Perfect Facade[Asano Gakushuu x Reader]

f o r t y - t w o : unravelled truth

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Blank eyes stared at the white ceiling of the hospital room, the beeping sounds from the heart monitor filled the silence. Everything at first was hazy but her vision cleared up as she sat up from her bed, wincing slightly at the pain on her head. She turned to her left, where there was a curtain covering a supposedly window wall. Assuming from the sunlight that was peaking through the curtains, it was already midday.

"Am I alive?" Was the first thing that came to mind. Her memory wasn't cooperating with her, she was only remembering fragments. All she knew that her last moments was that of crying her eyes out to someone; she couldn't remember who though. "How pathetic."

The sudden knocking on the door startled her, a faint "Excuse me, I'm coming in" was muffled through the door. The voice sounded familiar, and as the hospital door slid open, it confirmed her guess.

"[Name]! You're finally awake!" It was her cousin, Naomi. It was rather odd to see her, especially since she often only stayed in the states and rarely came back to Japan. So why is she here?

The older girl practically almost tackled [Name], but in that tight embrace held an underlying feeling of caution, from the way that she had placed her arms so that it wouldn't press onto any of the healing bruises.

"How long was I asleep-?" [Name] spoke, her throat completely dry.

"It's only been a day, [Name]. Also, my dear you shouldn't be sitting up." Another voice chimed in, and [Name] looked over her cousin's shoulder to see her grandmother, closing the door behind her. "I'll call the nurse for some refreshments, you should lay down and get more rest."

"But-"

"What 'buts'? You barely rested, doesn't it hurt to sit up-?" Naomi asked, her eyes travelled down from [Name]'s face to her arms. It was littered with blue marks, with one of her wrist in a cast and her other upper arm with a tightly secured bandage over a stitched wound. The older girl grimaced at her cousin's injuries, and it was just at her arms. The rest of what she endured was underneath the pale blue hospital blanket.

"It's fine, the pain is bearable." [Name] muttered, averting her eyes away from the gazes of her cousin and grandma as the two of them gathered by her bedside. She felt their stare on her body, searing slightly at her wounds. There was shame in her avoidance, shame that she let such thing happened to her.

"[Name]," Her grandmother called out to her gently, her booming low voice never failed to send reverberations down her spine. She felt a callous hand caressed hers, drawing careful circles on the base of her thumb. "Dear, please look at me."

[Name] immediately looked at her grandmother, following her plea on instinct. Her heart dropped as she saw her grandmother's welled up eyes, tears that was threatening to fall. She had never seen her stoic grandmother emotional before. The old lady always held herself with such grace and poise, her demeanor cold and unrelenting. Yet this once stone cold lady was teary eyed at seeing her granddaughter in such state. It only added more to [Name]'s guilt.

A singular tear fell down her grandmother's face, and that resulted in [Name]'s panic. She ignored the pain that shot up when she moved her arms and torso as she reached out for her grandmother's face. Her trembling hand tried to wipe the falling tears, her voice immediately started to spew out apologies and 'I'm sorry's. The heart monitor started to speed up, the once rhythmic beat became a tempo of [Name]'s anxiety.

Naomi, who had been standing silently by her grandmother's side, rushed to get a nearby chair for the older lady to sit down and collect herself. She then went over to [Name] and placed reassuring hands on her shoulders, rubbing them in an attempt to soothe her cousin's panic. [Name] was trembling in her hands, and the older girl wondered what type of torment this poor girl had gone through to cower in fear of upsetting others.