him being your step-dad was never easy. Your mother is a drunk who can never seem to remember much of anything. That's the way you grew up, doing it yourself and listening to her bitching about having no money, you grew up poor but you made it work

so, when she married toji, you were suspicious, he had a good job, brought money, was nice, stood up for you everything your dead-beat dad couldn't do and your mom never cared to do

obviously you had trust issues, but he did his best, making you your favorite food, burying you small gifts as a way to hope you'd warm up to him

one night specifically, you and your mom got into a heated argument about her drinking and she got violent and physical and toji had stepped up and stopped her, telling her to go to bed and he'd deal with "your attitude" he never planned to do anything just was saying something to get her away, you thought different, scared he would. So when he came back, you had a panic attack and he calmed you down letting you know hr wasnt going to do anything. That changed everything