Uneasy Reunion

Sota sat in the car for a moment, having just parked it in the driveway of Ren's home. On his phone screen, he reviewed the message that he had gotten from Ren just prior to leaving his house. 

[Ren]: When you get here today to pick me up, can you please come inside to get me? <3

As soon as he had read it, his excitement for the day had evaporated into caution. He wasn't sure what the details were, but he had ample experience with situations where someone was coerced or blackmailed - and this fit the bill. 

After a few breaths to lock himself in, he got out of the car and headed towards the front door. As he did, he replayed through the options that he had thought about on the way over. Questioning the message wouldn't have achieved anything, and choosing not to comply would only cause more issues. 

He had to face whatever setup this was head on - and think on the fly while he did so. 

"Come in," Ren's voice was fairly quiet from the other side of the door. 

Sota took one more breath, his colder personality taking the front seat, and he went inside. 

His immediate impression was that the house was fairly open. There weren't a bunch of nooks and crannies for problems to be hiding away in. Nearby, Ren sat at a dining room table. There was a hint of excitement in his arrival, but it was hidden deep beneath her current levels of anxiety. 

On the other side of this open area stood the kitchen area. Standing there, leaning against one of the counters and glaring at him, was Ren's grandfather. 

"You must be that Senpai-teacher-whatever?" he questioned. 

"Yes. my title in class is Senpai," Sota answered with cold accuracy. "My name, however, is Sota."

"I see," her grandfather replied, scanning him from top to bottom. "You don't strike me as a teenager in high school."

"I am not. I graduated fairly recently, though."

"Does that mean you're out in the real world working, already?"

"I'm in college full-time. Working towards a degree in technology."

It wasn't accurate - Sota was only taking classes ad-hoc towards his degree at the moment. Being honest wasn't the point of this situation, though. This person was trying to find a weakness to poke at and gain power from. Maybe it worked on people in this household, but Sota had too much experience to be pegged down like that. 

"In college, but you have the money to spend on outings like this, huh? Your parents give you handouts?"

"Just basic finance principles," Sota immediately responded, not taking any bait. "Budgeting, cash flow, saving and investments. All that smart adult stuff - but I'm sure you know all about that?"

"Well, yeah...of course..."

For a brief moment, the grandfather broke eye contact. It was a brief retreat, and gave Sota a chance to navigate further. 

"So, Ren, are you ready to go?" Sota asked, turning her head towards her. "We don't want to be late and keep Riku waiting at the restaurant."

"Yeah! Let's get going..."

Ren nearly leapt out of her seat at the moment she felt she had permission to. Sota held the door open so she could make her way through. 

"Just a minute!"

Ren's grandfather began to approach them. On instinct, Sota protectively stepped between Ren and the grandfather, his expression cold and hardened. 

Her grandfather stopped in his tracks, his facial expression shifting. Sota could see in his eyes - he was thinking back to their brief altercation in the restaurant. Sota had taken a similarly defensive position against him. The wound left from that day - the one created when Ren couldn't fully verify that she was safe with him - was still clearly present. 

"You've been getting awfully close to my granddaughter," he pressed, trying to gain control. "What are your intentions?"

"To go and have a nice, safe lunch to celebrate a birthday. Is that not typical?"

Her grandfather tried to find something to follow up with, but he just let out an exhale. 

"Fine. Be on your way."

***

The first half of the ride to the restaurant was silent. It took Sota a bit to slowly mellow himself back to normal. By the time he did, he still had to deal with the elephant in the room. He had navigated the grandfather's interrogation, but he still wasn't clear on what the situation was. 

"Are we going to talk about what just transpired?" Sota finally asked. "Or is this going to be a silent get-together."

"That's not it!" Ren exclaimed. "I just..."

She didn't seem to want to make eye contact. Sota didn't interrupt. 

"He tricked me into giving over my phone and he sent that text before I realized it. Once he did, he told me that he wouldn't let me go to lunch if I warned you ahead of time..."

Sota's posture softened a bit. Given her grandfather's previous actions, he didn't suspect that she had purposefully set this up - but it was good to hear it confirmed. 

"Alright, then," he replied. "Sounds like there's nothing to worry about."

He was prepared to leave it at that, but Ren seemed surprised by his quick dismissal.

"That's it?" she asked. "I got tricked, though. I messed up - aren't you mad at me?"

"Are you expecting me to explode at you just because something like that happened?"

"Well...not really..."

Sota watched Ren fidget a bit as she tried to figure out how to articulate what it was she was thinking. At this point, Sota had developed some theories surrounding Ren's home situation. He wasn't sure what the story was, but he was fairly certain that her kind persona was born out of a somewhat dark and twisted experience. 

"When people like that feel like they've been insulted or one-upped, they can't sit around and ignore it forever," Sota explained. "Your grandfather wasn't happy with the outcome of our last meeting, and he wanted to try and flip things around. So he tried, and so he failed..."

"I...guess that makes sense. You seem to know an awful lot about how my grandfather thinks."

"It's not that I know anything about him specifically," Sota admitted. "It's just something you pick up on after countless of interactions with people who are like that."

The tension in the car was much lower at that point, but Ren still remained silent for a moment. There was one final thought she had lingering. While she thought better than to bring it up, she realized it was only going to get harder to ignore. 

"At the restaurant, and again in the house. In tense situations like that, it's like you become an entirely different person... What caused that?"

Sota thought about it for a moment, observing Ren's facial expression. He could see that she had been hesitant to ask the question, and was now nervous that voicing it might cause problems. He wasn't fond of talking about things of that nature, but he also knew if he kept avoiding an explanation, Ren may eventually grow uneasy or afraid of him as a whole.

"Let's enjoy lunch and our hangout," Sota finally spoke after a moment. "Then when all that is done and we're on our way back, I'll answer your question."