Wilted Flowers and Honeybees

Kairi was born to his father, Chris, and his mother, Sunny. Kairi was an outgoing child; he was not a child that was scared of dirt and getting scrapes and cuts. A very rough and tumble sort of spirit, Kairi was a mama’s boy and was constantly babied when he came home with bumps and bruises from being out. He didn’t know his older brother, Benni, very well due to the age gap, but Kairi was too young to really notice his lack of presence. Instead, he opted for collecting worms and picking flowers.

With the Wiley family, namely Chris, being heavily involved in the local church, Kairi was often dragged along to church by his father. His mother would come along occasionally, but it was often so she could help out in the gardens. After church, Sunny would help out a woman by the name of Tigerlily Honeybourne who tended to the church’s flowers. Tigerlily had a son named Toeji, and Kairi and Toeji would play together while their mothers sowed seeds. They were fast friends and spent their time together hand in hand on their own adventures. Kairi would often spend Saturday nights baking with his mom to make a dessert to bring to the Honeybournes at church the next day.

Kairi thought it was strange that the Honeybournes never came up in conversation around his home. He was even more confused by the way his mother would shush him if he began to ask about Toeji around his family. It was a bizarre secret kept between Kairi and his mother for reasons unknown to him. Reasons unknown, at least until Chris came home one day in a hateful rage. Chris angrily told Kairi about the Honeybournes, demanding he stay far away from them. They were dangerous, Chris warned, and they were only kind to Kairi and Sunny to gain and betray their trust. That’s what monsters did, and monsters were vile plagues on this earth. Kairi didn’t understand, but his father was always an intimidating person, so he didn’t question it, and was sent to his room. Too young to notice the tense subtleties and arguments amongst his parents, Kairi assumed he had done something wrong befriending Toeji and internalized the guilt. The Wileys began to attend church on Sunday afternoons, and Kairi was not able to cross paths with Toeji for a long while.

Sucked Down The Drain

As Kairi grew older, and Chris’s apparent paranoia worsened, he was pulled out of classes to be homeschooled. His father was the main educator, though his mother would occasionally take a day off from work to stay home with Kairi and teach him. Spending most of his days with Chris, Kairi began to absorb a lot of what his dad was teaching beyond the curriculum. The Honeybourne name was not to be uttered within the Wiley household, and Kairi began to view his past with Toeji as one riddled with mistakes. Kairi consumed a lot of his dad’s religious and monster hating rhetoric, only supported by Benni, who had graduated high school and still lived at home so he could learn from his dad. Effectively isolated from the outside world, Kairi was shaping up to be another Wiley boy in the eyes of the other townsfolk.

Though, Kairi clung to his mother when she was around, unaware she was doing everything in her power to protect Kairi within their home. She would talk Kairi down from anxieties rooted in Chris’s vision for Kairi, and Kairi truly felt safer with his mother than with anyone else in his home. The subconscious self loathing Kairi stewed in around his father seemed to simmer when he was with his mother. Arguments Sunny had with Chris over Kairi, monsters, and the future were hidden from Kairi, and he continued to assume his parents had an average, if not boring, relationship.

When Kairi was old enough to start high school curriculum at home, a fateful night came where Sunny did not come home from work. Chris told Kairi she was probably caught up with work, but she remained missing into the next day, and into the day after. The chances of Sunny coming back were looking slimmer with every passing day, and Kairi was in a deep panic. Although residents of Angel’s Trumpet Grove were known to “up and leave” suddenly, Kairi felt deep down that Sunny didn’t just leave, and rather something had happened. The town spent a few days looking for Sunny, but their searches were fruitless. It seemed hopeless, but Kairi held onto his last bit of hope and kept it close. The more Kairi pushed it with his dad, the more Chris blamed Kairi’s clinginess to Sunny for her abandonment of their family. Benni seemed more sympathetic towards Kairi, but he echoed his father’s words when they were all together. Kairi was not given the proper space and time to grieve, and instead dealt with keeping the Wileys off his back while missing his mother more than ever.

Breaking Free...Almost!

