Chapter 7
His neighbour liked to listen to classical music on the occasion. But they also liked to listen to a lot of other annoying music that seeped through the walls. The tenant was new – Kyouya had never encountered anyone living in the unit beside him until his second year. Unfortunately, this also meant that the walls were thin.
Whoa! This is where you live? It's sick.
Kyouya rolled his eyes. Their guests were always annoying. Always loud. Ridiculously enthusiastic. They only had guests every once in a while. He could hear the woos and the ahhs throughout the night, only quieting down after midnight when they all scurried through the door to leave.
He never encountered his neighbour until well into his second year. They fiddled with the keys to the place while holding a bag of groceries when Kyouya had been coming back from class. This guy was just a little taller than he was with ashy brown hair. His green eyes called out to him for help.
"Sorry, I'm supposed to surprise my girlfriend with dinner but I can't seem to get into her apartment… do you mind just holding onto these?" he handed over the bag of groceries in the paper bag without giving Kyouya any time to respond.
The Shadow King glared at the man before rolling his eyes.
"I had the key copied without her knowing so, uh," the boyfriend continued. "Was sort of hoping it would work on the first try." The man fiddled with the door a little before the turn of the lock was heard. "Yes! Gosh, she's gonna love this. Thanks man, I appreciate it."
He took the groceries back from the Ootori and introduced himself.
"I'm Bryan."
"Kyouya," the Ootori coldly responded.
"Great meeting you!"
The Ootori turned his back and obviously did not reciprocate the feeling. What a nuisance.
"Your neighbour's kind of a dick."
"Huh?" Mari looked up from the homecooked meal. She had just gotten home from a midterm to her boyfriend surprising her with a meal. It was incredibly sweet. But only after the initial shock of her finding an intruder in her apartment.
"He gave me the dirtiest look. I mean, help a guy out… my hands were full."
"Hm," Mari shrugged. "I've never met him, honestly. But I'll take your word for it."
Your neighbour is kind of a dick.
Kyouya's ears perked up. Damn these thin walls. It wasn't his fault that he could hear the murmurs of his neighbours while he worked in his living area.
Huh?
A female voice answered.
The Ootori walked closer to the wall.
He gave me the dirtiest look. I mean, help a guy out my—
Kyouya wanted to stomp over to the next unit to yell at the guy but decided it wasn't worth his time. As long as his annoying neighbours steered clear of him, it would be fine. He made a mental note to report his neighbour for any noise violations in the future. He would show no mercy now that he knew exactly what his neighbours thought of him.
Mari couldn't complain about her boyfriend.
He was smart, cute, and incredibly sweet. It began during her summer of volunteering under a lab, doing the grunt work of making buffers, autoclaving, and refilling the supplies. He was the one to show her around the lab, showing her the ropes of how the system worked. It was a summer of bonding over old professors that they both had, late-nights working in the lab, and summer drinks to help relieve the stress.
It was hard to believe that they had been together for a year, when for Mari – it felt like only a few months. She spent the summer after her second year doing more research, visiting her boyfriend's family on the West Coast, and forgetting that she actually a life back in Japan.
Her only reminder of Japan was when she ran into him in the lobby of the building she lived in.
"Oh," Mari blinked. "Kyouya! How are you?" they both stepped into the elevator. She pressed the button for the 12th floor. The highest floor in the building. They hadn't seen each other all year.
"Alright."
Mari noted the suitcases he leaned against. Their third year would begin in less than a week. He must have just gotten back from Japan after the summer.
"How was Japan?" she politely asked.
"Same old," Kyouya perched his glasses up.
"You must be tired from the jetlag. Do you need any help with your suitcases?" Mari offered.
"No, thanks," he rolled his suitcases from the elevator onto the floor that they lived in. He made his way down the hallway to his unit. Mari followed closely behind.
"I'm fine," Kyouya reassured.
"No, uh, I live… here," Mari pointed towards the unit beside his.
The two blinked at each other. Kyouya put the pieces together.
"You're noisy," the Ootori seethed.
"Me? Noisy? What?" Mari was shocked. She was still wrapping her head around how they had never come across one another over the past year.
"You and your friends! Always yelling during the beginning of the year."
