Work Text:
A boiling pot of water whistling loudly when she woke up from her cold bed. It probably wasn’t even five minutes before she heard her name called out loud enough to make her automatically sigh, before peeking from behind the wall to see why her name had been called out like that.
Under the flickering lightbulb in the room, she could see the back of a woman she knew quite well, who appeared to be talking to a man she also knew quite well. She is now trying to press her ear against the nearby wall, all the while trying not to be noticed by the two adults.
"What do you mean, that kid was secretly watching TV, is that it? What the heck are you even doing?!", the first thing she heard left her speechless. Her?
As she tried to refresh her memory, she noticed that the woman was also starting to raise her voice, "I’ve tried to stop her too, you know! Over and over again, in fact!", with the movement of her hair, which looked just like the rising tide she had once seen in her science textbook. (She doesn’t know; she’d never actually seen a high tide either—she’d only ever imagined what it might look like.)
She saw the man that the woman was talking to take a deep breath, as if he wanted to express his feelings right then and there. And she finally remembered that she had forgotten to turn off the TV after watching it in secret once the woman had fallen asleep.
"You already know the rules, right? Then, why?", the man, still asking the same question, underlined that first sentence with this time—gazing intently into the woman's eyes this time, which made her shudder and the woman could only bow her head before curling up slightly when she saw his hand rise—but he snapped back to reality just in time. It seemed he wanted to go back to work. That's glad.
"I'll going to warn that kid", with those few words, the man seemed satisfied with the answer that woman had been given, then called her name as if nothing had happened, leaving her slightly startled before she left the room, pretending as well.
"Dad, Mom, good morning," she forced a smile onto her face as naturally as possible. She could immediately feel the sun’s fingers beginning to gently touch their skin. Ignoring all of that, she continued to ask, "Dad, are you going back to work already?"
She saw the man she called 'Dad' nod his head as he continued walking toward the front door.
"Yes, don't forget to pray, and.... don't be naughty anymore, okay?" he said, rubbing her hair more and more roughly, before pressing her head down for quite a while before speaking again, "I'm counting on you," then he finally left after exchanging goodbyes, leaving her alone with the woman again.
As the door slammed shut, she felt her hand being yanked back toward the living room, then released abruptly, nearly causing her to bump into a chair, making her wince in pain for a moment.
Ignoring her faint whimpers, the woman continued, "Akane," emphasized her name, which made her gulp immediately.
"You already know what you did last night, don't you?", that single sentence was enough to make her nod, while biting her lip briefly.
She knew what she meant. She knew exactly what her mistake was. She had remembered.
Slap! A sharp slap landed on her cheek without warning. Stunned, she only half-listened as the woman began ranting about how ungrateful she was, the rules in their family, and so on. Although the scolding didn’t last long, it made her chest ache, until finally the woman told her to get ready for school. She simply nodded again, then did as she was told. She also ignored the trickle of blood flowing from her lip after the woman was no longer in front of her.
All that woman had to say left her immediately and still pondering, is that really a trial from God? Why can’t she, even if just for a little while, do it?