Call a Friend—Dad!

"DAD! DAD!"

"Welcome home, Sora," the voice of his dad came from the kitchen.

Sora ignored his father's greetings and just run off to where he heard his voice. Gasping for air, he pulled his father's arm. "Come on. We need to help the girl. We need to help Dandy. Fast!"

"Wait. Wait," His father wasn't even moving when he tried to pull him with all of his might.

His father isn't that muscular or has that wrestling body but Sora knows that he was strong. His arms may look weak but he once saw that it was muscled and hard.

Maybe Sora's foreign genes came from his father. Seri is also tall that sometimes he needed to bow a little so that he wouldn't hit his head at the doorways. Though he looked old with that white hair of his, he was younger than that. He said it was his real hair color. Too light blond that it almost turned into silver-white. Seri's grey eyes look sharp when he wasn't smiling and they completely disappear when he is. But no one should trust that smile.

Cause Sora knows that when his father was beyond angry, he would smile. And the next thing he knew, he was already grounded and already received a spanking.

And now, that smile hasn't appeared just yet. And Sora doesn't care about that now. He was more concerned about the girl.

Seri gave his full attention to him after turning off the stove. Smile gone and arms crossed in his chest that made him look taller and intimidating.

"Inoue Hasusora, where are your manners?" his voice grim as he lightly touched his earrings in his left ear. "Have you greeted the ancestral shrine? And your shoes?! How can you wear them inside? Go back and do what you need to do."

He cannot believe what his father just say. Instead of following what his father wanted, he stomped his feet. "Dad! I saw a girl in the forest got dragged in by a big wolf. Come on. Let's help her!"

Seri didn't answer and just looked at him as if he was lying.

"You're not going to believe me, are you?" Sora asked as his father didn't even budge from where he was standing.

"I'd listen if you would follow the house rules."

"I don't care about those stupid house rules! Why do I have to pray over those figurines?! Why do we even—"

"HOSUSORA!"

Sora stopped what he was about to say when Seri shouted. And fear started to crawl onto him when he looked straight at his father.

"I would ignore the disrespect to the Gods now. Just today. But if this would happen again, they know that I have given you chance to correct your attitude," Seri took in a deep breath and smiled as he let it go. "now, I will listen to what you have to say after you follow the house rules."

Sora gulped hard when he saw that ominous smile. How can he do that when he was clean on avoiding that for years?

Sora didn't have the strength to move thus Seri carried Sora at the back of his shirt's collar and put him down at the entrance. He was thrown out of the door and his father closed the door behind him.

Sora just accented screamed his frustration and anger when finally he was out of his father's sight. Someone is in danger and his father was concerned about the formalities and greetings!

Sora tried his best not to slam the door open and close. He removed his shoes and shouted, "I'm home!"

"Welcome home, Sora. Have you had your snack? How was school?" Seri still had that ominous smile thus Sora tried his best to be on his best behavior.

"Fine. But on the way here, I saw a girl being dragged by a wolf going to the forest!" He replied. And just like earlier, his father didn't say anything.

He immediately runs towards the mini shrine inside their home. He doesn't even know why he needed to do that, offering prayer to female and male figurines. And who they are, that he doesn't know.

He only saw his grandparents once. They don't look old and they can still move properly unlike the other grandparents of his friends in Tokyo. And now, he hasn't seen them since the day they were back. His father isn't saying anything and he wasn't asking since he wasn't that close to any of their relatives.

He can still not understand why he and his father needed to go back to that province when they don't have any relatives there. No aunt. No uncle. No grandparents and all. They were living okay in Tokyo.

And that makes him question why over and over.

When he asked his father, he just told him:

"It is not I who is needed. But the son needed to meet the flower. It is destined and inevitable."

Puzzling. Confusing. He wanted to ask more but his father wouldn't answer anymore. Instead, he would fall into deep thinking.

After that, he didn't ask anymore. Asking his father to go back to Tokyo, to go back to his mother but he was all deaf to it. And what puzzled him was his parents aren't divorced. They're not even arguing.

Instead, Sora always hears his father talking to his mother on the phone. Not fighting, not blaming anyone for that transfer but more of something that would make kids puke. Too sweet and cringe.

In the end, he just accepted his fate but it didn't stop him from getting angry with it. Being removed from his life in Tokyo, with his friends, from his mother, was torture. Cause he doesn't understand why and no one was telling him.

Sora finished offering prayer to the shrine and just followed what the 'tradition' as his father called. After offering a prayer, he again ran back to his father.

Seri was still standing in the kitchen with his arms crossed. "Done?"

"Yes. Can you help me now?"

"Ah. The girl," Seri said as if it was the first time he heard what he said. "Don't worry. There aren't any wolves in the forest."

"But I saw one!"

"I told you there isn't." Seri ignored Sora again as he continued to cook. "Maybe it's just heat that was playing with you. Much better to wash up and clean the table."

"But the girl…father!"

Seri then sighed and look at him. "Will you stop this if we go back there?"

"Yes!" {If the girl was still alive}

He didn't wait for his father when he started removing his apron. He cannot wait for him so he just ran back to the entrance to wear his shoes. Hoping that Dandy would still be alive.

****END OF CHAPTER****