"It's your mom, she's had a heart attack."
I silently stood with the phone to my ear, my heart beginning to pound from what I had just heard Hatori say to me.
"W-What?"
"You dad called me and I had her taken to the hospital. I thought I should let you…"
"SHUT UP!" I screamed in the phone.
"Momiji"
"Just shut up!"
"Calm down Momiji, it'll all be…"
"Stop! I don't want to hear it!" I slammed the phone down. I went and sat on my couch, my head between my hands, my elbows on my knees. How could this have happened? It was just too much for me to take in.
"Momiji, what happened?" I looked up at Haru who looked at me with concern in his eyes.
"Nothing, nothing happened. You can go home."
"Momiji, tell me what happened! You wouldn't have reacted the way you did if nothing had happened."
"I said it was nothing! LEAVE!" Haru didn't budge from his spot, determined to find out what had happened. He sighed and sat down next to me.
"Please Momiji, maybe I can help."
"There's nothing you can do Haru."
"Who was on the phone?"
"Hatori-san. Did you give him my number?"
"Yeah" I turned and looked at Haru who looked back at me with not a drop of guilt in his eyes.
"I thought he should have it just in case, you know, something bad happened"
"Something bad did happen Haru."
I told him about what Hatori told me. As I spoke, I felt the tears I had held back for so many years begin to fill my eyes. Haru put his hand on my back as comfort, but then suddenly got up and walked to the phone and dialed a number.
"Hello? Hatori-san?" I looked up. What was he doing?
"Can you please tell me what hospital Momiji's mom is in?...ok thank you. Bye"
Haru turned around and looked at me.
"You need to go see her Momiji. Haru told me the hospital she's in and he's heading down there, too."
"How can I go? She doesn't even know I'm her son." It still felt so painful to say that.
"These things don't matter right now, you need to go. Don't try to argue with me again. I'll take you there"
I opened my mouth to protest, but no words came out. Maybe I should go, just to see if she's going to be ok. I got up slowly and got my coat without saying anything. We left my apartment and took a cab over to the hospital. My mind was blank, I didn't know how to feel or think. I hadn't seen her in so long and now when I'm going to, she's going to be lying on a hospital bed.
Soon we reached the hospital and went inside. We went to the counter and the woman there automatically knew we were from the Sohma family, something about us looking different. She told us the room number and we headed that way. I stopped in my tracks when I saw him, my dad. I had left without telling him anything. Was he going to be mad that I had left? Or mad that I decided to come back? He turned and looked in my direction. He looked tired as if he hadn't slept for days. He looked at Haru and then at me, and suddenly his expression changed. He quickly started walking towards me. I don't know what I was thinking but I suddenly turned on my heels and ran full speed in the opposite direction, bumping into some people along the way. Finally when I thought I was safe I stopped and sat down on a seat. Suddenly I saw two feet in front of me. I looked up and saw my dad standing there panting, out of breath.
"Momiji…you…you…" He suddenly grabbed my collars and pulled me up so we were face to face.
"This is all because of you! Everything is because of you! You've ruined my family again!" Tears started to fall down his face.
"It's…it's all your fault…all your…" He stopped, letting go of me and stood there for a while before taking me into his arms. He sobbed into my shoulders.
I didn't know how to react, he had never hugged me before. In all the years he "raised me" he never once hugged me. All he seemed to be concerned about was keeping me away from mom and Momo.
"Umm…dad…it's ok…it'll be alright" I patted his back, trying to stop him from crying. My eyes all of a sudden began to water up too as huge tears fell out of my eyes. I hugged him back and we both stood there hugging and sobbing like fools. Finally he let go of me and he kept his face to the floor.
"Dad, what happened? How did this happen?" He finally looked slowly up at me, into my eyes.
"She found out."
"Found out what?"
"She found a picture of us, the one that was taken when I first held you after you were born…before your mother had found out about your other form."
"What? You had a picture of me?" I never even knew that there was a picture of the three of us.
"She found it and asked what it was, who the baby was, since she knew it wasn't Momo. I tried to avoid the question, but in the end she forced me to say the truth…I told her everything."
"What? Why'd you tell her! You knew it would be bad for her!"
"What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to explain it?"
"Why'd you even have that picture in the house?" He looked up at me, his eyes looked so sad, so full of pain.
"I couldn't get rid of it, it was the only thing I had that made me feel closer to you. I had always kept it hidden really well, but when you suddenly disappeared, I kept on taking it out to look at it more and more often and then she caught me with it." I was shocked. He had it to…feel closer to me? But he had always ignored me. Why did he want to feel closer to me?
"When I told her the truth, she didn't believe it at first and thought I was playing a joke on her, but when she realized it wasn't a lie, she couldn't take it. It was too much for her that she had given birth to a monster and then had left it to live on its own. Hatori said she suffered takotsubo syndrome*."
We both fell silent after that. I didn't know what to say, how to react to this. My mother had been hurt all over again because of me. Then Hatori came up to us and broke the silence. I silently thanked him.
"You should come now."
"Why? Did something happen?" My dad asked Hatori.
"Her condition is stable now. She's still unconscious, but you can see her now."
My dad quickly rushed away to her room. I was left standing there, not knowing what to do.
"You should go see her, too" Hatori put his hand on my shoulder.
I nodded and slowly began walking towards the room. I was scared. I was nervous. But there was no running away anymore. I wanted to see her. I had to see her. But as I walked looking down, I bumped into a child.
"Sorry" I kept walking until I heard the child speak.
"Nii-san?"
I turned around and saw a girl standing there looking up at me. She had my mother's hair and eyes.
"Momo…"
* Takotsubo is what happens when someone is under severe emotional trauma. It was a name given by Japanese medical professionals. Also know as "broken heart syndrome"
So I didn't receive any reviews T-T but I still feel like continuing the story so I'll just see where it leads me. I'm not sure how old Momo would be right now, but I'm guessing around 11 since she was around 3 when Tohru first met her and that was right before Momiji started his first year in high school, so I think it should add up to 11 or 12. Please keep reading, there's a major twist in the story coming up!
