Chapter V. Confrontation & Confession

Jafar was polishing his nails and humming a tune as Frollo entered their dorm. He glanced up at Frollo before continuing to polish his nails and asked, "Where's our breakfast? You've been taking a walk for quite a while." As he spoke, Jafar didn't even look up from his nails.

"I hope you don't get tired of omelets and give me ten minutes." Frollo softly replied.

"Ummm-hum," Jafar mumbled as he admired the sheen on his nails, carefully filing them down. Frollo stood in the doorway, still wondering how to open up to Jafar about Hades.

"...Do you need help?" Frollo still couldn't bring himself to mention the fact that he just met Hades in the park.

"With what?" Jafar asked nonchalantly.

"Polishing your golden casings, as now you're busy polishing your nails." Frollo pointed at the two shining YouTuber Awards on the wall, shimmering in the morning sun.

"Nah, and I am hungry so please prepare the omelets ASAP, thank you." Jafar's focus was still fixated on his nails, carefully filing and clipping them so that they would look pristine.

After a few minutes, Frollo served two plates of golden omelets and two glasses of scarlet grape juice on a wooden tray, which he placed next to the manicure kit on the desk next to Jafar.

"I met Hades in the park and had some talk, that's why I am late today."

"Pfff..." Jafar's mouth hung open at the sudden news, almost spitting out the omelet he was eating. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, "You WHAT?"

"He said 'I wish you all well,'" Frollo continued, as nonchalantly as usual-Jafar couldn't tell whether or not Frollo caught the rippling emotions in his response.

"Why? Why...I mean what did he mean by 'I wish you all well'?" Jafar put his fork aside, his hands trembling, "This is what 'well' means: lying on a bed weaved by snares, cutting yourself free from them one by one while they strangle you in the dead of night!"

Frollo remained silent as he kept eating his omelets and stared at Jafar. His eyes were neither comfort nor judgment, like a deep dark lake without any ripple.

"You said you met him in the park? What was he doing?" Jafar put his hand on his forehead, staring at his desk aimlessly, "How did you ever know that it was him? I...I just have so many questions."

"You talk about yourself when you feel good and talk about Hades when you're not," Frollo said calmly, "I may look like I'm made of stone, but it doesn't mean I am an idiot."

"Hey, I'm not saying you're dumb. I just asked you NICELY how did you ever meet Hades." Jafar's heart ached, he almost forgot how brutal Frollo's honest words could be, "as far as I knew, the man was once my dormmate, then he left me without any words, only an empty bed and his golden casing. How would he want to reach out to you, a man who brought his gun into a streaming studio?"

Frollo's silence continued for a moment, but a small smile formed on his lips, as if it was mechanical, a simple gesture that did not reflect the emotions behind it. It was a small gesture that looked empty and hollow as if it were an auto-tune to the emotional reactions of human beings.

"You know, no matter what it takes...," his voice turned guttural, "people sometimes craved redemption and a closure."

"He could seek his closure as long as I could find mine." Jafar snarled, "Using you as a messenger, does he really not want to see ME in person?

Frollo just nodded and tilted his head a bit.

"What about me?" was all Jafar wondered to himself at the moment, as if his world was once made of Hades and only Hades alone, now he was gone so his world was shattered. "Why would he rather reach out to Frollo, the stranger to our whole situation, when he could have talked to ME? His one and only comrade!"

Jafar gritted his teeth, and turned to a stoic Frollo, "Let's go jogging every morning until we meet Hades. He could tell everything in his mind ON HIS OWN."

Frollo, an ex-military man. A known walking confession booth. If only a confession booth could make omelets and become a marketable emote on Discord servers. Now he was Jafar's jogging companion.

Oh, poor Jafar, when he struggled to keep up with his jogging companion, he could feel his out-of-shape body complaining, aching, and cracking, as now he realized years of heavy drinking had corrupted his bones and fleshes. He wanted to feel young, to prove he was still athletic, but the streaming sweats washed his illusion away, and there was the cruel reality left.

"If you are really struggling, there's always another way around." Frollo stopped by and turned his back, as a gasping Jafar arrived at him.

"For...for what?" Jafar crouched and tried to slow down his breath, "for jogging? Nah, I am still...still in my early forty, so no, thank you."

