You're so full of shit, how did I let it get so far?
"I thought you didn't live here anymore."
Ren smirked at her younger sister, standing at the front door of her childhood home. It had been a long, long day at work, she had all of sixty dollars to her name, her fridge was filled with Smirnoff Ice and Parmesan cheese, and she was hungry as all hell. "I don't, but Mom likes to keep her children fed."
She brushed past Karin, using her shoulder to stabilize herself as she removed her shoes. It had been a while since she had last been home, and even though it wasn't her favorite place in the world, she couldn't deny the comfort that came with such a familiar place. It was a stark contrast to her tiny studio apartment; all arching doorways and broad windows and professional decoration. Everything was crisp and clean, very 'Home and Garden Magazine' in that it was just personalized enough to make it look like people still lived there, though sterile enough to make the house look as though it were on the market.
"Lobster ravioli and garlic bread for dinner." Karin quipped, following Ren into the living room, watching as she dropped her bag and coat into her favorite chair. She continued to ignore her younger sister, glancing into the dining room to see the table fully set for five, every utensil in its correct place, each perfectly pressed napkin folded in a neat little triangle. It was almost sickening, how perfect everything was. No wonder she moved out. "So why didn't you bring Emi? We'll pack a doggy bag for her. I know how much she loves Mom's cooking."
Ren stopped mid-stride and glanced over her shoulder at Karin. She stared at the slightly taller brunette for but a moment, before shoving her shoulder, an annoyed smirk splitting across her face. "Shut up, Karin."
"Do you still have that stain on your carpet?" Her sister teased, pink tongue poking out from between her teeth. Ren rolled her eyes, plopping down on the arm of the plush taupe sofa. Her sister followed suit, dropping into the armchair adjacent to the couch, legs draped over the side. Though Ren had almost five years on her sister, the pair really had much more in common than either of them would ever admit to one another.
Though Karin had far more realistic life goals, she and Ren had exactly the same sense of humor, and she shared her elder sister's love of mischief and mind games. After all, she had to put up with sixteen years worth of Ren as an older sister. There wasn't a much better coping mechanism than developing each and every one of her Ren's obnoxiously impish traits. The younger Kuroki was almost an exact clone of her sister, and Ren had always thought that Karin had been her parents' second attempt at making a perfect daughter. She had always considered her to be the prettiest of the three girls, with her full, pouty lips, high cheekbones, and long figure. Karin had a couple of inches on Ren, and her hair was much longer and a bit wavier, but she didn't mind. She had a full cup size on her younger sister. Take that, genetics.
"A stain isn't something that usually goes away, Karin." Ren smirked, propping her head up on her hand.
"Psh, it is if you get a Rug Doctor and clean it up like a real adult." Karin teased. "But what are you doing here, anyway? I know you're not just hungry. What's up?"
Ren rolled her eyes. It seemed like that was all she ever did at her parents' home; roll her eyes and moan and sigh. As much as she loved her sisters, all they ever did (Karin, especially) was ask all these questions and prod at the things she least wanted to discuss. Admittedly, she had come over to talk about her untimely termination from Video Hut, and her new… gig… Though she hadn't quite worked out exactly how she was going to tell her parents that she was an overpaid babysitter.
She inhaled a deep breath and exhaled through her nose, her shoulders slumping. "So I told you about quitting VidHut, yeah?"
"I thought you said you got shitcanned."
"Yeah, so, I quit VidHut," Ren spat, nearly shouting over her younger sister. She shot Karin a venomous look, continuing her explanation. "Yeah. VidHut didn't end up working out like I wanted it to… So I got a new job."
"Oh, dear," a third voice chimed. "I wish you wouldn't switch jobs so frequently."
Ren bit her bottom lip, her shoulders tense and her hands gripping the arm of the sofa beneath her. Ah, shit. Plucking up her courage, she turned around, eye to eye with Reiko Kuroki.
Reiko was a sight to behold in navy blue tailored twill pants, peep-toe flats, and a flowing silk tunic. Just past fifty years old, she was perfectly put together, from her glowing makeup down to her polished toenails, exactly how Ren remembered her. Her arms were crossed beneath her bust, her dark brown gaze soft and concerning. She pulled her dark wavy ponytail over her shoulder and cocked her head at Ren. "Why don't you settle down into a more stable job, Sweetheart? It's so unsettling to see you switching jobs the way you do." She took a step forward, brushing Ren's hair out of her eyes, giving her shoulders a tight squeeze. "You've been eating something more substantial than Taco Bell, haven't you? Do you always have milk in the fridge?"
