Worlds Apart

43

Shouta had never been as stressed as he had been during the week Y/N was at his house with her injuries. Because his mother was there as well and she just still didn't like Y/N. She could tolerate her, but she really didn't like her. And it was just such a tense atmosphere all the time...

And then he got fined for resisting arrest or obstructing something or whatever it was called. Shouta didn't care. That fine was a month's worth of his pocket money. He'd have given up a year's worth, if it meant that he could take care of Y/N, before her injuries got any worse that day.

But he was constantly fighting with his mother during that time and he knew that it was upsetting Y/N just as much. His mother was almost nice to her during that time, but Shouta knew that she was just trying to not have another thing to fight about. His mother even seemed tired of arguing for once in her life. Maybe under different circumstances they could have talked this out.

But right now he had been going to protests (actively) that were against his dad's business and that was a sore point. And his girlfriend, who had introduced him to all this, was upstairs, sleeping, because she had gotten injured badly during one of the protests. Trying to protect their neighbours.

It was a messy situation and no one really knew where they were standing. Shouta had no idea where he was standing in all this anymore. Obviously he wanted to be on Y/N's side, but she seemed pretty confused how to feel about that entire thing. She probably needed some time.

So when she went back home, Shouta was sad of course, telling her she should just say, relax for a bit longer, all of that - but he was also relieved. Because then maybe things could calm down for a bit untils he came back into the house and maybe he'd not be as stressed. He just hoped she'd be okay after all those videos of the protests were put out on the Internet.

But she had Pai and her friend Kimiko. She'd be fine, or at least he hoped so. But he was sure they would take good care of her. Once Y/N was gone, Shouta went up to his room and just fell into bed, drifting in and out of consciousness until the next morning. He had never felt this exhausted.

He had been feeling much better the next morning, so when his mother called him down to have a chat with him, he almost wanted to pretend that he was still asleep. But she'd know and if she was too annoyed, she'd just waltz into his room and talk to him there and he wanted to avoid that. So he got up, put on some clothes and made his way downstairs slowly.

Talks with his mother were usually not fun. She was usually complaining about something, pointing out something he wasn't doing right or she was just outright drunk and wanted to poke fun at someone because she was bored. So Shouta was obviously not happy that she wanted to talk to him. Plus, if it was going to be about the stupid fine or him going to the protests... he wanted to say he's go and shoot himself, but obviously he didn't have a gun. So that wasn't an option.

When he came down he saw that she wasn't drinking at least. That was good. So she'd only be half as mean then. Great. He still wasn't in the mood to talk to her, but it had to be done if he wanted to preserve some of his privacy. He wondered what this would be about. Maybe his grades? But they were fine, there was nothing wrong with them whatsoever. It had to be something else.

"Good morning, mother." he greeted her, before sitting down at the table slowly, making sure to leave a few spaces between the two of them. He took his time sitting down and getting comfortable. Mostly because he really didn't want to do this and hoped that he could stall for time.

"Hello Shouta." she greeted him back, apparently not in a hurry to get this conversation started.

So it was something serious then? Whenever she wanted to talk about something serious, she took her time and did everything slowly which made it seem extremely solemn and also just super extra. But his mother always had a flair for the dramatic, especially having dramatic fights and arguments. And of course she always had to win - at least when she recounted them to her friends. Shouta was getting so damn sick of her and her little mind games.