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On the first Saturday of every month, the old man would make his way downstairs at the same time to the familiar barbershop for a shave and a haircut.

He had kept up the habit for more than thirty years. Though high-rises had sprung up all around and the old neighborhood had changed beyond recognition, the barbershop had stood firm.

“My grandson! He’s studying medicine!”

The old man boasted proudly to the young man attending to him. The young man smiled and played along, carefully applying shaving cream to his face.

The young man, too, had been coming to the barbershop with his family since childhood. Over time, he had grown close to the owner and developed a keen interest in barbering.

His family, however, had all objected. To avoid being scolded for becoming a barber’s apprentice, he had chosen to study a subject they approved of instead.

Over the years, he had become quite skilled, and he helped out at the shop every weekend.

Just then, the elderly owner returned to the shop and said to him, “Oh? Your grandpa’s here early today, isn’t he?”

“Yeah…”

The young man glanced at the old man and smiled ruefully. “He doesn’t remember much anymore, but he still remembers it’s time for his shave and haircut today!”

As the owner put away his tools, he chuckled. “And he still remembers you studied medicine!”

When he had finished, the young man held up a mirror so the old man could see the back of his hair. The old man smiled with satisfaction and slowly rose to his feet.

“Ah, young man! You’ve learned everything the master has to teach you! When are you going to open a shop of your own?” he asked.

The young man smiled. “Well… that depends on when the boss decides to retire!”

The owner couldn’t help interjecting. “Just focus on being a surgeon!”

After taking the old man home, the young man returned to the barbershop to carry on working.
 

After dozens of failed attempts at romance, he had finally found another opportunity in a hobby class.
Over the years, he had given countless gifts to the women he had pursued in vain. Now, those same female friends had offered him plenty of strategies, hoping to help him turn a happy new page in his life as he entered his forties.

Their advice sounded ridiculous, but it brought him closer to her, step by step.

As the course drew to an end, he managed to get her phone number and arrange their first meeting outside class.

He dressed carefully for the occasion. Conversation flowed throughout dinner, and she seemed to be looking forward to their next date.

Remembering the two theme park tickets he had received from his company, he was delighted that he finally had someone to use them with. He silently thanked the goddess of love for her blessing.

When the bill came, she insisted on splitting it. An idea occurred to him: he suggested that she could pay for whatever they did after dinner instead.

“Why don’t we go to the place where I usually drink?”

The place she had in mind was near Tsim Sha Tsui East, an area that had once enjoyed its heyday.
The dazzling colored lights were long gone, and only a few lounges and bars remained.

People still come here for drinks?

Puzzled, he followed her into a building.

The old underground complex still shimmered with traces of its former glory. But the visitors weren’t older patrons chasing memories of the past—they were young men and women.

As soon as they stepped out of the lift, lavishly dressed staff came forward to greet them warmly.

“Hi, Chrisy! Here to see Noel again? He’s with another guest right now, so you’ll have to wait a bit!”

…Noel?

He looked around. No matter how he saw it, this didn’t seem like an ordinary bar.

“I’ve had a crush on him for ages! I come to see him every time!”

The sweeter her smile, the more miserable he felt.

So the atmosphere over dinner, and the blessing of the goddess of love, had all been an illusion.

He sat in the lavish private room, sipping his tasteless soda water and trying to come to terms with the familiar disappointment.

Before long, the host she had requested finally entered the room.

But instead of sitting next to her, he took a seat beside him. Gently lifting the empty glass from his hand, the host poured in some of the strong liquor waiting on the table.

He couldn’t take his eyes off the host: from the chest visible through his open shirt—the only feature that gave away his sex—to the exquisite face that seemed as though it belonged only in a virtual world.

He could hardly believe that human beings had evolved to look like this.

Seeing that the host was attending to him rather than her, his date was deeply dissatisfied.

“Hey! Why are you sitting next to him? What about me?”

“That’s what you get for bringing a man along! He’s mine tonight!”

“Oh, so you’re competing with me tonight, are you?”

Watching the two of them tease each other, he found that almost all of his disappointment had melted away.

The intimate touches, the suggestive sweet talk, the potent alcohol—
Lost in the host’s embrace, he crossed the boundaries of reason and completely surrendered.

In his dream, he lay down on a comfortable bed, wrapped in the other man’s arms.

“Daddy! He’s awake!”

He woke with a start. A little girl he had never seen before was staring at him from close range.

He sprang upright in fright and realized he was lying in a large bed just like the one in his dream, in a room he didn’t recognize.

“Ting Ting! Don’t be so rude!”

