Dad Finds Out

Dinners at the Sakurai household are mainly quiet. My mother and father sit on opposite ends of the table, and my brother and I sit on either side. Mum and Dad do exchange a few… flirtatious eye contacts now and again.

This was one of those moments when my Dad looked at my mother, silently eating her meal and looking down at her plate, very slyly cleared his throat. My brother and I glance at each other, smirking, knowing what’s happening.

Knowing that the subtle clearing of the throat did nothing, he clears his throat again, this time a little louder. Mum finally looks up and raises her eyebrows as if to ask, “What?” Dad made a few gestures that went above the heads of my brother and me before we spoke up.

“Hey, Kyo,” my brother starts.

“Hmm,” I hum in response.

“I think from now on, we should eat in our rooms,” he says.

“Why?” Mum asks, confused.

“Because we need to give you and Dad some privacy,” I shrug.

“Privacy?” Dad speaks up this time, confused.

“You think the few eye contacts you guys manage to exchange go unnoticed?” my brother says.

My Dad choked on his wine and, mum blushed as she continued to look down at her now-empty plate.

“Uff careful, Dad,” I wink.

“Haruko, Kyo of you are little shits you know, right?” Dad says making us look at each other as he continues to finish the Wine in his glass, even Mum is looking at him with her eyes wide.

“What did you call my kids?” she finally speaks up.

Judging by the look on Dad’s face, it’s like his whole life flashed before his eyes.

“Um… er… I… er…” he stuttered.

I was surprised to see that my father, the man who everyone was afraid to piss off, was afraid of his wife!

“What. Did. You. Call. My. Kids?” Mum repeated, staring into Dad’s soul.

The World Cup isn’t for another 3 years but things were about to kick off here!

“Save me you two, I’ll give you guys extra pocket money if you do,” Dad whispered.

“Um, Mum I think Dad was just kidding, there’s no way he would call us anything,” I grin, trying to save him.

“Yeah, no need to get mad,” my brother adds.

Mum narrows her eyes as she looks at the three of us, holding hands and grinning like we’re posing for a picture.

She sighs, rolling her eyes and chuckles shaking her head, “Next time you say something to my boys you’ll be spending three nights on the sofa.”

“Whoa! That’s a bit excessive, no?” Dad points out.

“Want me to make it three weeks?” Mum threatens.

“No, no. No need. I solemnly swear I’m not gonna say anything to them,” Dad says raising his right hand.

“Good,” Mum smiles, cutely.

We carry on sitting in silence for a few seconds before Dad clears his throat again, “So, Haruko, how are things at the office?”

“Good,” he replies.

“Any issues?” Dad asks.

“No,” my brother shakes his head.

“Hmm,” Dad nods before turning his gaze on me.

“And you, Kyo, how’s school?”

“Good,” I nodded.

“Anything… particular going on?” he pressed.

I shook my head, “No.”

“Hm,” Dad nodded.

We sat in silence for a few seconds, with me silently praying to the Gods to let it stay this way, I can’t let Dad find out about my relationship… yet.

“So, when were you going to tell me you were in a relationship?” he questioned, suddenly causing me to choke on my food.

“Uff careful, son,” Dad chuckled.

I gaped at him surprised.

“What? You didn’t think I’d find out?” he proceeded to question.

Since when did Dinners turn into a full-blown interrogation?

“U-uhm I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I chuckled, nervously.

“Seriously? You were prancing around looking all happy, reading romances more than usual, you practically looked like me when I first met your mother,” he winked at Mum.

“I didn’t know you noticed that much about me,” I looked down.

“How bad of a father do you think I am?” he asked, incredulously.

“I never said you were,” I told him.

“You implied it, I want to meet her, or him no judgment here,” he told me.

“What?” I blinked.

“I want to meet them,” Dad repeated.

“No,” I stood up abruptly, causing the chair to scrape against the floor.

“Why?” Dad asked.

Kill me! Kill me now!

“I mean you can, but just not right now,” I try to buy some time.

“So, when would be the best time?” he asks.

“Let me ask her,” I sigh.

“Very well,” Dad agrees.

Dad gets up and we follow suit, leaving to go to our respective rooms, I shut the door and collapse on my bed. This is bad, this is very, very bad!

