𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐀, d.osamu | ✓

𝟬𝟭𝟭

She probably didn't love Dazai, it would be impossibly to fall for a person whom she had know for a little over a week. But she cared for him, no matter how much she tried convincing herself that she didn't. Dazai was a different kind of different— somebody only the daft or the blind wouldn't be interested in— human enough to make Maya fall head over heels for him when the time was right.

But it probably wasn't love; more of infatuation of him and of what could be with him and of what couldn't.

･ﾟ: ﾟ･: :･ﾟ:･ﾟ

Maya drummed her fingers against the surface of the table, not feeling bored one bit. Her mind didn't leave any space for boredom, welcoming all the stuff about Dazai with open arms. She was just blindly walking into a death trap now, intoxicated of the stuff her mind conjured up— all the dreams, fantasies, memories— and she couldn't help but fall prey to it.

The doorbell rang.

Maya waited a few seconds to see if anyone was coming to open the door and sighed when no one came rushing down to slam open the door. She trudged towards the door and swung it open.

"Hi, Maya-chan!"

Maya's eyes widened, and she barely had time to process what had happened when her mother had thrown herself upon her and wrapped her arms around her frame. Kaono took her widened eyes and surprised face as a good thing when in reality, Maya was most definitely not pleased with her mother and stepfather returning from their honeymoon so soon.

"Hey, kiddo." said Mr. Ido, ruffling her hair. Maya bit the inside of her cheek and glared at the ground, pretending it was Mr. Ido. She looked at her mother, "I thought you guys were gonna be on your honeymoon for a bit more time,"

She didn't want her mother or Mr. Ido here. She wanted them to go wherever she didn't. Because they were going to pamper her to no end and treat her like the baby she was expected to be but wasn't.

"Well, we didn't tell you that were going to come early to celebrate my baby's birthday," said her mother, grinning from ear to ear. She gave Maya another one of her bone-crushing hugs and walked inside, Mr. Ido at her heels.

Akira and Anzu came rushing down, enveloping Kaono into a hug as soon as they saw her and Mr. Ido. They began sputtering gibberish, saying how much they missed the two of them and Akira told them how Anzu burned their food three days ago while cooking something as simple as ramen for dinner while Maya awkwardly stood in the corner. She fidgeted with the hem of her T-shirt, glancing up at the group as Anzu dragged Kaono to sit on the couch— the girl wiggled her eyebrows, asking for the details of the honeymoon.

Maya didn't know what to do; she could always run upstairs— it would be easy to do since there weren't many eyes on her— or maybe she could stay and listen to her mother and her husband blabber about Paris and the Eiffiel Tower. It was obvious that Maya wasn't very thrilled with the arrival of the two adults, but her sisters were too immersed in asking their mother and stepfather questions. She thought that for a few weeks she could finally loosen up without her mother threatening to call the police and report her missing if she didn't return from the convenience store in less than 10 minutes. It had been little over a week, and she had so many things to do.

She wanted to do all the things her mother would get upset on; eat ice-cream till it gave her a brain freeze, play video games or stay up all night and lastly, the thing her mother would probably disown her on, confess to Dazai.

Whatever she had for him, she wanted to tell him and sort it out then and there.

"I can't believe my baby's turning eighteen," said her mother, popping a cherry in her mouth.

The five were sitting in the living room, after dinner, eating cherries dipped in vodka; something Kaono liked to do eat. Maya smiled weakly and plucked a cherry from the big bowl they had placed on the coffee table. Vodka was never really her thing, and she wasn't even old enough to drink yet.

"Hey, don't you have that, uh, festival in your college next week?" asked Mr. Ido, turning to Maya.

Maya could barely nod before her sisters squealed shaking her back and forth from the shoulders.

"I'll help you with your make-up!" said Akira.

"And I'll help with the dress," supplied Anzu.

"But I don't even have a dress for stuff like that," said Maya in an hopeless attempt to get them to stop.

"That's okay!" cut in her mother, "You can buy one,"

"You just have to do one thing," said Anzu, patting her younger sister in the back.

"Find a boy for yourself!" sang Akira, poking Maya's cheek.

She forced a smile. Yay.

█████████████████████████

I'm planning to not update any other book until this one's completed. Just so you know.