Only I Am A Reader

"This is…"

Opening his eyes once again, Leo looked around in a daze. The only thing he could remember was finishing his 'purchase', he heard something unclear before he awakened on the top of his… bed.

'Did I come back?'

This was the very first thought that flashed in Leo's head, but he wasn't even certain of its meaning. His current memory was extremely blurry, the most he could tell was that he missed his bed?

'No, this isn't it.'

He could tell that he had just experienced something big, something far too important to forget. However, Leo felt like he was simply grasping at straws, his memory was just too jumbled at the moment. Now that he was fully awake, Leo grimaced as he felt the killer headache rampaging in his brain.

Looking at the clock beside his bed, Leo could tell that slightly over an hour had passed, an amount of time that could never explain this amount of broken memories. The only possible explanation was that he had a very long dream. Only… were dreams usually this vivid?

"It was… 'Personal Book'?"

After rummaging through his head, only two words vibrantly shone in the middle of the chaos. Leo felt that something would happen if he said them, but…

'Let's wash up first.'

As the only thing that changed was the disappointment that he felt, Leo decided to go to the bathroom to wash his face and embark on the quest of finding a painkiller to battle his hideous headache. There was no chance he could get to the bottom of this as long as the pain persisted.

Click.

However, things didn't exactly go as planned…

"Happy birthday! Leo!"

As soon as he turned the doorknob, Leo was immediately greeted by the figures of his father, mother, aunt, and cousin! Moreover, the house was lightly covered with bright decorations!

'Was it today?'

Leo was enlightened! Was this the reason he felt like he was forgetting something? He suddenly remembered wondering why his mother had left earlier, but everything made sense now.

"You got me!"

The head-splitting headache started to ease a little as he looked at his family's smiling faces. For some reason, he felt strangely relieved to hear his name… It was as if he had been called wrongly for a long while.

"Heh! It wasn't that hard, but my plan was impeccable nonetheless!"

Leo's father, Shawn, stepped forward and gave him a big hug. Leo's long hours of reading made him numb towards certain events, but Shawn still secretly took a break from work today for the sake of this.

"Thanks, father! Mother! I love you! Aunt as well!"

After hugging Shawn, Leo proceeded to hug Mia and his aunt, Sierra. He couldn't help the feeling that he had greatly missed getting together like this!

Shawn looked at Mia with a face of smiles. As if it was a hidden reward for their efforts, Leo was especially responsive this time! The genuine smile on his face was something that they hadn't seen for a very long time!

"Hey, Lia."

However, after waving at his cousin, Leo suddenly spaced out. His heart tightened as if this wasn't all there is to miss, blurry faces flashed in his head. For a moment, he stood in place, staring at nothing in a loss.

"Are you okay?"

Lia attempted to shake Leo out of his trance, as someone who shared the same age, she and Leo were quite close when they were younger. They even shared the same hobbies, mainly reading. It was just that Lia wasn't as extreme about it as Leo was.

"...Yeah."

The headache was starting to slowly fade away, and things seemed to grow clearer by the second. Still, they didn't make much sense to the current Leo. In the end, he decided to ignore the urge to remember this 'dream' for now, at least until this party was over.

"Oh! Is this…"

"Yup. Your favorite chocolate cake."

Though some worry had made its way to Shawn and Mia's faces, they similarly decided to shrug it off. They were especially familiar with Leo's 'withdrawal symptoms', and this wasn't it. Something must be happening, but they could always talk about it later.

"Here you go, birthday man."

Sierra immediately began cutting the cake, handing the first plate to Leo. Her sister's son was a bit 'special', but she was still quite fond of him.

"Thanks."

Leo wasn't a chocolate lover for nothing, a part of the cake already made its way to his mouth as soon as he received the plate. Enjoying the dopamine rush that came with the plentiful taste, Leo happily took the spoon out of his mouth, but… he didn't proceed to eat the rest.

'Again?'

Another face flashed in his head as he had a terrible sense of deja vu. It wasn't at the same degree as earlier, but eating this chocolate cake somehow made him miss another person!

"Perfect!"

This time, however, Leo was able to dismiss the thought before anyone noticed. Before long, the cake slice in his plate could no longer be seen as the small family lightly chatted with happiness. Although it was a little too calm for a birthday party, the group of five appreciated every moment of it.

"Have you grown taller recently?"

In the middle of the conversation, Lia asked a question that weighed down on Leo's mind. Was he… finally changing? A question popped up in response, but Leo wasn't even sure why he was expecting that to begin with.

"It's probably just the birthday's placebo effect, but since you said so, Let's check if it's for real!"

Leo usually wore larger clothes at home for the sake of his comfort so he didn't feel much of a difference. However, now that Lia asked, he did feel they were smaller than usual. In order to satisfy his curiosity, he walked to the mirror in the living room. It wasn't completely accurate, but it did have a metered scale at one of its ends.

'Isn't this over 5 centimeters?'

Leo made sure to check it several times, but his height did indeed grow by an imaginable amount overnight, or… was it over an hour? As he deeply stared at his reflection, Leo saw an even larger figure overlap with his own!

'Is it really just a dream?'

The shaky blonde figure immediately vanished as if he was hallucinating, but it definitely had the strongest impression compared to the things 'flashing' in his head earlier. For a moment, Leo's head completely cleared up, it felt as if he was on the verge of understanding everything. However…

"Arthur!"

A both familiar and unfamiliar call pulled him out exactly before he managed to realize anything!