There was an extra chair at the dinner table.

It took Ritsuko by surprise, seeing an extra chair at the table…and then a moment passed and she remembered that it was Shigeko's spot that was empty. It was weird, she thought as she took her spot at the table, Shigeko usually beat her. Especially on nights when it was Dad's turn to make dinner. Or, rather, when it was Dad's turn to pick up dinner.

If you could even call this dinner.

"Did you rob a pizza place or something tonight, Dad?" asked Ritsuko as she sat down in her spot. The space beside her on the table was taken up with pizza boxes…a lot of pizza boxes. Four. She had never seen that much pizza in her life outside of class parties. She hoped that they weren't planning on having company that night.

The last thing she wanted to do was put on a happy face for company like Mom always told her to.

"No, but it feels like I did. I found this great new chain where every pizza costs only five hundred yen! Can you believe that? Pizza for only five hundred yen?" asked Dad as he opened the topmost pizza…and put the whole thing down in front of himself. She leaned over. Ham and pineapple…gross. Dad could have all of that on his own. Hell, he could have had all the pizzas on that table if they were all ham and pineapple.

Ritsuko didn't care what Dad said, pineapple didn't and never would belong on pizza.

"What's your father going on about now, Ritsuko?" asked Mom as she put her briefcase down and sat down. Ritsuko shrugged. She wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, not with Mom looking the way she did. She was all tired and her hair was messed up. She had lipstick on her teeth, too. It must have been a tough day at work. Ritsuko knew that feeling, sort of, student council was kind of like work and Tokugawa was like that one coworker that mom had that she complained about all the time. When she had been young she had wondered why adults put themselves through things like that, working all the time at jobs that they didn't like with people who stressed them out, but then she went to middle school and joined student council.

She didn't know why adults were always talking about 'when you got to the real world' and stuff like that. Middle school didn't really seem that different.

"Dad found a new pizza place." Said Ritsuko as she reached for a slice. Dad slammed the box shut on her hand.

"No, none for you. This is mine, yours is in the stack." Said Dad

"Maro, you didn't buy the girls their own pizza, did you?" asked Mom

"No, I bought them each their own pizza." Said Dad. Mom sighed and poured herself some soda.

"Do I want to know how much you spent on this?" sighed Mom

"You do." Said Dad eagerly. Mom looked at her, she shrugged and opened the next topmost pizza box. Bell pepper and feta cheese…gross. That one was mom's. She passed Mom her pizza while Dad still kept that eager look up.

"Well?" asked Dad as Ritsuko opened the next pizza. Cheese and…she smelled it. Alfredo sauce. This was for Shigeko. She put it down in her spot. The one at the bottom must have been hers.

"Well what, Maro?" asked Mom as Ritsuko opened the box on the bottom. This was hers. Extra cheese and extra pepperoni. She smiled, it was good to have her own pizza. Usually she just ate whatever it was that Shigeko got.

"Aren't you going to ask me how much I spent on all of this?" asked Dad. Mom shrugged.

"Too much." Said Mom

"No, you're wrong I only spent fifteen hundred yen. Can you believe it?" asked Dad. Mom took a bite of her pizza and nodded.

"I can definitely believe it." Said Mom. Dad shrugged, took a bite of his, and made a face like someone was stabbing him in the tongue. Ritsu took a slow bite of hers and…and that was food. It wasn't terrible, just not good, just not something that she would have eaten if she'd had any other choice. Why did this taste like…she didn't even know. Cheesy paper? She chewed it like normal, like it was a normal thing that people would have put in their bodies, so that she didn't make Mom and Dad fight.

She was kind of glad Shigeko hadn't come down yet, she definitely wouldn't have been able to pretend like everything had been normal.

"Oh come on." Said Dad

"Maro, I love you, but I don't love this." Said Mom

"It's not so bad, right Ritsuko?" asked Dad. Ritsuko shrugged. She could feel Mom looking at her, too. She knew what to do. When she had been young she used to worry about which parent she sided with. Now that she was older she knew how to tread the line between both of her parents.

"It's alright, I guess. I'm just not in the mood for pizza." Said Ritsuko. There, she was siding with neither of them. They could both think that they were right and now they wouldn't argue. That had been easy, probably because Shigeko wasn't there, not that she should have thought about things like that…about how it was easier to have dinner without Shigeko…

Her pizza, which had once tasted like paper, turned to ashes in her mouth.

"See? She doesn't like it." Said Mom

"No, she said that she just wasn't in the mood for pizza." Said Dad

"Maro, I don't know who would be in the mood for any of this pizza." Said Mom. Dad sighed and took a bite. Then he chewed it…and chewed it…and then chewed it some more. Mom smiled to herself and took a sip of soda. Ritsuko sank down into her chair, trying to look small. She sank too low, though, and her phone fell out of her pocket.

