Your Protector

Chapter 6

Taro was sitting on his bed, originally reading a book, but a text from Osana got him distracted.

Osana: Is Shidesu expelled?

Taro: No, he just got a two-week suspension.

Osana: Seriously?! Damn, Raibaru is gonna be pissed when he comes back.

Taro bit his tongue. He was considering telling Osana why Osoro got such a light punishment, but that would mean getting Raibaru angry at Budo, and Taro would rather not be the one who lights that fire.

Taro: It may take some time for him to admit it, but Osoro really is sorry for what he did.

Osana: Uh-huh...
Osana: Well, I'm mostly over it. Can't say the same about Raibaru. She really took what he said personally.

Taro snorted at her text. She was a step closer to realizing...

Osana: Thanks for talking to him, Taro, I really appreciate it.

Taro: It was no problem. We'll work on trying to get him to apologize before he gets back.

Osana: Yeah. Better do it before Raibaru seeks revenge for her injured knee lmao.

Taro smiled and put his phone down. He was going to go back to his reading, but then his mother barged into his room without knocking, startling him.

"Geez Mom, I could've been changing!" he scolded her.

"Please, I know what's under there," she grumbled with no dignity.

Taro rolled his eyes. "What do you want?"

She ignored the attitude. "I want you to go to the store and grab a few things for dinner," she requested—well, more like demanded.

As Taro has learned over the years, arguing with either of his parents wasn't going to end favorably for him, so he had to succumb to the woman's orders. "Yes, Mom."

She left his room without saying another word. She didn't even have the courtesy to close the door for him to change out of his relaxing clothes. Dressed in dark blue skinny jeans and a simple light blue t-shirt, Taro grabbed the shopping list off the counter and took his bike to the nearest grocery store.

After about ten minutes of walking around the store, he got everything on the list in his basket... except for one thing. It wasn't on the list, but it was an item of utmost importance to him at the moment. It was coming up, and he was just about out of stock.

He was grateful that the store was rather sparse with people today; it would make it easier for him to grab the item without getting a lot of stares. After constantly checking that no one was around, he rushed down the aisle and quickly grabbed his personal item off the shelf and put it in his basket. He was out of the aisle as quickly as he entered. Although, he couldn't avoid the cashier...

He cursed the store for not having self-checkout machines. He nervously waited in line, overthinking on how this interaction was going to go. What if the cashier gave him a disgusted look? What if he mocks him loud enough for everyone in the store to hear? What if he–

"Next!" the cashier announced.

Taro took a deep breath and walked up to the cashier. He began taking out all his items from his basket, not bringing any attention to his personal item. The cashier was a young man around his age... which made everything worse.

The cashier looked up to look at his customer, and he immediately froze in place. Once Taro had taken everything out, he noticed that the cashier wasn't scanning his items, so he looked up with concern, and he made eye contact with the cashier who was looking at him rather intensely. Oh God, he must've noticed his item and realized.