The Chronicle of The Reincarnator's Fate

As he was scratching his butt, Victor stood in front of the bathroom door and grabbed the door handle but the second he opened the door, a gust of morning cold air came rushing to him.

"Urgh! It's cold!" Victor groaned, involuntarily crossed his hands against each other before quickly stepping inside and turned on the switch nearby. The ventilation fan made a soft hum, and the bathroom lit up.

Huumm Huuumm

"Let's hope I didn't drop the soap in the shower last night," he jokingly said, heading to the sink while doing his best to adapt to the morning coldness.

As Victor took his shirt, he casually glanced at the neatly folded towels on the rack and a couple of skincare products on the sink before noticing an empty face mask packet beside the sink. "Hmmm?"

"Oh right," Victor muttered, recalling that it was the last pack that he had that he forgot to throw from yesterday and muttered, "Note to self, remember to add Aloe Vera Face masks to the next week shopping list."

After he had fully undressed himself, Victor then casually tossed his clothes into a laundry hamper located in between the rack and sink while uttering, "He shoots and…"

"He scoresssss," He yells, celebrating with an air fist pump, seeing that all his clothes successfully landed into the laundry hamper in a single throw before shifting his sight toward the shower. 

When he approached, he immediately turned the water on at full volume, grabbing the shower handle. As steam began to rise and the shower gradually transformed into a warm embrace, Victor carefully tested the water temperature with his hand.

"Just a bit more," he uttered, a thoughtful expression crossing his face. He carefully adjusted the water temperature until it reached the right temperature he liked, and then he carefully yet gradually stepped into the hot shower.

"Ah, that's the stuff," Victor uttered, after letting out a low moan of relief as the tension in his muscles started to melt away due to the water cascading down his body. "A hot shower is really the best."

As he reached for the shelf in the shower, his fingers brushed against the familiar selection of cool shampoo bottles and body wash before he paused and picked up the sleek, lavender-scented body wash.

"Haha…" A soft chuckle soon escaped his lips.

"Lavender Fields," he murmured, reading the name on the bottle. For a moment, in his mind, he was transported back several years ago when the product was first introduced to him by her.

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"Honey, are you serious?" A voice, unmistakably Amelia's, echoed in his memory. "You're telling me you've never used anything other than that generic stuff?"

"It cleans me, doesn't it?" He replied, rolling his eyes at the time. Shaking her head, Amelia retorted, "Barely from what I can see."

"Hey!" Victor yelled as Amelia suddenly shoved him into the bathroom, almost causing him to lose his balance. As he turned around, Amelia thrust a lavender-scented body wash bottle into his hand and said, " Please try this instead of those cheap generics."

"You won't regret it. Trust me." Amelia confidently said, her eyes sparkling with amusement. Feeling sceptical, Victor eyed the shampoo bottle suspiciously, saying, "And what if I do regret it? The last time I trusted you, I almost had a tattoo that said 'anal' near my butt."

Victor winced, the memory of that disastrous tattoo experience still fresh in his mind while Amelia burst out laughing clutching her stomach. "You still remember that? You know damn well I was joking about that!"

"And besides, it was just a misunderstanding!" she gasped between chuckles, "it was supposed to be 'animal'! Remember? That tattoo artist was clearly drunk!"

It took a while, but she finally calmed down, wiping a tear from her eye, and said, "Okay, okay. I admit, it was a bad idea at that time. But this lavender body wash is amazing—trust me on that. It smells incredible, and it leaves your body with an incredibly nice smell that will make you feel like a million bucks."

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"I hate to admit it but you're right," He muttered, feeling a little nostalgic but quickly shook his head, freeing himself from his reverie and said, "Enough with these sappy feelings"

After squeezing a generous amount of lavender body wash into his hand, he began to lather himself up after placing the soap, with suds gradually forming around his body.

"Like usual, what a nice scent," he blurted out, taking in the aroma, a soothing blend of lavender and something floral, filling the air and offering a pleasant contrast to the warm steam swirling around him. The tiled enclosure echoed with the sound of water droplets as he rinsed away the suds.

Next in line was the shampoo, its scent a harmonious blend of pine and citrus that filled the air with a fragrant freshness as he lathered his hair after Victor had grabbed the bottle and squeezed the right amount into his hand.

As he was enjoying the moment, the water pressure suddenly dropped out of nowhere, with the hot stream turned lukewarm that startled him.

"Ugh, no! Not now!" he yelled, immediately switching the handle back and forth between hot and cold, trying to coax some heat back into the water. "This is the third time this happened this month!"

"Come on, people! work with me here!" He imagined someone downstairs taking a long shower, stealing all the hot water. "Share some of the wealth with me!"

Just like he had wished, a moment later, a scalding wave of water slammed into him.

Hisss~

"Oh, fuck!" he yelped, hopping back with his hands upward, shielding his face. "Geez! Guess it's lukewarm. Damn it!"

Despite that small mishap he had experienced, Victor continued enjoying his blissful shower, and after a while, he reluctantly turned off the shower.

"Oh, man," he uttered, shivering a little as he stepped out, droplets clinging to his rejuvenated skin, and quickly grabbed the nearby towel. "That was really refreshing." 

While carefully wiping his hair and entire body, he relished the release of tension in his muscles but didn't expect to hear a satisfying pop coming from his body. "Huh...?"

