Silence | Book 2

3-14: Truth

He quietly sat on the couch in the living room of the apartment, as he heard his father explain the situation to his mother. Deep inside he felt the guilt roil, knowing that he had ruined more than one day. Hoping for some sort of distraction, he held his phone in his lap with both hands, but the messages he wanted stayed out.

It was only when Kazuo set a cup of water on the table in front of him, that his gaze was torn from his phone. The man smiled at him, and gave him a polite nod.

「I am certain things will be fine, once it has all settled down.」

Hibiki sighed deeply and nodded, but couldn't really believe it anymore after he had told himself it would be okay so often – yet here he was, with things decisively not okay. Not wanting to fuck anything up even further, he picked up the glass and took a hefty gulp of ice water to cool himself down. Yet as he swallowed, he saw his parents walk closer.

「Could you leave us alone for a moment Kazuo?」His father said, to which Kazuo immediately bowed deeply and stepped away. Hibiki looked away, feeling only more nervous now the one person he was certain wouldn't be mad at him left.

Instead his mother sat beside him, running one of her well manicured hands through his hair. He let her, not wanting to lose the last bits of respite he found in the awkward silence. But then a few soft and carefully picked words from his mother broke that.

「Is it true what your father said? That you... like boys and not girls?」

Knowing he had no way out of this, and that refusing to answer would only make things worse, he nodded.

「When were you going to tell us about this?」His father asked more sternly, and he swallowed audibly.

'I wanted to tell you maybe tomorrow or the day after. But then this happened. You can ask Kazuo, it's true'

He signed, his motions more frantic and scared than he wanted them to be. But there was no other way he could defend himself, and he dreaded disappointing his parents one time too many. Even with all his father's earlier reassurance, the fear of being tossed aside was very real. He heard his father sigh deeply in response, and for a while it was quiet again.

「How long has this been going on?」

Hibiki shook his head at the question, to say he hadn't intentionally been hiding it.

'We have only been dating for three weeks'

「I don't mean that, how long have you known you didn't like girls?」

He glanced up, but immediately looked down again, not sure how to answer that.

'I don't know, since I was a teen? Forever?'

His father sighed deeply and sat back, and he felt a sudden surge of anger at being questioned like he had committed a crime. He hadn't asked to be like this, and he certainly hadn't meant for it to happen. Yet his mother grasped his forearm firmly, and gave him a slight smile, just as he was about to sign words as large and loudly as he could.

「Listen, little one, we're not mad, but this is sprung on us without a warning. It would have been a lot easier to deal with had you just been honest from the very start instead of having to find out like this.」

He raised his hands to counter his father's words, and to say something that wouldn't make him look so bad. To confess how difficult it was to find a right moment to say it, but he knew that in waiting for that moment, he'd inadvertently caused it to happen at the worst. Instead he sighed and lowered his hands.

「He is a nice boy, isn't he?」His mother suddenly asked, taking one of his hands into hers and patting it. 「He seemed very polite, and your father has told me that you said he makes you feel happy.」