Chapter 6 - The Angel and the Suspicious Figure
The first thing Amane did the day after returning to his own apartment was clean.
As expected, he had been too tired to clean the day he got back. Since his place had been empty for a little under two weeks, dust had accumulated. It wasn’t that much, but since Mahiru spent time with him in his apartment, he wanted to get it as clean as possible.
To that end, Amane made use of all the cleaning techniques Mahiru had taught him and gave the place a good once-over. Mahiru was apparently busy cleaning her own place, so he did it all by himself.
Though cleaning wasn’t exactly Amane’s strong suit, thanks to Mahiru’s teachings, maintaining a tidy home was no problem.
Mahiru always said, “If you diligently keep up with your cleaning, you won’t need to make any great effort. It’s because you put it off that it takes so much unnecessary time and labor.”
Just by doing as she’d taught him and cleaning regularly, he had been able to keep his apartment spick-and-span.
There was only a bit of dust on the furniture, and it was a breeze for Amane to clean up.
He quickly wiped down all the surfaces then did another pass with the vacuum cleaner. While he was at it, he wiped down the windows, too. When that was done, he looked up at the clock.
It was already past three.
His local supermarket usually started marking down their prices at four, so he figured he had better get going.
I’ve gotten rather accustomed to domestic life, if I do say so myself.
He had cleared out his refrigerator before leaving and had no ingredients for that evening’s dinner, so he needed to go shopping. He had gotten by with instant ramen and frozen food for breakfast, but that wouldn’t do for dinner.
Amane was responsible for the shopping, but he and Mahiru split the cost of ingredients.
Since they were pooling their money, it seemed only right to buy things as cheaply as possible, but…he wondered if it wasn’t a little weird for a high school boy to be worrying about the cost of groceries.
He abruptly laughed at himself and the ways that he had changed. Then he went into his bedroom to put on clean clothes before heading out.
“…Hmm?”
As Amane made his way to the supermarket, lost in thought, a person with a familiar, light hair color passed him by.
He wheeled around to look, but of course all he could see was the person’s back.
Their hair was not as long as Mahiru’s, and anyway, he could tell that the stranger was a man, so it definitely wasn’t her. But his hair didn’t look dyed, and it was rare to see such a naturally light color.
Musing on the unusual sight, Amane entered the supermarket. He was tossing ingredients for that evening’s dinner into his basket when he heard a familiar voice from behind.
“Oh, fancy meeting you here.”
“Kokonoe?”
It was a young man whom Amane had gotten to know through Yuuta, when they had all competed together in the “cavalry battle” at sports day.
Makoto Kokonoe had sweets and juice in his shopping basket, a selection much more typical for a high school boy.
“You live around here, Fujimiya?” he asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t think you did, though…”
“I’m just staying over at a friend’s house and stopped by to pick up some stuff. And you’re here for…dinner?”
“Mm. That’s right.”
As was plain to see, the basket in Amane’s hand was filled with things like raw chicken, daikon radish, milk, and tofu—a world away from snack food.
“That’s right, you live alone, don’t you? Impressive.”
“Well, Mahiru makes all my meals, so it’s not all that impressive…”
“…Oh right, you mentioned that before… What an amazing way to live.”
“It really is. I’m so grateful to her.”
Without Mahiru around, Amane’s eating habits would be miserable. Though he had learned to take care of most of the housework thanks to her, he seemed liable to let things slip if left to his own devices.
If she ever went away, there was no chance that Amane would carry on with his current lifestyle.
“I can never repay her,” he mumbled with a small, wry smile.
Makoto sighed. “How do I put this, Amane? You’re really…you know, head over heels.”
“I sure am. And so is Mahiru.”
“You say that with such confidence.”
“Because I know that she loves me.”
He hadn’t really believed in her affection before they’d started dating, but things were different now.
He knew that she valued and loved him, and he knew that she wanted to be by his side.
Amane didn’t have an inflated ego or anything—he simply registered her feelings as fact. Maybe that was proof he’d become more confident, though it was also true that Mahiru freely directed lots of love his way.
Amane had answered readily and without hesitation, and Makoto was now the one with a wry smile.
“Well, I think it’s great that you’re so confident about it,” he said. “Much better than being all wishy-washy like before, right? Even though it was always clear things were mutual.”
