~Heizou's POV~

"Hi Mom! Hi Dad!"

It's the weekend and Kuki and I came to visit my parents.

Kuki steps into the apartment behind me and greets them, too.

There is a kinda thick atmosphere here... not that it's usually not like that, but today it's especially bad.

Stepping further into the apartment, I'm getting greeted with the sight of paper cartons towering in the corners.

The air is filled with the smell of fried pork and rice. Kuki's and mine favourite dish. Now something happened for sure.

Soon, everyone sits at the table, and after the usual questions about school, it gets very quiet.

What's with these quiet tables lately.

"Kids–" Itto starts but immediately gets interrupted by Sara, "We're getting divorced."

These words hang heavily above the table for about one minute before Kuki asks what I thought, "What?"

"Look, we both still love you both, but... it just didn't work out." Dad tries to explain.

"What do you mean 'it didn't work out'!? You two were married for twenty-two years, goddamnit!" My sister stands up and rushes out of the room before I can process anything. "Kuki!" My mother only manages to call, but Kuki doesn't stop.

Sara sights and lays down her fork.

I continue to eat, even if my appetite is gone. It'd be just rude not to eat.

A couple of minutes later, Kuki comes back and sits down. "I'm sorry I lashed out."

Dad nods, "It's alright, I understand that it's hard, especially for you two." Mom just sits there and starts eating again, as if it didn't happen.

I don't say anything. I need to think about it first.

We finish eating in silence. Only then Mom asks, "Are you two gonna stay for the night?" Both me and my sister deny and leave without much more.

It's already dark outside and a bit chilly. You don't see stars in a city, and the moon hangs on the sky alone, cold and distant. It doesn't light anything in a city, the street lamps do. They give us yellow light, which should be warm, but it isn't. It's just unnatural, out of place.

The cars rush away, hurrying somewhere. Probably home. As we get to the train station, they get more, and not one stays in my memory.

"Twenty-two years." Kuki suddenly says. "Why did they stay married for twenty-two years if they are so different? For us? For them? Because they didn't want to accept that it's not working? I don't understand..."

"And I do not either..." I tell her, and yet again, the silence falls over us.

I love my sister. She has always been here for me, even when I messed things up.

And it aches that I can't help her this time.

She usually didn't speak out her opinion like that. It probably has caught her off-guard.

But honestly, no wonder when Mom threw it in like that. Damn it... it kinda feels like everything starts falling apart, and I can't not get a bad feeling.

The whole way back, I try to think of a reason why it happened now out of all time. It's like it came out of nowhere.

I'm not even thinking about where I'm going, I've gone this route often enough so that I automatically take the elevator, say bye to Kuki, and walk to my dorm. I lock the door behind me and take off my shoes, mentally not here.

That's probably why I didn't notice Scara coming out of his room and disappeared into mine without a greeting.

There, I throw on my bass and headphones and start playing my soul out.

Some time later, about an hour, probably, my fingers hurt like they haven't in ages. I turn off the amplifier and sit on the bed, my head against the wall.

Oh archons, I hoped that I buried this feeling of endless emptiness deep inside me, but now it comes back up and drags the past with it.

I don't even know what's worse, thinking about my parents or about–

My thoughts get interrupted by an almost hesitant knock.

I subconsciously sit up a little bit straighter and say, "Yeah?"

Scara's head peeks through the door. "Come in." I smile tired.

He steps in and closes the door.

"I just... wanted to ask, if you are alright... you seemed pretty out it when you came back..." His voice was calm and soothing, not like usually.

I nod. "Yeah... can I tell you?"

"Of course." He sits on the bed next to me.

"Well... my parents kinda dumped on me that they are divorcing, out of nowhere, and I don't get why, they were married for twenty-two years, why now..? And now I feel like everything's falling apart, again, and it reminded me of..." My head drops, "sorry... I'm telling too much again..."

"No, it's alright, really! Tell me everything you want, okay? I'm here to listen." This makes my gaze wander to him. In his eyes lies... worry?

"Thank you... you know, I had this one friend," I start, "he was my best friend since childhood and we did everything together. But then he told me something that, well, made me end our friendship because it was against my ideals. I still hate myself for that. A couple of months later, there was this festival, where we first met. I went there. I was hoping to see him again."

I stop there, looking up to the roof, holding my tears back. Scara doesn't say anything. So I continue.

"I saw him again. I found him in an ally, in his own blood. The murderer was never found. I thought it was so unjustified and unfair that I started to search for myself. But I was 14, what could 14 year old me do? I didn't find anything, of course. But this made me want to become a detctive, so something like that could never happen again."

I let out a shaky sigh.

"And now, now it's like then, my family dies, and I don't understand why."

Silent tears run down my cheek, but I don't bother wiping them away. I hear a shuffle besides me.

Scara will probably walk away now. No one truly cared about what I said, besides Venti, of course.

But suddenly, I find myself enveloped in a hug. "I understand how you feel. I can only tell you that everything will be alright. Even if your parents won't be together anymore, they'll still love you and Kuki. And maybe it's for the better like that. Maybe they'll find someone they'll be happier with. And to why... I think you should just speak with them and ask them. I'm happy that you told me about it, though. Thank you."

These words came so unexpected that I needed a couple of moments to proceed what he said. Then, I smile softly and wipe my tears away. "No, thank you that you listened. It means so much to me, you don't know how much." I hug him back. The faint scent of snow and cigarettes on the balcony flows over me. We let go, and I look at the clock.

"Oh my god... it's 1am??" I steal a glance at Scara. He just looks at me, waiting for me to say more.

I jump up from the bed. "Now I'm hungry, let's get something to eat!!" I pull his arm with a smile.

"Fine, fine, I'm coming." He chuckled and stood up.

"Should we call Venti?"

"Nah, they went to sleep early. They pulled an all-nighter yesterday."

"Alright, then let's go together."

We sneak out of the dorm, trying not to make much noise.

As we walk through the campus to the only shop that's open at this hour, we walk painfully close to each other.

So close that our hands almost touch. I have to resist the urge to grab his, but I don't dare to put my hand in my pocket. Maybe just in cause if he does want to...

What am I even thinking? There's no way... right?

~~~~~~~~♡

a/n: I literally spent twenty minutes discussing with my friend how scara smells. They say he'd smell like menthol. No.