The two of them were now in a private room on the second floor of a café.
Kushida had deliberately paid a high price to reserve it.
Naturally, she had considered that her family might come over and start saying whatever they wanted, so she had decided that no matter what, she had to bring them somewhere private first and coordinate their stories.
Her parents were disappointed in her anyway. They even wished they could cut off contact with her.
So putting on an act was something she could accept.
What she feared most was them saying something careless. If that happened, the image she had spent the past two years building would be shattered again.
"We received the letter."
"But your father thought it was too embarrassing, so he didn't come. That's why I came instead. But let me make this clear: I don't have any face left for you to disgrace." Kushida's mother said.
Although Kushida's mother bore a fifty-percent resemblance to Kushida herself, she had chosen to dye her hair red.
So even when she stood together with Kushida, the difference in their hair color made them seem less like mother and daughter.
But Kushida knew very well that this was her mother deliberately drawing a line between them.
"I thought that maybe coming somewhere new would change you."
"But on the way here, students kept greeting you with smiles, and you responded to every one of them, didn't you?"
Her mother said, "So I'm wondering whether you're doing the same thing as before—managing relationships and all that. But this school is different. If things blow up here, your future, and even your father and I, could be dragged down by you."
"To outsiders, we only say that our daughter was mentally unstable and did some foolish