7 Days After..... - Zetro Translation

I told them everything.

Some words came out in broken fragments, tumbling over each other. Some sentences formed completely, stark and clear. Some things I had to force out from the deepest, most hidden places.

But I told them. About when he started to change. About when it first happened. About how it had been since then- every beating, every curse, every moment of terror and despair.

Everything I could manage to put into words.

I didn’t look up. I couldn’t bring myself to see their faces.

When I finally fell silent, having spilled the darkest year of my life into their peaceful home, there was no sound. Nothing but the soft whisper of our breaths in the heavy air.

I risked a glance upward. Just a little.

And then I shuddered.

Their eyes were wide. Their bodies trembled- Grandma’s hands shaking where they rested on her lap, Grandpa’s shoulders rigid with tension.

Grandma’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, while Grandpa’s had turned stern, hard.

“When you say all that-” Grandpa’s voice was low, controlled, “-don’t you feel any shame?”

My blood turned to ice. My stomach lurched violently.

“Rina-chan,” Grandma spoke, her voice wavering, “I never thought you would say something like that.”

They don’t believe me. They think I made it up.

‘No. No. NO.’

“We raised Satoru- your dad,” Grandpa continued, his voice gaining a stern edge. “We couldn’t give him the best childhood, but we made sure he never lacked in our teachings. We raised him right.”

He stood up slowly, looking down at me with a mixture of slight disappointment and something worse- pity.

“I’ll call him. Tell him to pick you up tomorrow.”

My fingers went numb. My whole body began to tremble uncontrollably.

“G-Grandpa, I’m not lying.” My voice was a pathetic, trembling whisper. It did nothing. He just walked slowly toward the phone, not even looking at me now.

I turned to Grandma. She was wiping her eyes with her sleeves, not meeting my gaze either.

‘That’s right. They trust him. Their son. They raised him to be a great man. They watched him become one. That’s why it’s impossible for them to accept this.’

I needed to do something. There was only one thing I could think of.

But… that would hurt them too much.

But they wouldn’t listen to me.

Grandpa was almost at the door now, his hand reaching for the handle. Maybe this was it. Maybe I really was cursed. Maybe…

…..

……

I had to do it.

I took a deep, shuddering breath, and then… I removed my top.

“Rina?” Grandma’s voice was confused, then sharp. “What are you doin- *Gasp*’

The sound she made stopped Grandpa in his tracks. His hand froze on the door handle.

“What is it, Grand-“

He turned. He looked.

And all the sternness in his eyes vanished.

Replaced by raw, unadulterated pain.

Because there I stood, my thin arms wrapped around myself, my top removed. On my skin—on my arms, my shoulders, my ribs, my back-were the proofs of my truth. Bruises in various stages of healing, yellow and purple and angry red. Scars, some fresh, some old.

Grandpa’s face crumpled. Grandma’s hands flew to her mouth, a choked sob escaping her.

The silence that followed was heavier than any scream.

“I know you don’t want to believe me.” My voice was on the verge of shattering, each word a struggle against the tears clawing at my throat. “But Grandma… Grandpa… I… I would never lie to you. Never.”

I clenched my jaw so hard it ached, fighting to keep the tears at bay. I couldn’t cry.

Not now.

I needed to hear what they had to say.

I needed to know.

Silence.

Heavy, suffocating, pressing down on me from all sides.

“There has to be a mistake,” Grandma finally said, her voice trembling as she shook her head. “Our Satoru… he couldn’t do this. Right, dear?”

She looked desperately at Grandpa, searching for confirmation, for someone to anchor her to the reality she wanted to believe.

Grandpa didn’t say anything. His eyes were still fixed on my wounds, his face pale and drawn.

“Those wounds are horrible, I know,” Grandma continued, talking faster now, as if the words could somehow erase what she was seeing. “But they must be from falling somewhere, Rina-chan. You’re a growing girl, accidents happen-“

My heartbeat began to ring in my ears, a dull, pounding roar.

“-that’s right, Satoru must be trying to help you, and you misunderstood. You thought he was the one hurting you when he was just… just trying to…” She was talking more to herself now, constructing a reality she could bear.

“I’ll call him. I’ll call Satoru and tell him to take better care of you. Yes. That’s what I’ll do.”

She turned away, moving toward the phone.

And I knew.

After everything. After laying myself bare- literally, completely bare before them- it was still not enough. Nobody would believe me. Nobody would help me. I would be sent back, and things would only get worse.

‘Do I not deserve to be helped?’

Tears dared to fall, but I crushed them down. There was no point in shedding them here, where nobody trusted me.

Where did I go wrong? That even my grandparents, who love me so much, can’t believe me? What did I do wrong?

‘Mom… Hiro… why did you leave me?’

‘I am… so alone now.’

“Wait, Tamiko-san.”

Grandpa’s voice cut through the room, slow but impossibly clear. Grandma stopped mid-step, her hand hovering over the phone.

He looked at me then. Really looked at me- not at the wounds, not at the evidence, but at me.

At my eyes, my face, my trembling form.

“Go have a bath,” he said quietly. “And set your luggage in the room upstairs… the one you used to stay in during summer vacations.”

I stopped breathing.

“I’ll contact your school tomorrow,” he continued, his voice growing steadier, stronger. “Tell them that you’ll be staying with us from now on.”