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๐
Trauma dump with strangers
ft. drunk talk home and window crawlers
” ๊ทผ๋ฐ ๋จ ํ๊ฐ๋ ์๋ star, yeah “
–
Dinner…. Was awkward.
Scaramouche begrudgingly ate with the three females downstairs, staring at his phone just about the entire time. The rest threw a casual conversation back and forth while Ei occasionally glanced towards the young man sitting in the end of the dining table. Yae made udon, the fried tofu with fox engraving was too cute to chew and eat. Y/n was debating whether to eat the tofu when she finally caught onto the tense atmosphere. The table had grown silent, and the awkward mood from before had grown tenfold.
Clearing her throat gently, Y/n placed her chopsticks down and grabbed the glass of water nearby. “Where did you guys live before?”she asked casually. “We were not more than twenty minutes away from here, actually. This neighborhood was closer to the school so we moved across.” Miko answered while covering her mouth elegantly. Her coworker nodded.
“I think I said before, but I used to teach at the elementary nearby! The kids there are super nice.” She spoke in a cheerful manner, lighting up the dining table. Ei grew a microscopic smile. “What courses did you take in university?” Y/n paused and thought for a moment. “I have a master’s degree in visual art and mostly took lots of ECE Programs. I majored in child psychology for a while, too.” The young teacher answered as she finally slurped up the piece of friend tofu. The answer wasn’t uncalled for.
Without further comment, Scaramouche arose from his seat and washed his bowl in the sink after placing his device on the counter nearby. “I have reports to finish. Don’t call me down.” He spoke and thumped upstairs as the clicking of a door shutting soon followed. The remaining three grew quiet for a while. Y/n looked around and thought of another conversation starter.
“Um. Oh. I apologize if I’m being rude, but I thought you and mr. Raiden were siblings at first. Actually, both of you look so young…” Yae chuckled and her partner grinned softly. It seemed that was a common comment they heard. “They hear that a lot, but I wouldn’t support saying that within someone’s vicinity. Or you’ll find yourself missing a finger or two.” The pink haired woman shook her head and took a sip of her drink.
“We are not on the greatest terms at the moment. I apologize if you felt uncomfortable.” Ei explained with a hand placed on her chest. Her neighbour shook her head. “Don’t be. Stuff like this are tough matters.” She sympathized.
Miko quietly gathered the dirty dishes and began to rinse them before loading the dishwasher. Y/n and Ei talked about slightly deeper matters. The principal figured the latter as an extremely gentle character. She would be lying to say she wasn’t the least taken aback after first seeing her as a more energy and bubbly person at first. They learned more about one another with Yae often popping into their conversation with embarrassing stories of Ei or Scaramouche.
Without anyone realizing, it had grown dark outside. It was still mid December, after all. “Ah, look at the time.” Ei commented while eyeing the clock that ticked away on the wall. “It’s already eight. I had a great night, thank you for helping us unpack.” The h/c haired lady shook her head and rolled down the sleeves of her sweater. “The pleasure is all mine! Thank you for inviting me over, I loved the food. It’s been a while since I ate at home with others like this.” She smiled. Yae tilted her head and thought over one of her companion’s sentence. “You live alone in the single home?”
Y/n nodded and stared into her reflection on the cup of steaming tea in front of her. “It surprises most people.” She agreed. Ei and Yae glanced at each other before facing the young teacher once more. “I see. Do your parents live nearby? I would love to have tea with them sometime.” Ei was genuinely curious on her parents. They must be amazing people, she thought. If they were able to raise such an empathetic and cheery daughter into a successful woman like this, then she could definately have many things to learn from them. But her thoughts faded with the shrinking smile on Y/n’s lips.
“…Ah- please excuse me if I talked about a sensitive subject.” She quickly apologized. The other female shook her head and faced them again. “No no, it’s alright. It’s just that my family is a bit complicated. It’s not out of the blue to ask.” She insisted while wavering hand off in a dismissive motion.
“You don’t have to tell us, dear. Family related subjects are the most delicate matters to open up about.” Miko reassured her while leaning into her palm.
To Y/n, the two seemed like amazing people. Ei was admittedly a little awkward in showing affection, but she definately cared about those around her. Miko had her own way of showing care. Of course, she wasn’t in the position to judge a family so quickly at first glance. But she couldn’t help herself but feel happy for her coworker who lived under such parents. That brought the wonder, what had made him so distant from them?
“It’s alright, you told me so much tonight. It’s only fair that I say something in my own stash of stories.” Y/n finished the last little bit of her tea. She was silent for the next few minutes, thinking of where to start.