Good.

She had an excuse to take a break, even if it was only for a few seconds, from dinner with her family. The table looked weird from this angle…oh. Right, because Shigeko was gone. It was so weird not having her around…maybe even not home? She did stay late sometimes with Reigen and, lately, with her club…her new friend.

Who Ritsuko knew that she should have been happy that Shigeko had met.

"It's hot and ready pizza, ok? They didn't say anything about it being good." said Dad as Ritsuko came up from under the table. She felt her phone vibrating in her hands…she looked between each of her parents. They were too busy talking about pizza, they weren't even looking at her…nobody was. It was kind of nice.

If only because she could use her phone during dinner.

'I'm sorry to bother you so late but I forgot to send you the minutes from today's meeting' Ritsuko wanted to roll her eyes but didn't. She couldn't risk getting Mom and Dad's attention. They were debating whether cheap and plentiful was better than expensive and edible. She knew that she should have just been smiling and nodding right now, like normal, all the while Shigeko would have been staring at her so she knew what to do. Well, Shigeko wasn't here and, yes, going over the minutes from what could barely have been called a meeting was boring but it couldn't have been any worse than this.

She knew that she was doing something wrong but it even felt kind of…exciting. Even if it was just Kamuro

'You're not bothering me. Just having what passes for dinner in my house.' Ritsuko typed with only one hand, the other one was on her plate. She hit send and then, immediately, three dots appeared beside Kamuro's name…and stayed there. She couldn't sit there staring at her phone for too long, Mom and Dad would definitely notice. She glanced down every so often between smiles and nods. She couldn't believe that she was doing this, that she was actually texting during dinner, her phone was in her hand…Mom would have taken it away if she had been paying attention…but she wasn't.

Shigeko wasn't around so, really, Mom and Dad didn't have much of a reason to pay attention to her now did they?

'Your parents argue too?'

"Hana, I'm telling you, hot and ready is better than 'pay and arm and a leg and then sit in your car for an hour while we make it from scratch." Said Dad

"It wouldn't take an hour if you would call ahead for once." Said Mom

"I don't call ahead because I might get stuck in traffic, or I might change my mind, or both like that one time when your parents were in town." Said Dad

'An Olympic sport for them.' Ritsuko hit send. The three dots showed up again. Kamuro was always really, weirdly, chatty. Especially lately. She didn't know why, it wasn't like they were in the same class or club or anything. Student council was more like a job than a club. They weren't there because they had anything in common other than having been elected or appointed to the student council.

'This might make you feel better.' A picture was trying to load. Mom and Dad were still talking. She glanced up, then down, and then up again. She wished that their WIFI hadn't been so slow all the time. It was taking so long…but she kind of like it. At any moment Mom and Dad could have caught her. At any moment she could have gotten in trouble. At any moment she could have had her phone taken away…and that wouldn't have been the worst of it. At any moment everything that her parents thought that they knew about her, that they thought about her, would have just been…gone. She wouldn't have been Ritsuko anymore.

Their Ritsuko.

The picture finished loading…oh. She had seen this one before. It was Onigawara trying to hit some guy from another school, he looked like a upperclassmen, and getting shoved down into some garbage cans. She didn't know him, only by reputation, and this fight meant nothing to her…but it was kind of funny. She knew he was always trying to fight with people, kind of like he thought he was in a delinquent manga or something, and it did kind of serve him right in that case. And, of course, it was alright to laugh at this since he was kind of a jerk and he was getting what was coming to him…

She sent a laughing emoji.

She got three dots in return. This was kind of…well, exciting, obviously, but weird. Not bad weird, no, just different. She and Kamuro usually only talked about work stuff. She didn't even know he laughed at things…that had sounded kind of mean but she had literally never seen him happy before. He always mostly just looked tired. She couldn't imagine him fully awake. She couldn't imagine a lot of things about him…she had never tried. She knew that he had a house and a family and a life but she had never really had a reason to care, not that she had one right now…

Though she did care, kind of, why he always took so long to reply.

"…think so, right Ritsuko?" she heard Dad ask. Ritsuko looked up and shrugged. Mom and Dad were looking at her now. She crossed her legs and tucked her phone into her sock with her right hand while she took a bite of her pizza with her left…her cold pizza. Huh, somehow it was actually kind of edible cold.

"She doesn't agree with you, Maro, and she isn't going to. Now let her eat already. She's barely even had the chance to take a bite." Said Mom

"Fine, fine, I'll leave Ritsuko alone…but I bet you that if Shigeko were here she'd have agreed with me." said Dad

"If Shigeko were here she would have…wait, where is Shigeko? She's not out with that Reigen again, is she?" asked Mom. Ritsuko took a bite of food. She needed to give herself time to think. She really didn't know where Shigeko was. She sometimes came home late but not this late, and nearly never on nights when Dad brought home dinner, and…well, it wasn't like they had to worry. This was Shigeko, she could have turned anyone inside out who so much as looked at her weird…not that she would have…no, she was too nice for that…

She took another bite. She needed more time.

