Under My Protection

Chapter 14

Notes:

**Trigger warning for parental abuse - mental and physical. Also, homophobic sentiments/comments** 

Please, please don't read if it makes you uncomfortable, just skip this chapter. 

Sorry everyone, this one's kinda painful.

Sitting down, Rain looked to his side at his mother. Her eyes were downcast, focused on her clenching and unclenching hands. He had no context for why he'd been summoned to his father's study, but he hoped it had nothing to do with Yihwa. Rain wanted to look back at Phayu who stood to his side. With eyes on them from every angle, there was no way a glance at Phayu would go unnoticed.

"Well, Mai, we are all together as you requested, so please say what you need so I can go. I don't have time for this, whatever it is," Rain's father said tersely, glaring at Rain's mother.

Rain watched as his mother's head lifted, glaring back at his father with hands clenched at her sides.

"Pakorn, I ....., I want to discuss Rain," his mother started, surprising Rain that his mother was both initiating a conversation with his father and that it was about him. His mind clouded with thoughts of what she wanted to talk about. Had he done something wrong? Was he in trouble? Had she somehow found out about Phayu? He clenched the chair arms tightly, circulation cutting off to his fingertips.

Despite his lowered head, Rain could feel the weight of his father's stare on him. He imagined his father's surprise at being summoned by Mai to discuss Rain, as his mother hadn't initiated a conversation in Rain's presence in years.

"Continue," his father replied with the one deeply stated word.

Rain heard his mother's shaky breath beside him, radiating nervous energy and fear. Rain shifted his head slightly to look at her in the periphery, noticing her slight shiver under the weight of his father's stare.

His mother replied quietly, "I do not.... I do not wish for Rain to be married to Yihwa."

"You do not like Yihwa? What is your objection exactly?" Rain's father responded with an eyebrow raised.

"Well, it is, she is a terrible girl. Surely you have seen that? She is brash, loud, and I know she annoys you despite your business relationship with her father."

"Hmmmm.....I agree that while her father would make a beneficial ally, his daughter is, as you say, rather unrestrained."

Rain sat frozen, mind shocked into a state of disbelief. Was this really happening? Was he asleep? Was this a dream? Was he drugged? Rain could not reconcile what was happening in front of him with the family he knew. His mother was actually speaking on his behalf. And.... and his father was listening? What was happening? Rain sat confused, unsure of how to act, what to do or not do. He desperately wanted to grab Phayu's hand, something, anything that would ground him back to reality.

"So what do you suggest Mai? I suppose we could go back to the other girl, Amara, that was her name, right?"

Rain swallowed down the bile threatening to emerge from his throat, so he wasn't being given a reprieve from marriage? Just a continued hunt for an appropriate girl? Well, Rain figured, at least Amara was a more tolerable choice than the horrid Yihwa.

Softly, his mother responded, "No, Pakorn, I don't want Rain to wed anyone. I want you to stop looking for a wife for Rain." What had his mother just said? Had he heard her right?

Rain's father chuckled bitterly in response, "Seriously Mai, what are you talking about? You and I both know this needs to happen and he's never going to find a wife on his own."