She tried to dull her thoughts in the sound of the water as she scrubbed furiously at the dinner dishes. But, try as she might, the task didn't take very long, leaving her empty-handed in front of the dishwasher with a head still full of turbulent thoughts. She sighed and headed to her room.

Halfway there, however, she decided that she should talk to her parents about the events of the evening. She didn't really know how to digest what her boyfriend had said. She padded down the hall to her parents' room and raised a hand to knock.

As she did, her papa's voice resounded particularly loudly from inside. "Yuuri, what do you expect me to do, then?"

Aki hesitated for a moment, then leaned her ear against the door. Her otousan's much calmer voice became audible as she did.

"Vitya, there's nothing we can do. Who Aki dates is her choice."

"Yes, but does it have to be that boy? I've only met him a few times, but every time I have, there's been a different girl hanging on his arm!"

This revelation made Aki's blood run cold. She shook her head a little, trying to clear it to hear her otousan's response.

"It doesn't matter. He's dating her right now. And if you say that to her, or anything else to try to convince them to break up, she'll only push us away. And then who will she turn to if something serious happens?"

There was a momentary silence, then her papa's sullen voice said, "I still don't like it."

"You don't have to like it. You just have to be there for your daughter."

Aki slowly backed away from the door, feeling guilty. She hadn't originally meant to eavesdrop, but now that she had, there was no way she could go in and talk to her parents. They would know the instant they saw her face that she had heard them talking, and she really had no idea how to respond to this conversation. She turned around slowly and entered her own room instead. She would have to figure out some way to deal with this by herself.

The new information about Hedeon was a bit startling, as well. Long after she had turned off her light, she laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling in the darkness. She supposed it wasn't really surprising that her papa had seen him with a string of girls. He was certainly handsome enough to garner a lot of interest. And, besides, just because he had been seen with other girls didn't mean he was dating all of them. Or even any of them. But, on the other hand, if they really were all different girlfriends, then what was wrong with him that he couldn't keep one dating partner for any length of time?

She eventually drifted off, but when she awoke in the morning, she was no closer to answers than she had been the night before. She decided that, until she knew how to proceed with him, she would hold off on messaging her boyfriend. Resolute, she readied herself and went to school.

Sabina noticed right away that something was wrong. She kept a close watch on Aki, although she didn't pressure her to talk about it. Aki was grateful for her silent care, and managed to make it through the day without too much difficulty.

When she got home, Aki checked her phone for the first time that day and saw that she had a message. She retreated to her room, and with some trepidation, opened it:

'Hey, are you free sometime this week to get together? You can come to my house again.'

She hesitated, then typed:

'I guess so. When are you thinking?'

The reply came fairly fast:

'Tomorrow?'

'Sure. Will anyone else be home?'

'My parents should be.'

She sighed in relief. That was good. She didn't want to chance him making a move on her again. They had a serious talk ahead of them.

The next day after school, she pulled her bike up to the front of his building, trying to fight the nerves that were building in the pit of her stomach. Hedeon was standing outside waiting for her, and opened the door wordlessly as she approached. She followed him inside his apartment, looking around as he shut the door behind them.

"Where are your parents? I want to introduce myself."

He glanced back at her over his shoulder. "Oh, they aren't here."

She froze halfway through taking off a shoe. "What do you mean, they aren't here?"

"Just what I said."

Aki took a deep breath. "But you said yesterday that they would be here."

"No, I said they should be here. They got held up at work. I don't control their schedules."

She gritted her teeth and decided to let this one go. It wasn't worth an argument over this when she had something more important to say. She took a steadying breath, briefly closing her eyes as she tried to calm her nerves.

She failed to notice that Hedeon was approaching her until she felt his breath on her cheek. Startled, she flickered her eyes open and leaned back just in time to avoid a kiss.

Taking a full step backwards, she snapped, "What are you doing?"

Hedeon stared at her, dark eyes unreadable. "Kissing you."

She sputtered, "I thought I told you I wasn't ready for that!"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "No, you said that you wanted to spend more time with me before we did stuff like that. I thought that's why you invited me over last weekend."

She stared at him, open-mouthed. "You thought that a family dinner was enough to get you a free pass to some fooling around?"

His eyes didn't move as he gazed at her impassively.

Aki's breath came out in a huff of incredulous laughter. "I thought you invited me over here to clear the air about what you said about my family."

This elicited a response from him. Hedeon rolled his eyes. "Geez, Aki, I thought we were over that. You're still going on about that? Here, I'll apologize again. I'm sorry. I won't make any more observations about your family again. Are you satisfied?"

Her anger flared, and she snapped, "No, I'm not! You think that's an apology?"

"Shit, Aki, I don't know what else you want!" His arms came uncrossed as he flicked his hands up in exasperation.

She watched him, realization dawning on her as she took in the lines of his body. "Hedeon. This isn't working."

He stared at her. "What?"

She gestured broadly. "This. Us. This isn't going to work. We need to break up."

His eyes flickered, then he laughed harshly. "That's fine. I've never had to put in this much effort just to get some action before. You're not even turning out to be worth it." He strode past her to the door, opening it behind her. "Go ahead and leave."

Icily, she turned around, tapping her shoe back on and exiting the apartment without a word.

She was very proud of the fact that she made it all the way home and into her apartment before bursting into tears.