"...About Hades, " Frollo shrugged, "I could bug his house if you-"

"You would put no BUG in that man's house, I SWEAR TO GOD." Jafar yelled with his hoarse voice at Frollo's obsession with bugging Hades' house, "Please, I can do this, don't you DARE try to invade others' privacy. It's illegal and unethical."

As Jafar continued to move forward, however, he realized Frollo just stood there and simply stared.

"...What?" Jafar asked confusedly.

"Is anything legal necessarily ethical?"

"Oh no Frollo, don't," Jafar shook his head. He didn't even want to decode Frollo's expression on his face right now, "I don't want to discuss philosophy with you, not today."

Jafar adjusted his breath, but when he took a step, he saw the towered blue hair from the distance. He widen his eyes for a second glance-there could be no doubt about it. The slender figure not only matched the sear long in his mind, but it was all he could see now.

"HADES!"

Jafar shouted, but he was too exhausted from the jogging session earlier that he had no more strength in his legs. He rushed towards Hades, but his body suddenly collapsed beneath him, like an electric toy ran out of battery and fell forward face-first.

"Ahh-" Jafar only saw black from the impact of the fall. The last thing he saw was a panicked Hades turning his back and running, "Frollo, WHERE IS HE?"

"He turned right to the street, should I chase him down?" Frollo spoke as calmly and detachedly as usual.

"Listen, Frollo, " Jafar struggled to get up, still on his knees, " could you take a second to REFLECT on how diabolical your idea was? You sick, sick, evil individual."

"I'm not evil," this is the first time Jafar heard there was some anger in Frollo's voice, but Jafar was too preoccupied with his own pain to point that out, "I just do what I think is for the best."

"Fine...Frollo...you're not evil...you...you are just an apathetic little monster." Jafar moaned, he could feel Frollo guide him to lean on the bench and place a piece of tissue on his nose.

"Lower your head, don't lift your head, or else blood might clog in your respiratory tract." Jafar couldn't even detect hints of subtle emotion in Frollo's voice anymore, all he could feel was sinking, for the fact that Hades just decided to dump him right in his eyes.

" A'ight, a'ight...fine..."

"AND. DO. NOT. SPEAK. NOW."

Jafar was shocked by Frollo's sudden command. He looked into the man's eyes, as those were the only things in his burr eyesight, but all could see was the mixture of anger and sadness. Of those emotions within Frollo that he couldn't understand.

So Jafar lowered his head, following Frollo's instruction. As the shock wore off, Jafar was able to process both the physical pain and the emotional pain-abandoned by Hades again, the fact that he was out-of-shape now, and his nose bleeding.

After Frollo helped him to stanch the bleeding, they headed back to the dorm. Jafar immediately fell on the couch in his living room, as he just wanted to lie down now; while Frollo brought their breakfast from the convenience store. He took away his share, leaving Jafar's on the table.

Jafar reached for his phone in his pocket, he needed some good ol' mindless scrolling on social media to drown his disastrous jogging session. But then he noticed a stranger messaging him in his Discord DM:

"I'm Hades.

Mind coming to my home for breakfast? It's a better place to talk. You can name a date since I have all the time in the world now.

You can bring your little psycho dormmate. In fact, it will be nice if you bring him.

My address is: 2292 Harrison Street, San Francisco, California 94122. You know, just 45 minutes from our dorm if you drive here."

Jafar sat on his couch and gasped. He clicked on the stranger's icon for the account information, this account was created then joined Jafar's server on the exact same day-it was the day right after Hades left Jafar without a word.

He remembered it too well, Hades left on the night of April 1st. It was the biggest, worst joke Hades had ever played on Jafar on April Fool.

How funny, nights after nights of wine abusing and piles after piles of plushies, just to bury the void within!

Then Frollo brought a shotgun from his gun collections and a gauge cleaning kit, casually walking into Jafar's sight.

"Hey Frollo," Jafar called off Frollo, "where is 2292 Harrison Street, San Francisco, California 94122?"

"...Hades' current address." Frollo answered with utter confusion, "...do you mean bugging Hades' house is a 'YES' now?"

"No, never," said Jafar without hesitation, "but would you like to have breakfast at his home?"