Shou-neechan changed from her red dress last night to a sporty T-shirt and shorts from the cruiser.
Was the matter with your father that shocking?
Megu asks me.
Yeah
I told everyone about my parting with father after telling Shou-neechan.
It was before we left for Los Angeles, so I haven’t told Megu and Mana yet.
I mean, it took me a while to organize it in my head.
As for Nei, I told her on the ship after leaving Hawaii.
Edie, does she understand? She’s just smiling.
He disappeared during April, and it’s August now, right? That’s four months Yet, seeing my father after a long time, I felt something different Different? Yeah, Megu, how should I say it, his face looks distorted, or rather, languid. Anyway, it was different from father’s face in my memory. Before, he has his back stretched out, like, his face should look sharp. Yet, he always looks down, hunchback, saying only Sorry, Is that so? My best Regards He lost his vigor.
Father that day.
No, of course, it’s Father. My father. I’m sure about his face. But, he seems like a different person. His atmosphere was so different that I thought Who’s this guy?
Yes, I feel like I met Father’s ghost instead of my father.
A salaryman who ran away from his workplace is now working on a land unfamiliar to him. Furthermore, with so little money at hand, he doesn’t have a definite place to stay, he slipped into a workplace that hires people without even a guarantee of identity. His mental state has gone haywire Minaho-neesan said. Well, it’s hard to find new jobs for a man over 40’s in an unknown land
Nei tells me,
If you’re not used to the job, the younger ones would shout at you. Your pride would be in tatters, making you wonder what you’ve been doing in your life
I don’t get that.
But, he was my parent. I wanted him to get himself together in front of his child. To think that he’s showing such a disgraceful attitude in front of MInaho-neesan and the lawyer
He shut inside his mind.
He only looks at inside himself as he cast his eyes downward.
He didn’t even look at me, his child.
Looking at it objectively now, it makes me think. Could it be that your father doesn’t know you anymore?
Minaho-neesan?
Well, you were completely different than when your father disappeared
Me?
I’m always myself though Yes, your mind has always been yourself, But, your outlook has changed a lot
Has my outlook changed?
Yes. Before, you weren’t stretching your back with dignity. You were so unconfident that you speak in a small voice and keep on stuttering
Oh, speaking of which.
Your hair looks tidy now. That day, you weren’t wearing student’s clothes but the suit Katsuko prepared for you, right?
I thought that it’s been a while since I met father.
Katsuko-nee asked me to wear a fine suit
to not let him worry about me adopted to Kuromori house.
I think your father is the one surprised, thinking Is this really my son? I believe that he got embarrassed
Embarrassed?
He who disappeared looks miserable. You, on the other hand, were abandoned in Tokyo, your father imagined that you surely look miserable too
Well, I guess.
My father only left a single bank passbook to me.
His son who’s just a high school student doesn’t have enough money to live by himself alone in the future.
It’s unknown for how long I can stay in that house too.
There’s a lot of possibilities after mother divorcing father.
Father has no relatives.
Mother’s relatives all hate her. While at it, I included.
The company father worked at is related to mother’s parents.
In short.
I don’t have anyone to depend on this world.
My life was just downhill at that point.
And in the end, you felt hopelessness, you consulted the school. Then, the school talked to some establishments, and therefore, a volunteer accepted you as an adopted son. I think that’s what your father recognizes Minaho-neesan said. I said that if he accepts the adoption, your future expenses will all be paid by the adoptive family, and all of Yoshida family’s house and properties in Tokyo will be abandoned. I even left transportation and accommodation expenses to Tokyo, then your father will probably think Then that’s good. With this, my son’s problem is settled. I won’t feel pain from abandoning him in Tokyo. That’s good fortune. Lucky then he’ll come back to Tokyo as if nothing happened, I think I guess. He was in that state yet my response to him was wrong. I should’ve used the lawyer’s office or a rental meeting room when talking to your father. But, I unconsciously used a first-class hotel tea room, due to my intuition Minaho-neesan’s usual customers she talks to are all big names in political and business affairs.
Therefore, she chooses places as such to meet with those people.
Then, the lawyer too, Kouzuki-sama picked one of the best. Wouldn’t your father imagine a commoner lawyer who works at a government office instead?
i see.
Ultimately, both you and I came in formal dress
I wore a suit and Minaho-neesan also put on a brand name clothing because she’s meeting with my father.
Huh? What? Yo-chan father meeting Yo-chan wearing ragged clothes, and with the school teacher and a government office lawyer?
Nei’s confused.
He must be thinking that the Kuromori house trying to adopt him isn’t that poor but isn’t also such a big house
Minaho-neesan said.
However, he showed up looking so handsome. Then, he felt that Kuromori house was a very wealthy house due to how the lawyer and I talk so he felt heartbroken Huh, why?
Nei’s getting even more confused.
It’s because of me
I replied.
A child like me, the child he abandoned gets so much luck that he can’t understand, he can’t agree with it Yes. After parting with him, he’s been suffering in the bottom of the society for four months, yet his son talks about the story of how lucky he is. Why is it so different? He can’t agree with it, that’s probably how he felt Therefore, he’s been so abject to Minaho-neesan.
He ignores me.
But, your father was of an inferior character so, he should’ve gotten angry and urged to deny your adoption, or try to rip off money from me. Yet, your father didn’t do that
Minaho-neesan followed up.
Wrong. My father feels guilt from abandoning me and disappearing before anything. Therefore, he couldn’t say it
I said.
If he grumbled and argued back with What can a father who left his child behind say? He can’t reply to that.
That lawyer has quite the presence, Minaho-neesan also shows power.
All he can do is accept that I’ll be adopted in silence, so he becomes more abject.
But, isn’t he Onii-chan’s father? He’s a parent, and yet, in the end, he’s not thinking about Onii-chan at all
Mana’s enraged.
If you think that way, he shouldn’t have abandoned me and disappear in the first place
I smiled wryly.
Yeah. He’s been like that from the start to the end. He and I may be related by blood, but we’re not parent and child. We’re not family Yoshi-kun
Megu holds my shoulders.
Therefore, this is for good. Minaho-neesan didn’t have to think of his remployment, and it all ended without him asking for a settlement on the lawyer. It’s better that it ended without giving him anything I returned the passbook father left me and the house and lot on his name.
I don’t want to be indebted with that man.
It’s a clear farewell.
That’s just pitiful. Onii-chan’s so pitiful
Mana’s crying.
Mana’s also abandoned by her family.
But, I noticed one thing
Minaho-neesan looks at me.
Looking at your father, showing that gloomy timid look, hunchback and looking downwards, closing up his heart and only looking at the inside of him, just speaking in a small voice