"Yes, Mom." Ren huffed, staring up at her mother. A tiny smile spread across her face, and she rose to her feet, wrapping her arms around the elder woman. "I missed you. And this job is… a bit more stable. Hopefully after I've finished there, I'll have saved enough money to start printing and showing my work to galleries."
Her mother leveled her with a pained smile and a sympathetic gaze. "Of course you will, Ren." She turned on her heel and quirked her finger, beckoning her children to follow. "Come on and get some dinner, girls. Michiyo will be home from soccer late tonight, and your father's just sitting down, so we'll start without her."
Ren held in her sigh and padded after her mother and sister. Though she tried her best to act like her mother's blatant disappointment in her had no effect, her words hurt. Ren hadn't needed college. She didn't want college. She wanted to take pictures and be an artist and sell her work in galleries and live her dream. Though, her dream just was not satisfying enough for her parents. Her mother at least tried to hide her disappointment with forced smiles and promises that she would love her no matter what she did, but her father…
"Is that Ren?" She caught a glimpse of peppery hair as she entered the dining room, and all of her sensibilities screamed for her to put as much distance between herself and the patriarch at the head of the table as she could. "What is this I hear about you blowing through another job? How many does that make this year, Ren? Twelve?"
"I quit the video store, actually." Ren quipped, letting the acid on her tongue fly despite her better judgment. "And this new job I got is number eight, and the last one for a while."
She flopped into her chair and laid her napkin in her lap, all the while feeling his stare boring into her forehead. She avoided his gaze at all costs, knowing full well that the moment she made eye contact, shit would hit the fan. She jabbed her fork into a particularly fat ravioli and heaped a massive pile onto her plate, completely focused on the task at hand. She would not let him get to her, she swore to herself. She was not the girl she used to be. She was older, and wiser, and she would be damned if she let him agitate her like he used to.
Silence drew taut across the table as the Kurokis began their meal. Just the way Ren liked it. Her family had never been horribly talkative. Opinionated? Absolutely. Touchy-feely, small-talky? Not so much. It was a nice contrast from living with Emi, who had never ever shut her mouth under any circumstances. And to top that, she was loud, in every aspect of life. Loud talker, loud eater, loud in bed; it was ridiculously grating. She had a headache just thinking about her.
"Ren." She snapped into attention and locked eyes with her father, staring her down from across the table. Fuck.
"So? What s this 'permanent job' then, Ren?" Ren grimaced, gripping her knife and fork tight. Shit, that was unprovoked. An unprovoked attack meant that he was in a mood. "And while we're at it, why don't you explain why you were fired from the last place?"
She chewed at the inside of her lip, biting back a snappy retort. Ren stared into his dark, deep, soul-sucking eyes, and all of the pent-up hate within her threatened to burst.
It wasn't difficult to see that Ren and Ken Kuroki brought out the worst in one another, though it hadn't always been that way. She could remember being young and naïve, believing every word her father told her, believing that if she dedicated her life to her studies, that one day she would become a doctor or a businesswoman, or, the holy grail of ambitions, take over her father's chain of hospitals. Which, admittedly, would have been a great career, but Ren realized at a young age that she just was not happy spending all of her time working. Her parents had filled her schedule to overflowing since the day she had began pre-school, stuffing her free time with soccer practice, after-school tutoring, English classes, classical piano. And then Heaven forbid she ever have a summer to herself. If it wasn't summer classes, it was camp, and if it wasn't camp, her mother found some ungodly class for her to take to fill her time.
It was at the age of fourteen, just as she was entering high school, that Ren had decided that enough was enough. Communication had not been an option with her parents; she had tried and failed. So she botched her soccer tryout, joined the track team, bought her first camera, and ditched every single one of her piano classes. It was from that point on that she filled most of her spare time with being grounded. But Ren didn't mind. She was as free as a high school girl could get. But that freedom didn't come without repercussions. While her relationship with her mother remained intact, her father had taken it upon himself to lecture her at length, on an almost weekly basis, about how she was throwing her life away by choosing photography over the family business. In turn, Ren had taken it upon herself to pester him at length, on an almost weekly basis. Their relationship hadn't recovered since then.