“That’s harsh.”
“I mean, it was so obvious that she was into you. It’s none of my business, though, so as long as you guys are happy—everything’s good, yeah?”
Makoto shrugged, and Amane smiled, recognizing this as the other boy’s way of complimenting him.
“…Plus, Yuuta’s given you his blessing, too, so I figure everything worked out peacefully in the end.”
“What?”
“Never mind, nothing. Well, I’m going to the register.”
Amane was still wondering why Yuuta had come up at all, but Makoto hastily turned and left before Amane could question him about it. Still confused, Amane went back to shopping for the dinner ingredients he had listed on a memo in his phone.
When Amane got back to his apartment building, he spotted the man he had passed on his way to the store looking up at the building.
He had never expected this to be the man’s destination, and it was strange that he was still standing outside despite how much time had passed. In spite of himself, Amane stopped in his tracks and watched him.
He had an awfully familiar hair color.
Amane couldn’t be sure, since he had only seen the man from behind, but he didn’t appear to have a large build. In fact, he was quite slim, and maybe a little bit shorter than Amane.
His head was tilted back as he gazed up at the apartment building.
Though Amane couldn’t see his facial expression from where he was standing, there was no question the man was staring intently up at the apartments.
Though Amane was curious about him, he wasn’t going to speak to a stranger, so there was nothing to do but slip past. He knew it would be suspicious if he walked by and then suddenly turned around, so he accepted that he probably wouldn’t get a good look at the man’s face.
Still, unable to give up, Amane double-checked the grocery bags he was carrying, then started walking again.
As he passed the man, Amane let one of the bags bump into him, then dropped it on purpose. He felt a little guilty about the ruse.
The bag only held Amane’s snacks and energy bars, so dropping it wouldn’t cause any trouble for Mahiru.
When he bumped into the man and dropped the bag, the man’s attention shifted to Amane.
As Amane picked up his items and brushed off the dirt, he looked up at the man.
He’d expected as much, but a feeling of vindication welled up inside him.
The man was extremely handsome, with clean-cut features that would grab anyone’s attention. He was frowning at Amane apologetically, feelings of guilt reflected in his clear, brown eyes.
Since Amane was the one who had intentionally bumped into him, he was the one who ought to feel bad about it.
“I’m sorry; that was careless of me,” he said.
“No,” the man protested. “I’m the one who was standing around in a spot like this; I’m sorry. I was in the way.” He apologized in a gentle, low voice that was both composed and calm.
Amane said again, “No, it was my fault,” and bowed.
He had confirmed what he’d wanted to confirm. He had no concrete proof, but the man was likely exactly who Amane had thought he was.
Amane went ahead and passed by the man as if nothing had happened.
He probably had no idea who Amane was and didn’t have any reason to suspect him.
Though it had only been a ten-second interaction, Amane was feeling strangely worked up, probably because the girl he loved was connected.
He had just made it to the door of the building and breathed a sigh of relief, when—suddenly—that very girl appeared before him.
“Welcome home, Amane.”
Amane panicked. He wasn’t expecting her to come down to the entry hall—or, in fact, to come greet him at all. Mahiru looked at him in blank puzzlement.
“Why are you making that face?” she asked.
“N-no reason… Just wondering what made you come all the way down here.”
“Oh, you sent me a message earlier saying you were coming back soon, didn’t you? I asked you to buy a lot of things, so I thought I would help.”
“R-right.”
It seemed she had genuinely come down to help Amane carry the groceries.
Confirming the man’s identity a moment earlier had put a burden on his heart, and now that Mahiru had appeared, it was beating even faster.
Amane worried that its pounding might alert Mahiru to the man’s presence, and he turned around to look in spite of himself. But the man who had been there just a moment ago, only about ten meters away, had vanished.
…So he wasn’t waiting to see Mahiru, and he wasn’t on his way out after meeting her, either.
He could tell it wasn’t the latter from the way Mahiru was acting. If the man had come to see her, surely he would have approached after catching sight of her. There would be no reason for him to leave.
So then, Why, Amane wondered, had he come?
Why had he deliberately walked right up to the front of the apartment building where Mahiru lived, and why had he been staring at the floor she lived on?
“Is something the matter?” asked Mahiru.
