203 You must protect me from her

"heiji?" kirishima naoki looks at him. "are you hurt, my boy?"

yuki shakes his head and smiles at his grandfather. "i am not hurt, father."

the old man takes his small hands and sighs. they are wrapped with small bandaids. his little boy keeps getting into trouble. if only his son takes care of his hands well, he would be a little less worried about him. "i heard you playing earlier."

under the bed, yuta observes the old man. there's no clarity in those eyes. why is he calling her by a different name? he recalls the conversation between yuki's mother and his father in the car. kirishima heiji died around seventeen years ago. then, this old man is should be kirishima heiji's father.

"i-i was…" yuki sees a small head peeking out. he opens a drawer and looks for the music score in a hurry. if yuta is caught, there's no telling what will happen to him and yuta. he wants to live. he wants to see his father again. "father, i am having trouble with this part. can you tell me why i am getting it wrong each time?"

his grandfather looks down to have a look. yuki glares at yuta and mouths, "get inside right now."

yuta rolls his eyes and crawls out of the bed. standing behind his grandfather, he smirks at yuki who turns pale. at the same time, the old man raises his head and says, "heiji, i heard you play it earlier. have a little confidence, my boy. you are doing it right, but you need to put more emotions. without emotions, music is lifeless. you are trying to master playing an instrument. that's not how it works. you cannot become a master of music. you need to submit everything to music. she is your true master. become her slave and she will embrace you back. do you understand, my son?"

yuki nods at his grandfather. there's blood on his grandfather's sleeves. he stares at patches of blood on the floor. "is ayaka okay, father?"

yuta, who is about to walk out of the door to explore the house and find out more secrets, halts when his ears catch those words. ayaka must be her mother's name. this girl is pretending to be kirishima heiji. he glances at the old man. is she being raised as a boy because of this old man? 

"tch!" kirishima naoki's face turns sour. "that girl! how dare she try to hurt you? if i didn't come here in time, she would have killed you. i gave her a warning. heiji, do not worry. she will never touch you again. you have to concentrate on fulfilling your mother's wish, understand?"

"i understand." yuki's lips curve into a smile. his eyes have a strange delight. "father, i promise. i will fulfil mother's wish. but, you must protect me from her."

that's the smile she shows when she's happy for the wrong reasons. now, he must find ayaka who tried to hurt her. seeing yuki distracted with the old man, he walks out of the door on his toes. the silence is unnerving. though the house seems clean, there's dampness in the air. when did the last time they open the window to let some air in? it seems like only yuki keeps her window open. he stops in front of a large family portrait. 

without a doubt, the teen girl in the portrait is yuki's mother. the girl has a fake smile on her face and a dark look in her eyes. she's sitting next to a sophisticated woman with similar features in her mid-forties. the woman has the same light grey eyes and honey blonde hair. behind her, a man in his late forties with dark brown hair and bright eyes is standing with his right hand on his wife's shoulder. his left hand is on the boy's shoulder. the boy is leaning toward his little sister with a notorious grin. the boy seems around fourteen or sixteen with similar features like his mother and sister. even in the portrait, one can tell that the family is odd.

the boy must be kirishima heiji. the old man is the father of the siblings. yuki is a carbon copy of the boy in the portrait. how can three generations look the same? if maddox is yuki's father, then there's not a single feature of maddox on yuki's face. also, these siblings do not look like the man in the portrait either. he stares at kirishima heiji and kirishima ayaka again.

yuta shakes away the thought. kirishima heiji was his father's classmate. he died at the age of sixteen. it's been sixteen years. this boy can't be yuki's father.

he takes out the picture from his pocket. who are this man and this toddler? yuta exhales. he takes a glance at the woman in the picture again. has he seen her somewhere before? was she famous or something? he sighs. his head is hurting. a single portrait can't answer all the questions. he keeps walking until he sees the ajar door. he slips into the room. the people in this house have a thing for darkness. 

a naked figure is lying on the floor in the fetal position. there are marks of lashes on her body and some wounds on her head. the blood is leaking out of her wounds. yuta recognizes her right away. did that old man do this to her? unperturbed by the scene, he bends down on his right knee and checks for signs of life. kirishima ayaka isn't dead yet. he doesn't pity a woman who tried to choke her daughter. he gets up and looks for any clue regarding yuki's father. he sees a pill bottle on the desk. he picks it up and checks the label. "haloperidol?" 

does she have a mental illness like that old man? yuta puts back the pill bottle. that woman is being raised by two mentally unstable people. at this rate, she will surpass her grandfather and mother in this lifetime too. how can he allow that to happen? only he will drive her insane in this lifetime. he must do something about this. 

there are a few books on the shelf. he notices that similar titles as the ones he saw in the treehouse are placed on the top shelf. the middle and bottom shelves are full of books related to developmental psychology and the general medical field. on the left wall, there are some pictures on the wall. in one picture, yuki is sitting on the man's lap. ayaka is standing next to him with a smile. yuta looks at the picture in his hand. this man is ayaka's husband. he can't say whether he is yuki's biological father or not. 

even if he looks a lot like his mother, he also has his father's features. there's not a speck of resemblance between yuki and ayaka's husband. he takes a breath. 

his mother saw maddox buying a girl's clothes for his daughter and parcel those clothes. later, it was confirmed that maddox had a daughter when she blackmailed him and he responded.

even in the old pictures, yuki is wearing male clothes. 

maddox is unlikely to let his daughter suffer in this place unless he has no choice.

yuta is sure that yuki isn't maddox's daughter. but, he's curious who yuki's biological father is.