A man in an immaculate suit entered the room, adjusting his cufflinks as he came to check on him.

“You…”

He drew out the word until he recognized the man in the suit: those were the features he had been so captivated by the night before.

“It’s almost time to leave! I’ll give you a lift!”

The man picked up his briefcase, gestured for him to get washed and dressed, and urged the girl to finish her breakfast.

In the luxurious car—the sort he could usually only ride in by booking one—there were the two of them, along with the little girl in the back.

“…Noel?”

“Ian.”

“Oh. Um… Ian… last night, did we…”

“Nothing happened!”

The man gripped the steering wheel tightly and stared straight ahead. The atmosphere in the car froze.

It seemed he couldn’t bring up last night again, so he quickly changed the subject.

“Your little girl… she’s adorable! She looks like you!”

“She’s my ex’s daughter, but she isn’t mine.”

“So… what do you do for a living?”

The man looked at him speechlessly, then gave a derisive laugh.

“You don’t even recognize one of your company’s senior executives? Have you really worked in IT there for five years?”

Apparently, he had shared his life story in his drunken haze the night before. His face reddened, and he didn’t dare say another word.

Still, the company had more than five hundred employees, and he always took annual leave whenever there was a major company event. He only knew a handful of faces.

The car stopped several blocks before the office. The man motioned for him to get out first; he still had to take the girl to school.

“Remember, don’t say hello to me at the office!”

“Understood…”

He slowly unfastened his seat belt, gathered his courage and raised his voice.

“Then… can I come see you tonight?”

The man looked astonished.

“You still dare to come see me?”

“Don’t worry! I… I won’t tell anyone! …Can I?”

He sounded so earnest that the man’s icy expression softened slightly.

“Wait for me here after work tonight.”

With that, he drove away.

Back at the office, he hurried to ask his supervisor for one more theme park ticket before the deadline.

“Hey! The tickets are registered under your name. You can’t resell them!”

“No! The friend I’m thinking of inviting… he has a daughter!”

“Oh!…”

His supervisor raised an eyebrow, gave him a look and took another ticket from the envelope.

“Then don’t take annual leave for the company anniversary party again this year!”

“I won’t! From now on… I won’t miss another one!”

Clutching the three tickets, he began looking forward to his date that evening.

He sat in the back row of the classroom, paying no attention to the dense, dull formulas on the blackboard. Instead, he looked toward the front row, where the school’s top students had been seated by special arrangement with the teacher.

What does it feel like to come first?

A sudden commotion rose outside. In the glaring sunlight, a classmate who excelled at every sport effortlessly dunked a basketball, sending the crowd into an uproar. The noise almost drowned out the monotonous lecture.

And what goes through your mind when you lift a trophy?

He rested his cheek on his hand, his thoughts drifting far into the sky.

His grades were average, and he had no particular talents. He had never expected much of himself, nor did he have any special plans for the future.

The only thing he looked forward to each day was the final bell. He would grab his schoolbag and race to the old banyan tree, where he sat beside a kindly old man and listened to his wildly imaginative urban legends.

The old man took special care of him and encouraged him. Through those flights of fancy, he developed an interest in cosplay.

He began trying his hand at drawing and cutting fabric, intending to dress as the most popular anime character of the moment at an upcoming fan convention.

Maybe this is what I’ll do in the future, he thought innocently.

Full of excitement, he carried his half-finished costume to the banyan tree, eager to share this unfamiliar sense of accomplishment with the old man.

But when he arrived, neither the old man nor the children who listened to his stories were there. Instead, a strangely dressed young man sat beneath the tree, smoking a hookah and filling the air with smoke.

He was dressed as a gentleman in shorts. All he needed was a pair of rabbit ears to look like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.

“Where’s Uncle Leung?”

“Who’s Uncle Leung?”

The Rabbit Man blew out a thick cloud of smoke. His eyes were full of disdain, and he paid the little boy no mind as he went on enjoying himself.

Angrily, the boy pointed to the spot where the old man usually sat.

“You’d better leave! Uncle Leung will be back soon!”

“I sit here every day, and I’ve never seen anyone! Go home, kid! Stop bothering me!”

“Every day? I’ve never seen you! You’re lying!”

The Rabbit Man snickered and looked over the costume in the boy’s arms, offering his opinion in a deliberately provocative tone.

“That anime character’s already out of date!”

“What do you mean, out of date? It’s still on TV!”

“TV? Ha!…”

The Rabbit Man took a deep drag and proceeded to tear apart every detail of the boy’s hard work.

Stung and unwilling to give up, the boy stayed up for several nights altering the costume. Then he returned to the banyan tree.

