[After a week]
While on the way to the orphanage, Kawamoto Ren asks Kiyohira, "Why do you have dark circles around your eyes?"
"He doesn"t sleep at night." Kiyohira replies with a haunting voice, "I can"t get a minute with her. Whenever I close my eyes, he starts crying."
Rie doesn"t get up, saying that she took care of Yuta alone. So, he must learn to take care of their second son. He didn"t know that having a baby is so hard.
Ren looks at Little Sho asleep in Rie"s arms. Yuta is leaning on her body with closed eyes, holding her arm tightly. "What"s wrong with Yuta?"
"He got nightmares about going to school." Kiyohira closes his eyes. "Talk to someone else. Let me get some sleep."
"They are overreacting." Rie glances at Ren. "Little Sho is quite well behaved. It"s just that the change of environment is affecting his sleep a little. But he"s really well behaved."
"Right." Ren touches his hair. "Your well-behaved boy nearly made me bald."
Even though Takes.h.i.+ has dyed his hair red, Little Sho still wants Ren"s hair.
"That"s why you should find a woman soon." Rie chuckles." If you get married and have a daughter, I will give you one of my sons. You can have Little Sho since he likes you so much."
"If that"s how he likes people, I don"t want to know what he would do when he hates someone." Ren shudders at the thought. "If I ever get married and have a daughter, I wouldn"t want him as my son-in-law."
"How dare you reject my son?" Rie scowls at him. "Little Sho is going to be handsome and smart. He has his father"s look."
The corner of Kiyohira"s lips curls up. Surely, his wife still finds him good-looking. All of his hard work on maintaining his looks are worth it.
"Mother, I am also going to be handsome," Yuta murmurs.
"Of course, you have my looks." She pats his head. "We will find a special bride for you. Let Ren"s daughter have your little brother."
"I don"t need a bride." Yuta smiles broadly. "I only want Mother beside me."
"Such a mother"s boy," Ren mutters. "Rie Chan, how are you sure that my future daughter will want your little son? I will tell her to marry your elder son."
"I will reject her. I don"t want to be in a love triangle with my own brother," Yuta replies with closed eyes.
"Hey, how could you reject her? She could be in love with you." Ren frowns at Yuta. "I will beat you up if you break my daughter"s heart."
In the driver"s seat, Takes.h.i.+ lets out a heavy sigh. "Kawamoto-san, you don"t have a woman or a daughter. Shouldn"t you worry about getting a girlfriend first?"
"I don"t want one." Ren looks out of the window. "2D women are life."
"Hopeless," Yuta mutters.
"Don"t say that." Rie scolds Yuta. "I also used to think that 2D men were best."
"What changed you, Mother?" He glances at Rie and finds her eyeing his father.
She leans closer and pecks Kiyohira cheeks."Your father happened."
"We have arrived." Takes.h.i.+ stops the car. "Don"t speak anything strange in front of the children, Kawamoto-san."
"Why are you warning me?" Ren steps out of the car.
"Everyone else knows how to pretend normal." Takes.h.i.+ looks at the entrance of the orphanage. Adopting a child seems like a big thing.
"I don"t like your hair." Ren points at Takes.h.i.+"s head. "Red only suits me."
"I disagree." Rie looks at Takes.h.i.+ and smiles. "Red hair suits you better, Takes.h.i.+."
"Rie Chan, should I dye my hair black then?" Ren follows her as she walks toward the orphanage. "Should I dye it pink?"
"Go for blue," Yuta suggests. "Red is overrated."
"Why should I listen to the boy who broke my daughter"s heart?" Ren sneers at Yuta. "I will never dye it blue now."
Kiyohira feels tired. Why are they discussing hair colours? They came here to do an important thing. Yuta and Ren continue their argument as they follow Rie and Kiyohira toward the orphanage building. Takes.h.i.+ walks behind Ren and Yuta, watching them quietly and smiling from time to time.
"Mr Kamiyama, Ms Kamiyama." The orphanage"s head, a middle-aged lady with a friendly smile, greets them. "You are finally here. She is highly excited to meet you since she heard that she"s going to be adopted."
"Really?" Rie grins. "I am also excited to meet her."
