The door to the bedroom creaked open. Kiro entered with a confused expression. His parents jumped, startled at his sudden appearance.
"Not tell me, why not?"
"Why were you listening in on our conversation?" Freya asked him sternly.
"I mean, I didn't mean to eavesdrop... Hey don't change the subject!"
Freya simply smiled. As if to say, 'well it was worth a try.' Kiro looked at his parents expectedly but none of them wanted to say anything. Kiro had already been through a lot in their eyes, especially with the academy incident. They wanted to protect him.
But Sekani realised it was well beyond that now. He was already exposed and there was nothing they could do to change that, even if they wished it were not true.
"Ki, listen, I don't want you involved in the family company until after graduation, can you let your father handle this bit?" He asked him sincerely.
Even with his realisation, he still wanted to be his shield. A parent will always be a parent after all.
"Dad, come on. I'm old enough, you can't make the decisions for me. I want to be involved!" It came out like a yell, he didn't mean to, but he didn't care about that now.
"Hey hey, speak respectfully to your father. We raised you better didn't we?" Freya chimed in.
Kiro apologetically nodded. He didn't think it mattered much, but his parents raised him better than that, the world he had experienced made him less patient though.
"Are you sure, Ki? I want you to be sure." Sekani pleaded.
"I'm sure, I'll drop out of school if I have to." He regretted it the moment the words rolled out of his mouth. Freya was already red.
"Good question."
"They probably have someone high up, they probably want to ruffle some feathers, make you back down."
Wilfred nodded. He wasn't part of the conversation, but he could hear everything he was in the same room as them after all. That's what he and Sekani concluded too. He could now see why his parents were so proud of him.
"That's about the gist of it."
"Are you backing down? Is that why you came back?"
"Of course not. I'll be leaving first thing in the morning. I won't be back until, maybe, around Christmas morning? Everything needs to be settled."
They sat there and chatted for a while. Sekani told him everything they've done for Waynworth Enterprise up until this point. Kiro just sat there impressed by his father, he was warm inside. Not because of the whiskey, but because he was happy.
"I hear you spend hours playing games? I know it made us what we are but Ki, your mother is pregnant. You can't spend all your time in there."
"It didn't make us dad, that's a weird way to put it. But yes, you're right. I'll cut my time. I promise." He smiled. "When's the hearing?"
"After Christmas, they decided." Sekani thought for a while. "We've never had an extravagant Christmas day. We should, for Alora."
Kiro simply nodded. He agreed. She was the youngest, who still believed in all sorts of fairytales. Now that they could afford things she usually asked for, it was the perfect time to spoil her rotten.
"Could I, come with you, to the lower district? It's as good a time as any, to start learning the ropes. Besides it'll be good for me, I'm doing VR sciences after all." He convinced him by leaning towards learning for school purposes.
He told him he'd talk it over with his mother first. He also wanted Hiro to come, it'd be a dream for him to be surrounded by every material he couldn't afford back then, in real-life too.