Private Finished Like Poetry in the Wind

Everyone seemed to be busy lately, which left Carmin spending more time alone again. It took a while, but eventually he got sick of his room and left for the city. Not in any particular direction, just more or less wanting to take a walk. This ended up leading him to Oceania Park. He'd never really seen the place before, but it seemed rather quiet at the moment and that was certainly a draw as far as he was concerned.

He nestled right in under a tree, about to take out a book he'd been reading, but changed his mind part way, taking out a small folder instead. Under normal circumstances, Carmin wouldn't be caught dead with this folder out in public, but with so few people around it was safe at the moment. Or at least he thought it was.

The folder contained a whole ton of poetry, stuff he didn't ever show to people under any circumstances. He had just taken out a fresh sheet of paper and begun writing when the wind decided to pull a nasty trick on him. One quick gust hit him and blew sheets all over, resulting in one very panicked Carmin. He started grabbing them and tucking them back in the folder as quickly as possible, getting them all back safely in a matter of seconds. That was, most of them. One continued to blow away, and while collecting the first bunch, it had gained a good distance on him.

He ran after it in a hurry, getting that one sheet of paper back was a life or death matter.

When Carmin finally found the whereabouts of the page, he practically cried. Somebody actually reading one of his poems was an absolute nightmare. They were only supposed to be an outlet, a tactic he found online for letting out feelings rather than bottling everything up. It didn't even matter which one she had, all of them contained personal problems.

He debated just letting her have it and sparing himself the embarrassment, but ultimately, he wanted it back in his hands It took a great deal of effort, but with a face blushed in lighter green, Carmin walked up to the stranger. "E-excuse me... I think that might be mine..."

Why? This was already a difficult job on its own but now this lady was only making it harder. He just started biting his lip and looking to the corner of his eyes as he started weighing the ups and downs of just running away right then and there.

"Um, well I can't tell you exactly what's on there since I don't know which one that is. But I can tell you its a... a poem..." Technically he could've flipped through all the poems he did have and picked out the one that was missing, but he wasn't exactly keen on opening that folder right now, so it just stayed shut in his hand. "A bunch of them blew away on me and that's the last one I need back."

Carmin seemed really bothered by Fe taking a peek at the paper. He lifted a hand up hesitantly and his face somehow managed to get even lighter in colour. When she confirmed that it was a poem and made mention of the angst inside it, a piece of Carmin died inside.

“I-it’s not mine, it belongs to...” Carmin desperately looked around as if to get a good lie out of his surroundings, but didn’t have much luck. By the time he continued his excuse it was already obvious he was lying. “A-a friend.” He was looking nervously to the side as he added, “It’s very private, he’d be really upset if he knew someone else had read it, so please give it back...”

That was unfair. Carmin seemed to wilt a little at that, clearly quite conflicted over the matter. He didn't answer for almost a minute, as he debated what to do in his head. But eventually, he decided to concede.

"Fine..." He frowned, not so happy with how poorly all of this turned out. "I wrote the stupid poem, can I please just have it back now..."