AN: Thank you for your patience in this update. I hope that this chapter is worth the wait 😊
Chapter Twenty Eight – A Worthless Father
Walking out of the interview studio, Kuon couldn't feel more crushed. Somebody was truly out to get him and though he didn't think that this was going to end his acting career so much of his past was out there. They had arrested him. They had seen him undergo torture as a child actor. They had learned his name, his lifestyle in America. He felt completely defeated and just wanted to spend some time alone.
Yashiro followed after him as he left the studio, "Kuon, do you need to talk about this?" he asked and Kuon ran a hand through his blond hair before shaking his head silently. "Listen, let's grab a drink. Talk this over."
"I want to be alone," Kuon stated and Yashiro paused as he saw the distance that Kuon was putting between him and everyone else emotionally. Yashiro wanted to approach him, tell him that everything was going to be okay and he shouldn't feel as if he needed to hide anything. However, Kuon's body language didn't seem permissive of this.
Yashiro sighed and stood behind him, not wanting to leave him in this condition. "Are you sure that you want that? If you nee-"
"Didn't you hear me!?" Kuon snapped back at his manager and his friend, "I'd like to be left alone, if you don't mind that. You're not…just leave me the hell alone."
"Okay." Yashiro nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow then? Go over which job offers you're going to accept for the upcoming roles?" he asked and Kuon shrugged before shaking his head and walking off by himself. He really did need to be alone. He didn't want to let his parents down, this footage might even hurt them if people didn't actually think about what they had seen.
As he walked down a street, he saw the media waiting for him and rolled his eyes.
That was the biggest problem of being one of the top stars in Japan, he was pretty much sacrificing his own privacy in order to fulfill his dreams. Some people might laugh at how this seemed to be a burden to him. He wasn't laughing though, it wasn't funny.
"Kuon, how do you feel after seeing that video? Did you know it was going to be played?"
Kuon tried to look at them with that cold look that usually deterred people from talking to him but this time it didn't appear to be working. He looked away from them and sighed, putting a hand on his forehead. He just needed to take a few deep breaths and figure out his game plan because he knew that these people wouldn't leave him alone.
"No comment but no I didn't know that," he replied.
"How old were you in that video? Is that what the acting life is like in America for child actors?" another reporter tried to say and Kuon looked at them. Why were they treating this as if it was some news that should be talked about. The abuse of a child being shown and they were treating it as if it were a game.
"No comment," he repeated and another reporter held out a microphone.
"Did your parents know this was happening? If they didn't, why keep it a secret for so long?" she asked and Kuon paused. He could see his parents watching this and he could imagine his mother's shock and his father's guilt. No. They had been great parents for him and maybe some days he was left alone and they came home late and there were a number of times when he was twelve to fourteen when they would leave him alone for an entire weekend. He had matured fast. This had nothing to do with them.
"No. My parents were not aware that this was happening," he finally replied and then looked at them. "No comment to the other question."
"Was it because you were afraid of ruining their careers?" a woman asked and Kuon paused, his eyes widening. Maybe it was because he was afraid of there being some kind of backlash to them. He had heard his father tell him time and time again how important connections were and how you didn't want to create waves with some of the people in the industry especially influential ones.
"The working world in America is different," he said as he tried to sort through his memories. He wasn't even aware of what he had just said until the next question triggered an emotional response, never something good when dealing with the press.
"So, you're saying that your parents cared more about their careers than you?" someone else asked and Kuon looked at them, he felt sick to his gut hearing this.
"My parents love me," he said and another reporter smiled.
"We've heard that you were often neglected by your own parents whilst they focused on their careers. It must have been so scary and lonely for you as a kid if this is the kind of love that they gave," they said and Kuon looked at them in horror.
"My parents love me. It's not as if I couldn't handle being alone as a child. I…piss off," he said before trying to leave. He shouldn't have sunk into those emotions. This was his childish and immature side coming out. He had to leave before they attacked his parents. They didn't know the story behind all of it. He didn't feel neglected because during their time together, his parents made sure to do things with him and communicate. Far more kids had it far far worse than he had.
…..
…..
As they sat in a high-end café for breakfast the next morning, Kuu couldn't help but see all the people glancing in his direction. They weren't looking in the same way. He was used to the curious and excited glances, the people who really wanted to ask for a picture or an autograph. This curiosity carried hesitation and some people even looked betrayed. He was carrying the coffee back to the table when he saw Julie with her arms wrapped around herself staring at her phone.
