I missed the point of what he wants?! WHAT THEN?

Once again I concealed my frustration, but I was still annoyed. Why can’t he just spit it out? “Why, then?”

He ignored me again, turning his gaze to his stupid paper again. “Father.”

Nothing.

I gritted my teeth and stood, walking around the table. I tried to take the paper, but he turned a steely eye on me, and I shrank away from his look.

I recalcitrantly returned to my zabuton, but my teeth still ground. “I’m sorry, but please... let me know what you have on your mind. Why’d you bother?”

Still nothing. Pleading with him had no result.

“Augh!!!” I finally surged up and stomped. I did a silly dance. Anything that would successfully shift his attention away from the paper, no matter how much it demeaned me, I’d do it! I started slapping my butt towards him repeatedly, and my dance became incredibly obnoxious.

He grew more annoyed as I continued to ask. I could tell from his aura, and the quality of the silence deepened. I knew it wouldn’t work out the way I wanted. I did some silly things sometimes. I’d gotten hurt before when I got in this kind of a mindframe. Not by him generally. At school. The way I looked made me look tough. I really actually wasn’t. When I acted like this I was like a mini-Yakuza.

The silence became more ominous as time passed, and I danced on.

I received a response eventually. I froze the moment he spoke. A chill crept down my spine.

“Do you really want me to say it plainly, Susumu? Alright!” He set the paper down firmly with a loud slamming noise.

*SLAM*

He stood, his aura even more menacing than his rigid frame had been. “You’re badgering me! What possessed you, Susumu? You’re acting like a total ass! Are you sure you want what comes next? Are you so desperate for attention?”

I gasped and backed away, reseating myself on my zabuton. “N-no... I probably don’t... ahaha... It’s just, you’re always reading your papers. You never bother.” I looked away, certain I’d opened Pandora’s box with my father this morning.

“You can’t close this door once it’s opened. Listen, son.” My father’s tone was even, far more reasonable than I’d expected considering what I’d done. His tone possessed a gravity which belied his next words. “I wonder if your mother slept with a gorilla. You look like one. You acted like one.” He towered high above me, like a column of pure anger.

Then a larger one entered the room. He turned to look, and his eyes widened. “Ah, wait!”

My mother walked in from the kitchen. He drew back from her with a dread-filled expression. His hands waved. My mother seemed even larger than previously. I drew away, shaking. She put her hands on him. He looked into her eyes. He smiled at her. She smiled back. I thought he’d been forgiven the insult he carelessly threw out. I don’t think he thought it out. Maybe I inherited this kind of behavior from him. She suddenly turned with a handful of his yukata. She bowed and sent him flying to faceplant into the tatami beside the kotatsu.

I gaped. This was the most emotion I’d really seen from them. I’d really opened hell itself.

“Ahahahaha... I’m... yeah..." I made my escape. Suddenly Mother was behind me. I felt her hand on my shoulder. I turned to look into her eyes, with terror in my own face. She smiled at me. I smiled at her.

“Susumu,” she murmured.

I stiffened. “Y-yes, Mom?”

“You were a serious pest. I don’t know who you got this kind of behavior from,” she chided me.

“Y-you were watching?” I asked, my glance angling towards my father who was still put through the tatami.

“I always watch.” She pointed to the kitchen nearby. “Or listen. What was this about?”

I paled. “Oh, um... I just wanted... his attention?” I tried.

“I can believe that, Susumu.” She shook her head, seeming to relax slightly. “But you went too far. You could have just asked me. You know he doesn’t talk much.”

“Y-you know? You knew the whole time?” I stuttered.

“Of course. I know his mind. I don’t know yours. You’re incredibly strange.” She frowned. “Alright... it’s Reiko-chan. She and he haven’t spoken, but he’s seen her. He approves of her. You aren’t going to catch a wife. In other words... he wanted to say in his own way, why are you sitting doing nothing every day? Have you dated? You’re nearly out of high school. You have no ambitions, you aren’t going anywhere, and the face we gave you won’t earn you anything. Maybe if you went to America you could find someone, but I’d suggest manning up and talking to Reiko-chan.”

I thought about it. She didn’t throw me too, I was thankful for that fact.