Snippet #2326234

"Do you mind if I don't answer that? I rather not talk about it."

Shineda was a little bit stunned from that. Did she not trust him? The volatile blonde teen once again experienced a supercharged anger flowing inside him, for no apparent reason. Or perhaps he did? Maybe he felt hurt for not being trusted? But whatever it was, he didn't say it, nor did he make any sound of discontent about it. He did what he had learnt to do, bottle it up. The burning rage was stored inside a container somewhere inside Shineda's already weak subconscious. It seemed like the game had decided to react to this, and the system seemed to cause his eyes to flicker red, then back to blue.

The silence between the two was deafening, since Shineda had decided not to speak up at all. The atmosphere felt quite tense. After what seemed like hours, Shineda felt around his legs and decided that he could walk. Standing up, he walked towards the bathroom to freshen up from the day's stressful events. He removed his equipped clothing and stepped into the bathtub, soaking himself in the hot water. Closing his eyes and settling into memories, anything to escape the still burning anger and disappointment in his heart.

---

Tatsu returned when the day was turning dark, bringing along with him a recently purchased 「Hot Chocolate」. He was humming happily and pressed his hand against the door, which recognized him as one of the current occupants of the room. Swinging open, he skipped into the room happily.

"I'M HOME~" he called out, then rushed in, glomping the first person in sight, Reena.

"Hi big sis! I got us dinner!" he told her with a grin, retrieving them from his inventory, setting them on the bed, since the room was pretty bare.

---

Shineda awoke to another nightmare, having fallen asleep in the bathtub. Getting out, he dressed himself. Upon opening the door, he heard Tatsu's cheerful voice.

"I got you 「Hot Chocolate」 too!" Tatsu was probably talking to Reena. "It was big bro who told me to get it."

Shineda tsked to himself, then walked in with an impassive face. He was still stinging from the talk with Reena.

Upon seeing him, Tatsu rushed for him, glomping the teen. Shineda smiled at the contact and patted the child's head, but returned back to being cool and disinterested after that.

"Welcome back Tatsu. Thanks for getting dinner." Shineda paced forward to quickly grab his share of dinner, wanting to get away from Reena's bed as much as he could.

"I also got the 「Hot Choc-" Tatsu began.

"Alright."

Shineda didn't want to hear about it. Anything related to his anger, he would avoid. He huddled in his bed and began eating his dinner. Sensing his big bro's discontentment, Tatsu proceeded to keep quiet as well, eating his dinner.

The presents that he had bought lying quietly in his inventory.

"I'm going to sleep." Shineda announced, upon finishing his dinner, tossing the box into a corner, where it disappeared in a burst of blue. Then with a lighter tone, he smiled at Tatsu. "It was a good dinner Tatsu. Thank you."

And there he laid, quiet and still as a rock, but he was fully awake of course, the fear of nightmares once again threatening his psyche. But he pretended as if he was asleep, not wanting to get into a conversation with either one of the people in the same room as he was, lest he accidentally vent his anger on the innocent Tatsu.