So what should he call him?
The young man was torn.
He couldn't bring himself to call him "Brother."
"Eldest Brother" felt a little strange.
Was there something else he could call him?
Classmate?
Senior?
The young man took a deep breath.
"Eldest... Brother Xiao..."
In the end, he chose that.
"What I saw... was a monster?"
"Mm."
Xiao Xiao showed no impatience at the young man's repeated confirmations.
After all, it really was a fact that would take some time to accept.
"So..."
The young man asked the question that had weighed on his mind for years, but that he'd never dared to touch.
"They're all real...?"
He wasn't a stubborn person.
Nor was he particularly strong-willed.
If he could, he was more than willing to listen to other people's opinions.
Especially his parents'.
His parents had both said he was mistaken.
They'd even taken him to the hospital.
It was only after he grew up that he suddenly understood why his parents had insisted on taking him to the hospital when he wasn't sick.
His parents had thought something was wrong with his mental health, hadn't they?
Honestly...
After he grew up, he'd looked up quite a bit of information himself.
The more he read, the more he wondered if there really was something wrong with him.
Hallucinations?
Delusions?
Illusions?
He didn't know.
He couldn't control the doubts in his heart.
He was afraid of the unknown creatures.
He was even more afraid that all of this was just his imagination.
He'd realized...
The thought that they were unreal frightened him even more than the thought that they were real.
He couldn't help shuddering.
Goosebumps covered his body.
He'd never been a particularly resolute person.
When he was the only one who could see