Endless love (Soukoku)

Terrible Misunderstanding

Dazai's eyes widened as he looked at the ground sadly. Before he could do anything, he felt that he was embraced tightly but a certain ginger. Dazai hesitantly raised his hands and wrapped it around Chuuya. Chuuya chuckled slightly before ending the hug and beamed, "Well, go to Elise's room when you're ready. I'll go ahead! We can talk about this at the dorm." With that, Chuuya turned to his heels and headed upstairs. Dazai sat on the chair awkwardly as he shifted slightly. Tears threatening to fall,  he sniffled a little before standing up.

When he went into the room, he saw Elise doing some drawing with Chuuya at her side. Elise glanced at Dazai for a while before turning back to her work. She looked like she was utterly engrossed with what she was doing. Her packet of crayons and stickers stacked neatly beside her. Dazai went and pat Elise on the head gently and made his way to the table to continue his reading. Elise's hand, holding a blue crayon stopped as she stared at Dazai who was now reading a book beside Chuuya and smiled slightly before continuing her work. Chuuya, who noticed that also grinned as he handed a red crayon to Elise. The rest of the day was calm and peaceful with a few exclaims coming from Elise. Soon, it was late afternoon and Mori was back. Elsie raced to the door and hugged Mori when he opened the door. Carrying her in one hand, Mori put up a smile and asked, "Elise-chan, did you have fun today?" Elise giggled a little before she rejoiced, "I did! Can Chuuya and Osamu come again?" Chuuya and Dazai were clearly shocked, especially Dazai who he thought Elise hated him. Mori seemed surprised and his smile became warm as he nodded and agreed. His smile turned into a frown when he saw the bandages on Elise's finger. He held Elise's finger and inspected it before putting her down and turning to face Dazai angrily. "What did you do this time?" His voice boomed through the room. He clearly forgotten he had his student, Chuuya in the same room. Elise looked at Mori frantically and tugged at his coat sleeve only to be gently pushed behind him. Dazai rolled his eyes and replied rather blunt, "I didn't do anything. Why don't you ask Elise what happened." He looked at Elise who was struggling to say something but kept on getting stopped by Mori. "I don't even need to ask! It's obviously  you! Don't think I don't know you hate her. You obviously did something!" His voice getting angrier and angrier as seconds passed. Dazai clicked his tongue in frustration, "Like you are any better. You are the role model for that and I already told you, it's not me!" His calm self turning into one boiling with rage. Chuuya didn't want to interfere with the argument going on so he ran to Elise and picked her up. Hugging her tightly, he heard Elise sobbing silently. Chuuya knew himself that for a small child to witness such a heated argument would be bad and lead to more complications. Shouts continued to echo through the room. As Mori stepped a few steps closer to Dazai, Chuuya knew where this was going and shoved himself between them. "Sir, with all due respect, it really isn't Dazai's fault and please don't misunderstand him." Mori screaming ceased as he looked stunned at Chuuya and Elise in his hands sobbing. Mori took Elise gently from Chuuya's hands as Chuuya stepped back while signalling for Dazai to follow. Dazai stepped a few steps back, still glaring at Mori. "Now what happened, Elise-chan?" Mori looked at Elise, wiping her tears away. "I...I was washing the dishes and..and the knife dropped. Osamu helped me bandage up my wound.." she stammered as she kept on sniffling. Mori was clearly shocked as his eyes widened. He sighed softly before looking at the two in front of him, "Well, it seems that I have misunderstood this whole situation. I'm terribly sorry to have hold your two boys up. You may go now. Please come back tomorrow if you can. It seems Elise likes you guys more than I expected." Chuuya nodded as he dragged Dazai behind him to the door. As Mori let Elise down to the floor, Elise ran over to Dazai and shoved a piece of paper to him before turning around and running back, closing the door in the process.

Dazai kept the paper in his pocket before walking to the car waiting for them. Chuuya must have requested for the car earlier, knowing that they had to leave soon. Chuuya glanced at Dazai's hurt face. It seems that he had a worser past than Chuuya expected. 