"I had a couple labmates over for drinks and board games, geez, why didn't you just knock on my door?"
Kyouya rolled his eyes. "I had other things to do."
"Like… sulk because you don't have any friends?" Mari teased.
The Ootori stabbed his key into the door without another word.
"Hey, hey, hey," Mari called out to him, taking his suitcase as hostage so she could have a word in. "Just let me know if we're bothering you, okay? You don't have to suffer in silence. We're friends, aren't we?"
The Ootori silently heaved his suitcases into his own unit without another word.
Your neighbour is kind of a dick, she remembered Bryan telling her.
Well then. That explains a lot, she thought. Mari chalked it up to jetlag and being pissy. The Shadow King was known to behave poorly early in the mornings or when he was sleep deprived. He was tolerable otherwise.
"Hey, be nice to my neighbour, okay?"
Mari was in the midst of cooking breakfast for the two of them. She scrambled the eggs with ease, making sure to add enough seasoning. Bryan came up from behind her, circling his arms around her waist before planting a kiss to her temple.
"The dickhead?"
"Well," Mari reached for the tongs to flip over the bacon. "We're actually old classmates from high school. He's…"
"Pissy?"
Mari laughed. It was the exact word she would have described Kyouya at times.
"He can be nice though," she explained. "It just… takes some patience. He was in Japan for the summer. It might be the jetlag?"
"Jetlag doesn't explain how much of a dick he was to me the last time we met…" Bryan grumbled. "But okay. If you say so – I'll be the bigger man here."
She smiled. "Thank you. Now eat." She fed him a bite of the scrambled eggs.
Be nice to my neighbour, okay?
Kyouya was in the middle of unpacking his suitcase.
The dickhead?
The Ootori wanted to punch the six foot tall American with his dumb green eyes and hair that was far too long to be seen as proper.
We're actually old classmates from high school.
He should've known that it was Mari's voice all along. The tones of the voices were muted slightly because of the drywall, but if you paid enough attention you could easily make out the words. Laughter ensued. Kyouya missed part of the conversation but he quickly figured that they laughed about him. It irked him.
He can be nice though. It just takes some patience. He was in Japan for the summer. It might be the jetlag?
Mari was evidently the more reasonable one out of the two. He had to admit that he half-expected her to be talking shit about him, but she held him in a higher regard than he had initially thought.
It made him feel… good?
What was this weird feeling? Maybe it was relief, knowing that Mari didn't hate him entirely. Or that it validated his character in not being as evil as the rest of the world thought of him to be. Whatever it was, Kyouya continued on unpacking. He put on some music to drown out the voices on the other side.
"When do I get to meet your family?"
Mari blinked. "What?" She was in the middle of studying for finals with her boyfriend across from her. They often had study dates at the library – if not the library, then they were in the lab together. Or, in the same building where their labs were located. Mari had taken another undergraduate research position in a different lab that aligned with her research interests.
"My family loves you," Bryan shrugged. "You know everything about me. I want to know where you grew up. Who your childhood friends are. What your childhood was like, you know?"
"Japan is far," Mari pointed out. "Like, we have to fly… across the continent… and then a whole ocean."
Bryan laughed. His voice resonated throughout the library, garnering some dirty looks.
"Yes, I know. Thank you Mari – you'd make a wonderful geography professor one day."
"I'm just saying it's…" she sighed. "I don't… I don't usually make the trip back because it's inconvenient." The inconvenience was just the beginning of a whole list of emotional baggage that she certainly did not want to dump on her boyfriend. He wasn't ready for it.
Mari wasn't sure if Bryan would ever be ready for the kind of lifestyle she lived in Japan.
"C'mon, it'll be such a great opportunity for a grad trip," her boyfriend begged. He was graduating in the upcoming spring. Mari still had a year left to go.
"They're really not expecting me back home for anything," Mari sighed.
"I'll learn Japanese!" Bryan insisted.
"You don't have to do that," the girlfriend laughed. "They all speak English to a degree."
Bryan gave her a skeptic look. "Does that explain why you speak English with a strange British lilt?"
"Uh," Mari shrugged. She had been trying to get rid of that accent, but it slipped out every so often. "My school taught British English. So all my siblings speak like I do."
"I'm excited," he beamed.
