Changed (KNB Fan Fiction : Haizaki Shogo)

:Chapter Twenty-Seven:

I went home with this heavy feeling inside my chest. My face tried to hide it but this feeling was truly overwhelming. I figured that the team noticed it but kept their mouths shut. Ishida-senpai was the same even though he had the urge to ask me what was the problem and I was happy they didn't ask further. But at the same time I was feeling guilty because my work as the manager was hindered.

I was walking home alone. The first-years planned to eat ramen before going home and invited me but I declined, telling them I wasn't feeling well and they let me. They all wished me to get better and I smiled at them as my response to their care.

As I walked further, I could feel my steps grew heavier. My heart rampaged inside my chest and my lungs seem to not be working properly.

I have a very bad feeling.

Closer. I was walking closer. I could see my house. This heavy feeling still weighing down my chest. Before I could even notice it, I was finally in front of our gate, blinking away the fog that clouded my mind because of this heavy feeling. The lights were on, meaning nee-chan's inside cooking dinner. I opened the gate, opened the door, removed my shoes, then entered our house. I planned to go upstairs to change clothes but froze when my peripheral vision caught sight of a very familiar figure, sitting across my older sister. She had her hands on her lap, her eyebrows furrowed and her lips in a tight line. She had her eyes on me the moment I looked at them, her eyes telling me something I could not grasp very well.

The man across her had his usual facade; the usual tight and strict look. The look that I remember very well. A look I grew up scared to see. Therefore seeing this man in front of me once again made me freeze in place, a chill running down my spine, as my heart continued to run wild.

He's here. In front of me. Giving me the usual look of disappointment he always gave me when I was little.

"Koki." His deep voice rang inside my head as he said my name. The usual tone he'd use when he talked to me that told me I was a big disappointment not just to him but to the whole family. "I see you're doing well."

"Father," I somehow managed to say, gulping the big lump that formed on my throat. "I didn't know you'd be visiting."

He stood up, shaking his head with displeasure and straightened to full height, telling me that he wasn't just my father. He was also a big shot in Japan. A famous business tycoon that had a major part in the economy of the country, that should anything happen to his business, Japan would be losing a great amount.

"I'm here to look at how you and your sister are doing." He said, roaming his eyes on the place with a disappointed look. "Now that I see you two are... the same, I'll be leaving."

My older sister bowed as he went straight to the door, her usual habit whenever he'd be leaving. She was acting like a maid in his mansion when in fact she was his daughter. He never told her to stop doing it and I think he liked it that way as he never even considered us his daughters.

While nee-chan bowed, I merely stood where I was and watched him leave, he opened the door and slowly stepped outside. But before he could close the door, the man gave me another look that told me something I could not comprehend but I knew deep within me what this look meant as I've always seen it before. Then he finally turned around and closed the door. I could hear an engine roar outside our home and finally it left after a few seconds.

I turned to nee-chan and asked her, "He didn't take his shoes off, did he?"

Nee-chan smiled but it didn't reach her eyes.

***

I remember the time clearly when he suddenly turned into a horrid father I'd grew up scared to see at home. It was the time when my mother died because of an illness. The extreme sadness of losing his wife ate him whole and forced himself to lock away everything, including his two daughters. It wasn't just him mourning for his loss, he could have remembered that his two daughters lost a mother at an early age. But instead of swallowing his depression and comfort the two treasures his wife left him to care for, he grew strict.