Chapter Nine
Kosuke and Akira were lying in their beds. Neither of them had spoken for about thirty minutes, but they knew that the other was awake. Akira was lying on his side with his eyes wide open staring at the wall. Kosuke looked over at him.
"So what did you do over at Sakiko's house?" Akira didn't answer at first. He didn't really feel like talking to anyone.
"Nothing."
"You didn't have sex, did you?" Kosuke got to the point. Akira turned over and gave him a 'I can't believe you said that' look. Kosuke shrugged.
"No. We were close to it though."
"Close?"
Akira was starting to feel a little embarrassed. He didn't want to talk anymore, so he just turned back over and faced the wall again. He was still thinking about what his father did to him and why he would ever do such a thing. It really hurt him.
- -
Sunday came around and seemed like the longest day ever. Sora didn't work on Sundays, so he just stayed in bed thinking of what happened last night and how he could apologize to Akira and even Kosuke. Kairi got angry with him because he was being a little too difficult, so she just left the room and made some breakfast.
'I'm sure it hurts him, but he has to talk to Akira today. He's too afraid to talk to his own son…' Kairi thought as she poured some cereal into a bowl. Kiyori entered the room yawning.
"Good morning!" She exclaimed. Kairi was glad that Kiyori was asleep last night when it happened, so she didn't hear any of it.
"Good morning." Kairi responded, getting up to get her a bowl. Kiyori sat down at the table.
The twins usually slept until the afternoon, but that was normal teenage behavior. It gave Sora all the time in the world to think, but he shouldn't wait too long or pain will get the best of him. Kairi told him that, but she didn't think he heard her well enough.
- -
'I never thought it'd come to this…' Sora pondered, sitting up in his bed. He knew what it was like to be abused and yelled at every day and he definitely didn't want to make that a reality for his children. Sora got up slowly and walked into the bathroom. He took a look at himself in the mirror. He didn't really look too different compared to how he looked eighteen years ago, but what about his attitude? He didn't know whether he had really changed or not. Maybe it was just appearance, because physically he was a lot stronger.
Sora washed him face with cold water. Right now he didn't really care that his face was freezing. He looked back up in the mirror at himself. All of a sudden, his image changed to a replica of his stepfather. Scared to death, Sora screamed.
"What now?" Kairi ran into the room and found him covering his ears and crouched down on the floor in the bathroom. Kiyori followed without Kairi really wanting her to. Kairi held onto him and comforted him.
The rest of the day seemed to go by a lot slower. The twins were awake and had crossed paths with Sora every now and then, not saying a word to him. What made things even worse was the fact that Akira wouldn't even talk to Kairi.
"If I talk to her, she'll tell dad everything I said." Akira told Kosuke once they were sure their parents were out of earshot. Kosuke nodded and picked up the phone, but then put it back down. For once, he didn't really feel like talking to Karissa. They had an argument the other day over something stupid.
- -
At school, people questioned Akira about the bruise on his cheek. He told them that he got into a fistfight on the street and won easily. They, being naïve high school students, believed him. Bryant didn't really buy it though with the way he was acting.
Kosuke and Karissa didn't really speak to each other that day. Everyone who thought they were the perfect couple were starting to have doubts, and even the teachers were wondering. Kosuke didn't want to talk about it, nevertheless even think about it. He wanted to keep his mind on his schoolwork.
- -
Kairi was too tired to go to work that day, but she knew she had to. Sora kept her awake almost all night, even though he didn't really mean to. She was about to collapse on her desk when Selphie came in and exclaimed her normal greeting.
"Hey, Selphie…" Kairi said wearily, rubbing her eyes. Selphie examined her for a bit.
"You're tired, aren't ya?" She questioned, receiving a slow nod from Kairi. "Well, you'd better wake up, because if Mr. Jensen sees that you don't want to work, he won't be very happy!"
"You should know." Kairi teased.
"So how are your kids?" Selphie changed the subject. This brought back memories of Saturday night.
"They… have some problems, but things are getting better." She halfway lied. Selphie blinked, but then looked as if she believed it.
"Oh, did I ever tell you about that killer guy?" Selphie asked. Kairi shook her head and sat up. Selphie cleared her throat and made sure that their boss was nowhere in sight. She turned back to Kairi.
"I thought you would like to know, because he has the same last name as Sora." Selphie pointed out. Kairi's eyes widened.
"So who is it?"
"His name is Saito Kiyamoto. He's been in jail numerous times. I've looked it up." Selphie told her. Kairi covered her mouth and gasped.
"That's Sora's brother!"
Selphie blinked. "Really? Well, I don't know if you should tell him or not then."
Kairi was definitely going to tell him. Sora needed to know that his family was still alive at least. For the rest of the day, all she could think about was Sora. She picked up Kiyori from school later on, and made her way home. Sora got home thirty minutes later.
"Sora, you have to hear this!" Kairi grabbed his hand. He gave her a strange look and rose up his other hand.
"Wait a minute. This is even better. I apologized to the twins. They've supposedly forgiven me." Kairi forgot about what she had to say for a moment and hugged him.
"I knew you could do it." He kissed her forehead. She pulled away from him, clasping both of his hands in hers.
"Sora, you know that murder downtown?" He nodded.
"Well… I know who the murderer is. Selphie told me." Kairi gulped. Sora didn't know whether this was important or not, but was about to find out.
"Saito Kiyamoto. Sound familiar?"
Sora blinked a few times in astonishment, and then pulled away from her. This was not going to be pretty.
