Eugene widened his eyes.
Intentionally developed hypersensitivity? Was it even possible? No--the real-life example was literally talking to him. Rather than that...why? Arthur seemed to be suffering from this hypersensitivity to pheromone smell, so for what purpose would he be intentionally developing it?
"My nose was normal when I was born--well, just like anybody else, I mean," Arthur continued while cleaning up the remnants of his lunch. "But when I was...six or seven, I got into an accident."
Eugene had to control himself from widening his eyes again. What was this? He just wanted to know if there was something he could do more for his daughter, but why did it turn into something heavy?
Perhaps that was why Arthur pulled up the lunch first and talked about random nothing while they ate? It was definitely not something to be talked about while eating.
"What...happened?" Eugene asked, before adding quickly. "Only if you're comfortable talking about it."
Arthur let out a smile that felt like an automatic response. He busied himself with the container filled with fruits--his dessert for the day--while staring at the lake.
If he had to be honest, he didn't really want to talk about it. He actually never talked about it because the only people who knew were the ones who already knew from the start. But...
Looking at the empathetic man in front of him, whose eyes seemed to keep a lot of stories behind those glasses, for the first time, Arthur wanted to let his story out.
"You know how I lived with Ashley when I was a child?" he tapped his fingers on the side of the container, deciding to take it from the start. "At that time, I used to follow her--and Allen--everywhere. Oh--do you know Allen used to be a child actor?"
Eugene couldn't prevent his brow from arching this time. "No?"
What an endless amount of unexpected stuff to be revealed during lunch break.
"Well, he only did it for a year or two," Arthur shrugged. "One time, he was acting in a project under Seed Production. Ashley used to sneak into the filming site to spectate since she would be working in that industry after all. She brought me over one time, and...well, something bad happened."
Eugene waited silently, watching the alpha pursing his lips slightly while trying to push the words out.
"I got kidnapped."
"What?!" Eugene blurted out.
Of all things, it involved a crime?!
"Either someone thought I was Allen--my hair used to be lighter and looked kind of blonde--or they just thought all the loitering children were child actors and decided to snatch one," Arthur said, shrugging lightly as if he was trying to make it less heavy. "I was the unlucky chosen one."
Eugene bit the inside of his cheek. This explained why Ashley looked guilty when talking about Arthur's situation last time. She must have thought it was her fault since she was the one who took Arthur to the filming site.
"I wasn't sure what happened afterward--I mean, I was a child--but the kidnappers were on a phone call, there was chaos, and before I knew it, I was thrown out of the moving car."
"What the fuck?!"
Eugene's eyes almost bulged out of his socket. Are those people crazy?! Even an adult might not survive getting out of a moving car, but they did it to a child who was only a year older than Hannah?!
Sons of bitches!
"I heard they were getting chased--who knows what those people were thinking?" Arthur said. "Anyway, my head hit the pavement, and I fell into a coma for several weeks."
Eugene was speechless for a while. It was horrific--it was beyond horrific! It was a miracle that this guy was even there, telling him the story himself, but...Arthur had been speaking like it was someone else's story.
Could he do that? Could he speak about his unpleasant past without looking angry or aggrieved?
When he saw the alpha's lips start to part, Eugene raised his hand to stop the man. "Wait, Arthur--wait..."
Arthur did not close his mouth, but he also did not speak. His widened eyes were blinking quickly as a certain word registered in his mind. Arthur? Did Eugene Kim just call him 'Arthur' instead of Crowley?
Eugene took a deep breath, digesting what he heard for almost a minute before exhaling slowly and nodding at the alpha. "Okay, what happens next?"
"Hmm...how should I say this?" Arthur pressed his lips for a second before continuing with pursed lips. "There was damage in my brain, and when I woke up, I had face-blindness."
"...come again?"
Eugene had just finished calming himself, but it might be a premature attempt because...what now?
"Face-blindness?"
"Yeah," Arthur smiled awkwardly. "I can't really...recognize people's faces."
Eugene wanted to exclaim, but his voice ended up coming out like a whisper. "That's why..."
"Yeah, I had to memorize characteristics, clothes, and everything to recognize someone--which is easy enough for those I see often," Arthur smiled wryly. "In the crowd, though..."
Flashes of memories flooded Eugene's mind: Arthur mistook him for the date, Arthur couldn't recognize him, Arthur couldn't find him at the park...
