Tokyo Boys

Additional notes for the chapter:
* Family Registry - (koseki) in Japan serves as certificate of citizenship and everyone must have one. underage children cannot be removed from a family registry unless adopted by another family and moved to their family registry.

TOKYO BOYS
Chapter 24


The next day felt weird for Daisuke. First it took him a moment, when he woke up, to remember he was at his teacher’s house, sleeping on a futon in his teacher’s workroom. He almost expected one of the guys to jump on him, in a futile attempt to coax him to go down to the convenient store and get breakfast for everyone.

A pleasant smell of fried food reached his nose and he stepped out of the room, following the smell. Moriyama-sensei was making breakfast, frying eggs and tossing sausages in the pan.

“Good morning, sensei.” Daisuke bowed slightly.

“Ah, good morning.” Shouji turned to smile at him. “Did you sleep well?”

“So well I can't believe I’m awake.” Daisuke grinned.

~*~

Arriving together with Moriyama-sensei to school also felt strange. They parted ways at the entrance and Daisuke went to his class, greeting some of his friends on the way.

“Yuu-chan!” he almost crushed the smaller boy in a hug.

“What?” Yuuto pushed him off and stared at him. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah…” Daisuke smiled at him with tight lips. He wanted to tell him that he was staying with Moriyama-sensei, but other boys approached him, pulling him into their mundane conversations.

The rest of the day passed as it always did. Daisuke was surrounded with people as usual, Yuuto kept to himself or chatted idly with Midori during lunch break and Moriyama-sensei carried on with his job as though nothing had happened.

Only when everyone was free to go to their club activities, Daisuke realized he actually had nowhere to go. In the past month he just hurried to his part time job at Starbucks, but Moriyama-sensei made him quit. He had to ignore phone calls from his friends in Shinjuku, and it was only a matter of time before the boss started looking for him. All Daisuke could do was ask Moriyama-sensei what he was supposed to do. So much for being independent.

“Hasabe-kun…” Daisuke turned around when he heard Moriyama-sensei’s voice.

“Here…” The teacher gave him a key to his apartment. “I went and duplicated the key during my break. Will you be able to go to the apartment? I still have some work left.”

“Yeah, I remember the way…” Daisuke said quietly, looking at the key in his hand. “Sensei, we’re cohabiting…”

Moriyama-sensei gave him a look. “No, you’re just temporarily staying over,” he corrected him.

“What if my parents don’t take me back? Will you let me go back to the den?” Daisuke asked.

“To the… den?” Shouji furrowed his brow, confused.

“Oh, the apartment in Shinjuku…” Daisuke scratched his hair.

“Ah, no. I would never allow you to go back there. Don’t worry too much, I’m sure your parents miss you.” He glanced at his watch. “I have to go. I’ll see you tonight.”

Daisuke watched him leave. ‘I’ll see you tonight’… The words rang in his head. “We are cohabiting.” He grinned to himself.

Feeling good, he decided to go to the city to get his hair cut and dyed.

~*~

Shouji only finished his work around 7pm. He usually stayed longer, but he wanted to go pay a visit to Daisuke’s parents and then return home to the boy with some good news.

The Hasabe household seemed like a nice corner house in the suburbs. It wasn’t very far from the school. He paid the taxi driver and stared at the house, taking a deep breath before he opened the gate and knocked on the door.

A teenage boy opened the door. Shouji looked at him, the boy looked quite different from Daisuke, though he was also quite tall for his young face. Shouji asked him if his parents were at home, explaining he was from the High School. The boy’s face changed and he called out to his mother.

Shouji gasped when the young looking woman appeared at the door. He could see where Daisuke got his pretty face from. He quickly remembered the boy mentioning his mother’s past as a pop idol; he only took it as bragging before.

“I’m Moriyama Shouji,” he introduced himself after the long pause and bowed, handing her his business card. “I’m Daisuke’s homeroom teacher.”

Her fingers froze around the card and she looked at him, stunned. “I… uh…” She shifted her eyes.

“I know about Daisuke’s situation,” he said, trying to relieve her tension. “That’s why I’m here.”

She hesitated and looked over his shoulder carefully. “My husband should be home any moment…”

“I wish to talk to both of you and bring an end to this unpleasant situation…” Shouji started saying. “Can I please come in?”

The woman seemed reluctant to talk to him. Was Mr. Hasabe so terrifying?

“Can I help you, sir?” He heard a rough, yet polite voice and turned around to see a business man with a strict face and silvering hair, giving him a cold look.

“Dear, it’s Daisuke’s homeroom teacher…” Akiko said warily.

“Please leave.” The man’s words were sharp.

“Please listen to me, Hasabe-san… don’t you care about your son at all?” Shouji raised his voice.

