Chapter 8

「Guh, uuaaah…」

「Shougo!!」

I call out to him, but there’s no response.

「Get a hold of yourself!! Shougo!!」

It seems my voice reached him slightly. The face that was looking down turns towards me. It was undoubtedly the familiar face of the boy I remembered.

──Except for one part.

The color of the eyes that met mine had turned bright red, no, perhaps I should say they were emitting light. In this dark room, that red light was all the more bizarre. I feel a slight fear at those vividly red eyes, but I quickly regain my composure.

「Shougo!! Get a hold of yourself!!」

It seems my words reached him this time. I can see the pain-distorted expression gradually relaxing.

「…Obasan, why are you…」

Not knowing how I feel, the son of my best friend who calls me “obasan” right off the bat, I give him a fist to the head after a year and a half.

「he!?」

He was probably going to say “Why are you here?”, but that’s my line.

「Obasan?」

Ahh, this boy is definitely Shougo. Realizing this, I finally managed to smile.

「Ka, Kaname-sa──」

「Wrong, isn’t it?」

It seems I need to give him another hit. Thinking this, I smile at him. Shougo would probably understand why I’m smiling. That I’m angry.

「…Kaname-kaasan.」

「Yes, well done.」

I pat his head as a reward for saying it properly. Although Shougo looked embarrassed, he neither brushed my hand away nor tried to escape, just letting me do as I pleased.

「For now, I have lots, I mean lots of questions, like about what just happened, those bright red eyes, when you came back, about your legs.」

I remove my hand from Shougo’s head. Seeing him look regretful despite being embarrassed, I finally realized that my child had returned.

「Welcome home, Shougo.」

I put my feelings into those short words I finally managed to say. At the same time, I hug Shougo, confirming his presence with my whole body.

It must have been hard for Shougo too. Without resisting being hugged, Shougo said “I’m home” and started crying.

I held him until his tears stopped.

After crying for a few minutes, Shougo finally calmed down and shifted his body. I let go of him and asked what had happened until now.

He prefaced his story with “I don’t know if you’ll believe me”, and then told me about the past year and a half.

After hearing everything, I thought I couldn’t simply believe it. Because it was so fantastical.

But the fact is, he’s here, his legs, which doctors said would never move again, are moving, and above all, those eyes──now their color is subdued, but having seen those red, glowing eyes, I felt I had no choice but to believe.

Above all, I couldn’t imagine Shougo telling such lies, and he had no reason to.

As a parent, I had no choice but to believe him. I hugged Shougo’s body tighter than before.

「It must have been tough. And you did well to endure it all.」

He really did well. I can’t even imagine what he went through. But this child wished to come back here and did. That’s what makes me happiest.

But if that’s the case, shouldn’t he have come back to our house first, not this one?

Curious, I asked him about it.

Shougo prefaced his story with “Please don’t get angry”, and told me about the day he returned here.

I must have been undeniably angry by the time I finished listening.

「That… idiot husband!!」

「Hii!」

I heard Shougo let out a frightened voice, but it’s truly infuriating. That man doesn’t understand anything. We adopted Hina so that Natsuki wouldn’t feel lonely after Shougo disappeared, and if Natsuki and Shougo were to end up together, I thought it wouldn’t be a problem since they’d return to being siblings. Moreover, if Hina herself wanted to dissolve the adoption after Shougo returned, I was willing to accept that happily.

Yet, his reasoning, as if he did it to separate Shougo and Hina, is incomprehensible, even though he’s my husband.

And Natsuki too. I understand that Amano-kun might be a benefactor and that he’s the son of a business partner of my husband’s company, so we can’t treat him poorly, but if it’s not what she wants, she should say so to those around her.

In this situation, I can’t bring Shougo back home.

When I conveyed this to Shougo, he seemed to have the same thought, and I ended up making him look apologetic for making me worry.

Really… I’m a failure as a mother for making my child show such an expression.

Glancing at the kitchen, there were signs of cooking. It seems he’s learned to make his own meals at some point.

Shougo “It was necessary”, he says with a wry smile, but that smile looks like the dry laugh of an adult tired of society, and I feel a sense of inadequacy, thinking that this child had no choice but to grow up.

For now, I told him to meet with Hina at least once. After all, they’re blood-related siblings, so there’s no reason not to meet.

When I told him that Hina had made new friends, it seems those friends are two of the people who were summoned with Shougo.

I was surprised by this, but at the same time, I came up with a little plan in my heart. I’ll keep it a secret from Shougo and let him be thoroughly surprised on the day.

After that, we talked about Shougo’s life since he returned here, but at some point, it turned into me venting about my husband recently. He has become good at listening to others’ problems…

──And my thoughts return to the present.

Natsuki and Hina had returned to their rooms, and only my husband and I were left in the living room.

「By the way, Tatsumi-san. I heard you knew Shougo had returned.」

「…You met him.」

「There’s no reason for a parent not to meet their child, is there?」

「I wasn’t hiding it. I just didn’t say it.」

「I see, then why didn’t you say it?」

「There’s no reason to say it, is there?」

How shameless. Should I throw a plate at him?

「Natsuki and Hina would obviously be happy. Isn’t making our daughters happy a reason?」

「They wouldn’t necessarily be happy. Natsuki is getting along well with Amano-kun, and if he comes back now, it will only complicate things, right?」

「I think that’s for them to decide, not us.」

「What’s wrong with wishing for my daughter’s happiness?」

My daughter’s happiness? That obviously means being with the person she loves. Does this man think that marrying into a rich family is happiness?

「That’s just your assumption, isn’t it? Have you asked Natsuki?」

「Natsuki is a young woman. I don’t think she’d answer honestly even if asked. Besides.」

My husband pauses for a breath,

「──I was disappointed in him for not being by Natsuki’s side when it mattered.」

He’s probably talking about that stalker incident. Indeed, if Shougo had been there, she might not have been attacked. But──

「──I see, then we’re failures as parents too.」

「Why? I don’t understand what you’re saying.」

「We couldn’t do anything for her at that time either, could we? Above all, Shougo is just a childhood friend, an outsider, but we’re supposed to be closer than that. Yet, it wasn’t us who protected that girl. So I think I, and you too, should be the ones being disappointed in.」

「…That’s.」

「Well, I understand what you’re thinking. In the end, you didn’t want your daughter to be taken away, right? Yet, because the other party is the son of a business partner, you arbitrarily call it our daughter’s happiness. You might be excellent at work and a good man. But as a father──」

「What do you understand?」

「I don’t understand, and I don’t intend to.」

「…You don’t even intend to listen to the circumstances?」

「Did you listen to Shougo’s story?」

「……」

When my husband gets like this, he won’t acknowledge my point of view no matter what I say. Thinking it would be pointless to continue the conversation, I headed to the bedroom.

「Then what should I have done…」

In the first place, thinking about “what should have been done” in the irretrievable past won’t solve anything. If it were at least “what should I do”, there might be some hope.

I stopped thinking about my husband any further and fell asleep, imagining what kind of girls the two coming to our house tomorrow would be like.