“No, it’s nothing.”
Feeling a little relieved that, for better or worse, Mahiru didn’t seem to have noticed the man, Amane placed the bag with the snacks into her waiting hands, then got in the elevator with her.
Later that evening, Amane was looking sidelong at Mahiru, who was sitting beside him, worrying over whether he ought to talk to her about the man he had encountered earlier that day just before she had come down to meet him.
He suspected that the man was Mahiru’s father.
Mahiru’s mother had an intense, egoistic air about her, and sharp features that hardly resembled Mahiru at all, so it wasn’t obvious that they were parent and child. But the man from earlier resembled her so strongly that it was clear at a glance that they were related.
From his gentle, strikingly handsome features, to the color of his hair and eyes, he had looked exactly like Mahiru would if she were a man and a few years older. Naturally, Amane couldn’t dismiss him as a stranger, given the resemblance.
He just wasn’t sure whether he should say anything to Mahiru.
He knew that she didn’t think well of her parents and that she tended to avoid talking about them. If he could, he wanted to act as though nothing had happened.
And yet, if by some chance the man was to show up again and actually approach Mahiru, she was sure to get a shock.
Before that could happen, Amane reasoned, he ought to give Mahiru a chance to prepare herself.
“…Is something on your mind? You’ve been staring at me for a while.”
Amane was fretting over what to do, since either option would be shocking for Mahiru, when she looked at him with a truly puzzled expression. Apparently, she could feel the weight of his gaze.
“Uh, well, how do I put this?”
“What is it—what are you hiding?”
“…I’m not really sure how to tell you.”
“If you want to say something, say it. If you don’t want to tell me, I won’t ask. But if you have something you want to discuss, I’ll listen, no matter what it is.”
Mahiru was leaving the matter up to Amane. After hesitating for a full ten seconds, he slowly began to speak.
“…So the thing is, earlier…when I went out shopping, I, uh, ran into this man.”
“O-oh, did you?”
For the moment, Mahiru just nodded at him. She didn’t seem to grasp what he was talking about, so Amane looked her directly in the eyes—ones the same color as those of the man he’d seen earlier.
“He was standing in front of our apartment building, staring up at it…with eyes exactly like yours.”
“…Huh?”
Mahiru stiffened, a puzzled expression on her face.
“The man had the same eye and hair color as you, Mahiru. And his face looked like yours, too.”
Amane was hinting that the man might be her father, timidly looking for confirmation. To his surprise, Mahiru did not seem shocked, just baffled.
“Hmm… So you’re saying that there was a person here who looked like my father?”
“Probably, yeah.”
Amane said probably, but in his mind, he was convinced that the man was Mahiru’s father. His features and general presence had resembled hers so closely that it seemed absurd to think they could be unrelated.
After blinking several times at Amane’s words, Mahiru narrowed her eyes.
She must be in shock, he thought.
“…You’re sure it wasn’t a case of mistaken identity?” she asked.
“Huh?”
It was Amane’s turn to be baffled, this time by her abnormally casual reply.
“My father has never shown any interest in me. For as long as I can remember, I hardly ever saw his face. He’s always been completely occupied with work, to the point he must barely remember I exist. Even now, he almost never contacts me, and when he does it’s only a business call a couple times a year.”
As she told Amane all this in a dispassionate voice, the look in Mahiru’s eyes steadily shifted from astonishment to something much colder.
“He has no reason to come and see me, and if he was going to, I’m sure he would send word ahead of time. Though, he’s never done anything like that before—not even once,” Mahiru asserted decisively.
Amane looked at her face, then squeezed her hand.
“Besides,” she continued, “what could he have to say to me at this point? After ignoring his daughter for more than ten years and spending all his time at work, what purpose could my father have for going out of his way to contact me? There’s no reason why he would come to see me, at least no reason that I can understand.”
“Mahiru.”
“Even supposing he did start noticing me now…I can’t acknowledge those people as my parents. They are nothing more than two people who happen to be related to me by blood; they are not the parents who raised me. The person who raised me was Miss Koyuki—and nobody else.”
Mahiru spoke in a flat, hard voice full of thorns. Her expression was blank, as if she had erased all emotion from her face. Amane found it difficult to look at her, so instead, he embraced her.
