Empty Promises

|15| The Tipping Point

A/N: Recommend reading: Up to chapter 60

"You messed up," Rui stared down at his eight year old daughter, his eyes devoid of any sympathy.

"I-I'm sorry," the little girl mumbled as she immediately evaded his eyes, too scared to even make eye contact.

"Speak up," the man furrowed his brow, quite annoyed at the fact that his daughter was always mumbling.

"I'm sorry father," the girl repeated once again, this time much louder.

"It doesn't look like you're sorry," Rui pursed his lips. "If you were, you would have practiced more."

The (H/C)-haired girl slowly nodded her head, her eyes still glued to the floor.

"You see (Y/N)," he crossed his arms against his chest. "You never dedicate time nor effort to get better. You're always playing around and never think about your future."

"She's only eight," Hanami growled, her brow furrowing as she glanced at her husband.

"That's not important," Rui simply said, unfazed by this information. "I'm just doing my job as her father. It's necessary that she understands the importance of hard work and she clearly doesn't. At her age, I was already planning my future."

"But she's not you," his wife narrowed her eyes, her lips pressing into a hard line.

"And? She doesn't have to be me to understand this. Akiro has clearly worked hard and look at him now," he shrugged. "He skipped a grade, he's getting praised wherever he goes, he's a role model and a star student."

Hanami remained silent. There was nothing she could say. Everything her husband had said was true.

Her gaze lowered as she glanced at her daughter. Akiro was a prodigy, just like his father. (Y/N)...(Y/N) was just a little girl... A very naive one in fact.

Hanami immediately disliked this thought.

Her gaze then locked with her daughter's, (E/C) eyes staring right at her and for a moment there, she believed she was looking at herself through a mirror.

"Akiro, come downstairs," her husband's voice interrupted her train of thought.

Hanami was quick to cast away those thoughts and focused her attention on her teenage son who was now entering the room. Her husband then motioned (Y/N) to get up from the piano so that her brother could sit down.

"Akiro, why don't you play what you've been working on?"

The fifteen-year old boy immediately agreed as he placed his fingers on the keys and began playing.

Over the course of the years, Hanami had heard many musicians play. Ever since Rui wrote that song for her, she had fallen in love with the piano and had invested a lot of her time going to concerts. So right now, as she was hearing her son play, she couldn't deny how beautiful and entrancing the melody was.

As soon as Akiro finished, he was immediately praised by his father. Rui affectionately ruffled his son's hair and sent his wife a smile full of superiority.

"Do you understand me now (Y/N)?" Rui then glanced at his daughter though that feeling of pride was gone as soon as he locked eyes with her. "This is what you can do if you work hard and stop playing so much."

And just like that, Akiro and his father left the room.

(Y/N) was on the brink of tears as she searched for her mother's eyes. Of course she was sad and disappointed that her father neglected her and never seemed proud of her but at least she knew her mother would help her feel better. She always cheered her up. Whenever she messed up, she would kiss her cheek and tell her it was okay.

However, this time, Hanami didn't comfort her daughter.

"You heard your father. Stop playing around and practice," she said instead.

(Y/N)'s whole body froze upon hearing her mother's cold voice.

It wasn't the first time she was so unemotional. It had already happened quite a few times over the course of that year. But this time (Y/N) noticed something was different.

Little did she know that this episode was just the beginning of the nightmare she would call her life.

A/N: As you've seen in many flashbacks from "Appearances" and in some of these chapters, Reader used to have a similar personality to teen Hanami. She was louder, more energetic, spoke back and was pretty naive (still is though). The end class, Karma, Koro-sensei and everything she's gone through this year is slowly reversing this change. However, I don't believe Reader will fully go back to her usual self since her mother's control has been a big part of her life :/