Mari could only give him a small smile before going back into studying.
"Wakarimasen."
Mari narrowed her eyes at the sound. She was comfortably laid on the couch, with her head on his lap. She sat up from the couch and put her textbook away. "What?"
"Ogenki desu ka?"
"Bryan, what are you doing?"
Her boyfriend hunched over his phone, repeating phrase from the Duolingo app.
"Sumimasen."
Mari tapped her boyfriend on the shoulder. He took out an earbud and grinned. "I'm learning Japanese!"
"Why didn't you just… ask me?" Mari rolled her eyes.
"Because you're busy being a scholar and you won't even give me the time of day," he pouted.
"Gogo kuji," the girlfriend answered effortlessly.
"Huh?" Bryan paused the app on the phone.
"Gogo kuji," Mari repeated. "It's 9 PM," she said in English.
He widened his eyes. "Does that mean… I can come back to Japan with you?"
Mari shook her head with a grin. "We'll see." It was too far from the summer to even make any decisions. Besides, teaching him a couple phrases wouldn't do any harm. It made him happy and Mari couldn't take that away from him.
Ohayo gozaimasu!
Kyouya groaned. Why were the walls so thin? He could literally hear the obnoxious American shout good morning at 8 AM. Since when did he start learning Japanese? Poorly, at that.
Ugh. Why did I ever teach you that?
He heard her groan. Well, at least they both felt the same.
Gomenasai!
Oh my god, shut up… I just want… to sleep.
We gotta go on our morning run!
Kyouya couldn't fall back asleep after being wakened by the dumbest sounding American alarm clock on the planet. He wanted to punch the wall. But that would have been counterproductive. Instead, he grabbed his laptop and searched for all the Bryans that came up on Facebook. Why was he doing this? He didn't want to think about that quite yet. Perhaps he could find some kind of dirt. Anything.
Was his name spelled Brian? Or Bryan? Kyouya tried both. It was an hour of sifting through many student photos that looked nothing like the guy he had seen loitering around Mari's apartment.
Bryan Karson
Bingo. Kyouya clicked on the student profile. A chemistry major. Had a work-study position working in an organic lab. Had all the requirements to graduate in the spring. He was boring on paper.
Kyouya dug some more into the profile of Bryan Karson. He was a hockey fan. Liked the Bruins. He liked to run marathons. He was from Seattle, Washington. His favourite food seemed to be pasta in every shape or form.
And most of all, if his social media was of any indication: he really liked Mari. Kyouya scrolled to a photo of the two of them. Mari looked up at the camera, smiling with her arms around his waist. His expression mirrored the same beam of happiness that she exuded. They looked natural together.
When she doesn't have any social media so you have to post twice as much. There was an emoji with the tongue sticking out.
Kyouya rolled his eyes at the caption. Man, there were so many likes. He scrolled down to a posed photo of them at a friend's wedding over the past summer.
When she tells me that this dress was just "lying somewhere in the closet." A rolling eyed emoji followed after.
Kyouya recognized the dress as the same bridesmaid dress that she wore two years ago at her brother's wedding. It really was just a dress lying somewhere in her closet, he chuckled. Mari's hair had been braided delicately. She looked over her shoulder with a smile. Bryan had caught her in a perfect candid shot.
He scrolled into a deep hole. He learned that they started training for marathons together. He took her on his favourite hike back home last summer. There was another photo of her smiling with an ice cream cone at his childhood ice cream parlour. Another photo of her posing with his family.
They love her more than me!
Kyouya sighed. He was in deep. And so was Mari. She seemed to be progressing well with her relationship with this… guy that Kyouya couldn't hate, not entirely. She looked genuinely happy, and probably was happier being here than back home.
He couldn't blame the guy. Mari was a sweet girl – just not to him. That was annoying, but beyond that: Mari was talented. A linguist. Exceptionally smart. It was hard not to see why he would bring her home. Mari ticked off every checklist for any boy – surely a catch.
To any commoner boy, that is.
He closed his laptop. Kyouya was far from any commoner. His blood was pure. He was raised to be better than the rest.
Or so he thought.
Mari looked at the invitation in her email.
Emi Takuya cordially invites you to her baby shower on June 17th. Please RVSP.
