Red Strings ¦¦ Chishiya Shuntarou x OC

Eleventh String

-Kurenai: Aged 6-

"Why do you care?! It's not like we're a real couple anyway! We got married because our families benefited from it. Do you think everyone else didn't know? Do you think they really believe we're madly in love with each other. Wake up from your crazy dream, Atsushi."

"You married into the Chuya family, and you will follow the Chuya rules. I don't give a damn what you want. You are the wife of Chuya Atsushi and you better goddamn behave like it!"

"Or what? Or I'll ruin your reputation?" Midori laughed at the absurdity. How delusional was he to think that by keeping the image of a happy family, their status in society would uphold. "I wonder then, what they would say when they see all these."

Pulling her long sleeves up, Midori showed the bruises and scars on her arms. Some were self-inflicted, but most were thanks to Atsushi. There were new and old ones, an indication that she had been enduring this for a long while.

If her family and their business did not depend on the Chuya Group, she would have left years ago. Though, if she went public with what happened behind closed doors in their home, it would ruin the Chuya Group and that put a smile on her face just thinking about it.

Atsushi grabbed her face with one hand, squeezing her cheeks so hard that it was already leaving a mark behind. "Ruin me, and you'll ruin your family too. And trust me when I say, if I go down, you'll suffer more than me."

A little noise coming from the hallway interrupted their fight, and Atsushi let go of Midori. He straightened his suit and walked out of the room, without giving a look as to who or what made that noise, and acting as if nothing happened.

Peeking into the room, little Kurenai was a little scared to enter the room.

Hearing her parents fight was nothing new to the little girl, though she never understood why. In school, they were taught that their parents loved each other very much. That was why they got married and eventually brought their children into this world, because they loved each other so much. And although she was young, Kurenai knew this was not love.

"Mama?"

Midori glanced over to the door when she heard the soft voice calling for her. The moment she laid eyes on Kurenai, however, she felt anger boiling in her. That little girl was a reminder that she was trapped in this family, trapped with that monster. Even when she was pregnant with her, Midori did not feel a connection like most women said they did.

She was disgusted when Kurenai was finally born, refusing to hold her. Then she got pregnant with Aoi two years later, and it worsened. Kurenai and Aoi, they were not bundles of joy. They were shackles, locking Midori up forever.

Grabbing something random off the desk, Midori threw it in Kurenai's direction as she screamed. The pair of scissors she threw stuck to the door frame, just inches away from Kurenai's eyes. She kept hurling things in her daughter's direction, not giving a damn if any of it hit her, before slamming the door shut.

Although frightened by her mother's behaviour, Kurenai sat on the floor outside the room, waiting for her to come out. It was just a bad day for mother, that was what Kurenai told herself. Once she had time to calm down, her mother would come out and hug her, telling her that she was sorry for losing her temper and that she loved her. Like any mother would.

But for the next three hours, Kurenai sat outside the room waiting.

The girl entertained herself, cycling through all the songs she knew, drawing an invisible picture with her finger on the hardwood floor. Every so often, she would knock on the door and call out to her mother. Midori would respond by throwing something at the door, and Kurenai would go back to her singing.

Coming up to almost four hours of waiting, Kurenai was starting to get a little bored.

She knocked on the door again, calling for her mother. But there was no response this time. Nothing thrown at the door, no other sound coming from inside either. Curious, Kurenai turned the handle and opened the door slowly, peeking inside.

It was dark inside, even though it was still day out. The curtains had been drawn and the lights were off.

"Mama?" She pushed the door open a little more, stepping into the room. Books were scattered all over the floor, pens and pencils littered everywhere. She had her eyes on the floor the entire time, careful not to step on anything that was broken and sharp. "Mama?"

By now, Midori would have answered. Either with a scream, or with an item thrown at her own daughter. But there was only silence.

Standing still, Kurenai looked up so she could scan the room but she was paralysed by the scene in front of her. Hanging just above the desk was her mother. It was her first experience with death, but Kurenai understood that her mother was never responding to her ever again.

It was another good two hours before anyone discovered them.

Kurenai stood in the same spot for those two hours, just staring at her mother. On the window behind her, she wrote a message for her daughter in bright red lipstick:

You're on your own now, Kurenai...I'm sorry.

Knowing that she was trapped forever by the Chuya name, Midori found her own way out. She left her two children behind to fend for themselves when they had barely experienced life.

But what was etched deep into Kurenai's mind was not her mother's swaying body until someone finally let her down. It was not the message her mother left for her on the window either. What she would remember for the rest of her life, and what would haunt her even in her dreams, was the smile on her mother's face.

Midori was finally free, and she could finally smile.

What happened next was a blur.

She remembered being taken away by someone almost immediately after they were discovered but that was it. How she ended up sitting in her father's study, she did not know. How much time since then had passed, she did not know either.

"I'm talking to you, Kurenai."

Her father's voice snapped her back to reality.

He was sat on the other side of the desk, looking at her stoically. She had never seen her father smile genuinely at her. And it was never good for her to visit his study. Every time she was here, it was because he had a lecture for her.

"Yes, father."

"What happened today, I do not want you telling anyone. Do you understand?"

"But mama..."

"Do you understand?" His eyes widened in anger, and his voice was raised. Kurenai could only nod in response. "If anyone asks you, your mother passed away from illness. Do you understand?" She nodded once again. "You are dismissed."

-Present Day-

Every year, on the anniversary of her mother's death, it was a field day for the press. It was one of many days throughout the year where Atsushi would put on a spectacle for the public to remind them what a good husband he was to remain single since her death, and what a good father he was to raise two children by himself.

And every year, both Kurenai and Aoi were forced to attend. Though, the press often seemed to fixate on what the Chuya siblings were wearing instead. Because whether it was Burberry or an exclusive designer dress was much more important apparently.

When the fiasco was over, her father left as soon as the press did. Kurenai stayed behind, however, and Aoi stayed with her.

This year, of all years, she missed her mother.

"I miss her too," Aoi said, as if reading her mind.

"She was a coward," Kurenai muttered. "She left us alone."

"But we're not alone. We have each other."