A year passed, and home life worsened for Kairi. Since the disappearance of Sunny, Chris’s attitude towards Kairi had changed. Chris had always been distant, but now Chris had grown invasive of Kairi - he was always going through Kairi’s things, poking into Kairi’s business, and asking about Kairi’s whereabouts. He had woven the church into Kairi’s life, regardless if he wanted it. He was even placed in an arranged marriage with Cinnamon Freestone, another member of the church. Chris was relentless, and Benni would sometimes join in. Kairi felt backed against a wall. Closing himself off from Chris and Benni, Kairi leaned into an edgier persona, picking up smoking and becoming rough around the edges. This new Kairi lived in his room and seemed to hate almost everything, but the old Kairi wasn’t completely dead; Kairi would cook and bake in secret so his father wouldn’t be upset, so he could stay sane.

Unable to cope with all the time at home, Kairi became more explosive and argumentative. Chris was resistant at first, but he eventually caved and enrolled Kairi back into the town’s school system. Kairi Wiley would be going back to school for the first time in years; the news spread quickly through the small town, as the rumors surrounding the “disgraced Wiley son” were rampant. Some had heard he went missing, and others believed he had been hidden by the family because he brought shame to the Wiley name and the church.

Nonetheless, no one was prepared for the Kairi Wiley that appeared on the first day, cigarette in his mouth and dark circles under his eyes.

His appearance betrayed his attitude - being away from his family brought Kairi’s old personality back, and he was a charismatic showman at heart. He quickly became popular among his classmates, and he basked in the attention. He hung around Cinnamon, because despite being in an arranged marriage in the name of religion, Cinna was the only person Kairi could name as a friend. Despite the marriage, Kairi flirted around the school and became the high school heartthrob. He felt he was finally living a normal teen life!

That is, until he crossed paths with Toeji Honeybourne.

Puzzle Pieces and Chipped Pottery

Toeji was the school’s superstar player on the rounders team, and a close friend of Cinna’s. This friendship was threatening to Kairi- that, combined with the deep rooted rhetoric about the Honeybournes planted by Chris- had Kairi absolutely despise Toeji. He would go out of his way to heckle and tease the teenager in and out of class, during rounders practice, and whenever he saw him outside of school. The more Kairi would tease Toeji, the more time they would spend together, and Kairi, deep down, didn’t mind it as much as he thought. Kairi refused to let other people see that, however, especially as he was engaged, so he was openly rude towards Toeji while staying close to him at all times. During batting practice for the rounders team, Kairi was bothering Toeji while he practiced, only to be hit with the rounders ball in his right eye.

Kairi was in pain, understandably, but being hit in the eye wasn’t the most shocking thing to happen - Kairi’s eye was pure black, aside from the pink iris. It didn’t bother Kairi immensely, but Chris caught sight of this oddity and fixated heavily on it. He immediately made Kairi buy and wear an eyepatch for it, but that wasn’t enough for Chris. Chris’s invasion of Kairi’s privacy worsened, stealing items from him and suddenly taking items from Kairi as he needed them. When Kairi would act up at home, Chris was considerably harsher towards Kairi and would choose to attack Kairi’s tendency towards femininity or another aspect of his personality. This would lead to punishments such as Kairi getting his hair chopped, burning clothing that wasn’t up to Chris’s standard, or corporal punishment. Benni would occasionally pile on and get into physical fights with Kairi on his own, for the fun of it, and Kairi would attempt to hide the evidence of these fights when at school, but it was harder the more time he spent with Cinna and Toeji.

As high school passed Kairi by, he grew closer to Toeji, playing that rival role and constantly bugging Toeji over the smallest things. Even when Toeji was the only one who helped him hang missing posters of his mom years after the fact, and even when Toeji seemed to occasionally show he cared, Kairi made his mission to be the rounder star’s number one rival! And nothing else!

Kairi lives with his father, Chris, and his brother, Benni, at home. Kairi spends as much time as he can away from home and with his friends, namely Toeji, Cinna and Pasta. Er, Toeji’s not his friend! Toeji’s his RIVAL! Definitely NOT someone Kairi desires to be closer to and be able to be more vulnerable with, but has a hard time unlearning his father’s mindset about. Kairi cooks, bakes, and takes photos in his free time to escape the reality of his life. He wants to uncover what happened to his mom, but isn’t sure where to start. His dream is to finally live in a peaceful, quiet place with a restaurant of his own. Maybe with Toeji.