She remembered the last time she made a big deal out of the lack of emails, two years ago at the wedding. Contact with her family had been minimal over the past year or so. Not that anyone seemed to have the time to keep in contact with Mari to begin with. Yuki was heading into her last year of Lobelia. Kanda was obviously busy with the family business. And her sister-in-law had been growing a baby these past 3 months.
This was actually the second email she had received from Emi's assistant.
Mari sighed at her computer monitor.
"What's wrong?" Bryan's ears perked up. "You've been looking so forlorn."
The girlfriend exhaled and mumbled something that Bryan couldn't catch.
"Hm?" He put down his pencil. It was nearing the end of the term. Just a few more weeks to go and Bryan would be a Harvard graduate.
"How do you feel about baby showers?" Mari grumbled.
"I like babies!" He nodded agreeably.
"But not showers?" she gave a small smile.
"No," he shook his head. "Showering babies? Ridiculous. They need baths, of course."
She chuckled at him.
"My sister-in-law wants me back home for her baby shower. So… yeah, maybe you… can come," Mari reluctantly explained.
Bryan's eyes lit up. "Really? Hontou desu ka?"
Mari rolled her eyes. "Yeah, just please don't embarrass me with the Japanese."
"You know I will!"
She couldn't help but to laugh. He was such a good person to her. There was nothing but kindness in his eyes when he looked at her. Bryan was everything Mari could have asked for. He was a sweet boy who would do anything to keep her happy. She reached to kiss him on his jaw and huddled closer to him. He welcomed her embrace, keeping her close under his arm.
"Be prepared," she whispered.
"Be prepared to visit your family? Dude, I'm stoked." Bryan grinned at her.
Mari shook her head.
"There's something you should know."
Bryan had never been so excited in his life. He let his girlfriend take the reigns in leading him around Japan – what more of a grad trip could he possibly ask for? They hiked around Mount Fuji. Experienced tea houses along the rural roads. Visited temples across the country. He was in awe of the natural landscape of the country, in contrast to the urban cityscape in the heart of Tokyo.
There was so much to experience. It was a sensory overload on a daily basis and he got to do it all with her.
"This is amazing, Mari," he told her as he ate vending machine food. Mari had her commoner friends to thank for that.
"It's… it's alright," she chuckled. Mari was glad that Bryan was having a great time. But the entire trip had her accumulate her anxiety until the very end when the baby shower was scheduled.
"Why don't we stay at your home?" Bryan asked. "I mean, I guess I should've asked earlier since the trip is almost over – but don't you have family to visit instead of showing me around Japan?"
"We'll see my family at the baby shower," Mari explained. "The house isn't really located in the city. Not much to do," she gave a sheepish excuse.
The reality was that Mari wasn't prepared to take Bryan home to the mansion with housekeepers and a team of butlers that were at her every beck and call during her childhood. It was complete with a private tennis court, swimming pool, a glorious garden, and not to mention multiple garages for the cars that the entire family owned. It was the kind of thing you would see in movies or read in books – not real life.
"So your family is rich," Bryan shrugged. "Like, rich enough to afford your international tuition fees."
"Y-yeah," Mari cleared her throat in discomfort. Her tuition was no joke, even with the scholarships that she qualified for. Her family was also rich enough to own 3 skyscrapers they saw on the way to the department store. Some properties were still being developed across the city but that wasn't a detail Mari wanted to delve into.
"Why do you look so nervous? If it's anyone that should be nervous, it's me," Bryan smiled.
"Um," Mari grimaced. "I really don't know if this was a good idea." It was a bad idea, and she knew it. But how could she let him down? Bryan had been so excited to meet her family and she had already met his. It didn't feel right to keep him away from it all.
But goodness – Mari knew better. Bryan had no clue the sort of social circle that she was raised in. But it also wasn't like Mari had intended to stay in the sphere for the rest of her life, either. Mari never saw herself as a socialite. She cared less for the benefits and art galleries than she did for the grass stains on her shoelaces.
Mari emailed Emi's assistant back to ask if she could bring a plus one in hopes that they would say no. That was the best case scenario. She could leave Bryan for a couple hours and come back to meet him at the hotel. And yet, the assistant confirmed that it was alright.
