𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍; 𝐈𝐭𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐢 𝐒𝐚𝐞

01. GLASS

Sae pinched the bridge of his nose as he stared at the shattered glass below him. It laid over the tiled floor, scattering in almost every cranny of the kitchen. Sae was lucky there wasn't liquid inside.

To his left stood Shoko, his little girl, attempting to hide a toy football behind her back with a guilty expression on her face. This was the fourth time this month that she had broken something in the house, and Sae was worried it was becoming a habit for her.

"Daddy... it wasn't me." She murmured, fidgeting with her feet while looking to the floor.

"Oh really?" He softly replied. Sae squatted down to meet her height, leaning in to playfully stare at his daughter head-on. "Who was it, then? I have my suspicions, you know."

She pouted her lips, shaking her head quickly. "I can't tell!"

"Hm? Why not?"

"Because..."

"But Sho, if we catch the culprit, we can put an end to this glass-breaking streak." Sae smiled, leaning his chin on his palm as he talked sternly with his child. "You don't want daddy to step on glass and hurt his foot, right?"

Shoko shook her head solemnly.

"And you don't want to get hurt if you stepped on any glass, right?"

"Right..."

"Right. So, tell me who did it."

"W-What will you do when you find out who did it?" She asked with a tone full of worry. Her lip was quivering and Sae noticed how her eyes appeared a bit more glossy. Maybe he went too far... Shoko never did like it when he was angry, even if it rarely happened.

She continued. "I think whoever did it is very sorry... and they don't want to get in trouble...."

He sighed, shaking his head with a half-smile. His girl was too cute sometimes. "I'd take the troublemaker out for ice cream, give them a hug, and then ask that they didn't play with the football in the house."

"Really?"

"Really, Sho."

She dropped her head, bringing out the football from behind her back that Sae already spotted about five minutes prior. She placed it on the ground, moving to jump into her father's arms. "I-It was me... I did it!" She began to whimper.

Sae smiled to himself, picking Shoko up with one arm and giving her a squeeze with another. "It's okay. It's okay."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry..." She sputtered.

"Sho, shhh. It's alright, daddy isn't mad."

"C-Can we get ice cream...?"

"Yes, baby. Hold on." Sae gave her a small peck on the cheek, setting her down on the counter top in the kitchen. "Okay, let's play a game. I clean up, and you tell daddy if he missed any glass on the floor, alright?"

"Okay!"

Sae picked up each shard of glass one by one, going back to make sure he got every sliver. The last thing he wanted was Shoko to step on a shard and cut herself. What Shoko had knocked over was her favorite glass sippy cup. Sae doesn't think she's realized what she's broken quite yet, so he plans on buying her a new one before it clicks in her mind.

When it came down to Sae's life, glass wasn't the only thing that shattered on a regular basis; Their entire household was broken. It was like a great vase that was willfully thrown onto the ground, then was slowly put back together, only to be missing a piece. Out of the trio that used to be their family, it was now down to a duo. Sae and Shoko against the world.