"I quit Video Hut because that stupid cow Mizuhashi was completely unbearable, the hours were shit, the wages were even more shit, and I didn't need it anymore." Ren quipped, leveling her father with a deadpan gaze. "Besides, I'd only been out of work for like… two days before I got this new job. What's your damage?"
"Ren, when will you learn that in order to succeed, you need to respect your supervisors, and climb the corporate ladder?" Ren rolled her eyes and stabbed her fork into a particularly meaty hunk of ravioli, settling in for a nice, long lecture. "You make things so hard on yourself by arguing and speaking out of turn; if you would only keep your mouth shut—"
"No, no." Ren shook her head, stuffing another forkful of food into her mouth. She wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and gestured pointedly at him with her fork. "I'm not just gonna sit back and let any supervisor of mine be a dick to me just because they rank higher than I do. It's stupid, and is why women get fucked around with in offices; because they're too scared to say anything about their bosses. I would rather lose my job and keep my dignity, thanks. Oh, and by the way, respect is something that is earned. You give it, you get it, and that woman never gave me shit."
The pair glowered across the table at one another, caught at an impasse. Ren smirked and dropped her fork, settling back into her chair. He knew that she was absolutely right and that gave her a huge leg up. He was intimidated, and that meant that she could now effectively fuck with him without worrying about him snapping back.
"So, what is this new job you've got, Ren?" Karin asked, leaning forward onto her forearms. "I'm actually curious, for once, what you found so fast."
If Ren could have kicked her sister beneath the table, she would have. She had fully intended to tell Karin and Michiyo in private that she was Mokuba Kaiba's personal nanny, but it was the last thing that she wanted to discuss with her parents. It was exactly this kind of job that her father would scrutinize to death, and that her mother would have to force another smile over.
"Well…" She began, inhaling a deep breath, "It's kind of… a really really… sweet… nanny gig?"
The silence stretched again across the dining room, all eyes glued to Ren. She cursed herself for her stupidity; she had known that telling them wouldn't have gone over well. Even her sister was staring her down like she was a leper. Fuck.
Her father spoke first, leaning forward onto the table and lacing his fingers together. He heaved a heavy sigh. "You're serious."
"Dad—"
"Ren, I paid you to babysit your sisters when you were twelve! How do you expect to support yourself on a babysitter's salary?"
"Buh— Dad!"
"How do you expect to move forward in life when you keep on stepping back! Ren, I want for you to grow up! Go to college! Get a real job! Move. On!"
"Dad!" Ren snapped, pounding her fist on the table, rattling the silverware. "I'm doing this so I can move forward! With this money I'm making, I can make prints of my work, I can show them to galleries, I can go to art shows! I can be a real artist! I can live doing what I love!"
"Nonsense! What sort of babysitter earns enough to do all that?"
"Seto Kaiba's nanny does."
Karin's fork slipped from her fingers and clattered angrily against her plate. Her mother's eyes were wide as saucers; her father's mouth hung slack, a quizzical look painting his features. Fuck. Now Ren had done it.
"Actually, it's his little brother I'm babysitting, but still—"
"That's fuckin' awesome!" Karin exclaimed, eyes alight with mischievous glee, "How much is he paying you? Like a million dollars, right? That is so fuckin' cool! When do I get to meet them?"
Her mother sat stunned in her seat, slowly shaking her head. She kept attempting to smile, but came up just short of the real deal each time. While Reiko knew that Seto Kaiba was a wealthy and successful businessman, she also was an avid tabloid reader. She never knew what to believe in those gossip rags, but if all of them were saying that Seto Kaiba tore through women like tissue paper, then there must have been some validity there. And she was making it perfectly plain by the look on her face that she did not trust her daughter's judgment one bit.
"Mom…" Ren pleaded.
Her father gave his head a violent shake, threw his napkin to the table and rose from his chair. "Money does not equate to success, Ren." He snapped, tugging his tie loose. "You will never succeed, riding the coattails of the rich and famous."
He turned on his heel and stomped from the dining room, only stopping to tug on his wife's sleeve, beckoning her to follow. She graced Ren with another worried gaze, before rising from her chair and following him out.
Ren lolled her head back and clapped her hands to her face, pressing her fingers into her eye sockets. "Fuck." She cursed, thumping her head down against the table.
Karin patted her on the shoulder, a sympathetic smile touching her lips. "Next time you think about coming over? Re-assess just how hungry you think you are."
"Fuck you, Karin."