"Jules?" Kuu asked as he put a hand to her shoulder, "Are you okay?"
Julie shook her head, "Can we go back to the hotel?" she asked and Kuu looked at her concerned. He knew how much she enjoyed the two of them visiting cafes and having breakfast. Her behavior didn't seem normal.
"Is it about what happened with Kuon?" Kuu asked, "I know the footage was terrible but Kuon will pull through. He's used to dealing with the media, just have some confidence in him." Kuu attempted to encourage her. It was then that a reporter came to the table.
"Hi, sorry to bother you this early in the morning but may I ask you some questions about what was shown last night concerning Hizuri Kuon?" he asked and Kuu looked at him. He looked between his wife and the reporter trying to figure out what was best. He could defend his son in this way.
"What's your question?" he asked concerned.
The reporter smiled and looked at them, "How do you feel that Kuon himself said that he believed that his parents, the two of you, prioritized your acting careers over his safety?" the man asked and Kuu looked at him in shock. What was going on here? When did his son say that?
"I don't understand what you're referring to," Kuu said as Julie kept her head bowed. "We always have loved Kuon. We've always felt that he's more important to us than our careers. I don't understand what you're attempting to say."
"How do you feel about him saying that he was often left alone as a child so that you could continue your career and how that made him feel unloved?" the reporter said and Kuu looked to Julie who nodded, tears in her eyes.
"I…we never left him for long…I…."
"Do you know the concept of neglecting a child, Hizuri-san?" the reporter asked and Kuu stared at him. He didn't neglect Kuon. If he had known that his son was being hurt then he wouldn't have cared about his career. Kuon was what was important and he would have beat someone up if he had known about this.
"We never neglected him," Kuu stated.
"Neglecting a child is leaving them alone, leaving them to fend for themselves, not being there to properly take care of them or their emotional problems. In fact, a lot of things about Kuon's part start to add up if you take into account the fact that you two were terrible parents."
Kuu turned to fully face the reporter and slammed his hand down on the table. "Listen to me, my wife is a wonderful woman who would never treat our son with anything else but love. My wife was pained for years about what happened to Kuon. If we really didn't care about our son, we wouldn't want him near us. My wife does not deserve this."
"So, it was you rather than her who decided to leave your son alone? It was you who decided that your son should be sent away to Japan?" the reporter asked. "This was your decision and not your wife's?"
Kuu paused, his body felt as if it was getting covered in ice but he had to try to burn through that frozen state and protect Julie. "Yes," he said with an expression proving that he was willing to fight this reporter. "Yes, it was my idea. Julie was against it. It was all my idea for that to happen."
…..
…..
Kuon felt ill. He knew what being sick was like and Kyoko had helped him through that, she had helped him feel better and to recover but this was a different type of ill. He felt dead inside. He had done so much to recover from what he had been through but he had never really understood the effects that it would cause and now he had messed it up for his parents.
He didn't know why his father had admitted guilt but he wouldn't have had to were he to have answered that question properly. He shouldn't have given them the information on his childhood. His parents had been a little thoughtless maybe but they had trusted him. They hadn't meant to hurt him or cause his loneliness and they had always asked him if he would be okay before they left.
He was the kid who wanted to do anything to help his parents and had lied and said that he was okay and happy and knew how to deal with it.
Now they were calling his father a bad parent, they were painting him as some kind of workaholic who cared more about his acting career than his family and sent him away because of disgust. This wasn't his father that they were describing. What was worse was that his dad was born in this country. This was his home. He, an immigrant, had caused for his father's home nation to turn against him.
He couldn't get rid of this feeling of devastation. He had caused pain for his father and he didn't deserve that. Kuon looked in front of him at what he had managed to get from one of the LME staff without them noticing it. A withdrawal form from the agency. He didn't want to see his father go down in flames and maybe if he disappeared for a while people would forget about him and the pain he had caused.
He looked at the paper but it was blown away by a gust of wind.
He was about to grab it but saw a hand pick it up and looked up at the person from where he was sat. He stared at them as they read the paper in horror.
"You can't seriously be considering this."
End of Chapter Twenty Eight
Thank you for reading
Thank you to the reviewers of Chapter Twenty Seven
Brennakai, Kris XD, PaulaGaTo, RedtheWolf2
Response to Reviews
Thank you so much for your support. There's a lot that I still need to think about so I can't answer the questions just yet. However, thank you for all the inspiring comments for future chapters. Yes, a press conference would be a great idea. As for how it was released it will be either in the next chapter or the one after it.