Lesson Learned

I think we made some progress!

Dr Yokoyama hummed, rubbing his chin as he looked at his notes. "It was mentioned in your file that your mother went away for a number of months, to a rehabilitation facility?"

She looked at her brother who just scowled. "Uh, yeah, that's right."

"That must have been difficult," he said, smiling faintly.

"Yes, well it was a long time ago," Gakushuu replied stiffly.

"Yeah, we're pretty much over it," she added lightly, and then narrowed her eyes at the man when he wrote something down. "Look if you want to know how we feel about our parents, we think they're useless," she said bluntly, crossing her arms. "They're trying to make amends for the past and sort out their own issues—which is why we've been dragged along for the ride."

"Exactly," her brother said firmly. "We're the only ones in the family who are actually stable."

"Yes, you did say," the therapist remarked lightly.

"Obviously we had some issues," Mitsuko said uncomfortably. "But we worked through them together and we're fine now."

"I see." Dr Yokoyama kept nodding as he wrote more stuff down in his book. "Well I'm glad you both feel fine, but I'm curious about something." His brow furrowed. "You said your parents were useless—are you referring to their obsessive habits." He tapped his pen. "From my judgment, they seemed very..."

Mitsuko tensed along with her brother. "Very what?" She scowled when the therapist shrugged.

What had their parents been telling him?!

"They're not..." Gakushuu paused. "They weren't good parents."

"No." She grimaced. "They weren't..." Her brow furrowed. "And if they said they were good then they're lying!"

Dr Yokoyama's frown deepened. "I see..." He looked through his notes. "Your father is the Principal at your school. Correct?"

"Yes," Gakushuu replied curtly.

"He's won a lot of awards for educator of the year." The older man looked at them curiously. "He has quite the respectful reputation...I can imagine it would make it difficult to try to tell people an alternative opinion."

Gakushuu's eyes narrowed warily while Mitsuko held her brother's hand tight and smiled at him reassuringly.

"Fortunately I don't have any personal opinions on him, it would be unprofessional." Dr Yokoyama smiled faintly while they remained silent and wrote something else down in the notebook. "I'm simply here to observe and draw a conclusion based on my academic knowledge."

Mitsuko frowned, curling her hands in her skirt while glancing at Gakushuu cautiously.

There was another long pause as the two of them stared at the other man in the armchair.

The silence started to feel overbearing and there was a tightness in her chest which kept getting worse.

"...There were lessons," she spoke up hesitantly. "That he'd teach us." She looked over at her brother wondering if he'd try to object but he stayed silent. "About strength."

Dr Yokoyama looked interested, writing down something. "Interesting. What kind of lessons?"

***

"Come on," Mitsuko hissed as she and her brother leaned against the closet door trying to open it.

They were in darkness with only a crack of light providing an outline for them to see. It was a small dark space full of old paper files which made the small space dusty and there were spiders which kept sneaking up and trying to crawl down their necks.