honou_no_izumi | Tsunderella

Title: Tsunderella
Chapter: 2 - The Crying Sun
Characters: NEWS members, Tackey
Fandom: Johnny's Entertainment
Rating: PG15 (Yeah, finally can up this rating!)
Summary: Patience. Sometimes... you had to wonder just how far the limit can go.
A/N: Sometimes I had to wonder when did reality had overlapped with fiction in this piece.
Disclaimer: No Ryo had been hurt during the writing of this chapter. And no... the violence portrayed in this chapter are not based on any real life incidents.
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The loud bang on his door startled him so much that Ryo almost fell over from his bed.

“Ryo! Come out this instance!”

Ryo froze. That was his stepmother’s voice! Why—Ryo finally noticed the old alarm clock he had on his small desk to realize that it was already ten o’ clock in the morning! No wonder someone was pissed. Ryo got off the bed, noticing the state of undress—or more like, the lack of any dress—he was in. Thank goodness he had thought of putting up extra bolts on his doors. If his stepmother could still enter this room freely, he’d probably be kissing his virginity good bye.

Not like he hadn’t had that thought every single day in this house.

Ryo hurriedly grabbed some clothes and put it on him before grabbing his keys to open the door.

“I’m coming out already!” he replied loudly as his hands shook while trying to unlock the padlock he placed on the door.

Ryo barely got his keys inside his pants pocket and opened the door when his stepmother had pulled him out aggressively, dragging him downstairs towards the kitchen. Ryo cursed under his breath every time he almost tripped on his steps. Just as they reached the kitchen, without warning; Ryo felt himself being thrown towards the kitchen cabinet. Now, not saying that Ryo was a weakling but having been dragged out like that and moving at that same speed while being thrown off from that momentum was possible in those circumstances, you know? Yes, he knew about momentums, inertia and all. He might have not been able to go to school, but didn’t mean he’s stupid. He had those old books to read...

Ryo felt the breath in him being forced out of him as his head hit the marble cabinet very hard. He winced in pain as he could barely hear his stepmother shouting.

“How dare you laze around? Did you forget the amount of work you’re supposed to do today? See all those plates and everything in the sink! Unwashed! And how long would you want to let them remain like that? Ages? There are still laundries to do, and cleaning to do—and for crying out loud! Go prepare food, you imbecile! Just because you’re my stepson doesn’t mean that you can freeload here!”

Freeload? FREELOAD? When all of this time he was the one doing most of the housework in this house while she sat around enjoying life and prancing around the city, flirting on every single men she could get her hands on? Him... freeloading? It’s not his fault that the sink was filled with stuffs again. He didn’t just stand guard at the kitchen all the time to make sure everything was cleaned. And people just dumped things into the sink without bothering to clean them. Was that his fault as well?

Ryo would have liked to spat all those bottled rage inside of him if he was feeling particularly rebellious. But no, right now it was better for him to keep himself alive for the time being. Instead, he just spat out angrily, “All right, bitch! I’ll settle the chores at once after this! Can you just fucking get out of this kitchen now?”

Ryo lifted his head towards her as blood started to flow from the cut on his left eye. He glared at her with rage as his stepmother backed away from him a few step.

“Ah, Ryo-kun! I’m sorry... I didn’t mean to—here, let me put something on that cut...” Yuko started to say as Ryo slapped her hands away.

“Get out! Don’t touch me! I don’t want any part of you touching me!” Ryo shouted again, crying now as his tears of anger were mixed with the blood on the side of his face. The older woman complied as she walked away, leaving Ryo still lying on the kitchen floor beside the marble cabinet. Slowly, Ryo wiped his tears away as he pulled himself up. He laughed mirthlessly, the sink was not even half full. Yet, he received that kind of lashing as well as this cut on his head and the following headache. Sometimes he wondered why he even bothered staying in this house—oh, right. He stayed here because this was where most of his memories of his real parents and brother had remained. There were a lot of things in this house that was precious to him. That bitch would probably throw it all away if he had as much leave this place, not that she would even allow it. He was as much as her cash cow in that sense where she would use him to convince his father’s friends to give her money when she ran out of it.

That made him wonder. Did he still have any other relatives outside of this supposed one that he had? If only that were possible...