Both returned to their dorm after a few minutes. Dazai went straight to his room and slammed his door. Chuuya sighed and carried his bag to the dining table. Dazai slid down the door as he unfolded the paper in his pocket and saw a drawing of a heart with what seemed to be Elise nad Dazai holding kids. Below the heart were the words' THANK YOU!" in capital letters and stickers decorated the already colourful paper. So that's what Elise was doing with Chuuya then. Dazai smiled slightly before taking spin from his drawer and pinning the paper onto his bulletin board. He took a deep breath before walking out of his room to see Chuuya sitting on the couch waiting patiently for him. When Chuuya saw Dazai, he gave a sad but comforting smile. Dazai smiled back and went to sit next to Chuuya on the couch. Chuuya wanted to say something but hesitated. "You are going to ask me about my father right?" Chuuya flinched at that sentence that came out of Dazai's mouth and glanced at the other side and shook his head but at the end, slowly nodding his head. Dazai actually wanted to tell Chuuya that he didn't want to tell but looking at the Ginger's face full of curiosity, "Yiu aren't going to let me go without telling you, are you?" Chuuya nodded while looking down slightly to avoid Dazai's gaze. Dazai leaned into the couch before he started his explanation. 

"My father, who you know as Mori married my mother, Ichika Yuu. She was a nice women, sweet and loving. She loved my father and I dearly and I did too but...My father started drinking and he kept on getting...drunk all the time. He started getting violent. Well, thankfully, he didn't do anything to my mom and I, he simply threw glasses around the house. My mom was patient and cleaned up all the mess.  She kept on reminding my father to stop drinking but that stupid man didn't heed her advice. Her words and advices were always thrown out of the window. That's when Elsie came in. Mori favoured Elise a lot. In the good side, he stopped drinking but the bad side was that..." Dazai stopped there as he choked on his own words. Chuuya patted his back gently, encouraging him to continue. 

"H..he neglected my mom and me. One simple mistake would start a argument and fights started in my household. If my mother scolded Elise for something bad she did, my father would beat her and reprimand her for doing so. He started taking it out on me too. That's when....that's when my mom couldn't take it anymore. She tried attacking Elise when she was sleeping. A knife in both her hands. She thought that by merely killing Elise, everything would be solved. Of course I saw my mother acting suspicious and decided to see what she was doing and I stopped her. But consequences was that her target became me. She started hurling insults and stabbing her knife everywhere. I dodged most but before the knife slashed me, Mori stopped my mother but snatching the knife and throwing it aside. My mother broke down and apologised but I knew she wasn't right in the mind after that. Elise doesn't know since Mori prevented her from knowing. After a few days after that incident. My...my mother slit her own throat. She suicided. That's when Mori broke down. He kept on blaming it on me and took it out on me. I...I always ended up with bandages and casts. It was even worse since Mori was a doctor. That's when..that's when I ran and I met Odasaku. I hated Elsie for that. I broke down as well, thinking that maybe it would be better that if both were dead. I hid with Odasaku and a lot of complicated stuff happened. Now, I ended up here, surprisingly with my long lost childhood friend." Dazai smiled at the last sentence as he looked at Chuuya who was listening attentively. Chuuya nodded in an understanding way. "Then, why did you...stop meeting me." Dazai's eyes glanced at the opposite side of the room, he looked upset. "Mori thought that I was spending too much time with you and thought that I was going to do something to Lesie and him and grounded me. He locked me up in my room. Only sending 1 meal a day. He probably wanted me weak so I couldn't escape. That's where my talent of picking locks came about. Oda looked after me for a few weeks and knew that Mori didn't feed me enough and secretly cooked for me. I really am grateful for him to be by my side." Chuuya looked down sadly as well until Dazai asked him something that made his heart jump as memories filled his mind.  

"I remembered you telling me about your mother when we were young. How is she?" His tone a bit happier. Chuuya stayed silent before saying, his eyes dull, "My mother passed away just a few weeks after you stopped coming to the maple tree." Dazai's eyes widened, "Sorry for asking. But how? I heard she was a healthy woman." Chuuya took deep breaths. "She got murdered...and I witnessed it all..." Dazai immediately shut himself up and hugged Chuuya as a source of comfort. "Is that why you're scared of Shirase and the rest?" Dazai asked as he felt Chuuya grip on his sleeve become tighter. "No...I just hate him..." Dazai knew it was a lie but knew Chuuya was just not ready to tell him yet. Dazai nodded as he put up his best smile as he saw Chuuya's frown fade away slightly. 

Dazai stood up and stretched, "Now that that's over, let's go have dinner." Chuuya chuckled and agreed to the idea.