Starstruck (A Kita Shinsuke FanFic)

The Happening

Shinsuke felt like he should've seen this coming, should've picked up all the signs. It all made sense now, but he wished it didn't.

Kiki told him everything.

Everything that happened since their father died.

Everything that made her take studying seriously, despite always being naturally talented at her work. Everything that made her join the student council, despite having an already packed schedule.

Everything that made her go to college while continuing her overpacked schedule, despite being more than capable of earning a good amount straight out of high school.

It also gave him an idea of why she'd want a fake account to begin with.

Kiki's father passed away due to unfortunate circumstances, leaving his family of eight bankrupt and without any source of income.

Although his family did receive his life insurance money, his death took away his wife's ability to make any decisions or even function on her own.

They could only live on for one more year in their downsized, mediocre, middle-class home with the insurance money, and then their mother proceeded to lose one job after another while trying to simultaneously raise seven children on her own until she finally gave up and abandoned them.

She left 7 literal children, ages 4 through 17, to raise and feed themselves, without any kind of adult supervision whatsoever.

Their eldest brother had to drop out of high school and work countless part-time jobs every day of the week.
The second oldest stayed in school, as he had a full scholarship with room and board, but worked 2 part-time jobs.

Kiki was still in middle school. She couldn't work. She only went to school and took care of her younger siblings.
She realized if she got straight A's she could get a certain amount scholarship. Then if she joined the student council, she'd get free room and board, and food. Her brother's admission to Itachiyama high school already gave her a 50% scholarship
When she finally joined high school, her admission gave her younger sibling 50%. Her younger sister already had 100% merit-based, so she aided the twins in return.

All the siblings were now working harder than ever. School wasn't even hard, despite their packed schedules, money was.

Both her older brothers got their college funds when they turned 18, but college was out of the question. Instead, they used the money to buy back their old, mediocre home so they can move back from the dorms and her eldest brother started his business, which fortunately blew up.

Life got somewhat easier. Kiki and her younger sister went to college with full scholarships. Their sibling is now in college with a partial scholarship, but they can afford the rest. The twins are in high school with Alumni scholarships.

They all had to raise themselves and take care of each other. They all had to grow up earlier than anyone their age, learn about sacrifices and compromises and put others before themselves.

But the worst is over. They made it through. They're doing better than they ever did before.

And now, 12 years after abandoning them, their mother showed up unannounced at their house on Christmas Eve.

The youngest three don't recognize her, the older ones were in shock. They let her in and heard her out.

She cried, apologized, cried some more, admitted her fault in abandoning them at such a young age, called herself a failure of a mother, told them what a terrible situation she was living in and how much she tried to talk herself out of coming back to them out of shame, but had no other choice and had to swallow her pride.
She begged for forgiveness and made promises of never repeating her actions.
She asked for a place to stay and offered to take care of everything around the house in return.