God Complex - Vol. 1

IX. Naivety-Part V.

Jun woke up as the morning sun shone down on his face.

As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes he smelled something sweet, like fruit. Sitting up in the chair, he saw on the table a wooden bowl filled with fruit and a wooden board that had a grid carved in it.

Misaki was sitting in the other chair across from him. She seemed to be taking out little figures out of a small pouch that she was holding.

Jun took the bowl of fruit in his hands and immediately recognized the fruit as a long mou. It already had it's layered, scaly skin peeled off and the flesh was cut into bit sized cubes.

Its name is derived from its scales resembling those that were on dragons.

The flesh looked like a cloudy gelatin with small black seeds in it. It was his favorite fruit ever as it wasn't too sweet but it wasn't sour.

While he took a small bite from one of the pieces, his childhood memories came back to him.

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"Mom! What are you holding?"

Jun asked, seeing his mother walking towards him with a ceramic bowl filled with something sweet smelling.

Her brown hair tied up with pieces of ornate decorations in it. Along with her expensive robes on.

His mother softly smiled at him while she showed him what was inside the bowl. It looked like slabs of cloudy gelatin with small black dots in it.

"It's long mou. A fruit imported from the coast of the Mang Kingdom." Jun watched as she grabbed a piece and handed it to him. "Here try some."

Jun grabbed the piece of fruit enthusiastically and took a bite. His eyes widened as he tasted the flavor and texture of the fruit. It tasted sweet but not as strong as other fruits that he has tasted.

He didn't really like fruits because of how sweet they were, so he always turned his head away when it came to dessert. Which was always sliced fruit.

Along with traditional sweets, but he liked the sweets because despite their name they weren't really that sweet.

After Jun hastily finished his piece of the long mou he immediately reached his hands up to his mother for more.

She tittered, placing another one into his hands. While he ate his second piece he heard footsteps behind him in the inner courtyard.

Jun turned around to see his father hastily walking towards the two of them.

"Hey, you need to come back to practicing your skills," his father told him sternly.

Jun looked up at his father sadly, hoping that he would allow him to finish his piece of fruit.

His father also wore expensive robes, like his mother, which blew in the soft breeze.

"Oh come on, he deserves a break you know," his mother said softly as she patted the top of Jun's hair.

His black hair was somewhat messy on top while the rest of its length went down to the middle of his back.

His father sighed and looked up to the sky before looking back at his mother.

"He's had enough of a break already." His father looked down at him and notices the piece of fruit that he's eating. "What are you eating?!"

"Long...mou..." Jun answered shyly before offering a piece to his father. His father took the piece of fruit out of his hands and looked at it.

"I thought you didn't like fruit." He pops the piece of fruit into his mouth. "Well come with me and practice some more. If you do good today I'll make sure you have a bowl of long mou for dessert."