Hiromi had only had to see Mrs. Martinez once, to understand though.
David was fucking spoiled.
If Hiromi's mother acted even half as affectionate as Gloria Martinez, Hiromi was sure she would have died in embarrassment.
Hiromi stands outside Araska Academy waiting for Motoko to come pick her up for lunch, there was a new ramen joint in the upper east side of Westbrook that served fresh chausu for those willing to pay and now that she had eddies to burn it was time to treat her BFF to some mouthwatering ramen.
She kept a lookout for the Quadra before a flash of yellow caught her eye. A pretty redheaded older woman in a neon yellow hi-vis jacket had just pulled up and had just gotten out of her yellow station wagon. Hiromi had seen a lot of people she would consider pretty, but this was the first time she saw someone without any facial chrome look that good. She almost thought it was a high-end transplant until the beat-up car put an end to that notion. She zoomed in and could make out the pores on the woman's face sweating as the heat from the noonday sun produced a sweltering gust of hot air. She was... natural.
"Mom!"
Her thoughts were interrupted when her goon employee rushes to hug the woman and she slightly goggles at the public display of affection. Who the fuck does that!? Just because he's much more financially secure doesn't mean he should go around showing such a tender side of himself in public. One of his many stupider and less academically inclined classmates could be watching and getting the notion that he was soft enough to fuck with again. She almost slapped a hand to her face.
"Mijo, you forgot your lunch!" The woman said in a rush as she breaks up the hug and grabs a metal box from inside her station wagon.
"Wow, that's David's mom? She's so pretty!"
Hiromi barely keeps herself from squealing as Mokoto pops in her periphery and tells herself that she did not jump 4 feet in the air no matter how wide her BFF smiles at her, she can see the Quadra parked a few feet away with Malcom and Ichi in the backseats.
"Ahem... he's being an idiot. Who the hell shows that much affection in public? Can you belie- why are you giving me that look" Hiromi cuts off her little rant when Mokoto just looks at her strange.
"...What's wrong with that? I mean, isn't it normal for most loving families to do that?" Mokoto asks unsurely.
"No! I mean who does that stuff?!" She retorted, her face heating up a bit.
"I hug Jun a bunch of times..." Mokoto says quietly after a moment.
"That's... Jun it doesn't coun-, wait you hug your brother, the Oni in public?" Hiromi says incredulously.
"Yes! Why can't I?" Mokoto says with a bit of heat in her voice.
"You can't just do that! His cred could take a dive Mokoto" Hiromi rubs the bridge of her nose as she feels a headache coming on.
"People giggled when I did it at first but I kinda beat them up, now they just say stupid stuff like 'Only the Oni can bear the embrace of the Onryō, I think it had the opposite effect" Mokoto grumbled as she kicked a rock across the street.
"Hey, I thought we were hitting up that new ramen joint?" Malcom had enough of sitting in the Quadra and wandered over to see what was taking so long.
"Hiromi thinks it's weird that David's hugs his mom" Mokoto said plainly as she points to the aforementioned boy giving his mother a parting hug as she waves bye at him while he darts back into the building.
"What? Why?" Malcom says confused.
"What is wrong with you two? Who hugs in public? Who does stuff like that!?" Hiromi throws up her hands as she feels a hint of frustration build.
"Hugs? The fuck is wrong with hugs?" Ichi chimes in as well.
"You three should know better, you can't show weakness! You gotta show you're hard all the time, if you don't then your enemies will start testing how soft you are!" Hiromi was getting heated now.
"Yeah, that's true but you don't need to be hard in front of family" Malcom says slowly as he looks at Hiromi with something akin to... sympathy.
"You gotta be able to unwind around someone Hiromi, I don't think anyone will be shocked to learn that you love your folks or your input. I mean that's expected right?" Ichi adds
"No! I feel like I'm in a bad BD, what the fuck?" Hiromi is rubbing her eyes as her headache is turning into a migraine.
"Look... why don't we all just get in the car and go to for lunch before Hiromi's break is over" Mokoto says in a placating manner before looking at Malcom and Ichi, there seems to be some kind of silent agreement between the three of them as they head back to the car.
"Come on Hiromi!" Malcom says to the her as she stands there with a confused expression on her face, it slowly changes to shock as she comes to a startling realization.
"...Oh shit, I'm the weird one" Hiromi says to herself, horrified.