The thorns in Mahiru’s voice were turned inward, hurting herself more than anyone else.
She didn’t seem to be putting on a show of courage. Instead, Amane got the impression that she was mentally wringing her own neck.
He could tell because, even though all the emotion had disappeared from her face, she still seemed to be in pain. She was trying to maintain a blank look, but it seemed obvious to him that she was really hurting.
Wrapped in Amane’s arms, Mahiru slowly lifted her head and looked at him.
“…What’s this?” she asked.
“…Just missed the warmth of human contact.”
“Who did?”
“I did, I guess.”
“…Is that so?” Mahiru mumbled quietly, then leaned into Amane and let out a little sigh. “I’m not really worried about it,” she said. “He’s got nothing to do with me.”
“Oh?”
“I’ve got a new family, after all.”
“Mm, I suppose you do.”
“…So I’m fine.”
“Mm.”
Amane was happy that she considered his home to be hers, too. The way she was talking made it clear how she felt about her own. Sensing this, he gently stroked her head.
“…So then, if I happen to catch sight of that person again, what should I do?” he asked, gently running his hand over her hair.
Mahiru was leaning against Amane’s chest, so when he asked his question, she slowly looked up and stared at him with calm eyes. There was no shock or anguish in her expression, which came as a relief.
Then Mahiru frowned, looking a little uncomfortable under his gaze.
“…I don’t care; you can do whatever you like,” she said.
“You don’t want me to do anything in particular?”
He had been certain that she would ask him not to approach the man, but Mahiru only shook her head.
“Not really… Not unless we run into him together, or if he tries to speak to me while I’m alone or something. If you encounter him on your own, Amane, I’m not going to tell you how to react. I’d still like you to report to me that you saw him, though.”
“…I see. So you’re planning to not get involved with him in any way—is that what I’m hearing?”
“Yes… If he’s got something he wants to say to me, he can make an appointment and say it directly—or contact me by email. Lurking around watching me is just plain weird. If he’s not going to reach out himself, I’m not going to do anything. So long as he doesn’t do anything to threaten my lifestyle, I’m going to ignore him.”
Mahiru did seem curious about the presence of a man who resembled her father, but she didn’t want to go out of her way to make contact with him.
In Mahiru’s position, Amane might have done the same. But the way she made up her mind to ignore someone who was basically confirmed to be her father once again made it clear to Amane how deeply she resented her parents.
Mahiru nuzzled back into Amane’s chest sweetly, and he simply responded, “Gotcha.” Then he wrapped his arms under her knees and around her back, scooped her up, and set her down sideways in his lap.
He chuckled slightly at Mahiru’s startled expression, then pressed his lips to her forehead to comfort her. She immediately flushed bright red and buried her face in his chest once again.
This time, she must have been doing it to hide her embarrassment because she was smacking her forehead into him, head-butting him with considerable force. That, too, was charming, and Amane smiled in spite of himself.
“…Well, I’m not you, and I can’t really interfere in another person’s family matters, but…I think it’s best for you to do as you see fit, and I’ll support you in whatever you decide.”
Amane was, after all, an outsider. Though, of course, he’d like to think that was only temporary.
He wouldn’t get involved in Mahiru’s family issues. As long as that was what she wanted, he would merely support her quietly from the sidelines.
He was determined to stay by her side, no matter what her family situation was.
If she said she wanted to run away from home, he was prepared to help make that happen.
Mahiru acknowledged Amane’s words with a quiet “Okay.”
He ruffled her hair and said, “Don’t worry, if push comes to shove, I’ll sweep you away.” He spoke in a teasing whisper, just barely loud enough for Mahiru to hear.
She lifted her head suddenly with great force and looked at him, her face flushed red, so Amane feigned innocence and stroked Mahiru’s hair some more.
Several days had passed since Amane had encountered the man he suspected was Mahiru’s father.
For the time being, Amane was on alert, looking out for him whenever he left the house. But contrary to his fears, he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him.
It was only a guess, but Amane imagined that Mahiru’s father had come to meet with her, or to see how she was doing, only to end up hesitating when it came time to actually approach her. Otherwise, he would have spoken to her by now.
Amane had asked Mahiru about it, and according to her, her father hadn’t made contact or shown up again. He probably didn’t intend to see her, at least not for now.
