"I hate you, you know."
The older man blinked at the calmness radiating from the youth sitting across from him. Bright eyes gazed fiercely at him, their intensity never wavering. There was something different, though, something he couldn't quite place. It was as if a major change had taken place. The intensity in those eyes was something he'd always come to expect but the words and the calm behaviour threw him.
"I'd like to say it's nothing personal," he continued, rising to his feet, "but it would be a lie and I've often been told I'm a lousy liar. I hate you."
"It's because I don't approve of you, isn't it?" the older man inquired, scowling. "And of everything you've done."
"Honestly?"
"Yes. Honestly. It's because . . ."
Already, the rage burned hot in his blood. First, Shindou Shuichi wormed his way into Eiri's life. Then he wrecked his oldest's engagement to Usami Ayaka before finally becoming a permanent and rather important person in his family. Even Mika had warmed up to the would-be vocalist.
"Honestly, I don't give a damn of what you think about me. I never have and I never will."
Again, that cool regard and . . . was it disdain in those violet eyes? The Uesugi patriarch couldn't tell.
"I hate you for everything you've ever made Eiri endure. Because he wasn't perfect. Because he doesn't look Japanese. You're his father, for fuck's sake." Those amethyst eyes narrowed. "Those things shouldn't have mattered to you. And fathers are supposed to be there for their sons, to love them unconditionally. You've never accepted Eiri for who he was, for who he could have been, and I hate you because of that."
"What is that? Some American ideal you're trying to sell me on?"
"No," Shuichi replied, his expression softening. "Not some American ideal. A truth. Sons should be able to turn to their fathers in their times of need. I've always been able to rely on my dad. Eiri can't say the same and it pains me to know that. It pains him, too."
"Eiri doesn't care what I think of him," Uesugi-san snorted. "He's told me that more than once."
"Then it only shows how little you know your own son."