Mix & Matches (Neymar Jr) ✔

#47, Damage control

"A cheater! A frikking cheater! I will kill him for this!" Emilia shouted, throwing the magazine away with force. It landed on the ground between her and Neymar pai, who was staring at the woman with caution, and a hint of fear. He'd never seen her this angry before. "I can't believe he would do this to my daughter! Can you believe he would do this to my daughter?"

Pai took a deep breath, holding up his palms to try and calm Emilia down. She'd started to pace up and down the kitchen at Neymar's house. "First of all, we need to calm down and think about this thoroughly," he said. "I'm sure it's not what it looks like."

At least I hope, was what he added in his mind.

Emilia glared at him seethingly. She came to a hold in front of him, stemmed her hands in the side of her hips and held his gaze so hard he didn't dare look away. "Oh, but what does it look like? If you hadn't noticed, it looks like that girl is NOT Tamira! It looks like that girl is NOT even looking anything like Tamira! It looks like that girl is NOT your son's supposed girlfriend that he loves and cares about and risks both their careers for! So tell me! What else does it look like?"

Unfortunately, Pai didn't have an answer to this. He didn't understand what he saw in that magazine and online all around either. He thought he knew his son inside and out. Neymar wasn't the type to cheat, was he? He wasn't even sure his son was capable of cheating or anything coming close to it. He was way too in love with Tamira, that much even he had come to finally realize. He'd seen those two together, there was no doubt his son loved the Australian girl. He was happy with her. He even kept talking to him about possible scenarios for when (not if) their relationship would become known publicly.

"Look," he started – because he had to start somewhere. "We won't find answers unless we talk to Neymar and get his explanation for this. And with 'we' I mean 'I' will talk to him," Pai was quick to correct his words. "You're only going to kill him."

Emilia scoffed. "If Tami hasn't already done so."

If she's got only a little bit of your temper, then I fear for my son's life, Pai thought, but was wise enough not to say out loud.

"And there I was, backing them up when you were so against them dating!" Emilia continued. "You knew this would happen, did you? Back then, you already knew!"

He needed to be cautious here. Cautious, but also honest. "It... it did come to my mind that something would certainly happen that could jeopardize the relationship." Emilia took a breath to counter but Pai was quicker than her. "But by no means did I ever think that this–" He pointed to the magazine lying haphazardly on the ground. "–was going to be a possibility. I was more thinking along the lines of their careers and images getting mudded or dented something. Not their hearts. Never their hearts."

Emilia's shoulder slacked and she hung her head in front of her, looking devastated, but also finally powered out and tired.

"Liar," she said with a sad smile on her face. She sat down on a chair, folding her hands in her lap. Her eyes followed his movement as he picked up the magazine and put it on the table. "You knew their hearts would take a beating. You just hoped it wouldn't be your son's. No, don't disagree here." She held up a finger in warning when he was about to object. "I'm a parent too, and it would be wrong to not think about your own child first. If I were to hold that against you than you would do wise to hold it against me that I was hoping it would be your son's heart that got broken, not my girl's."