I felt a shiver go down my spine. The whole time I was staring at her, I was completely oblivious to the fact that my mom hadn’t left the car. She saw everything. Me staring at her, as well as the wave. I was almost too terrified to face her.

But it would only be worse if I didn’t “She’s no one.” I say after facing her, but avoiding eye contact “She’s in one of my classes. I guess she recognized me and waved at me."

"Are you two friends?"

My whole body was already covered in sweat "No not at all! We just sit near each other in a class where there is a lot of group activities, so we have to talk to each other every once in a while! I barely even know her!"

I’m so scared waiting for her response. And my fear is amplified when her response is only a “Hmm” then her stepping out of the car.

I feel frozen in place as I watch her walk into our house. What's going to happen when she tells my dad? Will I be able to convince him that we aren't friends? I have no idea how I’m suppose to move from this seat.

After another minute of sitting in the car, I muster up the strength to walk inside the house.

The door was left open when I get there, and I brace myself for the worst. Except there isn’t anyone waiting for me. Even after the door makes some noise from me closing it, I don’t hear anyone call out to me. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Not knowing what to do, I just head up to my room as I always do. I lay down on my bed and try to mentally prepare myself for what might happen. Every small noise I hear makes my flinch thinking it’s one of my parents coming into my room. But each time it happens, there’s no one there.

Hours go by, and nothing happens.

Eventually, it gets to the time I’m suppose to begin making dinner, and there still hasn’t been a peep from either one of them. Everything feels as normal. And with it feeling that way, I do as I always do at this time. I leave my room to walk downstairs and into the kitchen.

Waiting for me as usual are both my parents. Even after I walk by both of them, neither of them say a word. I put my apron on and take out all the cooking utensils I’m going to need. Still nothing. I finish my prep and start the cooking. All silence. Even after I finish the cooking and prepare the plates, there still isn’t a word from them.

Hoping that I’m in the clear, I go to serve my dad his plate. Except this is when he decides to break his silence "So, who is this neighbor girl that your mom told me about?"

I drop the plate from a little two high, knocking some food off of it. He doesn’t seem to notice though. His face is glued on me while I try to get the words out “S-she’s uh a g-girl from one of my classes. She recognized me because we work together in group sometimes."

It feels as if there is a cold breeze emanating from him "How close are you two? Because from what your mother said, it looked like she already knew to look for you."

My body goes into fight or flight mode. I use all of my energy to prevent myself from running and stay there to continue responding to him "We're not close at all. We learned we were neighbors from casual conversation during one of our group assignments. I tried to avoid her but she’s really talkative.”

I’ve been avoiding eye contact with him this entire time. Just feeling his eyes piercing into me is enough to terrify me "And which class is this in? Don't tell me it's the class that you picked without getting permission from either me or your mom."

In this moment I could either tell the truth, which would make him even more angry, or I could lie and risk him not believing me. There isn’t any time for me to make this decision. But because my talks with Yukio are so precious, I blurt out my answer without even thinking.

"No, she's in my cooking class. We sit in groups of four, and it's almost impossible to avoid conversation with people in our group if we want to get a good grade."

I feel him silently staring at me for what feels like ages. But when he does respond, it only makes things worse "Well maybe we should go over there and ask her.'"

He pushes himself away from the table, stands up, and begins walking towards the door.

I’m panicking. It causes me to hesitate for a few moments before following him out the door. And in that moment of hesitation, he somehow already made it to Yukio’s front door. By the time I reach him, he is already pounding on it. I feel out of breath as I wait for someone to answer.

Waiting there for someone to answer, I didn’t know if the loud pounding I was hearing was coming from my heart or my dad beating on the door. The pounding just got louder the longer we waited. I was just pleading that no one was there.

And somehow, fate was on my side today. After a few minutes of knocking to no answer, my dad angrily turns away. I feel a sigh of relief as he stomps his way back to our house. My body is full of adrenaline as I slowly follow him back inside.

My heart is still pounding. I was lucky today, but how much longer will I be able to keep mine and Yukio’s relationship a secret now that they know about her? I need to make sure that I warn her tomorrow in class.

Before I walk up the path of my house, I take one last look at hers, out of the slight worry that someone came running out. Luckily there was still no one there. But as I was looking that way, something past her house caught my attention.

Maybe it’s just the adrenaline, but my street looks… odd. The street lights are only on in front of my house and few of the neighbors. Everything past Yukio’s house is complete dark. So dark that it doesn’t look like there’s even anything there. I have a strange feeling in my gut, almost as if I wasn’t meant to be looking at it.

I’m never outside of my house this late, so I’ve hadn’t noticed it before. But I don’t have too much time to be curious about it once my dad yells at me to get inside. And not wanting to get into any more trouble than I already am, I listen to him.

After I get back inside, he’s not done with me "Well I guess you got lucky today. I have no choice but to believe you for now. But I swear if I hear anything about you and that girl, then it's going to be over for both of you. Understand me?"

I just want it to be over already "Yes, I promise I won't do anything to upset you."

“Good. Now clean up the mess you made while cooking and go to your room.”

Still not having ate yet, I was afraid to remind him “But… I didn’t have any dinner yet.”

My quite voice only angered him “Yes, that’s your punishment for tonight. I want you to throw away any excess food, clean up, and go back to your room without dinner. This will be a preview to your life if I find out you have a closer relationship to that girl."

I feel so defeated that I don't have any other choice but to listen to him. My stomach is growling while throwing away all the perfectly good food I had just cooked. And when my parents are done with their food, they watch me clean the rest of the dishes to ensure I don’t try to sneak anything away.

They send me to my room as soon as the kitchen is cleaned to their liking. Once there, I fall down onto the bed. It’s hard to ignore your hunger when you have nothing to do. All I can do is try to think of things to preoccupy my mind.

And I would like to think of Yukio, but my mind keeps gravitating to the weird things I say today. I don’t know what it was with today, but so many things felt out of the ordinary. In fact, it’s not just today, I’ve been noticing a lot of weird things lately. It’s making me feel a bit uneasy.