If It Doesn't Hurt, It's Not Abuse

(1) She's Right

One of Toma's most vivid memories was the first time he experienced a panic attack.

His mother had asked if he loved her, but he didn't know what to say. He remembered tears silently running down his face before he slowly broke into full blown sobbing once his mother started to repeat her question, getting louder and louder as her anger rose. She continued to yell until she was screaming and Toma couldn't breath.

He was on the floor, head between his knees as he was trying to breath deeply, but failing. Once he was able to calm himself down, he noticed his mother stopped screaming and was instead staring down at him, her arms crossed and her face warped into a sour look.

"Stop being so dramatic." She hissed before walking away. That night at dinner, she acted as if nothing had happened, instead talking about everything going on in school, and how late his brother's tennis practices were going to last. It was so normal, and Toma hated it.

They never talked about it again.

~~~~~~~

Now, Shinjo was at his cubby of a locker, ready to go to Maki's apartment to help with chores, per their deal.

Maki and Kanako were already parting from the school to try to catch up on lost time. Practice seemed to run over their scheduled time, so everyone was a bit stressed.

That left Toma to change and Yu to wait for him.

He slipped his bag onto his shoulder while walking out of the club room. His phone in his front pocket and his tennis racket in the front. He made sure not to misplace anything or else he'd spend a few hours panicking where everything was, even if it was right in front of him.

"Shinjo!" Yu was standing at the top of the staircase leading up to the main school building. Their eyes lit up when they saw him.

Toma waved to him and smiles softly, "Hey, Yuta." He quickly made his way up to them, shifting his bag in his grip.

"Hi! Let's go, Katsuragi and Mistue probably are half way there already," They turned and started to walk off.

Toma nodded in agreement and followed them off of the school grounds.

Their conversations were nothing out of the ordinary, which was how both of them liked it. Simple and fulfilling. They soon met up with the apartment duo by the sparkling river.

"Hey Toma and Yu, what took you guys so long? All the food's gonna be rotten by the time we get home." Maki motioned to the plastic bag in his hand.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Yu timidly smiled and scratched the back of their neck, "We lost track of time."

The blue-eyed boy nodded and turned around to face the other direction, "Lets go than, we don't have all day."

Toma sighed softly and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "Alright."

The four friends made their way to Maki's apartment without any problems. It was a nice day out, and nothing would make it better without said boy's food.

Maki placed down the two grocery bags to begin his cooking. Toma and Yu cleaned around the small room while Mitsuke just say by the table to scroll on her phone.

"Why are you still here?"

"Because....I like your personality?"

"You're just here for my food, aren't you?"

"Guilty."

A few hours passed of mindless conversation until Katsuragi set the table. Spiced grilled mackerel with a side of white rice and miso soup, all made to perfection.