"I didn't expect my body to be this stiff," Victor said, looking at himself while wrapping the towel around his waist, with the damp cotton clinging pleasantly to his skin, but soon, a slight inconvenience appeared.

"Ugh...my balls are so itchy right now."

Shuffling along the cool tile floor beneath his bare feet while lightly scratching his balls, he went toward the sink and, as he was about to reach for his toothbrush, he paused, noticing a nearly empty toothpaste tube near it with his eyes slightly widened and blurted out, "Huh…"

"I guess I forgot," Victor said, shrugging his shoulders and then pick up his toothbrush and the toothpaste tube at the same time before giving the toothpaste tube a gentle squeeze. A meager dollop of white and green stripes soon emerged, barely enough for one last brush. 

"Another note to self, add toothpaste to the damn shopping list." Victor said, making a mental note while applying the meager amount of toothpaste to the brush head and threw the toothpaste tube into the trash can after making sure it was completely empty out. 

"I should probably also buy a new toothbrush alongside the toothpaste, considering that I've been using this one for almost two years now," he muttered, looking at the toothbrush before bringing it to his mouth and starting his usual routine. As he meticulously brushing each quadrant of his teeth, his internal monologue continued.

"In that case, maybe I should invest in an electric toothbrush," he mused, picturing those fancy models with all the bells and whistles. "But then I gotta deal with charging stations and replacement heads. Oh man, that would be a hassle."

Halfway through, he realized he was zoning out again and quickly shook his head while groaning, "Focus, you idiot."

"Stop daydreaming about the pros and cons of electric toothbrushes." he scolded himself before switching the direction of his brushing to the backs of his teeth with the bristles scraping slightly against his gums.

"Gotta be gentle there," he muttered, wincing slightly after he had accidently brushed a little too hard. It didn't take long before he spat out the minty residue into the sink and rinsed his mouth, with the minty taste momentarily refreshing his sleep-addled brain.

"Now, for the finishing touch," Victor muttered, grabbing a small bottle of mouthwash, swirling the blue liquid around his mouth before spitting it out dramatically into the sink and letting out a satisfied grunt.

Leaning toward the sink, he stared at his reflection on the mirror, especially toward His damp and unruly hair clung to his forehead, and sleep lines etched around his eyes made him look rougher than usual.

"I think it is time reduce my alcohol consumption after seeing this horrible mess," Victor said feeling a little about his appearance before turning silent while shaking his head, pushing that thought aside. He then glanced toward a fresh towel hanging beside the sink. Unlike the one used for his body, this one was a little smaller. 

After grabbing it, Victor then wrapped the small towel around his head, and roughly rubbing the damp strands before tossing the damp towel onto the rack when he felt that he had wiped his hair dry enough.

"Ugh, I'll deal with that later," he groaned, feeling a little lazy after seeing that the small towel landed haphazardly, snagged on a corner of another towel instead where he wanted before turning his sight toward mirror once again and a thought soon came into his mind as he fiddling a bit of his already mussed hair. "Yeah…"

"This messy mop on top definitely needs a trim," he muttered, running a hand through it with the damp strands clumped together, the ends looking split and unruly. "But not today. Maybe next weekend."

As a soft chuckle escaped his mouth, Victor approached the door and marched out of the bathroom. While shuffling across the cool floor, he welcomed the change in warmth in the air, which felt really comfortable.

Reaching his bedroom door, Victor casually grabbed the doorknob, and as he turned the door open, a sudden jarring trill pierced the air causing Victor to freeze on the spot.

"Huh? Who the hell is calling me this early?" Victor blurted, the startled sound escaping his lips as he quickly recognized the sound came from his own phone. "As far as I can remember, I have dealt with everything that needed to be done before my vacation."

With confusion in his mind, Victor pushed the door fully open and walked across the room. After picking up his phone, he stared at the screen and became instantly dumbfounded.

It was an…unknown number?

"Who the hell is calling me?" He groaned, squinting his eyes against the phone screen with his brow furrowed. "And more importantly, how the hell did this bastard manage to gain my personal number?"

He hated random calls, especially ones that came on his personal number. He had a strict policy – his private number was a privilege, not a party favour especially after that horrible incident.

"Who in the world has the balls to do it…" he muttered, pinching both sides of his nose with his voice beginning to rise in frustration. He reminded everyone he knew – his friends, his family, even the pizza place down the street with almost religious zeal, that they needed to ask him first before casually handing it out.

Feeling the annoyance build up within him with each passing second, he quickly took a seat on the edge of his bed and rubbed his temple, trying to calm down his emotions while groaning, "Fucking hell."

"What should I do?" He asked, his voice dripping with annoyance before closing his eyes and turned silent. Inside his mind, he quietly debated whether he should answer the call or not, especially since he was kind of curious to see the identity of the caller on the other end but at the same time, he also had a lot of questions forming in his mind as it went to hyperdrive.

'What if this was some aftermath of some idiot giving away accidently his private number?'

'Then who could it be?'

'Is it Jojie? Or Airhead Nina? Or someone else?'

'No, even if they were that careless, they would know important to heed my warning.'

'And besides, let assumed if that wasn't the case, how did this happened?'

'Did someone hack the public and somehow managed to gain my number?'

'But as far I can remembered....'

A heavy sigh escaped from his mouth when he felt that his mind getting too complicated than it needed to be.

"Great, just what I needed after a good shower" he muttered sarcastically, running a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. "A dumb dilemma to start my day."

To Be Continued