Seeing how determined he was, the Rabbit Man gave a rueful smile. His tone softened, and he told the boy to bring him a needle and thread so he could help with the alterations himself.

The revised costume was a huge hit at the fan convention. The boy even received invitations to perform at other anime events.

He hurried back to the banyan tree, eager to tell the Rabbit Man the good news. But the familiar smell of smoke was gone. The kindly old man was sitting beneath the tree as usual, telling stories to the children.
“…Where’s the Rabbit Man?”

The old man smiled and shook his head. He asked the boy where he had been all this time.

The boy searched for the Rabbit Man in dismay, only to discover that nobody knew him. Even the nearby shopkeepers couldn’t recall seeing anyone like him. Like hookah smoke, he had vanished into thin air.

Time flew by. His happy childhood fell behind him, and the cosplay costume he had once so carefully altered was buried at the back of his wardrobe. Reality mercilessly crushed his interests; his once-passionate eyes grew empty. In the end, he became an office drone who knew nothing but working overtime night after night.

His brief time with the Rabbit Man faded almost completely from memory, unless he made an effort to recall it.

Then, one night, he was dragging his exhausted body home from work as usual. As he passed beneath the old banyan tree, a long-forgotten, familiar scent of hookah smoke drifted toward him.

He looked up sharply. Beneath the dim yellow streetlight, surrounded by smoke, the Rabbit Man sat under the banyan tree, dressed like a gentleman and smoking his hookah, just as he had more than a decade ago.

He rushed forward, wanting to make sure it was really him. The Rabbit Man looked him over with the same disdainful eyes as ever.

“…Rabbit Man?”

The hand holding the hookah hose stopped. The disgust in the man’s eyes instantly turned to surprise.
“I only remember one little brat calling me that… Don’t tell me you’re his dad?”

He sat down beside the Rabbit Man, his head full of questions, but the man asked him about the fan convention.

Memories of the past came flooding back.

“He doesn’t cosplay anymore.”

He spoke quietly, hoping to gloss over the loss that life had worn into him.

“Of course he doesn’t! Cosplaying a character like that! Wasn’t it you who told him to dress as that one?”

The Rabbit Man stood and stretched. As the little boy had grown up, the figure who once seemed so tall had become small beside him.

“It only turned out well because you helped him alter it. How could he have done it on his own?…”

“Honestly! Young people give up so easily!”

The offhand rebuke pierced his heart. Endless overtime had long since worn away the enthusiasm he had once felt.

“…How can you make a living from a hobby?”

The Rabbit Man walked over and handed him a card bearing the name of a discreet bar nearby.

“Tell your son to come find me here after school. I’m free in the afternoons; I can teach him how to make alterations! And… tell him to pick a different character.”

He held the card, faintly scented with tobacco, rubbing its edge between his fingers.

“…What if I wanted to learn? Would it be too late?”

“…You!?”

The Rabbit Man froze and looked at him in a way he never had before. The corners of his mouth curled into a slight smile.

“People with families aren’t welcome here, you know!”

“Then… that means I can come!”

At last, a pure, long-forgotten smile appeared on his tired, careworn face.

He briskly rolled up the sleeves of his immaculate suit, crouched down and helped gather the scattered smoking equipment.

The streetlight stretched their shadows across the ground.

He looked back at the old banyan tree, then at the Rabbit Man.

The passion that reality had once buried was burning in his heart again.
 

A78 took a gold coin from the small cupboard and gently rubbed the design on its surface with his fingertips. In an instant, he was dressed in a complete parade outfit. Excitedly, he began preparing to hide the coins one by one around his waist.

“Put those down! I told you, we’re not allowed to bring anything!”

His roommate D60 spoke coldly as he put on the same outfit. Ever since they were born in the “Center’s” nursery, the two had been raised together in “Mother’s Garden.” A78 was naturally energetic and adventurous, but his roommate was forever contradicting him and standing in his way.
For the coming year, they would travel to the “Blue Planet” for their graduation expedition. Although A78 was excited, all he could think about was how to get rid of the annoying fellow in front of him.
Outside the window, the Blue Planet looked no bigger than the palm of a hand. After hugging their “Mothers” goodbye, the two stepped into a cylindrical transporter. A brilliant flash later, they opened their eyes to find themselves floating in the middle of an ocean.

“Help!”

Having never encountered the sea before, A78 struggled in panic, screaming at the top of his lungs. D60 sighed, swam over and grabbed him, then carried him on his back toward the beach. But as soon as the humans on shore saw what D60 looked like, they crowded around in surprise and began taking pictures.