Now it made sense!
"I got used to it now, but back then..." Arthur exhaled heavily. "It was scary."
His last memory was of himself getting snatched by a bunch of strangers and being thrown out of a moving vehicle. All he wanted when he opened his eyes was to hug his grandparents and feel safe. And yet...
"Everyone looked like strangers; my grandparents, Ashley, Allen..." Arthur took a stuttered breath, the strain finally entering his voice. "I didn't know whether the doctor and nurses who came were the same or different, or someone who just pretended to be one and would try to kidnap me again."
Arthur chewed the inside of his cheek for a few seconds before adding in a slightly trembling voice, as if relieving a heavy trauma.
"It was even worse at school."
Eugene frowned. Why did he still come to school in that condition?
"I couldn't recognize my friends. I can't tell which one was my friend and which one was the kid who always talks shit about me," Arthur shrugged. "The worst of it all was during the PT class."
The alpha took a deep breath and closed his eyes for two seconds. When he opened them, the brown eyes were deep and darkened quite a bit.
"You see...the kidnappers were wearing tracksuits. Black tracksuits to be exact."
Eugene let out a soft gasp. "Oh, no..."
"Yeah, you guessed it right. The teacher wore a black tracksuit, and since I couldn't recognize his face, I thought he was the kidnapper who came for me again." Arthur held his hands together, clutching tightly. "I was screaming bloody murder and ran across the field until I fell and had to be sent to the hospital again."
Eugene exhaled slowly. So it wasn't that Arthur could tell his story calmly--he just hadn't come to the most horrifying part yet. Now he understood why the alpha he met six years ago said he was homeschooled.
"Did you get homeschooled after that?" Eugene asked.
"Oh, how do you know?" Arthur raised his brows.
"It's...a reasonable guess," Eugene smiled wryly.
"Well, yeah, but only after I finished developing my sensitivity."
Arthur smiled and drank from his tumbler to wet his throat after the long story, eating the fruit in his container to pick himself up with natural sugar.
"You see, my mother is a pheromone researcher," Arthur continued after munching on several berries. "When she heard about my situation, she called me to where she was working and told me to develop my sense of smell."
His mother didn't live with him? Eugene blinked. He did only mentioned his grandparents and his cousin earlier--even Allen. No parents in sight.
"The goal is for me to be able to recognize people by their scent," Arthur explained. "Clothes and style could be changed; even face shape could be changed with a medical procedure. A scent, however, is like a fingerprint. There are hardly two people with the same scent in this world."
Eugene coughed on his sweet lemonade. He tried to cover his fluster by nodding his head and speaking fast. "So, it's to help you with recognition, got it."
"Yeah," Arthur also nodded. Thankfully, he didn't seem to recognize Eugene's flustered reaction. "It turned out to be...too effective that I developed hypersensitivity, not just sensitivity," he said. "I can recognize people by scent, yes--mainly alphas, omegas, and betas who wear consistent perfume--but I also can't stand an overly strong pheromone."
A wry, self-deprecating smile grazed the alpha's face.
"So, now I have two conditions that make me uncomfortable around many people."
Arthur chuckled quietly, but there was no joy inside his laughter. He picked blueberries and ate them in silence, while Eugene was nibbling on his remaining canale, clearly wasn't sure what he should say to that.
This whole conversation happened because he wanted to ask about the hypersensitivity, so Eugene didn't feel good about it. He felt as if he was forcing the alpha to speak, even though it was entirely Arthur's choice to talk about it.
In the end, Arthur was the one who tried to break the awkward silence. He cleared his throat and smiled to lighten the mood. "Anyway, my usual effort is to carry as many neutralizers as I can," he finally returned to the actual purpose of their meeting. "It also helped that I was homeschooled and only met a few people until my manifestation."
Eugene nodded. "Hmm..."
"My way of 'overcoming' it is just getting used to the discomfort and avoiding crowded places as much as I can, including school. It was only when I became an adult that I started to...hmm...try blending into society?" he chuckled. "I'm not sure you want the same thing for your daughter, though, so I don't think I can offer much help--"
Eugene cut the alpha with a massive cough--even though he wasn't even drinking anything. "W-what?"
Did he hear that right? Daughter? What do you mean by daughter?!