A Hero I Look Up To

Plan A

Twenty minutes after being found by his parents, Tobio arrived back home. Tobio was silent throughout the ride, shocked to find out his parents had found him. The parents stood up and faced Tobio with cold eyes painted on their faces. Tobio couldn't bare to look at their eyes, knowing that he purposely messed up so he could get away with their neglect. He felt like he was on autopilot, seeing how everything unfolds from above.

"You have school tomorrow," His father stated, arms crossed. "Why didn't you listen to your mother when she said to not leave the house?"

"I..." Tobio's breath shuddered. This wasn't normal. His parents... were furious. If they were standing right in front of him and staring at him with a cold look, he knew he did something wrong. "I was..."

"And why were you with that man?" His mother asked sternly, hands behind her back. "We told you to not get into contact with him, and what did you do?"

Tobio wanted to argue back, but the atmosphere caused him to feel frightened about what he would say. His parents gave him rules he didn't want to follow—rules that restrict Tobio's freedom. Why would my parents give me rules when they haven't been around for most of my life, Tobio thought to himself. Was there nothing to fight back with? No words at all?

"Answer us Tobio," his mother slowly approached Tobio. "Why did you break the rules?"

The more he held in his anger, the more he wanted to throw something at the wall. He even wanted to argue back, but held his thoughts back, because he knew what would happen if he said something that would normally anger his parents. His gaze was still locked onto the floor as a cold sweat started to run down his face and his palms started to feel sweaty the more the tension arises around the room.

"Answer the question, or we'll take your phone for good," his mother threatened.

Tobio remembered he had once rebelled against his parents before and they did try to improve... or at least that's what he thought, even though... there wasn't even a single change in them. Tobio took a deep breath in and out and finally said something out of his mouth that got the parent's attention.

"No."

Tobio's father took a step back with his mouth wide open. Tobio's mother had her eyes raised in an alarm. To think their son would talk back to them like that was pure shock for them. The father was trying to arrange his thoughts, wondering why his son was acting differently than before. The mother figured it out quickly as she was able to clear her throat before continuing on.

"Excuse me?" His mother retorted as she took a step forward.

"Why would I answer your question if you hadn't done anything to me?" Tobio clenched a fist and lifted his gaze. "And how did you find me? My locations... they were....!"

"You must have noticed, right?" His father butted in. "We turned on your location while you were sleeping so we could keep track of you. We don't want you to run away."

Tobio's pupils dilated as a shiver went down his spine. His parents went through his phone while asleep and he didn't notice? All this time, he assumed he was alright because he remembered turning off his locations so he wouldn't be tracked, but this is his parents. They'd do anything to make sure Tobio was behaving.

"You.. you went through my phone...?!" Tobio's breath shuddered the more his mother's sentence had repeated inside of his head.

"We're your parents, Tobio." His father replied, trying to get Tobio to understand. "We check your phone every night so you won't do anything to misbehave."

Tobio's fist trembled. Every single night... his parents looked through his phone. Every single night, they made sure his locations were on so they could track him. Tobio shaply inhaled, then paced himself towards the chair, snatching it.