"I feel the same." Kiyohira smiles. "Take us to her. We can"t wait to meet her."
"Please come this way."
Yuta isn"t much excited about this. He walks behind them lazily, watching everything around him with keen eyes. The children are playing in the garden. From their faces, he could tell that they aren"t being treated harshly. But they aren"t happy either. The longing in their eyes is clear. He is familiar with that longing. He wonders if it"s possible to adopt them all and give them a home.
He looks up at his uncle and says, "Uncle, you should also adopt a child after you get married."
"All right." Takes.h.i.+ pats his nephew"s head. He could already guess that his nephew wants an orphan to find a family.
"You won"t be a bad father." Yuta waves his hand. "But I am not sure if you are a wise man."
"Eh?" Takes.h.i.+ raises his brow. What does that suppose to mean? Yuta runs away from him before he could ask anything. Takes.h.i.+ frowns. Not a wise man? Probably.
"That boy speaks a cryptic language." Ren crosses his arms. "Why didn"t he ask me to adopt a child?"
"He doesn"t have any faith that you will get married."
"Oi, Takes.h.i.+, don"t speak nonsense."
The little girl with long wavy brown hair, porcelain skin, and a round face stands up when she sees Rie and Kiyohira. She"s dressed in a simple white dress. She smiles at them and speaks with a melodic voice, "Good afternoon, my name is Erie. I am six-year-old. It"s nice to meet you."
"She"s so cute." Rie goes to the girl. "Aerie, do you want to become a part of our family?"
"Yes, Ma"am," She answers honestly, looking at Rie"s face. "Please make me a part of your family."
"She speaks like an a.d.u.l.t." Rie chuckles. "Yuta, come. Meet your sister."
Yuta walks toward the girl with a serious face. He gives her a look over. The girl is smiling at him with s.h.i.+ning eyes. "She would do."
Well, anyone would do. All children in the orphanage want to be a part of a family. Though he wasn"t a part of orphanage, he knows what"s it like to live without a family.
"Little Sho is still sleeping." Rie gestures toward her younger son in Kiyohira"s arms. "When he wakes up, you can play with him. You are older than both of my sons, but we will treat you as Yuta"s younger sister and Little Sho"s elder sister."
"That"s your father." She gazes at Kiyohira. "From now on, you are our daughter."
"Thank you." The girl grins at her. "I will be the best sister to both of them. I will be a good daughter. I will always do my best."
Shaking her head, Rie tells her, "Aerie, you must promise me one thing."
Aerie becomes quiet, waiting for her to say more.
"Promise me that you will also treat us as a family." Rie strokes the girl"s hair. "We are not doing you a favour by taking you into our family. We want you as a part of our family. So, you should never feel indebted to us. Never hide your true feelings under the weight of grat.i.tude. Be honest to us, okay?"
The girl nods her head again as her light brown eyes become wet. She sniffles once before she breaks into sobs. Rie embraces the little girl and pats her back. "Your mother is here now. It will be okay from now on."
Watching from the distance, Ren says to Takes.h.i.+ with a nostalgic smile, "She changed so much, but I feel that I haven"t changed at all."
"That"s what you think." Takes.h.i.+ has been watching them all from the sidelines. "Everyone has changed. Even Kawamoto-san has changed a lot. I have also changed."
"Do you hate the change though?" Ren asks him quietly. "I can"t tell if the change inside me is good or not."
"Sometimes, I hate it." He hates it when he ends up thinking about Iori at a moment like this. He doesn"t know where she is or how she is doing. He can"t tell whether she"s married or not. Though Haru and he are in contact, Haru never speaks about her. He hasn"t asked anything from Haru either. He still hasn"t unblocked her. He"s afraid that he might contact her if he unblocks her once.
"If we are still unhappy, doesn"t it mean that the change was bad?" Ren questions him with a quiet voice. "Perhaps, it was better not to change."
He wonders. Takes.h.i.+ doesn"t regret his decision. Things with Iori have always been out of the place. She always wanted different things.
"Takes.h.i.+, Ren, what are you doing there?" Rie waves her arm. "Come and introduce yourself to my daughter."
Grinning, Takes.h.i.+ goes to meet his niece. Ren jogs along, excited to meet the new member of the Kamiyama family.