At the Finish Line [Haiji Kiyose] - Run With the Wind

twelve - "frustrated and hurt"

Sliding the front door open, Yuki pulls his shoes off, placing them inside his numbered cubby hole as he hums to the song playing in his headphones. He shoves his hands in his pockets and walks down the corridor, glancing to the kitchen. Doing a double-take, he raises the blue curtain.

"Chiyo? I didn't know you'd be here." Yuki nods.

Looking up from the textbook on the table, Chiyo runs a finger under her eyes and sniffles. "Oh, Yuki, hey."

He furrows his eyebrows, pausing his music and pulling his headphones off and around his neck. "You alright?"

She sends him a weak smile, rubbing her flushed nose with her sleeve. "Yeah, of course."

Yuki scoffs lightly, crossing his arms. "Really? It doesn't seem that way."

Waving a hand, Chiyo closes her textbook and clears her throat. "It's nothing really, I'm fine."

He pulls the chair out opposite her and sits down. "You can tell me if you want, I'm a pretty good listener. I won't place judgment, that's why I'm going to be a great lawyer."

She shrugs, rubbing her eyes. "You don't have to sit here, I'm alright, honestly."

"But you're not," Yuki shakes his head. "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, I just thought I'd ask."

Chiyo sighs. "It's not as simple as all that... It's complicated, with my parents and everything."

He leans an elbow on the table. "You can try me if you want? I'm probably the best person to talk to about parent issues. I don't talk about it to the other guys."

As she sits opposite him, rubbing under her eyes and holding her arms around herself, Yuki exhales, leaning back in his chair.

"My parents... they were married for a few years before I was born. I thought they were happy. But when I was in my last year in middle school, they decided to divorce." Yuki tells her, adjusting his glasses on his face. "By my third year in high school, she was remarrying someone else and pregnant with his child..."

Chiyo's eyes widen and she sends him a look of guilt. "I'm-- I'm sorry, Yuki."

"I was glad to be leaving for Kansei then, I didn't have to stay there and see her with him." Yuki shrugs. "I've not been back home since then, it doesn't feel like home with him there. I hardly know him, but I don't bother getting to know him and I'm over it now."

Nodding, she brushes the hair out of her face as he looks up from the floor. "What about your dad?"

He shrugs. "Out of the picture now. He sends me money occasionally, out of guilt for leaving I guess. But I'm happier here, with everyone else. Anyway, it's my last year so it was supposed to be an easy ride for me." He chuckles. "That is until Haiji made his crazy suggestion, which... kind of seems to be becoming a reality."

Chiyo sends him a side glance as she fiddles with her fingers in her lap. "Haiji... He, uh... We were close back in school. When my dad became the mayor of our town and it became crazy, Haiji helped me feel myself. I had all this pressure put on me to be perfect and these expectations I had to live up to because of him and his image. Mum tried her best to make me feel better and lessen the load, but it didn't help much. She felt the pressure from him too, but she handled it better than I did."

"What did you do? You left Japan for a while, right?" Yuki questions.

Chiyo nods. "I went downhill a little when I was 16 --nothing crazy, I just didn't do as well in school because of him. But, people talk and my father didn't want to deal with that. So, I went to live with my grandma in Lille for two years. He sent me back to cool down before I continued University in Japan." She huffs a laugh. "At the time, I was an angry 17-year-old and I resented him for shipping me back to France, but I wish I'd appreciated being away from him... It's petty, now I think about it."