"There will be family and… guests," Mari slowly explained. "Just um, smile? Look pretty. Try not to speak too much Japanese that you don't know."
"I can smile," Bryan flashed another smile at her. "But you can take care of looking pretty."
Mari fake gagged. "Gross."
"You love it though," he called out.
She couldn't hold back a smile.
"How do you manage to always look so amazing?"
Mari rolled her eyes. She put her hair up in a bun – only this time there were no baby hairs sticking out with loose ends that stuck out of the bun itself. It was incredible how little it took to look twice as refined. Her dress was something she pulled out of her closet from high school. Off-shoulder white lace dress. Her lips were painted a muted shade of pink. Her eyes were sharply lined. Mari grabbed her clutch from the table.
"Isn't this a baby shower? Why do you look so formal?"
The girlfriend sighed and pouted. "Bryan, you're going to have to change."
"Huh?"
The boyfriend wore a simple dress shirt with khaki shorts. His hair was done nicely. But that was about it. Mari gently shoved her boyfriend into the bathroom of the hotel room.
"You can borrow my brother's suit. You guys are pretty similar in stature. You might be a little more broad, so maybe skip the blazer? We'll see."
Bryan came out in a couple minutes, obediently following his girlfriend's instructions. The suit fit like a glove, thankfully. Mari was quick to put the cuff links on before he could even say a word. He watched her work swiftly with her long fingers.
"I know this is dumb. But rich people can be super condescending," Mari pleaded with her eyes for him to understand. "If you walk into this event with khaki shorts you will be stared at for more reasons than needed."
"What other reasons?"
"Well, you're… white," Mari noted the most obvious reason. "That already gets you stares from everyone here."
Bryan nodded slowly.
"And… you are what they call a commoner."
"A commoner?" he laughed. "What, so you can't be seen with a commoner? How can they tell?"
"I can be seen with a commoner – but the rest of the crowd will wonder how a commoner has stepped foot into such an event. Also, the shorts. Dead giveaway that you are a commoner," Mari explained.
"It's a freaking baby shower!"
She laughed. "I know. It's dumb. Why do babies have to get showered, right?" she teased. "But honestly – this is just… how frivolous the upper class can be. I just… I have to keep face for my family. It's… it's really the least I can do." Her eyes were tired as she tried her best to explain the workings of the upper class.
"Okay," he softly said. "I'll do what you need me to do." How could he not?
Yuki gaped at the sight of him. Six feet tall, ashy brown hair, a stunning smile with a jawline that could cut through paper. The man smiled brightly down at her. Oh Mari… you're screwed, was all Yuki could think.
"This is your plus one?" she asked Mari.
Mari looked up to Bryan and pursed her lips. "Yes, this is Bryan," she answered her little sister in English. She gave a look to Yuki to respond in the same language out of courtesy. Yuki eyed the man one more time before offering her hand.
"I'm Yuki. Mari's sister," the teenager politely introduced herself, her British accent heavier than Mari's. Her hair was dyed blonde, her eyes larger than Bryan had ever seen. They were doll-like. She looked truly unreal. He couldn't believe that they were sisters.
"Cool, nice to meet you," Bryan responded warmly. He looked around. "So, uh, are all of these your family members?" He tried to brush off the stares from the rest of the room.
"No," Mari patted him on the arm in reassurance. "I'll introduce you to the important ones and uh, we'll leave."
"What? No, that's rude."
Mari raised an eyebrow at him, as if to ask if he really wanted to be in a room filled with snobby rich people who were judging his every move. Yuki shrugged. It was typical Mari behaviour. Show up to something, say hello, and then leave halfway through. It was fine, mostly because no one bothered to look for her. Except maybe their mother.
"Okay fine, this suit is kind of stuffy."
He let his girlfriend take him by the hand as she smiled politely towards all the other guests.
"Emi," Mari greeted politely. The pregnant woman was glowing. Her sister-in-law smiled at the sight of Mari and was surprised to see the boy who tagged along. "You look beautiful in that dress. How are you?"
"Fine. The first trimester was awful. I'm glad to see you are doing well, Mari," Emi answered warmly. "Who is this?" She turned her attention to the giant who stood beside her.
"Bryan," Mari repeated for the second time of the day. "This is my sister-in-law," she told Bryan. Her boyfriend shook her relative's hand with ease.
