(Trigger warnings for domestic abuse, rape, and abortion. I ask you all to understand that some topics expressed in this chapter are not to be taken lightly, and to respect this fact. Furthermore, the beliefs of the characters are not explicitly related to those of the original author or myself; please remember this is a work of fiction. Thank you.)

Osakada Tomoka

1. She was jealous of Sakuno.

The girl was pretty, with gorgeous eyes and wonderfully manageable hair paired with naturally flawless skin. She had lost her parents young, true, but she had a wonderful grandmother as a support system who, though harsh, Tomoka knew was every bit as great a person as Sakuno said. And, more than anything else, the younger girl always managed to keep her positive outlook on life, something Tomoka absolutely loathed her for on more than one occasion.

2. She hated her step-father no matter how hard she tried not to.

He was a good man, she knew, and he did provide for her family. He was better than the scumbag her real father was, and he worked a respectable nine to five job that paid well and kept food on the table and diamonds in her mother's ears. He even tried to bond with her by taking her out to fancy restaurants and buying her nice things. In the end, though, he never believed her, always blamed her, and never cared about her any more than he cared about the other items to be checked off on his daily agenda, and Tomoka couldn't accept that.

3. Her younger brothers were annoying but, in the end, they were still hers.

Biologically related and everything. Sure, Tomoka hated having to take care of them a lot of the time – it meant she had little to no social life, not that she would have had one anyway, and they stole all sorts of things from her from time to actual physical articles of clothing and jewelry. But when the day was done and they were both tucked in, sleeping peacefully, Tomoka could look over them and smile – they were her brothers, had the same parents she had, and it was enough to get her through the next day.

4. She did care what people though of her, regardless of how she acted.

Tomoka was well aware of how she was perceived socially, and she was also well aware how aloof she could appear to be about public opinion. But the truth was, underneath it all, she really did care whether people liked her or whether they hated her guts. She did care whether or not the popular girls were starting rumors, and she did care whether or not she was perceived as a total slut or as a butch lesbian – only two of the things she knew she had been called. No matter how much she hated it, there were a good number of nights during her school days that Tomoka cried herself to sleep over the stupid, silly opinions of classmates, and though she looked back on the times later for what they were – silly – they remained some of the worst throughout her life.

5. Her self-esteem had been officially shattered by her first boyfriend.

He'd come into her life at a crucial time, her first year of high school, when everything and then some seemed to be changing. He had lured her in slowly, and he had been nice at first but then there were the days he wouldn't call and the days where he would only call to make sure she was home, alone, with no one else. His words and tone were violent, and his fists hit even harder than his sharp, icy eyes. He used her, she had no choice but to follow, and when he finally left her it was more than her body that was breaking and bleeding and bruised: it was her pride, and her entire mental well being.

6. A single red rose daily from her second boyfriend had brought it back.

She had accepted his offer far more quickly than she should have, but she was desperate and afraid and lost with no where to go and no one to turn to. He made he feel special, and he said nice things to her, and even though this scared her because he had done that boy number two… was accepting. He went just as slow as she liked, at just the pace she wanted, and when the first rose had shown up in her bedroom window she had smiled slightly. The second had been a kind gesture, the third a bit testy, but the fourth and onward only managed to strengthen the bond between them and restore what little self-esteem possible.

7. She'd been raped.

During her second year of high school at a party some random chick in her class had invited her to. She didn't like anyone there and didn't even know the person hosting, but there had been enough booze to get half the teenaged population of Japan drunk and she set her cup down without a second thought. When she woke the next morning in an unfamiliar ally not even near the house she'd been at, thighs bruise and body aching, she wasn't sure which was more terrifying: the fact that it had happened, or the fact that she didn't remember anything about it.

8. She had an abortion.

And she never regretted it, though she knew a fair few people who would have if they had known about the situation in the first place. It was a baby she didn't want, though, a baby she couldn't care for, and a baby she didn't even recall conceiving with a person she didn't know who had taken something valuable from her by force – something she couldn't get back. Though she would wonder years later what could have been, when her future finally settled down – when she was ready – Tomoka didn't regret doing it. She only regretted having to in the first place.

9. After the party in high school she never took another drink.

Not even at dinner with her husband years later, not even at their wedding, not even at a fancy New Year's Eve party despite the glistening champagne fountain. She had been tempted to on more than one occasion – in particular when she had just started seeing her future husband and he had bought her a rich, lovely, aged bottle of wine that smelled of all sorts of exquisite fruits – but there was a little block in her mind that never let her put the glass to her lips, no matter how small the amount of alcohol in it contained. It was difficult to deal with sometimes, but reliving what she had gone through as a teenager was not an option, and though it was stupid by the time she was old enough to realize it was possible to have self-control it had become such habit it would have been silly to stop.

10. She had gone into company management.

Despite the experiences in her youth, Tomoka made as good a recovery as any and went into management as soon as possible. It was messy work, sometimes, with all of the paper work but underneath having great penmanship it was about being bossy and conniving, both making and calling bluffs, and if there were a few things Tomoka was good at it was those.