Distant

Chapter 8

Natsuko was walking through the halls, on her way to homeroom.

She couldn't believe her father would do such a thing...

Last night, she had fell asleep on her desk while studying. It was around 11 o'clock and she could hear the faint but harsh hushes of her parent's voices. Something told her that she should just go back to sleep but something else made her get on her feet and walk out her bedroom. It was like the angel on one side of her shoulder, telling her what she should do and on the other side was the devil, telling her what she wants to do.

She tiptoed down the hallway and slowly opened the door to Riko's room to check on her, she was sleeping soundly. She then walked down the dark hallway and hid in the shadows which hid her from her parent's view.

"I know that you're going through some things and-" Her mother said before she was cut off.

Her father's voice was steadily raising, "No, you don't "know" what I'm going through. How could you? You sit around all day, Yuri, while I am traveling and just...just constantly working! I keep food on the table, a roof over you guy's heads!  Everything...I do everything around here."

"I understand that..."

"No...you don't understand one thing about what I go through."

Her mother was getting impatient now, "You think that it's easy for me too? Raising two girls by myself while their father is never home? Then when you do come home you're never happy, it's like you aren't satisfied enough with me cooking everyday, cleaning, and taking care of our children. You think that I enjoy sitting at home, all alone? Do you think it's a fun thing to do every single day? Huh, Fumio?!"

She started beating on his chest, sobbing. He gripped her wrist tightly to stop her as he said, "Happy? I'm never happy? I try...I really do try to make the best of everything."

"How?!" She screamed, looking up at him through teary eyes, "You come home and constantly accuse us of this and that."

"Are you saying that I don't love you guys?" He gave her a stony look.

"No! You come home and it looks as if you'd rather be somewhere else, fucking prostitutes instead of here with your fami-"

He had let go of her wrist and let the backside of his hand connect with her cheek, the sound of skin against skin shook the room. Natsuko's mother's eyes were wide open in shock and so were Natsuko's.

"Don't you dare ever say that I don't love you guys...or that I don't want to be here with you guys. Maybe when I'm gone then you'll see that I had been and have always been good to you." He said harshly as he turned and picked up his jacket on the couch, he left and slammed the front door behind him.

She yelled after him, "How?! You've never been good to me! I regret ever marrying you!"

Natsuko had quietly backed up and ran to her room. She closed the door and jumped into bed, pulling the covers over herself. Hoping that it was just a bad nightmare.

"Hey!"

She snapped back to reality as she looked over to someone walking next to her.

'Kiyoshi...'

"What's wrong? You were like...hella spacing out. " He wore a worried expression.

She gave him a sheepish smile, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

Kiyoshi tilted his head to get a better view of her, "Then why are you crying?"

His hand came up to wipe a tear away as he said it and she quickly tried to wipe them away too. Their hands had bumped into each other in the process and she looked down and that's when she saw his hands.

"Kiyoshi!" She gasped.

"What?" He asked getting a little scared that something happened.

She stared at his knuckles with wide eyes, "What happened to your hands?!"

He looked down at his hands. They were all bruised up and dark red, they were swollen and painful to even move. His knuckles were scabbing, results of the broken skin from fighting.

He tried to hide them behind his back, "It's nothing, really."

She looked down, "I had saw Sato on my way here...you don't have to hide it."

His arms ashamedly dropped to his sides as they continued to walk, "I just...I just didn't want them to get away with what they did to you. They harassed you, you should've done something back."

She laughed at him, "What could I have done to them? Besides cause harm to myself..."

He just shook his head, "You're right..."

Kiyoshi then poked her arm, getting her attention, "Don't worry about me though, as you can see, I can take care of myself." He grinned at her while raising his hands for her to get a good view of his knuckles, "I'll...I'll take care of you from now on."

He looked straight, too afraid of her reaction.

Natsuko on the other hand stared at him in awe.

'I'll never let harm come your way...I promise.'

-TBC-