"Beautiful event," he commented – thankfully in English. "It's absolutely gorgeous." He pointed to all the décor that lined the walls.
"Thank you," Emi responded curtly. "Are you two…"
"Yes," Mari cut off with a forced smile. "We met at school."
"That's very sweet," her sister-in-law nodded approvingly.
"I'll let you get to the rest of your guests, Emi. Keep me updated," Mari whisked away Bryan before any more questions could be asked.
She dragged him to the outskirts of the banquet hall. Mari settled in the corner and began looking around hurriedly. "If I can find Kanda… he'll be the last person we'll see today…"
"Are we hiding?" Bryan whispered.
Mari gave her boyfriend an incredulous look. "Of course we're hiding! I don't know half those people in the room. I hate these events. This is literally the only time our family gathers."
"Your family doesn't… have gatherings? Like, you know, eat dinner together? Sunday roast?" Bryan was flabbergasted. He knew that Mari wasn't as close with her family as he was with his, but not like this.
Mari shook her head. "Not since Kanda got married and I left for Harvard," she shrugged. "It's no big deal, really. I just…"
"Mari." She recognized that voice. She looked at her boyfriend with widened eyes, like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Yes, mother?" Mari turned around slowly.
"You should be mingling with the guests," she chided. "Who is this?" Mari's mother looked up to the American with a raised brow, obviously unimpressed.
"I'm sure you've already heard from Yuki," Mari responded, snarky in her tone.
"Bryan, this is my mom."
The boyfriend lit up in excitement. Finally, a phrase that he understood in English. He smiled eagerly, offering his hand. "Oh god, you don't know how excited I've been to meet you."
Her mother put on a forced smile and shook the boy's hand. She turned to Mari.
"Why did you have to do this? And here of all places?" her mother turned to her with a hushed tone.
"Does it matter? No one really notices me. We're just here to say hi and pay our respects," Mari reasoned.
"They don't notice you but they notice him," the mother gestured to the American who stuck out like a sore thumb. He was taller than everyone. Louder than everyone. Less sophisticated than everyone.
Mari blinked. "Okay, yes – he's very uh… I can see why this would be an issue – but people hardly care about me! This is about Emi and the baby."
Bryan watched the mother and daughter pair whisper to one another in Japanese. No amount of Rosetta Stone could have helped him in this case. He stared blankly until a pause in the conversation came up.
"I uh, I hope you two are saying good things about me," he casually joked.
Mari glanced at her guest and sighed.
"I'll leave," Mari told her mom. They continued on in Japanese.
"Well, the damage is done," her mother shook her head. "What do his parents do?"
Mari bit her lip. "His mom is a social worker, his dad is a chef."
The mother gave a look of disappointment to her daughter. "Mari, you go to Harvard – you couldn't have chosen someone more… refined?"
"He's plenty refined! Look at him!" He looked like something out of an Abercrombie and Fitch ad – maybe minus the heavily defined abs.
"Is that not Kanda's suit?"
Mari groaned. "He can be refined," she corrected.
Mari's mother shook her head at her naïve child. "We are not in the business of turning frogs into a prince, Mari. This will not do. Not with everyone watching."
"No one's watching me," Mari tried reasoning again. She was always forgotten. The middle child. "Why does it matter?" There were no expectations to fulfill – none that she had thought.
"Is this your little attempt at calling for attention then, Mari?" the mother just couldn't understand what went on in her daughter's mind. It was all quite silly.
"No! How could you think that?"
"First Harvard, then the wedding, and now this!" the mother listed. "You are so selfish, Mari. What will others think of us?"
Mari took a moment to have her mother's words sink in.
"I'll leave," she repeated. "It seems like all I am to this family is shame," Mari coldly added.
You've been different ever since we got back! Why won't you talk to me?
What do you mean? I've been talking. I'm fine. We're fine.
You aren't fine. You refuse to talk about where this is going.
Kyouya grumbled to himself as he drank his morning coffee. Or at this point, noon coffee. He woke naturally half an hour ago, mostly because of the sun. The cool September air filtered through his windows overnight, a sign that autumn was knocking at the doorstep.
