[Hyde's pov]

The sun was shining so bright that afternoon, that it was too hot to be staying directly under it. His shirt was already wet from his own sweat and it felt so gross when the cloth was sticking on his skin. Hyde wiped away the beads of sweat that was forming on his forehead with the back of his hand while his right hand busily flapping his damp shirt to cool down his heated upper body.

It would be nice if he could take a dip in the cool Thiore Lake which was located nearby from where he was standing. After spending a few minutes picking the Capella mushrooms, he decided to head to the lake.

He should try to catch some fish at the lake too. Maybe he could create a new recipe for his cafe using the fish he would caught and combined it with the Capella mushrooms. He would let his employees and Reese taste tested it later, or maybe he could invite Noon and Reese for dinner tonight. That Noon really need to take a rest sometimes. Seriously, his workaholic nature was really making Hyde worried. Even as the older one, Noon really didn't know how to take care of himself more!

Hyde sighed. Thinking about his friends made him felt like their mother. Maybe he had developed his motherly instinct over the years of being their friends. He let out an amused chuckle.

Hyde's feet stopped as soon as he arrived at the Thiore Lake. It was called Thiore Lake because every once a month, during the night of the full moon, a single Thiore flower would bloomed under the moonlight. The Thiore flower was a rare flower which was bright blue in colour and had a nice, gentle smell.

Hyde loved the smell of Thiore flower. It wasn't like any other flowers which were sometimes too strong for his taste. Unfortunately, no one was able to extract the scent of Thiore flower because the flowers itself were very rare and was protected by the country.

Hyde looked around the lake before his eyes were glued at the sight of the huge, blue flower in the middle of the lake. That was the first time he saw a Thiore flower that big!

Then, the young man saw somethingー or rather, someoneー with beautiful black, flowy hair, who was gracefully sitting on the huge blue flower. His pale skin was as white as porcelain under the glistening sunshine. His body looked so frail that it triggered Hyde's instinct to protect the boy's small frame. Long story short, Hyde was bedazzled. It was like he was looking at an ephemeral being.

His daydream was cut short when a splashing sound reached his ears. He saw the young boy was flailing around on the water surface before sinking down. Hyde was shocked. He quickly threw his basket full of Capella mushrooms on the ground and rushed towards the lake. Without thinking, Hyde jumped into the water and swam towards the drowning boy.

As soon as he reached the boy's location, Hyde brought the boy's waist into his arms and tightly embraced him. He was shocked when he felt a weird tingling sensation where his skin touched the boy's skin. Ignoring his confusion, Hyde swam towards the surface and dragged the teenager to safety.

Hyde panted in exhaustion. He turned to the boy and tried to wake him up, but he received no reaction from the boy. Hyde touched the boy's right cheek and brought his other hand to the boy's nose. He was not breathing.

Hyde quickly gave the boy 100 chest compressions for a whole minute before opening the airway for the boy to breathe. When the boy was still not responding, he blew air into the boy's lungs until the boy's chest expended. Hyde hurriedly separated their mouth when he noticed the boy was awaken. He watched the boy coughed out water and gently patted the small back.

The boy suddenly panicked and tried to broke his horns. Hyde frowned at the teen's frantic actions while silently waiting for the boy to calm down. He asked the boy if he's okay, but the boy ignored his question and went straight to the edge of the water. It looked like he wasn't hurt. Hyde silently watched the boy's face exchanging expressions between seconds. The boy looked so silly when he was panicking that it made Hyde chuckled.

Hyde took his time to analyse the boy's beautiful face.

He had a gentle and adorable face. His eyes were round and big, although it was slightly sunken. His eyelashes was long, thick and curled, making him looked more delicate and cute. His thin eyebrows looked like it were beautifully carved, although it were actually naturally neatly shaped.

