Shibuya Snapshots

Promise

CocoGumi content if you squint.

Tsugumi can only watch through the doll she's trapped in as Coco fails to keep her promise and Shinjuku collapses around her.

-xXx-

As sad as it is to think about, Tsugumi is used to being let down. It's something that happens often in her family, namely her parents, but she doesn't hold it against them, even though she wants to. Better to show kindness to those she doesn't know the exact situation of.

Her parents make empty promises is the problem. That they'll make something for dinner that night, but forget, which happens to everyone so it's really no big deal you don't need to ask about it, or they go out to eat themselves. That one kinda stings, a little. Even with her older brother, she hates being forgotten.

They promise that, sure, they'll watch this show with her, we'll tell you when we're ready, and the call never comes. She doesn't come out of her room to remind them. She doesn't want to be a bother and she's experienced enough of the regular snippiness that comes when a person is forced to admit they forgot something that's important to another and they don't want to admit it.

So, whenever her parents say or promise that they'll do something, she expects them to not actually do it.

She talks about events that happened at school, activities that happened within the many clubs she's in over dinner. Her brother comments often and dutifully asks questions as her parents, to their credit, listen to the two discuss it together.

The result is that her parents say that she never spends any time with them.

So, when her mother is not doing anything, she sits next to her and starts up a conversation.

Her mother stares at her phone scrolling through an online store of clothes, furniture, and other stuff that she'd never buy, and doesn't respond. Tsugumi tries again, trying to be a tad bit louder and focuses on the lump in her throat not causing her voice to waver. Her mother doesn't pay her any attention once again, so she does her best to keep her composure and subtly exit the room, not that it would have mattered in the end, her mother's attention still enraptured on her phone.

She goes to her room, sits on her bed, curls up, and lets it go. But silently, out of the way, and not bothering anyone.

She doesn't reappear from her room until the following morning, but she had promised herself that she would get some food and she always keeps her promises.

Maybe as a way of reaching out to her, her father says that he'll sit down to watch a show that she likes with her later that night. They both agree that her father will let her know when he's ready.

Tsugumi can't bring herself to go remind her father when he doesn't speak with her for the rest of the night.

Her brother was often good at keeping his promises, understanding the issue and having gone through it himself. Though there were times where he couldn't either.

Tsugumi had a game she really liked, and since it was multiplayer she had asked her brother to play it with her. Her brother had said he would, and he would get her when he did. And to his credit, he did, just a few hours after they had initially discussed. And as soon as they both sat down and she had already started up the game her brother had suddenly remembered something he had planned on doing with his friend and promptly left.

Tsugumi understood and it didn't sting. Why didn't it? He had promised her something and had failed to follow through. Maybe because it was an honest mistake? Or maybe she was just growing used to it.