He had to admit, there were better things to listen to than the couple bickering next door.
You're only back for a week. Can we spend less time arguing and more time about us?
How is the topic of our future not about us?!
Kyouya figured that they had been dating for a little over two years now. Trouble in paradise, it seemed.
Then what about the present? Why can't we just enjoy where we are?
His hands reached over to put on some music through his Bluetooth speakers as he sipped the rest of his coffee. Kyouya stopped listening. Or… tried to, anyway.
He heard her talking on the phone sometimes. Her British accent became the most prominent when she spoke heatedly in arguments. Evidently Mari didn't have the time to consciously control her speech to become more American.
No, I don't just… talk things out with my family. That's… that's not what we do.
Kyouya could relate. He didn't speak to his family, unless completely necessary. Fuyumi called every so often, or texted to see if he was alive every few weeks. She complained often about how he never sought to care after his own sister because of the one-sided conversations.
I wasn't keeping anything from you. You knew fully well that my family came from privilege… okay, fair – maybe not to the extent that I had explained… but—
Could he say that he was surprised? The Ootori shrugged. Mari had always been uncomfortable with where she stood. Never quite mingled with the rich, and never could – Mari was… rugged at the edges. Scuffed shoes, messy hair, and a wardrobe that belonged to some homeless person on the streets. She lived like a pauper.
Honestly? Yeah, my family does have a problem with you. But I don't – so what's the big deal here? It's not like they care about me or what I do—
Kyouya exhaled. The troubles of dating a commoner was not easy in the social circle that they lived in. He really should stop listening.
I have a midterm in 7 hours, can we not do this right now?
And no matter how hard he tried – her voice kept filtering through the walls.
I can't see myself with someone whose family won't accept me.
For fuck's sake – they don't accept me for what I am, so what's the point? I've lived in exile for pretty much my entire undergrad. Bryan, it's not… it's not a big deal.
How is that not a big deal? Do you not value your family at all? Mari, that's not something you should throw away.
Kyouya caught the end of the argument as he walked back home from class. He unlocked the door to his apartment and settled into his apartment after a long day. It would be the long weekend due to Thanksgiving – a well deserved break.
You don't understand.
Yeah, I really don't. I feel like I never really got to know you.
You know me; you've always known me.
What about your family that is so rich they practically own half of Tokyo's skyscrapers? Your sister is some sort of famous back in Japan now. And that you were a world-class pianist? Why didn't you freaking introduce yourself as Mari Takuya, Internationally Acclaimed Pianist from 4 years ago?
Kyouya almost cringed as he listened to them argue. It was a sore spot for her. He didn't hear her say anything back for a long time. Enough so that he even got up from his chair to settle into more comfortable clothing. He even reheated leftovers for dinner.
Those were old wounds that I refused to open. This is enough for a night.
So you're just going to leave this? You won't even put effort into this relationship – how can we ever stay together like this? You never tell me anything. Everything is just skin deep.
Kyouya shut the microwave door and put on some music. It felt so wrong to eavesdrop…
And all this time, he couldn't help it.
Mari was stressed out. Between grad school applications, finals, and now – the loss of her best friend and significant other during her entire undergrad. The impending winter break became especially lonely the more she thought about it.
Her heart ached. Everything about her body felt heavy. It was a feeling that distracted her from doing the simple things. From eating, sleeping properly, and then being too exhausted to finding the focus to study for the last few classes of her degree.
Why did she feel so awful? It wasn't meant to be and Mari knew, at the very back of her mind, that Bryan would never really be someone she could end up with. She was hopeful though. Her naïveté got the best of her as she enjoyed the past few years in bliss. Mari genuinely believed that she could get away with it all – living freely without any expectations to fulfill.
"You alright?"
Mari looked up from the keyhole of her apartment door. Was she hallucinating? She heard Japanese.
The Ootori stood beside her, his head tilted in concern. He looked older now – less of a boy than she remembered and more of a rugged man that had seen better days. Finals were taking a toll on him too, it seemed. He still looked pristine, with a black wool coat and his hair swept smoothly to the side of his head.
"I could use a drink, to be honest," Mari answered, faltering back to the British accent that she was originally taught to speak.
There was no need to pretend. Not around him.
And for that, she exhaled out of relief.