The man brushed his shoulder against him as he walked to the house. “I only have one son and he’s inside the house,” he said dryly. “I have no business with you. Leave.”

“Sir, please… can’t you find it in your heart to forgive your son? No matter what he’s done, he’s still your own flesh and blood!” Shouji tried to speak to the man’s heart, but it seemed his words fell on a heart of stone.

Masahiro stepped out of his shoes, put his suitcase on the ground and closed the door in Shouji’s face.

“Hasabe-san!” Shouji knocked on the door again, but no one opened it.

He continued knocking for several minutes, before letting out a sigh and turning his back, giving up. For now.

~*~

“I’m back…” Shouji said quietly when he walked into his apartment.

Daisuke was watching TV in the living room, hugging a pillow. He seemed bored. He raised his head when he heard the teacher.

“Welcome home~” He grinned. “Cohabiting.”

Shouji forced a smile on his weary face as he shrugged the shoes off his feet. He put down his suitcase, removed his coat and loosened his tie.

“You’re always coming back so late?” Daisuke asked. “Or… did you go see my parents?”

“I did.” Shouji lowered his head.

“And I see it was as successful as I predicted…” Daisuke sneered. “I knew it.”

“It was only the first try…” Shouji shrugged. “I’m not giving up.”

Daisuke wriggled his finger over a little thread that stuck out from the pillow’s lining. “It’s okay… they don’t want me, I don’t want them either…”

“I don’t believe you…” Shouji said quietly and sat next to Daisuke. “Your mother seemed like she wanted to see you, but was too scared of your father.”

“She has no backbone when she’s with him. It’s really annoying.” Daisuke huffed. “When he’s not around she can boss you around with a whip.”

“I’m sorry, Hasabe-kun…” Shouji said quietly.

“Daisuke.” The teen corrected him. “I can’t use that family name anymore, can I? I bet that man tried removing me from the family registry already.”

“Fortunately, he can’t do that. But I’ll keep trying. I can’t accept that a parent would act that way towards their child,” Shouji said with a frown.

“Listen, sensei…” Daisuke rested his hand over his teacher’s arm. “Don’t expect me to break down and cry just because of that… I don’t cry. I miss my brother… I miss my room and my playstation 2… and I miss my mom’s cake on Friday nights…” He took a small sigh, before continuing, “But I already knew I couldn’t stay in that house longer than I had to… I was going to leave as soon as I graduated to some faraway university…” His voice was sad, but firm. He didn’t lower his eyes or show any insecurity.

“Daisuke…” Shouji whispered. His heart was aching for the boy. He could cry in his place, but he didn’t. He touched the boy’s face lightly. “Did you cut your hair?” he asked and squinted behind his glasses.

“Ah, yeah…” Daisuke touched his exposed nape. “It was getting too long…”

“Looks good.” Shouji continued looking at him. He wanted to hug him close, but he was afraid of losing control and doing something he would regret. He got up and brushed his pants. “I better take a shower. Did you do homework today?”

“Yes~~” Daisuke fell back into the sofa with a disappointed sigh. “You ought to buy some game console… your TV is so boring.”

“You need to spend your free time studying!” Shouji scolded him. “Show your parents you’re successful.”

“I really don’t care what they think of me…” Daisuke said. That was what he believed, despite a little nagging voice deep inside, which faded quickly.

Shouji headed for the shower when his phone started ringing. He took it out from his suitcase and looked at the caller ID. He didn’t recognize the number and answered quietly.

“Hello? Moriyama-sensei?”

“Yes, speaking.”

“This is Hasabe Akiko…” the woman identified herself.

“Oh…” Shouji snuck a look at Daisuke, who seemed to be immersed in the program he was watching.

Shouji tightened his hold against his ear and walked to his workroom, removing his necktie on the way.

“I just…” She hesitated and he could hear the great sorrow in her voice. “Is Daisuke doing good?”

“Ah, yeah…” There was no point telling her about the licentiousness of her son. “He slipped a little in the ranks, but he’s still in a good place,” he lied. He was sure Daisuke would improve his grades anyway.

“Do you know where he is? If he eats well? Kaname-kun told me he doesn’t know where he went to… I’m worried he would join up with some punks…”

Shouji cleared his throat. She wasn’t so wrong, but he wanted to believe the boy was in good hands now.

“Actually, he’s staying with me. I took him in for now,” he told her.

“Really? Sensei, it’s so kind of you. I’m really sorry…” She sounded like she was about to cry. “Thank you…”

“You have to speak to your husband’s heart. You know it’s just unthinkable that a parent could just disown his child like that. And he’s only seventeen…”

“My husband is… I don’t think I could do it…” she said honestly.

“You will have to try.” Shouji encouraged her. “I’m sure you’ll manage to change his mind eventually.”

The phone call ended on a positive note and he already felt better as he soak his body in the hot tub.


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