*ding*

My phone’s notification bell goes off and I know exactly who it is but right now I’m not in the mood to talk to anyone.

*ding*

*ding*

*ding*

*ding*

My phone’s notifications go off, irritated I pick up my phone, but when I see who is texting me, I sit up.

“Oye! How did Dad find out?

What’s gonna happen now?

Are you going to tell her?

What are you going to say?

Answer me!”

I throw my phone on the side not wanting to answer any questions I didn’t have any answers to.

A few minutes go by and my phone starts to ring, by now I’m a little pissed off, my brother knows me well enough to know I’m not in the mood to talk, but he’s persistent and carries on ringing until I answer.

“Oh my God! Stop calling me! You’re so annoying! I don’t know what’s going to happen now and I don’t know how to tell Ichigo that Dad’s found out about me and her!” I whisper yell.

After a few seconds of silence, I hear a quiet, feminine voice.

“What?”

Oh shit!

“Ichigo…” I whisper, mentally kicking myself.

“Y-your Dad?” her voice shakes.

“No, no, Ichigo. Calm down,” I tell her.

“Your Mum finding out wasn’t too bad even though it felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest, your dad finding out is suicide!” she started spiralling.

“Ichigo,” I try to get her attention.

“Oh my God! This is bad!” she mumbles.

“Ichigo!” I say a little louder.

“What’s gonna happen now?” she continues to panic.

“ICHIGO FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CALM THE FUCK DOWN!” I yell.

I sit back down on my bed and take a deep breath; I almost forget I’m on the phone until I hear sniffing.

“Ichigo?” I say.

“Y-you yelled at me,” she sniffed.

Oh God!

“You’ve never yelled at me,” I heard her sob quietly.

“I know, and I’m sorry,” I felt bad for yelling, but can you blame me? She wasn’t exactly listening to me.

A few seconds went by of her sniffing.

“Ichigo?” I say her name, sweetly.

“Yeah?” she replies, her voice still shaking slightly.

“I’m sorry,” I apologise again.

Again, she’s quiet.

“Please say something,” I say.

“Something,” she replies and I try not to laugh.

“That’s not what I meant,” I sigh.

“Are you not gonna talk to me now?”

“No!” I can tell she’s pouting.

I chuckle, “So you’re not gonna talk to me?”

“No!” she says, again.

“Oh, that’s too bad, see there was a certain chocolate bar with your name on it,” I say.

“Chocolate bar?” I heard her whisper.

“Mhm, and I was going to give it to you as we were gonna meet up tomorrow, but now since you don’t want to talk to me, I’ll just eat it myself” I stifle a laugh.

“No wait!” I quickly hear.

“Hmm,” I hum.

“I’m sorry I’ll talk to you,” I hear her say.

“Really? You’re not just saying that because you want the chocolate now, are you?” I ask.

“No,” she replies, innocently.

Liar!

“Okay,” I chuckle.

“But just to be clear…”

“Yes, I’m gonna bring the chocolate,” I roll my eyes.

“Yayyy,” she cheers.

I chuckle at my girlfriend’s cuteness.

“Hey, Kyo,” she says after a while.

“Yeah?” I reply, dreamily.

“I think we should tell your Dad the truth,” she says.

“What?” I almost fell off my bed.

“Just hear me out first,” she interjects before I have a chance to react.

“Go on,” I say.

“I don’t want him to find out from someone else, I wouldn’t like it and I know your dad wouldn’t either, and judging by the relationship between you and your Dad, I don’t want it to get worse because of me,” she explained.

I was utterly speechless, that’s what she was worried about. She thinks… oh Ichigo.

“Kyo, please say something,”

“Ichigo,” I say.

“Yes?” she replies.

“You have nothing to worry about because let’s say things worsen between me and my Dad it’s NOT going to be because of you, okay? But if it makes you feel better then we can tell him,” I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Promise?” she asks.

“Pinkie promise, we can do it whenever you’re ready,” I tell her.

“Okay,” she nods.

“Good,”

“Okie I’m gonna sleep now, I’m sleepy but we’ll talk more tomorrow okay, goodnight,” she says.

“Goodnight,” I reply and end the call.

That would have to be the most restless night I’ve ever had, but I guess it’s nothing compared to what’s going to happen later on in our story, so I might as well enjoy the peaceful sleep I have until then.