Ryo slowly washed the dishes clean as he set them aside. He went upstairs as he grabbed his towel and fresh clothes before heading to the bathroom. He placed the clothes in one basket and striped and placed the worn clothes in another. Ryo glanced towards the mirror. He gasped, that was one big gash! No wonder his stepmother stepped away from him. He sighed. Luckily, he still had some of that first aid kit stuff in his room, courtesy of his unknown benefactor.

Aaa... that would be some big gash to cover.

Ryo shrugged to himself as he walked towards the bathtub nearby, filling it with warm water. These kinds of abuse were not that unusual for him. Ryo glanced towards his own body. Most of the injuries he had sustained in the past had completely healed without leaving any trace. Some scars still remained. Ryo stared at the burn mark on his arm when his stepmother had hit him with a still hot frying pan when he accidentally burned his cooking. That had been a few weeks ago, he snickered not slightly amused. He had often heard child abuse stories on television involving small children, he never thought he would be part of that kind of story at this age. Well, there were those domestic abuse things. DV... for short, right? Looking at his arm again, he sighed for the umpteenth time.

He never be getting any chance to wear those kinds of sleeveless shirts at the rate, could he?

Ryo stepped into the bathtub as the foams started to spread all over him after he had poured some of those bubble bath liquid into the tub. Ah, it felt so nice. For some reason, he always loved taking his bubble baths regardless of how old he gets. It might be childish, but at least he still had some place in this house that he could call his sanctuary.

After some time, he could hear his stepmother shouting again downstairs. Time to get out of the tub, he thought as he washed, dried and dressed himself. Oh, don’t forget about brushing his teeth! Unlike the narrator who tend to even forget to eat her lunch, he would never forget to brush his teeth.

He looked up again towards the mirror. Ah, time to patch that cut on his forehead...

xxx

Ryo twitched his nose at the lingeries inside the basket as he took out a shirt to hang on the cloth lines. That was another kind of sexual harassment from his stepmother to try to get him into her influence. How lame. It’s not like he had gotten any kind of reaction just by touching her things...

Ryo focused himself too much on his chores that he barely noticed it when an elderly woman called out to him. He had blinked at her, the woman was kinda familiar to him. He was not sure if she had lived around the neighbourhood—she probably is—since the old lady always often seen around the area and always found the time to greet him whenever he was outside the house.

“What happened to your head, dear? Did you fell on the steps or something?” asked the old lady as Ryo shrugged.

“It’s something like that...” he replied before his stepmother walked out to explain the ‘accident’. His stepmother had stood so close beside him that she even took the chance to place a hand behind his back. It took Ryo’s every will to keep himself still from pushing his stepmother away. The old lady nodded her head as she walked off. Ryo wondered if the old lady knew anything about what had happened inside this house. He wondered if he could seek her for help.

His stepmother turned towards him as she gave him a horrid look.

“Don’t get any funny ideas!” she said before heading back inside.

Biting his lips, Ryo went back to finishing his laundry chores...

xxx

Ryo pushed the door to his bedroom close behind him. It was almost three o’ clock in the afternoon, yet he hadn’t had any lunch yet. At least his chores were done with and he hadn’t any more strength to spare by facing his stepmother for the rest of the day. He sighed—he had been doing this a lot—as he headed towards his bed. But before he could even reach his bed, everything around him suddenly blacked out as Ryo fainted onto the floor.

xxx

“Ryo... are you inside, Ryo—!”

The young man gasped aloud as he saw the collapsed form on the ground. He turned Ryo over to check his pulse and was relieved to see that he was still alive. He still swore when he noticed the bandage above Ryo’s left eye. Ryo’s face was pale, probably because he hadn’t yet eaten anything for the day. The young man gently lifted Ryo into his arm and placed him onto his bed. Ryo was still light-weight compared to his own. For some reason, he didn’t like that.

After securing Ryo on the bed and covered his body with a warm blanket, the young man walked out of the room; locking the door as he exited.

Hours later as Ryo woke up; he had wondered how he ended up lying on his bed when he clearly had no memories of doing so. He slowly got up, noticed that even his door was locked; before looking towards his desk to see a tray with a bowl of porridge and a glass of water. There were even some pills placed near the glass. Ryo frowned—even the bandage on his head had been changed!—as he wondered who could it be the one doing this for him.

But one thing was certain; his benefactor definitely was living inside this house with him.