𝑳𝑬𝑺 𝑭𝑹𝑨𝑮𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑺 •𝒃𝒙𝒃•

heaven up there ~ 47

"Won't you eat something?" Chikara asked.

She held a plate of fruit in her hands.

Truth be told, Yuma had no appetite. It's been...who knows how long since he came to the hospital, and he'd not eaten anything since he woke up, yet the thought of eating right now made him nauseous.

So, he shook his head, and bit back a wince as he felt it throb.

"Shion will get angry when she comes back and sees this plate untouched."

An angry Shion was a scary Shion, that much he knew, but he wasn't going to go ahead and force himself to eat when he wasn't feeling like it, just to end up throwing it all up. It would only make him feel worse.

"Sorry, no can do, auntie. I'll throw up." He smiled, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

It was beginning to get hard—the pretending.

And it seemed like she was starting to notice it. The plate clanked against the bedside table when she lowered it. She had slammed it a little too hard, resulting in one of the apples falling out. Before it could reach the ground, it stopped mid-air and gently floated up and back into the plate.

"There's something bothering you, isn't there?"

His pretend game didn't last long.

Yuma averted his eyes almost instantly, just further burrowing into a hole he himself dug. Could he somehow avoid the topic? What should he say? Was it even possible to do that? Chikara was a persistent person.

"Yuma, talk to me," Her chair scraped against the floor when she dragged it closer to the bed. She leaned forward, clenched fists pressing against the covers, mere inches away from him. "You've...been strange ever since you woke up, I'm worried."

Strange would be an understatement, possibly.

God...couldn't some kind of alarm go off so they wouldn't have this conversation?

The next few seconds were spent in silence, and no alarm went off. Yuma begrudgingly made peace with the fact that he would have to say something about the state he was in. Not like that meant he was going to tell her everything. He couldn't. He wouldn't. Not when he didn't even know what to make of the situation, and of the things he found out.

"If..." he began, as reluctant as humanly possible, "you found out a secret that involved someone you cared about, would you...tell that secret to them?"

Again, there were a few seconds of silence, and then Chikara spoke, "Depends on the secret," It was clear that she was feeling more relaxed now, since Yuma decided to confide in her. "If it's a harmless secret, one that didn't really have any value to them, then I...guess you don't need to tell them."

"That's the problem—it's the opposite."

It was more than just harmful. It was...devastating. Excruciating. If...somehow, Yuma was in Shouto's position, and Kyoya turned out to be a villain, one that willingly ruined others, even if he was an estranged sibling, Yuma didn't know how he'd feel. He didn't know what he'd do.

"Then it shouldn't be hidden," She didn't hesitate. "If it's harmful now, then it could be even more harmful later on."

She was confident in her words, and a little harsh, but it was for a reason.

Yuma recalled what Shion told him. About her father and mother, how she hid their abuse and didn't tell anyone. That was most likely why Chikara was so insistent with this topic.

"Even if..." he started, feeling more and more reluctant, "that secret could ruin them? Even if that secret could ruin other people as well? That secret...I feel as if though it should remain a secret for as long as possible."