• I walked up to her, and then bowed.

    “Hello grandmother,” I said, trying to stare her straight in the eyes. She walked past me.

    “The last time I checked, my daughter didn’t give birth to a boy,” she said coldly, “Now walk me to my table.”

    I straightened up and turned around.

    “Yes grandmother.”

    I led her to my parents’ table. My grandfather, not even bothering to look at her, not even bothering to lend her his seat, said,

    “Hello Megumi,” my grandfather said stiffly. I showed her to her seat and said,

    “Would you like anything to eat, grandmother?”

    Before she could hit me with one of her snide remarks, we heard a slapping sound, then glasses crashing to the floor. I turned around to see Itachima lying on the floor, his glasses beside him, and his father standing above him. He stooped down to Itachimas’ level and said loud enough for everyone to hear,

    “You will never speak to me like that again.”

    “Yes father.” Itachima said, emphasizing the word “father”.

    His father turned and walked away. He put his glasses back on and started to clean up the broken glass. I walked over to him to help him pick it up.

    “You okay?” I asked.

    “Never better,” he mumbled, not looking at me. We cleaned the rest of the glass up in silence. Then I felt someone’s hands on my shoulders. I looked up. It was Amirochi. And he didn’t look happy.

    “I need to talk to you,” he said seriously.

    “Okay,” I swept up some of the glass and followed him into another room. No one was there, and it was dark and quiet.

    “What did you need to talk to me about?” I asked him. He simply looked at me and said,

    “ We need to break up.”