A Hero I Look Up To

Resurface the Scrapped Plan!

"Alana, do you remember what his mother acts like?" Loid asked Alana about her role.

"Yes sir," Alana saluted. "She's a terrible mom with a terrible personality!"

"Yeah... anything BESIDES that...?" Loid was already irritated.

"Argh... let me read the notes AGAIN!!!" Alana demanded Tobio for the notes with a jokingly manner.

Tobio chuckled and handed his notebook to Alana so she could get a better understanding of his mother. Alana gracefully took the notebook from his hands with a smirk and quickly flipped to the page where the notes of his mother were written. The notes of his mother were written in full detail on what she was like. Scary, expecting for Tobio to be independent, ignoring his sickness, pretending that everything is fine to the teachers while attending his parent teacher meetings... ecetrera. There was a certain note that Alana spotted, where she pulled the book closer to her face.

"You're fine... use cough medicine... you can help yourself..." Alana mumbled to herself while reading the notes.

Loid tapped on Tobio's left shoulder and leaned towards his ear. "Tobio, may I tell you something real quick?"

"What is it?" Tobio leaned slightly to Loid.

"Alana won't be going to the same high school as us," he stated.

Tobio left his mouth agape tried not to make a loud reaction to get Alana's attention, but he was still surprised that Alana wasn't going to the same high school as Tobio and Loid. "It's only April and we're still on Plan B...?"

"I realized planning would take a while and I really want this to succeed without traumatizing you the slightest bit," Loid turned his head away from Tobio, dejected. "Without Alana with us in high school and without re-enacting your parents for a way to confront them, we wouldn't be able to move forward on how we're supposed to be moving forward. I want this to end, but seriously... planning takes a while, y'know."

Tobio noticed Loid holding back his tears. He let out a sigh, knowing how long it would take for this to happen. He knew Loid wanted Tobio to be free and not having to suffer through the pain, but Loid felt the need to change the suject so the same effect wouldn't happen on Tobio. He looked over his shoulder, but suspected that Tobio felt bad, then he lifted his gaze and glanced back at Tobio.

"How is Mia? Do you still keep in touch with her...?"

Loid brought up Mia now at a time like this?

Tobio widened his eyes as it had been a almost a while since he heard about Mia from him. He was unsure on why Loid brought up Mia in the middle of the plan. Tobio glanced at Alana, who's still looking through his notes with a serious expression on her face, then glanced at Loid, who suddenly felt down in the dumps like a boy who failed their math test. Tobio tried to reach for his bag to cheer him up, but as he was about to do so, Loid tugged on Tobio's left sleeve.

"Have I hurt Mia when she found out I left?" His hands started trembling.

"Why are you asking now?" Tobio looked aghast. "I mean she was sad that you left, and I am keeping in touch with her, but—"

"I left without telling you two..." Loid cut Tobio off, letting go of his sleeve as his gaze was still lowered. "If only I had time to do so... If only I had time to tell you..."

Tobio's pupils dilated, mouth agape. This reminded him about another trait of his parents—about how they never said the things like 'if only I found out Tobio was sick,' or 'if only Tobio told us what happened.' Whenever it came to sentences like that, he only heard his parents talking about it when it's related to work issues—nothing about him. Tobio lowered his gaze to the floor with a blank expression, remembering those unwanted memories for a few seconds, then his eyes met back with Loid's gaze still lowered, trying to not burst into tears.