Hyde stared into the almost black, shimmering irises. It looked like it contained the whole galaxy in there. Then, Hyde's eyes trailed down at the boy's thin and skinny body. It was so thin and frail that it made Hyde furrowed his eyebrows and he genuinely thought that the boy needed to eat more. Hyde rubbed his chin. Maybe he could fix something for the boy. His mind was turning on full power, thinking about which dishes he should fed the skinny boy. Maybe he should fed him all the menus that he could think of.

Hyde gave a friendly smile at the teen who was staring at him and introduced himself.

Out of the blue, the frail boy swiftly crawled toward him and grabbed a hold of Hyde's tail. Hyde yelped in surprise and felt a shiver on the base of his tail. Heat slowly rising in his body, especially around his lower body.

<This is bad!>

The harassment didn't stop there. The black haired teen rubbed his face onto Hyde's tail.

<Really, really bad!>

Excuse me! This could be considered as sexual harassment, you know! Hyde's finger moved in a very fast speed, tapping on the boy's shoulder as he nervously tried to calm himself down.

“U-um... Excuse... me...” Hyde's voice cracked.

The teen had realized what he done and immediately apologised to Hyde for being rude (and inappropriate). Hyde noticed that the lad had no flower mark on his neck. He was relieved that the boy was just a naive child. He had enough of the aggressive Fehus who was trying to get in his pants whenever they got a chance. It was a scary and traumatising experience for him.

When Hyde said the words ‘Fehu', the boy flinched. The boy suddenly told Hyde that he was from another world. Hyde was confused. It didn't look like he was lying. Hyde couldn't feel any malice or lies behind the boy's words. Instead, he could feel confusion, loneliness and fear. Hyde sighed and decided to believe the boy's words. He invited the boy to his house.

When they arrived at the gate, Hyde was greeted by the gate guard.

“Hyde! You're early today. Did you harvest a lot of that mushroom?” Jamie, the gate guard smiled at Hyde while eyeing Hyde's basket. Jamie's eyes stopped at Hikaru. “Who's the kid? Never seen him before.”

“That's Hikaru. I found him drowning in the Thiore Lake, so I decided to bring him home. He looks sick too,” Hyde told Jamie while looking at Hikaru. He smiled when their eyes met. Hikaru returned the smile with the cutest smile that Hyde had ever seen. Hyde chuckled.

“Make sure he's no trouble, Hyde. We'll never know if he's gonna bring us any trouble in the future. But I guess, if it's you, it's no problem then.” Jamie nodded. He gave permission for Hyde to bring Hikaru in by giving Hyde a temporary residency tag for Hikaru. Hyde left for Hikaru after saying his thanks to Jamie.

On the way home, Hyde noticed that Hikaru was a very curious child. The boy's eyes was glittering whenever he saw something of his interest. Hikaru then told Hyde about Earth, the world Hikaru was from. In exchange, Hyde told Hikaru about Avalleon. The topic about girls was especially intriguing for Hyde. He grimaced when he thought about the protruding chest and the ‘no junior' part. How frightening it was to have a distorted body like that? He shivered by the thought of it. Thank goodness the junior was naturally not there. He almost thought that it was in the Earthlings culture to cut off the females junior to distinguish the two genders.

Hikaru pouted and told Hyde that he looked more like girls than boys, so he was made fun by others a lot. Hikaru hated his look and wished to be more manly and macho like Hyde. Hyde frowned. Hikaru was fine the way he is, though.

Ah! There was another thing that was so shocking. Hikaru was actually 16 years old! It was mind boggling for Hyde, because every Fehu in Avalleon had a flower mark on the side of their neck right after they turn 15. After the flower mark bloomed, the Fehu was considered adults by law and could be married off to an (or four) Uruz. Of course it's not mandatory for a Fehu to marry young, but they were encouraged to marry their soulmate and produce offspring.

For Hikaru's case, he was already a legal adult in Avalleon, but not quite really an adult. At least, not until his flower mark bloomed on his neck. Until then, he wouldn't have to worry about marriage or having babies. When Hyde told Hikaru that, the looked on the boy's troubled face quickly soften.