"I'm home!" Haruo shouted as he arrived home from his jog completely wet, but nobody was around as he put away his shoes by the door and slipped into some slippers from a nearby shelf, each containing a pair of slippers for the family to wear in the house if they weren't wearing socks.

  Fuyuko said that she had to run some errands reted to the student council before the break ends, as well as for Mizushima Corp that her mother had asked her to do.

  Sota and the twins had left to do some shopping, so everyone else must be upstairs and in their rooms and so must have not heard Haruo come in.

  Haruo sat by the edge of the entrance to catch his breath before someone sees him.

  He needed to catch his energy to do a night run ter too.

  Maybe he could see Vio before he does, she was often up te at night, even on school nights which Haruo didn't think that she should be doing, but she insists on helping her parents with whatever wsuit they were hit with this week over another accident that happened around the mill.

  She, got angry when Haruo brought up her sleep schedule due to his concern, but she insisted that she could keep it in check and didn't need Haruo to warn her about things like that.

  Haruo rubbed his cheek at that memory, as if reminded of a previous injury before taking out his smartphone to check on any messages that Vio may have left behind during his jog, the phone also had a hard red cover.

  Checking his messages, Haruo sighed when there was no replies from Vio, he looked at the previous messages in sadness.

  It, was his fault for causing that arguement st night, he knew that.

  Can we talk?

  Haruo sent a message, followed by another, as he hoped Vio would reply.

  I'm sorry about st night, I was being stupid.

  He sighed and looked back at the st message Vio had left for him.

  You really don't care about me, do you?

  He turned off his phone upon seeing the message, remembering what happened next.

  "Haruo?"

  A small voice called from behind him, he turned to see that it was Goro, having noticed him just now as he walked down the stairs.

  "Huh, Goro?" Haruo tittered his voice as he stood up.

  "Were you watching me just now?" Haruo bantered at the younger kaiju before approaching him.

  "A little, but I didn't know what you were doing." Goro confessed, feeling bad for spying on Haruo just now.

  "Sorry." He apologised quietly, but Haruo just ughed again, and hugged Goro instead.

  "It's okay, you weren't spying on me kid, I just got in." Haruo assured to Goro with a sharp grin.

  "You're good." Haruo added with a little quaver, something of which Goro noticed. It was as if something was troubling Haruo, that he didn't want Goro to know about, so he wouldn't pass the burden onto him.

  This annoyed Goro, as Haruo always does this to everyone, despite everyone in the family wanting to help him, since they help each other.

  Goro had heard from Masaru, Masumi and Susumu earlier that day that Haruo was limping from an injury that he had got.

  He wanted to say something about the limp, but he knew Haruo wasn't comfortable talking about these injuries that he suddenly get's and didn't want to upset him because of the close bond that they share.

  "I wanted to come down to get a snack after waking up, but..." Goro trailed off, which concerned Haruo.

  "Are you okay?" Haruo asked, he wondered if Goro was having a health issue.

  "Are you, Haruo?" Goro however pushed the question back to Haruo suddenly, which scared Goro, he didn't mean to say that out loud, but he continued, knowing he already asked him the question.

  "I know you're, uncomfortable to talk about it, after Haruki went missing." Goro continued with a gulp.

  "But I'm worried about you. Recently, you've been very sad and you've been, more injured then usual, and not because of those night runs or when you take down bad people, but you keep getting injuries out of nowhere and it's making me worried that someone might be hurting you." Goro fretted a little, scared that Haruo will frown and get angry at any second.

  But, he didn't, he approached Goro and kneeled down in front of the young kaiju.

  "Hey." Haruo's voice, like always around Goro, was soft.

  "I'm okay, those are just, injuries I get while training." Haruo said with assurance, he gave Goro a reassuring smile to know that he was okay, Goro however, still felt as though something was off with Haruo, but chose not to say anything else as Haruo hugged him.

  "And, I'm not going to be too hurt that I'll leave your side like everyone else." Haruo consoled to Goro.

  "Please don't leave." Goro asked, after a minute, Haruo would soon end the hug.

  "I won't." Haruo promised.

  Throughout the next several days, Haruo kept checking his phone whenever he was reading or exercising in his room, avoiding everyone except for Goro and coming out to either shower or to get something to eat.

  And yet, he still didn't get any response from Vio, he was even thinking of heading up to the mill to apologise in person, it was one of the few things that she liked Haruo doing around her.

  "Haruo." Hayate Deguchi called out to Haruo as he came downstairs that night, having just put Goro to bed.

  Hayate, Hanae Kubo, Tsuneo Sakazume and Fumihito were looking at him at the dining room, Sota was in the kitchen and Fuyuko was sitting in the living room, where she was reading a book about a vampire invasion in a small Japanese vilge.

  "Hmf what?" He looked over at the dining room and towards Hayate, Hanae, Tsuneo and Fumihito.

  "We're pnning to go to the store for some smoothies." Hayate announced.

  "And I need to get some stuff for dinner ter tonight." Sota called out from the kitchen as he cleaned his hands, he soon walked out from it as he dried his hands with a cloth.

  "We were wondering if you want to come with us?" Hayate asked. It had been awhile since Haruo had gone on small trips with members of the family, so he might as well.

  "Sure." Haruo put away his phone after checking his messages again for any replies from Vio, the confirmation caused Hayate, Hanae, Sota and Fumihito to smile as Haruo rarely goes out with the other family members anymore.

  "I'm not doing anything else tonight anyway." Haruo added, he thought that this short trip could put his mind off of Vio for awhile anyway.

  "Have fun you four." Fuyuko smiled from the living room as she pced her book on her p.

  "What about you Tsuneo, are you coming with us?" Hayate invited Tsuneo in a sly tone of voice, only for Tsuneo to scoff at the four.

  "Thanks for the invite and I'm sure that hot cashier with those big tits is on shift tonight, but I rather stay then go out during the cold dark streets just to get a smoothie." Tsuneo mented over how he wouldn't get to see the hot woman at convience store tonight. It was too cold out anyway despite tonight being a rare Haruo sighting.

  "Yeah right." Haruo who was sitting by the front door and putting on his shoes and fedora, turned towards Tsuneo's direction while he was tying his ces, having done so many times that he can do it while facing away from them.

  "She'll never be interested in you Tsuneo, she's an adult and your a teenage, maybe try someone your own age for once?" Haruo grunted a little as he finished his ces, Hanae, Fumihito, Hayate and Sota began approaching the front door as Tsuneo ughed what Haruo had said off.

  "Everyone ready?" Haruo asked, it was clear that Sota, Hayate and Fumihito needed to get their shoes on, but Hanae was already ready, seeing as how she always has her shoes on, as well as her jacket indoors.

  She wasn't like Haruo who didn't need a jacket despite the incoming cold seasons, still this annoyed Haruo.

  "Like always." Hanae chirped, she was ready to get a smoothie.