"Why don't you just give her a hug?" Tanaka suggested at lunch in yet another installment of relationship advice for the hapless Kawamura.
"Would she want a hug?" Kinjou asked, only half-listening as he read.
"I mean, if they're close enough she's confiding this sort of thing, then aren't they close enough to hug?" Tanaka said.
Kinjou shrugged. "Dad and I are pretty close, but he doesn't really like hugs. They're too painful sometimes, or at least uncomfortable."
"Huh!?" Tanaka and Kawamura asked in unison, loud enough to make Kinjou look up from the page. "How bad at hugging are you!?"
"It's not me; it's…nevermind," he trailed off, buried his nose back in his book. There were some things that weren't meant for casual conversation over lunch, and that was one of them. It wasn't him; it was Inui, or more specifically, the scars that covered most of his dad's body. He still didn't know where many of the scars came from. Some were obviously surgical scars from numerous port replacements and related procedures, and others were from complications related to the same. Others were from accidents on old missions, which both of his parents would recount as they trained him to follow in his father's footsteps.
But that still left quite a few scars unaccounted for, and Kinjou was almost certain at least some of them were a result of torture. He'd never asked about them, but when his class had been covering the early history of spiders and some of the ways they'd been controlled by less-than-ethical companies, he'd turned the page in his textbook to a photo he swore he'd seen in person the last time Inui had wandered through the house in search of a clean shirt. It wasn't a perfect match—Inui had a lot more scars for one thing, but it was distinctive enough to make Kinjou glad he'd never asked.
It wasn't the scars themselves that caused his dad's aversion to hugs though, or at least not directly; it was the nerve damage they had caused, or in many cases, the nerve damage that had led to the scars. As Inui described it, he had no feeling at all over parts of his body, but others made up for it by being hypersensitive; some places itched constantly, and others had had their wires crossed and interpreted everything as pain. On bad days, even wearing certain clothing was unbearable, and Kinjou knew the pain had kept Inui up all night more than once.
So no, it wasn't his fault his dad didn't like hugs, but it definitely wasn't Inui's fault either.
TeniPuri/Yowamushi Pedal, Kinjou & Inui, injuries/mentions of torture, T
"Would she want a hug?" Kinjou asked, only half-listening as he read.
"I mean, if they're close enough she's confiding this sort of thing, then aren't they close enough to hug?" Tanaka said.
Kinjou shrugged. "Dad and I are pretty close, but he doesn't really like hugs. They're too painful sometimes, or at least uncomfortable."
"Huh!?" Tanaka and Kawamura asked in unison, loud enough to make Kinjou look up from the page. "How bad at hugging are you!?"
"It's not me; it's…nevermind," he trailed off, buried his nose back in his book. There were some things that weren't meant for casual conversation over lunch, and that was one of them. It wasn't him; it was Inui, or more specifically, the scars that covered most of his dad's body. He still didn't know where many of the scars came from. Some were obviously surgical scars from numerous port replacements and related procedures, and others were from complications related to the same. Others were from accidents on old missions, which both of his parents would recount as they trained him to follow in his father's footsteps.
But that still left quite a few scars unaccounted for, and Kinjou was almost certain at least some of them were a result of torture. He'd never asked about them, but when his class had been covering the early history of spiders and some of the ways they'd been controlled by less-than-ethical companies, he'd turned the page in his textbook to a photo he swore he'd seen in person the last time Inui had wandered through the house in search of a clean shirt. It wasn't a perfect match—Inui had a lot more scars for one thing, but it was distinctive enough to make Kinjou glad he'd never asked.
It wasn't the scars themselves that caused his dad's aversion to hugs though, or at least not directly; it was the nerve damage they had caused, or in many cases, the nerve damage that had led to the scars. As Inui described it, he had no feeling at all over parts of his body, but others made up for it by being hypersensitive; some places itched constantly, and others had had their wires crossed and interpreted everything as pain. On bad days, even wearing certain clothing was unbearable, and Kinjou knew the pain had kept Inui up all night more than once.
So no, it wasn't his fault his dad didn't like hugs, but it definitely wasn't Inui's fault either.