Back ---> Yoroshiku Chapter 6

Chapter 7: Confessions

   Vick lie awake in his bed, thinking. Why haven't I noticed before?  She's gonna kill me when she finds out I haven't told her. Who she is, why she's here. I can't believe I heard her tell me her name, and I didn't make the connection. But then again, maybe I shouldn't tell her who she is. Then she'll leave, and I could never go back. He sighed and rolled over. The princess. I wonder how the city is doing. If my dad's still alive. Doubt that anyone would let him live after what he did. Unless he got away. He's probably furious at me. He sighed again.

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   As the weeks went by, Kyoko worked the counter, Vick had more time for his inventions. They grew closer, but still stayed distant, because Vick could never bring himself to make any advances on a princess (even though she didn't know.) They shared laughs and many gourmet dinners. Kyoko sent Vick out to buy her some earmuffs, to keep customers coming. She refused to leave the confines of his store, on the off chance that she might see Kain out shopping. It was the longest time she had ever run away, and her homesickness shrank with every day. She was getting used the way things went, almost like a daily schedule imprinted in her mind. 
   It was a Tuesday afternoon, and Kyoko, like usual was sitting at the front counter reading a magazine she had Vick pick up. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye she saw a large man walking down the sidewalk outside. He wasn't overweight, just extremely muscular. He was wearing a tight t-shirt, cargo pants and work boots. His hair was tightly pulled back into a ponytail. He looked like one of the guys that could have been a professional wrestler. Or one of the guys who are in lumber jacking competitions. No way. It can't be him. Kyoko turned to look at him and saw his face. Kain. It's him. He's looking for me. She fell off the stool, then scurried over to the corner of the room, out of sight from any passerby. 
   “VICK!” She yelled at the closed door.
   “Yes, I'm in here,” he called from the back room.
   “Would you mind if we closed the shop for about 5 minutes?” She grew anxious.
   Vick came out of the back room. “Sure, what's wrong? Hey!” Kyoko pulled him over behind the counter and ducked down. “What's the big idea?” 
   Kyoko crawled over to the door and switched the “open” sign to “closed”, then scampered back over behind the counter.
  “What? What is it?” Vick started to get nervous. “What's wrong?”
   Kyoko pointed at the man walking down the sidewalk.
   “Who's that? Do you know hmmpph!” Kyoko put her hand over his mouth as the man walked by. After he passed, she took her hand off.
   “My god, he's huge. Probably takes steroids or something. Why were we hiding from him?”
   “That's Kain. He's looking for me,” she said.
   “HIM? He's a monster! That guy's...oh my god.” Vick realized. That man was the one who...abused Kyoko. He looked at her. “I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.”
   “You don't need to apologize. It's my fault I ran away.”
   “No I mean, he is the one who did all of those things to you? How did you survive?”
   Kyoko lifted up her shirt, revealing a long scar that ran from her belly button down. 
   “The doctor had to...” she started to cry, “he had to take out everything. It was so torn up, there was no point of keeping...” She broke out in tears. 
   Vick hugged her close to him. “I'm so sorry. I wish I could say ‘I know how you feel' but I don't. I don't know what to say. I'm so sorry,” he repeated. He held her tight. “Why didn't you tell anyone? He could be in prison right now for this.”
   “He always told me, that if I went to the police, or told anyone, that he would kill me,” she said in between sobs.
   “That isn't fair. I can't believe someone like that is just walking down the street.” He looked out the window. “We have to do something.”
   “No! Please, don't. It's under control.” She sniffed.
   “It doesn't sound like it's under control.” He adjusted himself in the corner, where they still sat. “Kyoko. I can fix this. I can help you. Please, will you listen?” She nodded, then went back to hugging Vick.
   “I have a confession to make to you. And I feel terrible that I kept it a secret for weeks. I'm so selfish.”
   “No you're not, just tell me.”
   “Right. I know who you are. And you know me.”
   “Yeah, I know you...?” Confused, she looked up at Vick.
   “I mean before you walked in this store. I've known you since you were born. Remember the boy in your dream? That was me. The way you described him, that was me when I was ten years old. That's how I remembered.”
   “Really?”
   He nodded and smiled. “I know your parents. And your brother.”
   “I have a brother?! That's so great!” She managed to smile with her tears still streaming down her face.
   “Well, I'm not sure you have one anymore. There's the confession part. This,” he placed his hand on Kyoko's stomach, “This is my fault. It's my fault you aren't living in the city anymore. That you had to suffer this. It's my fault that your parents...” A tear fell from his face onto Kyoko's hand. She had never seen him cry before. She hugged him tighter. Vick acknowledged the hug by crying more. “...your parents are dead. And it's because of me.”
   Kyoko didn't say a word. She couldn't believe that the man she was hugging, the man she had lived with, killed her parents.
   “...you killed them?”
   “No, not me, my father.” He continued wetting Kyoko's shoulder with his tears.
   “Oh!” She smiled. “Then it isn't your fault.”
   “I could have stopped him. I could have stopped him too.” He pointed out the window. 
   “What's done is done. No use crying over spilt milk, right?”
   “You're not mad?” he blubbered.
   “No, not really.”
   “Then I have something else to tell you. You are a princess. Your parents were the king and queen.”
   Kyoko didn't say a word. She stared at Vick. A princess? That's even more far-fetched than an elf. 
   “You need to go back home. And stay there. You can avoid all of this,”as he pointed out the window again, “and live a happy and wonderful life. In a grand palace! Please do this for me. I can't stand to see you scared.”
   “I don't know where it is.”
   “I can take you there. Just promise me one thing. Once you go there, never come back. You deserve so much more than hiding in a corner. Do you promise?”
   She nodded her head. “When?”
   “Right now. Get your things.”

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