave of absence from work due to his rising fame and the countless job offers, if he persuaded Savin to allow him a long break just this one time, it wouldn’t be impossible.

After that, he could catch up with his mentor without a care in the world. Kiro could even take the opportunity to introduce Miss Chips to his mentor. Knowing the two of them well, Kiro was sure that they would get along fine. The blonde celebrity had smiled widely in contentment as he pictured the scene of his mentor, Miss Chips and himself conversing happily at one of his secret bases.

If there was really such a day in the future, Kiro thought that he couldn’t be happier.

Stifling a yawn, Kiro rubbed one of his eyes before deciding that it was finally time for him to sleep. After instructing his laptop to shut down, the young man stood up from his seat and headed towards his bedroom to have a short nap before the sun rose.

While pending on the shutdown command, his laptop’s screen was showing the most recent email that he had sent out earlier to his mentor. A single sentence had stood apart from the rest of the content at the bottommost part of the email. It was the last sentence that Kiro had added into the email before he sent it out.

[Master, I miss you.]

With a blink, the laptop screen turned dark, signaling that the device had completed its shutdown process.

MC, playing scrabble: I will put my “A” down to make “A!”

Kiro: I will add to your “A” to make “AT”

Gavin: I will ad to your “AT” to make “RAT”

Lucien, completely genuine (not really): I will add to you “RAT” to make “BIOSTRATIGRAPHIC”

Victor: *flips the table*

I can’t believe I’m late, but happy happy birthday kiro :’))

I drew this before his birthday but still managed to be late :D

Day 24 :)

I just redrew one of my fave helios/kiro cards