Chapter 607: Her Trauma (1)

Although Serizawa-senpai accepted when I told her that I wanted to take care of her, she’s still somewhat different from my girls.

If I had to guess, it’s like I accepted her dependence on me and on her part, she accepted my presence in her life. Someone like Haruko that she could depend on.

Well, perhaps that’s not a guess since I instantly felt that her fear towards me visibly lessened.

We went back to our earlier position wherein we’re both entangled with each other, with Serizawa-senpai on top of me.

“I... Onoda-kun, listen to my story. It mostly happened to my mother’s home country and my birthplace...” Serizawa-senpai started her story.

And while I went back to brushing her hair to make her comfortable, I listened to her somewhat tragic story that led to who she was today.

I put all of my focus on her, preparing for the resurfacing of her fear once she reached the point where it manifested in her story.

As it turned out, her father met her mother when he went on a trip to her birthplace, a country in northern Europe. Although a tourist for a few months at first, he returned there to take her hand in marriage.

Her mother came from a wealthy family that she inherited quite a large share in a multimillion company where she’s part of its Board of Directors while her father was a successful man of his chosen career.

One could say that they’re both rich.

And naturally, their love gave birth to Serizawa-senpai.

Serizawa-senpai was currently using her father’s surname but before arriving here, it was the other way around.

Anyway, Serizawa-senpai only described her life with her family as too wonderful and it was the best part of her life.

However, around six years after she came into this world, her father got into an accident, leading to his untimely death.

Being still a child at that time, the passing of her father truly made an impact on her. She told me that her jovial nature when she’s a child disappeared and in place of that, she started to favor the quietness. To pass the time and to reminisce about her father.

At that point, she avoided people, becoming an introvert.

Two years later, one day after returning from her primary school, her mother introduced a man to her and told her that she’s going to marry him.

Serizawa-senpai accepted or rather, there was no way for her to reject. Introducing him and telling her about it was just courtesy. She didn’t have a say in it.

At first, it was fine for her because she knew that her mother suffered much more than her for his late father’s passing.

Alas, with the inclusion of a new individual in their life, the quietness and tranquility that filled her life were somehow disturbed.

Compared to her father that’s amiable and kind with an always positive nature where he could even smile through a problem, her mother’s new husband was the opposite. He’s brusque, always snarling and ultimately a fake person who would act like a kind smiling dog in front of her mother but not in front of her.

In any case, the first year was fine. Although their house became louder than before, Serizawa-senpai still had a bastion of tranquility in the form of her room and she never tried to freely interact with him. She also used that time to know more about her father’s home country and its language. She’s aware that her father only had one living relative in the form of her grandmother because they went there a few times. But after his death, they hadn’t returned here, in this country.

After a year passed, perhaps urged by her mother, that man, her stepfather, began with his effort to get closer to her in the hopes of being regarded as her new father.

Senpai didn’t like him one bit and although she told that to her mother. Because she’s still a child, her mother attributed that to the two still have no chance to bond with each other.

And not even a month into his effort to get close to her as a father, he already lost his patience. He snapped at her, almost hitting her.

Naturally, that’s not enough for her to build a trauma.

Because of that incident, her mother finally listened to her. She forbade that man to approach her and let her go back to her quiet life.

But little did she know that when she’s not looking, that man continued trying and every time he would fail, his frustration over it accumulated.

Until one day, when her mother couldn’t go home for a night, she was alone with her stepfather. And it was the time when his frustration finally overflowed.

Because of her continued indifference, that man beat her. A child.

When he came to his senses, he panicked that she would tell her mother about it.

So instead of asking for forgiveness to Serizawa-senpai, he threatened that he’d always watch her and if her mother became aware of that incident, he would kill them both before escaping.

She’s still a child, she’s still gullible that upon thinking that she could also lose her mother, Serizawa-senpai agreed to not tell her mother about it and she just cried herself to sleep, wishing for her father’s return.

With the threat in place and with the mistake he made, he should’ve started to think of a way to change her view of him, right? But no.

Perhaps thinking he now had the power over the child, Serizawa-senpai became the outlet for his frustrations.

He started physically abusing her.

Her mother was unaware because whenever the three of them were together, he would act as if they’re getting along. When in fact, he’s threatening her with the same words.

And because she didn’t want to lose her mother because of her, she couldn’t do anything.

That’s the start of her fear that gradually built up.

More years then passed and Serizawa-senpai reached the point that her body started transforming from a child to that of a young adolescent girl.

Her mother is beautiful and although Serizawa-senpai failed to inherit most of her mother’s features, it was complemented by her father’s genes. Serizawa-senpai came to possess the mixed charm of those of eastern and western descent.

In their country, she’s called an exotic beauty.

Serizawa-senpai didn’t know if she was lucky or not but, even though her beauty had started to bloom, her stepfather never went past abusing her physically. Perhaps, he’s not just attracted to children. She’s still young by then after all. But that point wouldn’t redeem him for his sins.

But with the years of abuse and the threats she received, senpai became an even more recluse. She never interacted with anyone else, be it in school or their rich neighborhood. Her hate over the opposite gender slowly accumulated by then.

Because the man somehow wanted to control her, he became the one attending the meetings in her school or anything that involved her. Due to that, her mother remained clueless about the abuse she’s receiving from him.

At this point in her story, my shirt had already been stained by her sorrowful tears and not just once did her body tremble from fear.

Thankfully, I was ready for it and I managed to calm her down every time it would happen.

“Then senpai, how did you... escape?”

Because the way she narrated it sounded like there’s literally no escape for her to be out of his grasp, I asked that question to jump ahead and stop her from remembering more of her painful experiences.

There’s no need to further torture her mind, he’s the source of her fear and perhaps the helplessness she felt over the years extended that fear to every man in existence.

“M-my grandmother. She arrived for a visit.” Serizawa-senpai answered.