“Eh.. Where do I start.” Hand awkwardly scratching the back of her neck, she blinked in thought of how to gather her words without being sent to the psych ward.
“Basically, my parents were people not meant to be parents. My mom is in the psych ward, my dad’s gone from a car crash while trying to chase after me when I ran away from home.”
“….”
“….”
“….It’s not as serious as I make it sound.”
“Y/n dear, please do excuse my tongue, but what the hell.”
She laughed at the reactions that were seemingly already expected, leaning into the palm of her hand. “Welp, it’s all done and over now. At least it adds character to my story.” Y/n shrugged nonchalantly with a carefree grin that didn’t reach lips up. “Pff โ I live for these reactions. But really, don’t worry. The past is the past, and I’m just Y/n now.” A long sip of tea followed along with an air of unsure silence.
“Y/n,”
“Ah, look at the time! Thank you so much for having me over ladies~”
The art teacher stood up from her seat and fished her phone back into her pocket. “Tell mr. Raiden I said bye. Goodnight.” Before anyone could talk further, she had already disappeared out the door.
She had just summarized her life story and trauma to people she met the day before yesterday. A good idea? Probably not. Did she regret it? Yes she did.
Little did everyone know, a fourth pair of ears were listening from upstairs.
…….
How long had it been since she exited the house, she didn’t know or particularly bothered to mind much. She knew there was time before it was considered what she drew the line as being too late. It was weekend anyways. Y/n gently kicked the snow beneath her feet, almost slipping and cursing rather loudly. Quickly regaining composure, she whipped her head side to side to make sure no one witnessed the moment before sighing a breath of relief.
She didn’t feel like facing whatever conversation that could have stretched on back there. And frankly, she never had a time she wanted to. Taking feelings that aren’t others’ seriously is difficult.ย
There was a figure in the distance leaning on a creepy looking tree… But they were probably just minding their own business. If they did see, they probably thought she was a drunk college student stumbling back home. The art teacher snorted at the thought, before it quietly disappeared off her face for seemingly the first time that day.
Left foot. Right foot. Step over the crack because that’s bad luck. Right foot. Left foot. Step over a strange yellow patch of snow.(..?)
Right foot. Right foot again to match the steps behind. Left โ wait, what steps behind??
“Hey โ”
“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHโ”
A hand blocked her mouth, making the teacher prepare to flail and bite back. In the brink of the moment, a familiar voice called out by her ear. “Quiet down, do I look like a kidnapper to you?”
“โScaramouche….?”ย “Don’t call me by my first name.” He scoffed before letting his arms around her free. A jingling object was thrown into her face that Y/n stumbled to just barely catch in her hands. Her house keys? “Some inspirational example you are, trauma dumping to people you just met through school and tossing your keys around the street for everyone to witness.” Scaramouche clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as his company blinked like a bewildered rabbit.
“Before you ask, I left before you did.”
“But I never saw you come down the stairs??” He gave her a deadpan look that questioned her intelligence. “Windows exists for a variety of reasons, ms. L/n.”
As soon as the image of the math teacher crawling out from his window and back onto the ground unlocked in her mind, Y/n was wheezing to a concerning point while laughing. She almost fell to the ground while holding onto her abdomen. Crisp, uninterrupted laughter echoed through the streets. Just then, the street lamps began to flicker on and they got illuminated as though under the spotlight. Scaramouche blankly watched her with hands shoved in his pockets. The poor teacher attempted to raise her voice to speak, but failed to do so and went back to laughing every time their eyes met.
“If all you’re going to do is wheeze around like a dying cow, I’ll be on my way.”
“Wait โ pft…. This is legendary. Mr. Raiden, slithering out from the window like a rebelling teenager โ”
Within a short moment, he was right behind her.
“If I hear one sound of this tomorrow, expect an interesting spectacle that won’t be very interesting to you.” He glared. Y/n finally began to come down from the high of her laugh and let out a few deep breaths to calm herself down. “Of course, this is our well kept secret.
“โAnyways, want to go for a digesting walk??”
“Bye.”
“I’ll walk you home like the gentlewoman I am!”
“Go home, you look like a drunk woman.” Scaramouche sighed. His coworker shrugged. “I’m sober enough to be using doors for their very purpose.”
Neither of the basically-strangers acknowledged how the night felt microscopically less colder that moment.
—–
A/n
Erm ended up completely rewriting this chap bc wtf was yn trauma dumping for in THAT detail to people she literally just met last week ๐
Myself of last year really thought i cooked that backstory
1882 words
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