Fly (Keishin Ukai) - COMPLETED

20 - New Faces

"Dad?" Yuki entered her grandfather's house after a silent journey. She was ready to go to her bed and cry herself to sleep. So you could imagine her surprise when she saw her father sitting at the kitchen table. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Just because you had an argument with your mother that doesn't mean you had it with me too." He said with a sad smile.

Yuki looked to the ground. "So you k-know..."

"Of course I do. Not only did I hear the whole thing, but your mother has been cleaning non-stop." Yuki remembered that when she was younger, when her grandmother had died, her mum started cleaning non-stop, it was her coping mechanism, her way to deal with pain.

"I'm guessing y-you're here to convince me not to play volleyball again, b-b-but I-"

"No sweetheart," he walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. "I'm here to tell you I support you, no matter your decisions." Yuki's eyes widened, she pulled away from her father to look at him.

"Really?"

"Of course." He placed his hands on her cheeks. "You're my little girl. I want you to be happy."

"Even if it's d-dangerous?"

Her father smiled sadly, his thumb rubbing her cheek. He looked away for a moment, as if he was in deep thought, before looking back to her. "I always knew you would go back to volleyball. I was waiting for it. No smile would ever come close to the ones I saw when you were playing volleyball. Even when you weren't playing, just talking about it, your face would light up."

"Does Mum know y-you're supporting me?"

"Yes...and let's just say if it wasn't my house. I would have been kicked out by now."

"I-I don't want to be the reason you get a divorce! What about-"

"We're not getting a divorce." Her father chuckled. "She is struggling with the whole idea of it, but we always agreed that our children's happiness would be prioritised over everything else. She'll come around, eventually."

The two sat in the kitchen together talking for a little while longer. Yuki's father was always more supportive of her two parents. He was the one who would drive her to volleyball games, be in the stands with Yú and help her with her fitness and training. Her mother, on the other hand. Did not see volleyball as a viable career, not at first anyway, but she did not fight it much as she saw how happy and how good Yuki was at it.

"Does Yú know what's happened?" Yuki asked her father as they finished eating their dinner.

"I told him that grandad needed your help again. I think it would be best for him to hear the truth from you." Yuki nodded. She was wondering how her little brother would take the news that they no longer would be living together. During her and her father's conversation, while eating, it was made clear that her mother did not want Yuki home if she wanted to pursue volleyball seriously.

"Okay, I've got to get going. I'll see you soon okay?" Her father stood and gave Yuki a final hug. "I brought some things from home here, I've already put them in your bedroom." He gave her a last kiss on the head before leaving.

Yuki's grandfather had already headed to bed. She sat alone at the kitchen table, wondering if she was doing the right thing. She was risking everything for volleyball. At first, she was one hundred percent sure of the idea. But after playing with the girl's team, and not feeling happy after playing, was she making a mistake? She shook the thought from her mind and made her way upstairs.

It had only just gone past ten o'clock, and her phone finally stopped buzzing, Keishin finally giving up on contacting her. She unlocked her phone and instantly cleared all his messages and missed phone calls, a pain pinged in her heart as she did so, but she ignored it before typing.