During that second bite, thankfully the dough was super chewy, she heard the front door open. She swallowed. Good, saved again. She would have been in so much trouble if she'd been caught, both on her phone and in not knowing where her sister was, and…and she had never been in that much trouble before. Serious trouble. It would have been horrible but also…also if she got in trouble then it might have been a good thing, too. At least if she had been in trouble, gotten in trouble, she wouldn't have had to worry about getting in trouble again.

"Shigeko! I hear you coming in! Don't go upstairs, come and have dinner with your family!" shouted Mom

"And tell me what you think of this pizza!" said Dad. Ritsuko sighed and took another bite. Her phone vibrated for what was probably going to be the last time. She checked it, briefly, while Mom and Dad were still distracted. She wondered what it could have been. It was from Kamuro, probably, but it wasn't like he had been telling her anything important. They had just been talking about nothing, just dinner, and that wasn't much of anything…

Though it felt like something, really, since she wasn't exactly used to talking to other people about nothing…or anything.

But emojis weren't talking, not really. They were just pictures that told you how the other person was feeling. The kind of thing you sent when you were feeling lazy or didn't have the time to type out a full sentence. Kamuro had sent her a smiling one. Big smile, eyes closed, red cheeks. She couldn't picture him ever smiling let alone like that. She couldn't picture, either, what it was that she was supposed to

"Hi. Hi Mom, hi Dad, hi Baby Sister." Said Shigeko as she sat down. Ritsuko immediately tucked her phone back into her sock. Shigeko was there and she seemed…different, somehow. She was looking over her shoulder a lot. She also smelled like…milk? Well, she did drink a lot of it but that was just it, she drank it, she didn't swim in it. Her whole uniform actually looked kind of damp and her hair was plastered to her head…

If someone had dumped their milk over her head again, like when they had been young, Ritsuko was going to make them pay.

"Did someone pour milk on your head, sister?" asked Ritsuko. Shigeko shook her head and took a slice of pizza…Ritsuko's pizza. Not that it mattered, it was terrible pizza, though the polite thing to do would have been to ask.

"No, not really. I just kind of ran into this smile club thing and they were drinking milk and laughing and I couldn't but then I did and…and what did you do today, sister?" asked Shigeko. Mom looked at Dad, Dad looked at Mom, Ritsuko looked at the both of them. There was a moment of silence before Mom shook her head.

"I found out who was tearing the endings out of library books. I caught him in the act, too, and all he had to say for himself was that he had thought it was funny for some reason." Said Ritsuko after a moment. She had no idea what any of that had been about, and she wanted to ask, but Mom had said no. There was no way that she was going to be able to walk on the edge of danger here, no, if she said anything Mom of course was going to hear and then get mad at her.

As nice as it would have been to not have to worry about getting in trouble for once it would have kind of sucked to have gotten in trouble right now in the first place.

"Did he laugh?" asked Shigeko

"No, not really. He mostly just asked for a lawyer and told us that Onigawara would hear about this." Said Ritsuko with a shrug.

"Oh…ok. So I'm not that only one who can't laugh then…so I'm not weird. Not that weird, anyway, right? Baby Sister?" asked Shigeko. Ritsuko quickly took a bite of food. She didn't know what to say. She didn't want to lie. Shigeko knew that she was weird and if Ritsuko lied and said that she was normal, well, it wasn't like she was dumb enough to believe it. But if she went and called Shigeko weird then that would have been mean and then Mom and Dad would have been mad at her…for once she didn't know what to do.

She looked at Mom.

Mom looked at Dad.

"Maro, what was it that we were talking about again?" asked Mom

"Oh yeah! Shigeko, taste this pizza and tell me if it's edible." Said Dad. Shigeko took a bite and chewed…and chewed…and chewed. The whole time she was as stone faced as ever. Dad was sitting on the edge of his seat.

"It's…food." Said Shigeko. Dad sighed and closed his pizza box.

"Fine, fine, that's the last time I go to hot and ready pizza." Said Dad and he got up. Ritsuko closed her box too and got up, mostly because she didn't want to set Shigeko or mom off. The more she sat there the bigger the chance that she would set one of them off…and then…and then bad things would happen. So she went with Dad where it was safer. It had been exciting walking on the edge of getting in trouble but those had been low stakes things, low stakes compared to Shigeko losing control, and Shigeko…there was no one with higher stakes than Shigeko.

So she helped Dad clean up and went back to her room. She didn't care that she'd left an extra chair at the dinner table. Shigeko could have it.

She needed the space.