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“Mom?” Keigo said softly from where he was lying on the ground curled around Endeavor.. It was quiet in the train station so late at night. When the trains went to sleep, they didn’t rumble or honk, and there were no more people here to see them. Just Keigo and his mom.
“Mom?”
She was probably asleep, like the trains were, but it didn’t hurt to check, just in case. He turned his head back to look at her and poked her softly in the side.
“Keigo?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Just making sure you were only asleep.”
“Mh. Yeah. Now shut up.”
“Okay,” he whispered to Endeavor. “Was just worried. Good night. Love you, Mom.”
She didn’t say anything back.
In the morning, Keigo woke up again with the trains. The trains brought people, and he didn’t want to get stepped on.
“Mom,” he said again. “Mom!”
“Shut up, Keigo.”
“But we’re going to get stepped on!”
“Okay,” she said, then turned back around to go to sleep.
He left, then, to find some food or money, whichever he saw first. He took Endeavor with him, of course; he couldn’t be without his best friend. He hummed and skipped as he walked, swinging his arms and Endeavor with him. It was a good day! Mom was being sad again, but he was pretty sure it was because she missed her alcohol and her TV. If he got enough money to buy those things, she’d be happy again!
So, he walked around and picked up all the loose coins he saw. He’d make Mom happy for sure.
He couldn’t have known that the next day the men in fancy suits would come to buy him from her; he just went back smiling with his plan to save money for her TV.
The next day when they showed up with their sturdy shoes and their shiny hair, Keigo hid behind his mom’s legs.
“Come out, they’re here to see you.”
She addressed the men. “Here he is. Now hand over the money.”
“Of course,” one said in a British accent, startling Keigo out of his hiding spot to look up at them in horror.
His mom had sold him to One Direction.