Veiled Pain | Riki Nishimura

18. Admirers of the Boy Next Door

It was sunday and the restaurant wasn't open today, so the day was more peaceful. Asami's parents were resting too instead of roaming around the restaurant again. Asami had been in her room for a while and unpacking some of the moving boxes she hasn't unpacked yet. There was still left few, but she unpacks them some other day.

Her room is the biggest of the house and the other side is almost empty. She has thought of buying there a couch or something to fill it even though she doesn't need it anywhere. Shugo and Junpei could've needed the bigger room more but her parents decided to give it to her.

Asami walked out of her room past the small living room where her parents were resting on the couch. She went to the boys' room to see what they were doing, but they weren't there. Apparently they had few unpacked cardboxes too. They have probably only taken the most important toys from there and then left the others unpacked.

She sat on Shugo's bed and noticed a diary on his desk, where was a car as the cover. Of course reading others' diaries is wrong, but it's her little brother and he probably writes all crazy and nonsense stuff, so she took it and started reading the latest pages he had written.

Riki is awsome Hes the coolest boy Ive ever met! Its a great coinidence he is my neigbor! His bike is also coolest Ive seen I want to be like him when I grow up I wish he was my brother

Asami smiled to what he had written and all his grammar and his handwriting she almost didn't understand anything. She also realized how the long and harder words to spell were spelled wrong, except the word 'brother'. "He really likes Riki that much, huh?" She wondered to herself.

She put the diary back and headed out of the room. "Where's the boys?" She asked from her parents, since the two boys weren't even playing in the living room.

"They are outside playing ball." Her mother answered.

Asami can't believe how effortlessly her parents trust the boys. Because if Asami was their mother, she'd keep an eye on them. Shugo is ten already, but still the neighbourhood is pretty unfamiliar and if talking about Shugo, he could just run away without thinking. Surely, her parents are tired too and needs a rest.

"Okay." She then replied and decided herself to go keep an eye on them.

She could see the through the downstairs glass doors from a distance as the two played in the front yard. Actually three, they weren't alone. Riki was there. He really kept his promise and came to play ball with them. He looked happy, Asami had never seen him smile just like that, it was genuine. Maybe childrens' company really brings happiness.

Asami approached the door slowly as she kept watching them. Junpei suddenly tripped onto thin air and fell to the ground. And surely he started crying. Riki lifted him back standing effortlessly, even though his other arm was still in the cast. He crouched in front of him and said something, but Asami didn't hear it. Junpei nodded a little and clung to his neck, willing to get into his embrace. Riki then lifted him up and stood up to his height.

Shugo and Riki kept passing the ball, now Junpei in Riki's embrace. Asami walked through the door and just now they all noticed her. "Hey, Asami." Riki greeted, so she said it back.

"You can put him down so your arm doesn't strain." She said to him.

"No, it's okay." He replied.

"He's such a cuddlebug. But he's already too big for me to lift up." Asami noted.

"I'm hungry." Shugo complained to Asami.

"Well, I can't do anything about that. Go ask mom when she start making dinner." She said, so Shugo jogged inside from the yard.

"Do you want to stay for dinner?" Asami asked Riki, who still held Jun on his arms and bouncing him a little so he doesn't keep crying, but he didn't, he seemed happier already. Actually, Asami loved how good he seemed to be with kids, it's like a huge green flag for her.

"Can I?"

"Of course. Let's go inside." She suggested. Riki put Junpei down when they entered downstairs and he happily jogged upstairs before them. He was probably going to tell his parents that he got into big boy's arms. He always does that, it's cute.

Asami lead Riki to upstairs and he followed her to her room. He looked around it for a while. "Damn, where do you need all this space for?" He inquired in disbelief.

"I know right. I don't." She replied.

Riki sat on her bed comfortably and kept looking around. Honestly, it was the first time he has been in a girl's room, and it's also the first time for Asami having a boy in her room, except her brothers.

"You have a nice bed." He noted and bounced on her mattres, feeling its softness. Then he grapped a marker from her desk and started drawing on his plaster cast.

Asami sat next to him on the bed and started observing what he was drawing. He wrote something there, but she didn't understand it. "What's that?" She asked.

"My bike's model." He answered.

"Can I?" She asked, willing to draw on his cast too. He gave her the marker as a yes.

◇◆

After some while they all sat around the dinner table. Shugo was excited that Riki was there too. Asami's parents asked Riki a lot of things and surely they were intrigued. Though, when her mother saw Riki the first time she looked so terrified yet unsure, but of course she tried to hide it. Asami swears it's the bruises on his face. But her father didn't seem to mind at all.

Soon everyone were done eating and Riki played with the boys for a while before he went back home. Asami and her mother were together in the kitchen washing the dishes.

"Asami." Her mother interrupted.

"Mm?" She hummed.

"Is Riki really a sensible company for boys? And for you. He was nice, but his face? Where did he get all the wounds from? Does he get into fights?" Her mother inquired unsure.

"Mom!" Asami sighed in disbelief. "It doesn't make a person different what their outside looks like."

"I know, I know. But where did he get such bruises?" She repeated.

"I don't know." Asami replied and shrugged a little. She really doesn't know for sure, but she has a bad hunch. "But the boys didn't mind them, and I don't either."

"Yeah, sorry. Boys really seem to like him a lot." Her mother gave in. Asami knows she doesn't mean bad, she just wants to know what's safe for her kids and what isn't.

◇◆◇