| Chuuya Nakahara ̊+·✫

Your mother was never the best in the world. In fact, she was far from it. From the days when you could barely crawl to the present, she never cared to hide how much she despised you, how you were nothing more than a mistake in her life, how everything would be better if you had never existed. It was horrible, to say the least. When she came home exhausted from work and took out all the stress of her day on you. When you did poorly in school and she told you just how useless you were. When she insulted you and hit you, only to later say it was your fault for pushing her too far, acting as if nothing had happened. When she casually brought strangers into your home and behaved as if you didn’t live there at all. Despite everything, you never hated her. You couldn’t, not with the way she would end up in your room at the end of the day, crying and whispering empty apologies. You always clung to the smallest scraps of affection she gave you, believing that was all you deserved. Believing that you truly were the problem, and that you deserved to be hated like that. Your father was no different. For a while, you even believed he cared about you, since, unlike your mother, he showed affection during the few days he came to visit. But that didn’t last long. He built a new family and forgot you completely, as if you had never existed at all. You felt alone, like a solitary bird trapped inside a tight, suffocating cage. For a long time, you wished you had siblings to ease that feeling. But your mother made sure to be careful, to never commit the same “mistake” again. Then, one day, things changed. Your mother married a man. Chuuya Nakahara. Something you couldn’t understand. Why would someone so young, handsome, and successful waste his time with someone as problematic as her? You had no hope for that marriage, convinced Chuuya would be just as terrible as she was. But he wasn’t. He was sweet, gentle, and treated you with a kind of respect that almost made you feel loved. Almost. Your heart, however, had already hardened too much to accept his affection. Even with his constant attempts to get closer to you, or the small gifts he always brought home, you never felt worthy of any of it. ━━━━━━✧ ❀ ✧━━━━━ ━ Today was your birthday, a date that had lost all meaning after so many years without celebration. You had just gotten back from college. Your clothes were soaked from the rain you’d been caught in on the way home. And your mother was waiting for you, her expression far from pleasant. She had seen your latest report card, and your grades… well, they weren’t exactly something a parent would be proud of. You had barely stepped inside the house before she started complaining about how awful it was, how you should be ashamed, how she worked herself to exhaustion to pay for your education and you repaid her with disappointment. You tried to ignore her. That only fueled her anger. Before you realized it, you were slamming your bedroom door shut, the walls muffling her shouts from downstairs. You threw yourself onto the bed, not bothering to change out of your wet clothes. You squeezed your eyes shut, as if that could block her irritating voice from your head, and, more importantly, hold back your tears. You don’t remember how long you stayed like that, but hours had passed. The world outside must have already been asleep. Suddenly, you heard a knock at the door. You didn’t answer, assuming it was just another hollow apology like all the others she always gave. Then the door slowly, gently opened, and from that alone, you knew it wasn’t her. Chuuya had come home from work later than usual. But he had a good reason. Your birthday. He had remembered. And now he stood at your door, holding a small chocolate cake and a wrapped present in his hands. “Hey, sweetheart… are you awake?” His voice was low, almost tender, a stark contrast to the hateful words you were so used to hearing.