“…I really don’t get it…”
He figured Mahiru’s father had come to see her, but his motives remained unclear, leaving Amane with a lingering sense of unease.
That said, he didn’t intend to involve himself too deeply, so as long as the man didn’t make contact, Amane wouldn’t take any action, either.
“What’s the matter?”
“I’m just worried about something,” he replied.
Amane had been staring at Itsuki’s summer homework as he grumbled to himself. Now Itsuki was looking at him with a curious expression.
“It’s rare for you to be worried enough to say something, Amane,” he said. “Come on, tell your big brother all about it.”
“What are you talking about? You’re younger than me.”
“Don’t sweat the small stuff. Now, out with it.”
Apparently, Itsuki had lost interest in his studies.
He had tossed his mechanical pencil down on the desk, turned to face Amane, and was patting his own chest, as if to say Leave it to me.
…What should I do?
Of course, there was no way that Amane could tell Itsuki about Mahiru’s family situation.
No matter how close of a friend Itsuki might be, it wasn’t Amane’s place to reveal something that Mahiru had decided to keep a secret.
If it had been about Amane, he probably would have confided in his friend, but ultimately, this was Mahiru’s business and not his. There was no way he could talk about it openly.
But at the same time, he would never reach an answer by worrying over it alone.
After keeping quiet for a little while, Amane spoke up, choosing his words carefully. “If someone who had refused to have anything to do with you up until now suddenly tried to make contact, what would you think was going through their head?”
“Is this about you?”
“No comment.”
“Hmm. Fine, it doesn’t really matter.”
The look in Itsuki’s eyes implied he had an inkling of what Amane was talking about, but he didn’t probe any deeper and simply accepted his friend’s words at face value. Then his expression turned pensive.
“Well, it depends on the situation, but…they didn’t get in touch first?”
“Nope.”
“Hmm. And this person, they’re not a stalker, are they?”
“…I think they’ve stopped just shy of stalking.”
The man had stealthily come to their apartment building and then vanished without so much as a peep the moment Mahiru appeared. He couldn’t quite be called a stalker, but he was definitely suspicious.
“That ‘just shy’ worries me, but…from what you’ve said, you sound right to be concerned about them. I don’t know what your relationship with them is like, but maybe they’ve got important business that needs to be discussed in person, or maybe they’ve had a change of heart that made them want to reach out—or something.”
“…A change of heart?”
“If they’re making the effort to get in contact now, despite being the one who refused it previously, then that’s the only explanation, isn’t it?” Itsuki shrugged, reiterating that he didn’t know all the details.
Amane forced a smile. “You may be right.”
If what Itsuki was saying was true, it made sense for Mahiru’s father to visit her. However, his reasons still weren’t clear.
Amane didn’t know anything about Mahiru’s father’s personality or circumstances, so even if he wanted to try to imagine the man’s thought process, he didn’t have a single clue to guide him.
The best he could come up with was that something might have happened that affected his circumstances or state of mind. That was the only reason he could imagine for the man to come see Mahiru now.
“Like I said, I can’t really talk because I don’t know all the details, but if it were me, I think I’d get curious and end up contacting them. I hate letting things sit like that. I get too antsy.”
“That sounds just like you…”
“But you’re more of a passive guy, Amane, so why don’t you just wait until the other person makes contact? I bet they’ll reach out again before too long, if that’s really what’s going on. And if they give up, there’s always email or a phone call.”
When Itsuki pointed out that, without knowing the other party’s situation, waiting was the only option, Amane reached the same conclusion. After all, he had no way of solving the problem as things were now.
Mahiru was the one at the heart of all this, so there was nothing he could do.
Amane sighed, resigning himself, and Itsuki’s lips turned up in amusement.
“…Well, do your best for your beloved, young man.”
“Wha—?”
“You’re surprisingly easy to read, you know. If this was about you, you would have just come out and said it. You only get this worked up when it has to do with Miss Shiina.”
“…Can it, will you?”
“I don’t have the right to meddle too much in other people’s affairs, so I’ll just leave it at this, but I think you should do everything you can for your sweet girlfriend, you hear?”
Itsuki poked Amane with his elbow, and Amane’s face twisted into a sullen grimace.
“I know, I know. Geez,” he answered quietly.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login