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chapter twenty there goes the sun ▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃
In the evening, after another four happy days well spent at the beach, you decided to call your Mother. You had gone to school on one day, to horrible results, and your Piano Sensei, witnessing your unhappiness, had decided to give you a few more sweet days of beach freedom. It was easier that way for your Piano Sensei, too, because she was having some trouble with her parents and their delayed arrival.
But now, after four days, you were forcefully putting an end to those blissful days of freedom, marking the new beginning with a call to your Mother. Tomorrow, you decided, you would be going to summer school no matter what.
The first five minutes on the phone were alright; she asked you to study even more, you agreed with no intention of complying, and this process repeated itself a few times. Yes, you would answer obediently every now and then when she stopped talking, while thinking ardently: No, I won't, not at all, I'll do only as much as I want. Then, once this topic had exhausted itself, she started with asking about the people, about the boys. Your Mother didn't like you having contact with any boys, you knew that much, but somehow, she was aware that in this situation, she could not outright forbid you anything, and so she inquired subtly and asked questions with hidden meanings.
But it was through this line of questioning that you noticed she was trying to avoid certain topics. She wanted to keep you talking, avoiding at all cost any mention of home, even when you tried to ask her if she knew whether or not Tooru and Hajime had won their last big match the other day. It was a stretch, you knew that, because your Mother cared little for your friends, but the question slipped out before you could stop it.
And her reaction was what scared you; your Mother was a bad liar, at least in your book, but then again, in your book, most people were... And you were too quick, you didn't miss a single out of place word, stutter or random tangent, noting down everything. You knew something was up and chased after it like a predator would its prey. After only two minutes of your badgering, she gave in. She told you: your friend, he's injured himself, Y/n, but don't concentrate on it now, it's only another knee injury, he'll be alright, but you have to focus on your studies, let him look after his own future and you look after yours.
There was a silence after her words and the fact that Tooru had not excitedly called you a hundred times over the last four days suddenly made too much sense. But it still didn't really make sense.
Nothing truly terrible ever happened to Tooru, you knew that. The terrible things in his life were all caused by himself and nothing else, and the idea that something bad had happened to him, despite him having a Fanclub that was ready to protect him at all times, seemed ridiculous to you. Nothing bad ever happened to him, and because of that, you had often told yourself that there was no way you would waste time worrying. If anything, you had jokingly thought something bad should happen to him at long last, as by now, it was long overdue. You had tripped over your feet more often than you could count, and Hajime had suffered a few breaks here and there. Meanwhile, Tooru had always been the picture of health... Save for his bad knee, which had come out of nowhere...
