ABIENCE || tokyo rev.

[ ✯ TWO ✯ ]

The following days in juvie went by fast. Y/N had learned nothing during their stay there, and now it was time for Kazutora to leave.

Y/N was correct, it was Kazutora's mother that would pick him up. The car ride home was quiet, not saying a word to each other. It didn't even seem like his mother wanted to deal with him, the tired look on her face speaking volumes. It was a suffocating feeling, really, knowing that the one family member he had left didn't even want to be associated with him. Was this how Kazutora felt when he was released for the first time, too?

As the woman parked the car in the driveway, she spoke for the first time, ending the uncomfortable silence. "I'm going to the store, leaving you here. Don't get in trouble. Your room hasn't been touched, so it might be dusty. Cleaning supplies are in the same place it has always been. Food is in the fridge if you get hungry." Direct and straight to the point.

"Yes ma'am." Kazutora quietly spoke, just loud enough for her to hear.

Getting out of the car, his mother handed him a singular key for him to keep up with, telling him that it was his copy of the house key. Taking it, he shut the car door behind him and walked towards the front entrance, his mother wasting no time driving off and heading to the store.

Entering the house, the first thing he did was remove his shoes. He then began looking around, eventually finding a room that appeared to be his. Posters he didn't recognize hung on his wall, along with other various boyish items scattered in his room. It didn't appear to be the cleanest, with a few things laying on the floor and his bed unmade. Sighing, he left the room, deciding to take his mother's hint and clean his room. It took a while, but Kazutora eventually found the cleaning supplies in the hallway's closet.

After cleaning up his room, Kazutora quickly explored the other rooms in the house, trying to gain a sense of familiarity with the house and learn the layout. Afterward, he went to the bathroom, digging through the cabinets before he found what he needed. Scissors and hair dye.

Back in Y/N's old life, Y/N had frequently tended to his hair and knew how to skillfully cut it. So cutting it now wouldn't be an issue, either. Staring at the bathroom mirror, Y/N did just that— using the scissors in his hand, Y/N cut Kazutora's pretty locks into a more even shape, no longer did he have those weird tufts of hair sticking out. Once done, he then went on to dye his hair, first dying it fully black in order to get rid of his old highlights before then moving on to dying his bangs a nice blonde-yellow.

Looking at himself in the mirror, 'Kazutora' released a contented sigh, happy with this change of hair. This was the start of his own sense of self-expression, already knowing that he wouldn't be able to express his truest self properly when it came to this world. He would have to act and pretend to be someone that he wasn't, feigning a lunatic personality with little to no self-control. So even the smallest ways of being himself would mean so much to Y/N in the end. His hair would ultimately be his sense of self-comfort, the separation between him and the original Hanemiya Kazutora.

The woman had lied, she did not go to the store like she said she would. In fact, she didn't even return home until late at night, drunk off her mind. Kazutora was already in bed in his room when she came home, waking up to the loud noise that she was making as she scrambled around the house before ultimately falling asleep on the couch.

Sighing, Kazutora pushed himself up and out of bed, grabbing a blanket out of his mother's room and draping it over the passed-out woman. It was the least he could do, right? She might not be Y/N's mother, but she is Kazutora's. But even so, it is quite worrying. Should he start expecting this from her? The manga never really explained in-depth about any of the character's home life, only giving the tragic backstory in order for the readers to sympathize with them.