In desperation, D60 pulled a gold coin from his waist. After a flash of light, the two vanished and reappeared somewhere deserted.

D60’s beast-man form belonged to a species from another planet. But the nursery had mixed up the embryos, and the Center was now discussing whether to recall him.

The heavens have been far too kind to me!

A78 was overjoyed. At last, he wouldn’t have to put up with that nagging busybody for the next year.
After D60 left, A78 had their shared residence all to himself. With enough funds for both of them, he set off to explore the beautiful planet as he pleased. He hunted for delicious food by day and frequented nightclubs after dark. Before long, he was completely swept up in it all.

Then, one night, a beautiful woman who had caught his eye took him to an underground casino, where he lost every last cent.

He found himself locked in a hotel room, completely naked, with a camera pointed directly at him.
A man pushed open the door and climbed on top of him.

A78, who had never even had his first kiss, felt the man’s breath drawing close to his ear. His whole body began to go limp.

“Did you forget you still had one gold coin left? You idiot!”

The man took a gold coin from A78’s hair ornament, pressed it into his hand and guided his fingers over the design. A brilliant flash followed, and A78 and the coin were transported back to the residence.

It was… D60!?

Impossible… That was clearly a human. How could it have been him…?

Then A78 suddenly remembered: there was a kind of gold coin that could transform a person for half a day.

Afraid that D60 might be in danger, he quickly grabbed his clothes and put them on. Just as he was about to rush out, however, D60 returned, changing back into his beast-man form as he calmly closed the front door.

“Y-you said we weren’t allowed to bring gold coins!” A78 cried, still shaken.

“Just in case. Otherwise, how would I have saved you?”

Unable to help himself, A78 threw his arms around D60.

It seemed he was destined to spend the coming year with this annoying fellow after all.

“Iced milk tea, less sweet.”

As soon as the customer voiced the order, it quickly converted it into an order ticket, sent it to the kitchen machines, and began preparing the order.

This was an unmanned cha chaan teng converted from an old Cafe, run entirely by artificial intelligence—and it was the shop’s only server.

“Hey! Come here!”

It walked toward the customer, only to see him pick up the milk tea and pour it straight over its head.

“The taste isn’t right! Bring me another!”

It bent down to pick up the cracked cup on the floor; while wiping, it captured some images—clips from this customer’s past interview.

He had once been the owner of this place. The staff and kitchen hands were longtime friends, and the media had come to interview him by reputation. But faced with rapid technological change and soaring costs, trying to preserve the old flavors only drove the books into the red. So he calculated the severance pay, handed over the shop, and, dragging his aging body, returned to the casual gig work of his youth.

Using that old interview, it analyzed the taste the customer longed for and sent the data to the kitchen.

When the customer drank the milk tea again, his angry expression instantly turned to remorse. At checkout, he tapped the “Very satisfied” icon.

As he left, he looked back and gave it the same smile he wore in that old interview, and from then on he came by almost every day.

Beneath the invigorating glow, we weave through the tranquil Stone Slabs Street at night. The weathered walls stand testament to the city's storied past. Now, only the harmony of our footsteps remains, our breaths entwined in unison. What's left, if not to simply reach out and hold hands?

Through bustling streets and winding paths, we ascend the serpentine mountain road. At last, we pause as glistening skyscrapers stand before us. The cloudless sky and gentle breeze sweep away the heat and humidity. In this moment, I finally have the chance to gaze upon your face, my eyes reluctant to ever look away.

Sun✨the self✨ego✨identity✨nature father✨leo✨

Binah (meaning "understanding"), is the third sephira on the kabbalistic Tree of Life. It sits on the level below Keter (in the formulations that include that sephirah), across from Chokhmah and directly above Gevurah.

Chokmah, the second of the ten sefirot, is the first power of conscious intellect within Creation, and the first point of 'real' existence, since Keter represents emptiness. According to the book of Job, "Wisdom comes from nothingness"

Chesed is also one of the ten Sephirot on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. It is given the association of kindness and love, and is the first of the emotive attributes of the sephirot.

Geburah (Hebrew: גבורה‎, lit. 'strength'), is the fifth sephirah in the kabbalistic tree of life, and it is the second of the emotive attributes of the sephirot. 

The second affirmation is " you are not alone", Malkuth is the second character in Sleepwalk playground, she is Maintanance Staff in playground. Actually Malkuth is the tenth of the sephirot in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.

"Believe in your own magic" is the first affirmation of Lily^^ Lily is the first character in my personal artwork. She open a magic store " Lily Store" and provide service to the "traveller" in Sleepwalk playground^^