Kia sat in an open area near the greenhouse and lit another cigarette. There were already a dozen butts crumpled in the ashtray next to him. He didn't know when it had happened, but Ran was gone. Just when he'd thought he'd broken the last bit of ice and had been about to hear the words he'd managed to pull from every other person he'd pushed
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Curious eyes played across the suffering young man as Chloe drew closer, his original intent momentarily forgotten. The flowers would have let him know if something was amiss. This seemed slightly more pressing at the moment.
He seemed familiar. Kia. That was his name...though the details of their meeting were still a little fuzzy in his head. Still, he would have offered his services, such as they were, to anyone he thought in need of them, stranger or otherwise.
"...penny for your thoughts."
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He held his cigarette as if he didn't know whether or not he should put it out and took a slow breath. "Why do you want to know? We didn't end up saying much the last time I saw you." It seemed funny that both times they'd come across each other, Kia was hurting because of Ran. First physically and now emotionally.
"This place is cruel," Kia muttered as he eyed the roses still sitting near him. He knew their meanings only because of Ran, and would never be able to think of flowers in the same way.
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This was a grief not easily soothed, whatever the cause.
"It can be, yes."
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If Chloe could piece together Kia's words now with the last conversation he'd had with a certain redhead, he might be able to figure out who was gone.
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No harm in asking to be certain, though it seemed a stretch.
"You're not...by chance...talking about Aya, are you?"
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"Ah...so you're the one." Cryptic Chloe time, and he regarded the other with a look that was not so much calculating as searching. He was taking him in, in earnest now, as one might inspect a painting for whatever the artist's purpose might be.
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"What does that mean - has he mentioned me to you or something?" Talking about someone to others generally meant that they mattered in some way, which both reassured him and made him feel worse that he likely didn't remember any of that now that he was back home.
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"I knew he was feeling conflicting about something or...someone. I suppose then that that would explain how, exactly, the hotel is choosing to be cruel, this time." Something dinged, then.
"Wait. You said...he's gone?"
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"If he's been confused lately, it's probably my fault," he admitted. Telling someone he could never be with in reality that he loved him was bound to get anyone's head spinning. He nodded at the last words and picked up the darker rose. "I went to find him a few days ago; there were other people using his room and his things weren't in it any more." Kia didn't like explaining that, but he had to say how he knew it.
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He appeared to muse over this for a moment, before his gaze focused once more upon Kia. "That doesn't mean he won't return. I've heard of people coming and going. It is...a little more sudden than expected, but I suppose you can't choose. I'm sure he would have said or done something, if he'd had his way."
His pale gaze drifted down to that rose, and he felt a small tug of pity for the boy.
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Kia didn't know what to do or feel right now.
[OOC: Kia's not too much younger than Chloe - 24]
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[ooc: Didn't mean for it to seem like he thought he was that young... ]
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[OOC: It wasn't a problem, just amusing to consider someone his age a boy]
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"...he's stubborn that way. I'm sure you've noticed."
[ ooc: Blame his mun, who just got off of work and is too stressed and tired to care much about the distinction between 'boy' and 'young man'. XD ]
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"Calling him stubborn is like calling a blizzard 'a bit of a snowstorm'." At first, that had been the biggest appeal, but the more he learned, the more reasons he had to stay interested.
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