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Halfway through Kaneshiro’s palace and Ann was still mad at Yusuke. He wasn’t great at picking up social cues, sure, but it was undeniable; Ann was pissed.
Yusuke couldn’t wrap his head around what the issue was. Akira, Mona, and Ryuji had told him over and over again that it was inappropriate to ask a girl to pose naked for him. It was wrong, it was bad, it was dirty. But none of them ever told him why. It was annoying. All the other Thieves made blanket statements about what was right and what was wrong, but without an explanation it was meaningless.
“I just don’t understand,” Yusuke sighed, exasperated, “I understand that I made Ann uncomfortable, and I apologized! She didn’t like my suggestion, and I assured her that I would not ask again. I’m not saying that Ann has to accept my apology, but I don’t understand what more I can do.”
Today, it was Ryuji, Akira, and Yusuke. Morganna was out doing who knows what, Ann was with Shiho, and Makoto was busy doing Student Council things. The three were in Yusuke’s dorm, a place that was rarely visited. It was barren, filled only with art supplies, a small kitchen area, and a mattress that sat on the floor. Ryuji and Akira sat next to one another on the mattress, as Yusuke paced back and forth in the middle of the room.
“That’s not the effin’ point, man!” Ryuji called out, startling Yusuke into stillness. “I’m not trying to scare you, dude… It’s just… It’s really important that you understand WHY Ann is upset. If you apologize without understanding what you did wrong, it doesn’t really matter.”
Akira pulled out his phone, the text to speech voice that they recognized as their leader’s chiming in. “Ryuji is right, Yusuke. You need to know why what you did was wrong, and not just because it made Ann uncomfortable.”
Yusuke sat down on the floor, holding his head in his hands. He wasn’t exactly stressed to the point of a meltdown, his friends made sure not to push him that far, but at the same time they realized that they had to be somewhat strict with the other teen for him to really get the severity of what he did.
“Isn’t that what I am apologizing for, though? I made Ann uncomfortable with my request, and so I am apologizing for making her uncomfortable. I didn’t mean to make her feel that way…”
”Yusuke. If I called you all sorts of names and then said sorry for hurting your feelings, wouldn’t that be wrong?”
“I suppose so… But isn’t that different? The thing that you did wrong would be calling me names? I didn’t… Do anything wrong…”
Ryuji had to restrain himself from punching the mattress. He was getting a little frustrated. He knew that it wasn’t Yusuke’s fault, but he still couldn’t help but get a little irritated. “You serious? You really don’t see the issue in asking Ann to take off all her clothes so you could take pictures of her? That’s effin’ sexual harassment!”
“Sexual… Harassment….?”
“Yes, dude! That’s what it’s called when you make sexual advances to someone without their permission!”
Yusuke stood there for a long moment, completely gobsmacked.
“It’s true,” Akira chimed in, “That’s textbook sexual harassment. Making continued advances towards someone without their consent.”
Yusuke stood there for a moment longer before his bottom lip began to slightly quiver. Neither of the other boys made a move to comfort their friend, instead they both just sat there.
Yusuke said nothing for a long moment before he somewhat suddenly burst into tears, “I would NEVER sexually harass someone! You all thought that’s what I wanted? I would never, ever do that!” He sobbed into his hands as the other two looked around awkwardly.
“But uh, that’s exactly what you did.” Ryuji looked away from him. Not wanting to comfort Yusuke, but also not wanting to watch his friend break down.
“No!” Yusuke interrupted. “What I wanted from Ann wasn’t sexual! It was for art! I wanted to paint her, I told you! I told her that too! Did Ann feel like I wanted to… To hurt her sexually? I would never do that to her! To anyone!”
“We understand that, Yusuke. But the way you went about it wasn’t right. It was sexual harassment, whether you meant it to be or not. Even if it was for art.”
Ryuji rolled his shoulder and sighed, “How would you feel if someone did that kinda stuff to you? You wouldn’t like it, right?”
Yusuke’s head rose from out of his hands slowly. The whites of his ice-blue eyes were bloodshot red and his eyebrows were furrowed in a look of confusion and anger. Neither Akira or Ryuji really knew what to make of the face, but they knew whatever it meant, they needed to tread lightly.
“Mada- Sensei… Sensei… He…” Yusuke covered his mouth with a single hand and shook his head. He was suddenly so ashamed for something that he thought to be so normal. Sexual… Harassment? It wasn’t like that.
“Yusuke…” Akira spoke softly. It was rare that he used his voice, but it always helped Yusuke calm down in the past.
Ryuji put a hand on his best friend's shoulder and shook his head. “Only if you’re up for it, yeah?” He didn’t want Akira to overwhelm himself trying to deal with an overwhelmed Yusuke.
