A Hero I Look Up To

Hidden Emotions

"Yes... I'm tired of having to babysit everyday, but don't take it in a bad way." Chris explained to Mia.

Tobio raised his eyes in shock, Loid looked at Mia wondering why did she have to force an answer out of Chris, and Mia got really worried about Tobio. Of course, the explanation was a misunderstanding, so Chris had to simplify it a little.

"I'm not saying this because I hate Tobio at all. Everyday, I get reminded of his parents to wake up early to take care of Tobio. When I was first hired by them, I just thought it would be temporary... but it's like I'm an everyday caretaker now." Chris said.

"What do you... mean by that?" Loid asked.

"They said because of financial struggles, they couldn't take care of Tobio, so I had to do it in their stead." Chris replied. "I just hope it doesn't happen all the time."

Tobio looked at Chris in surprise. He was tired of taking care of him all the time? After all he did, he's tired? Chris never showed any signs of tiredness to Tobio. He would always smile... and smile... and pretended like he always cared. Except... this is how it turned out to be? Tobio was about to cry, but Chris had to add something.

"Of course... working all the time as a college student and a babysitter is tiring, but when it comes to Tobio... what can I say? I'm worried about him."

"You're worried about him...?" Mia asked with a bit of tears in her eyes, as if she was about to cry.

"Yes... throughout the entire day... even when I'm still in college, I'd have to take care of him all the time. His parents never gave me the list of things to do with him, so I'm unsure what I'm supposed to do..."

"You... cared about me that much?" Tobio asked with fear in his voice. "I thought... I thought I...!!"

Chris seeing Tobio crying, hugged him. Mia and Loid were in a lot of shock seeing Chris do something like that.

"Don't cry... don't cry... everything will be alright..." Chris said in a comforting voice.

Meanwhile in the back, Mia was watching with so much tears in her eyes, while Loid just watched her cry.

"Oh maaan... I'm crying too now, you seeee??" Mia said with emotion. "You get what I mean, right Loid?"

"How long are you going to cry?" Loid asked. "Won't you end up coughing after that much crying?"

"But this is wholesome!!" Mia said in tears. "Chris really does care about Tobio!!"

"Yeah..." Loid agreed with Mia.

Everyone has calmed down a few seconds later. Chris was about to leave the three alone, but Mia suggested that he should stay and play with them for a while. Tobio's face turned red as he heard about it and looked at Mia with a face that he never showed. Mia laughed, saying that he never showed that face once in his life, but Tobio didn't really mind and just ignored it. As Chris took up Mia's suggestion, he sat down on the floor with his book closed, sitting on his left.

The four were talking about emotions... a somewhat unfamiliar word for Tobio to understand. For some reason, he knew only a few emotions through Chris. Empathy, sadness, happiness, anger... that's it. Tobio doesn't know why everyone wanted to talk about emotions. The main concern was actually about Chris' emotions, and why he hides it.

"Chris... why is it that you... hide emotions?" Tobio asked.

Chris didn't answer. His face looked like that the question was a bit uncomfortable to answer and explain in his own words. As Loid immediately sensed it through Chris...

"Tobio's just asking a simple question. It's not that hard to answer you know."

Chris raised his eyes in shock as if he had a flashback of a traumatic memory. Chris looked at Loid as if he saw a ghost, but Loid was confused. Chris looked left and right to wonder if the shock was over, and took a sigh of relief once it was all out. Loid looked at Chris waiting for an answer, Tobio stared at Chris with eyes that demands an answer, and Mia was just looking up at the clouds ignoring the situation. As Chris saw the looks on Tobio and Loid, he looked down onto the ground and gave out his answer with an exasperated look on his face.