Quella woke from Aeren's bed and looked at him. He was sitting on a chair, doing something. Quella watched him for a while, feeling curious about him.
Quella stepped out from Aeren's bed and went to him, seeing a wooden name plate in his hands. She stared at the wooden plate for a few seconds before her curiosity got the better of her.
"What are you doing?"
Aeren looked back at her. She had wrapped a bed sheet around her body. Aeren didn't comment about the bed sheet and didn't pursue the matter.
He then turned back to the wooden name plate and spoke:
"I'll be living here for a while, so I wanted to do work in my profession."
She looked at Aeren and thought, When did being homeless become a profession? She was confused by his answer.
"What profession?"
Aeren didn't turn back again.
"I'm a doctor," Aeren said flatly to Quella.
Quella was shocked by his profession. What the hell? When did homeless people start becoming doctors?
Quella continued looking at him in shock, not knowing what to say.
Quella went silent for a few seconds and looked at the degree Aeren was writing on the name plate. She didn't even know what type of degree he was writing.
"Then how did you become homeless?"
"I resigned from the hospital to find freedom."
"Freedom?"
Aeren turned to her and stopped his work, looking at her. His face showed no expression.
"Yes, freedom."
Quella didn't understand him and asked again, "What do you mean? Aren't we free to do anything?"
Aeren stared at her, shook his head, and said, "Yeah, you're right. But we still have to follow rules and regulations without knowing their value."
Quella's eye twitched as she asked, "Those rules and regulations are for controlling people from doing bad things, right?"
Aeren continued looking at her and asked, "What do you mean by bad?"
Quella paused for a second, not knowing what to say. She could mention things like theft, murder, and more, but even with rules and regulations, these things still happened. Some people did them from behind, and some even did them in front of everyone, but nothing changed.
"I don't know." She didn't have an answer. Because when someone had a problem, they took another's life for no reason, got their problem solved, and were even praised for it.
"Listen, Quella. Humans are puppets. You and I are the same. But I want freedom."
Quella looked at Aeren and thought, What is he talking about? How can puppets and humans be the same? Is he trying to look cool or something?
"What do you mean by humans being puppets?"
Aeren nodded and looked at her again, saying, "What is the most desirable thing for a puppet?"
"To become free," Quella said. Puppets wanted to be free.
"And I'm going to tell you about humans. Why are humans puppets? A human's real purpose is always to find freedom for themselves. They unconsciously try to find their freedom through other things like:
"Doctors become doctors to find cures for illnesses to feel freedom from them, but they get captured by those illness cures and become slaves to the cures they've found.
"Engineers become engineers to find freedom from their creations, but they also become slaves to those creations.
"People make families to feel freedom, but they also become slaves to their own families.
"And slaves and puppets are the same. They wait for their death to come on their own."
Quella stared at Aeren and didn't understand a thing, but she didn't know what to say either. Quella stared at Aeren and directly asked:
"Then what is freedom? If a person becomes a slave to anything he chooses, then what is real freedom?"
Aeren stared back at her and stood from his chair, saying:
"Freedom is feeling, freedom is emotion, freedom is light, freedom is dark, freedom is a view, freedom is cruel, freedom is something, freedom is nothing, freedom is everything, freedom is empty, freedom is control, freedom is slavery.
"Freedom has no shape, color, or way. Freedom can't be seen, touched, or felt. Freedom exists everywhere. Freedom doesn't exist anywhere.
"Freedom can be anything, freedom can be nothing. Freedom doesn't stay or stop. Freedom moves everywhere.
"Freedom is freedom.
"Freedom can't be defined."
Quella stared at him and thought, He's obsessed with freedom and he's a lunatic about it, but he doesn't even know what freedom is.
"Okay, fuck off."
Quella got fed up with his rambling and went to her room.
Aeren stared at her back and returned to his work. He had somehow sealed his emotions, and now these emotions were uncontrollable. So he needed relationships to feel those emotions, which was why Aeren needed to control all emotions—so he could master them all.
Aeren finished his name plate and went out of the mansion to put up the sign with Quella.
Aeren returned to the mansion and saw Quella sitting on the couch with a fresh mood.
Quella looked at Aeren coming her way and sat opposite to her. She looked at him again and said, "I thought about what you said and understood one thing."
Aeren looked back at her and asked, "What did you understand?"
Quella lifted her head. "That you're saying all human beings have their own freedom."
"Right. All humans have freedom but stay trapped in that freedom and get caged by that freedom."
Quella nodded her head, then asked, "If you're saying everyone has their freedom, tell me about my freedom and yours too."
Aeren stared at her and smiled at this question. Aeren understood the meaning and knew she was right. I had freedom, but that freedom I already achieved, and now I don't have freedom and I got caged.
"Your freedom is me for the time being. As for my freedom, I don't have it, and I'm still trying to find it."
Quella stared at Aeren with a suspicious look and turned her head away from his eyes.
"What freedom are you trying to find?"
Aeren sighed and looked up, saying, "I don't want to be caged."
"From what?"
"From the world, desire, emotion, feeling, people, the void, or anything that wants to cage me or imprison me. Then I will be able to find my freedom.
"Like if I wanted to jump to the moon, so I jump and reach it.
"Or if I wanted to commit suicide, I just do it.
"Or if I wanted to reach somewhere, my one step would be enough to reach that place.
"Or if I wanted to travel the void, so I just travel.
"Or many things that are restricting me, but I want to achieve all of that."
Quella felt a sense of shiver from Aeren and said, "You're delusional."
Aeren smiled and didn't say a thing.