Akira nodded and leaned back, while Ryuji leaned forward. He slightly bridged the gap between himself and his friend, but not so much to the point that Yusuke began to feel claustrophobic.
“What did your Sensei do, Yusuke?”
Yusuke continued to shake his head as tears pooled from his eyes. “It’s too embarrassing. It was a secret. I c-can’t tell you.”
”Whatever Madarame did to you, you can tell us,” Akira spoke again, returning to his automated voice.
“He’s right man, I promise we won’t judge. Whatever it was has got you all torn up inside, right? You should let it out.”
Yusuke cried harder at this, all their attempts to coax a confession out of the blue haired teen seemed to be making it worse. “Y-you say I can tell you,” Yusuke choked out, “But if I tell you… After what all you just said… You will think I’m disgusting.”
Ryuji and Akira shared another confused glance, but then Ryuji offered up his best reassuring smile. “We’re your friends, Yusuke. You can tell us.”
Yusuke cried into his hands some more, the confession and his tears breaking out of him like water through a dam. “Sensei made me pose for him!”
The silence that coated the room was suddenly deadly. It was only broken after Yusuke finally took a deep breath, his sob breaking through it all like a knife.
“Made you pose for him… How?” Ryuji questioned, making sure to choose his words like they might have been his last.
Yusuke’s head hung low, he mumbled. He didn’t want to have to talk about this. He was so embarrassed. “Just like I wanted Ann to pose for me… No clothes… Any weird pose he wanted.”
“Did he ever touch you, Yusuke?” Akira asked, and Ryuji almost wanted to be mad at him for his bluntness. But someone had to do it, he guessed…
Yusuke cried harderm leaving his sitting position to lie on the floor, hugging his own body. He hyperventilated a bit. “I-I thought it was for art! I didn’t think that sensei would… I thought sensei-!”
“B-breathe,” Akira said as calmly as he could for a man watching his friend have a panic attack.
Ryuji felt so terrible. Of course, Ann was still well within her rights to be mad at Yusuke, but Ryuji felt horrible about thinking Yusuke was some pervert when he was really a victim. He knew Madarame was a piece of shit, but he never suspected that he would hurt Yusuke like that. Yusuke was almost like a kid to him, at least in Yusuke’s eyes.
“My whole life…” Yusuke rocked back and forth on his floor, trying and failing to muffle his own cries, “My whole entire life… Sensei would ask me to pose for him… Nude. He would use his hands to pose me so that he could… Take the perfect pictures of me from any angle. It felt wrong. I knew it was wrong but I never could explain how! I knew it! I knew it!”
“Shhh, shhhhhh,” Akira cooed, and even though he surely seemed calm on the outside, Ryuji could tell that Akira was being pushed to near his limit as well.
“Kira… Kira, don’t push yourself too hard. Ya won’t be able to help at all if you’re stretched too thin, yeah?”
Akira nodded, but continued to make shhhing noises for Yusuke. Noises were easier for him to make than full words, anyway, so Ryuji left it at that.
“What Madarame did to you, Yusuke, that really wasn’t ok? Ok?” Ryuji needed to make sure that Yusuke got the message. “He molested you. And from the sounds of it, he took naked pictures of you, which isn’t ok either if you were a kid. No one is allowed to look at or touch your… Genitals without your permission.”
Yusuke sobbed but nodded. “I didn’t understand.”
Ryuji was stunned at how Yusuke didn’t understand that molestation was bad. But at the same time… If Yusuke was sexually abused for what sounds like his entire life… He couldn’t really be blamed for not understanding it.
“Do you want a hug? Or do you not want any touches right now?” Ryuji opened his arms but didn’t move outward to hug the other boy. The last thing he wanted to do was make the other more uncomfortable in his moment of weakness.
Yusuke didn’t move for a moment, and Ryuji began to retract his arms. Yusuke shook his head though, jolting upward. “Hold me?”
And Ryuji leaned forward, realizing he’d have to place himself on the ground to hug Yusuke. He had no qualms with that, lowering himself to the ground to hug his friend and Akira continued to try and sooth him audibly.
“I’ve got you, buddy. I’ve got you.”
Yusuke of course wasn’t absolved from his wrongdoings. But it needed to wait for another time. Ryuji couldn’t even imagine how painful it must have been to suddenly come to the realization that he had been sexually abused for so long. Not only must he have been suddenly realizing how badly he’d been hurt, but also he was just realizing that he may have accidentally inflicted some of the same pain onto Ann.
It would be a long and painful healing process for both Yusuke and Ann, but Ryuji was certain he’d try to be there for the both of them as best as he could.