Saturday night, after dinner Hide immediately went up to his bed. He was laying down flat, enjoying the warm and the softness of his bed. Then, heavy rain suddenly hit the roof very hard, but Hide didn’t wake up and went to Aizawa’s room. He decided that he would wait for ten minutes before going to Aizawa’s room.
However, he didn’t need to wait for long. Only around two minutes after the start of the heavy rain, the door to his room was slowly being opened by Aizawa.
While poking her little head inside the room, Aizawa hesitantly asked, “Big Bro, can Aizawa wait here until the rain stop?”
“Yeah,” Hide casually replied even though inwardly he was very happy. “Come here and sit in the bed.”
“Okay.”
Wasting no time, Aizawa immediately walked over to the bed. She happily crawled up to the bed, and sat next to Hide while lay her back to the wall.
“Big Bro, are you very tired?”
“Yeah, Big Bro had part time job with Takeo this morning.”
“Do you want Aizawa to massage you?”
“Ummm… Do you know how to give a massage?”
“Mhm,” Aizawa eagerly replied. “When she tired, Kaede Sensei will ask Kana to massage her back, and Aizawa sometimes will help her.”
‘Kaede Sensei, that’s child exploitation,’ Hide inwardly protested before gently saying, “No, need. Big Bro just need some rest.”
“Okay,” Aizawa nodded and then asked, “Big Bro, when Aizawa was still a baby, was Aizawa fussy or very quiet?”
After giving a quick ponder Hide asked, “Why do you want to know about it?”
“There is a music that when Aizawa play it, Aizawa have to imagine Aizawa’s image when Aizawa is still a baby.”
“Well,” To be honest, Hide was too busy spent his time to study and didn’t gave Aizawa much attention was she was a baby. However, fortunately there was a time when he looked at her. “When you still a baby, you loved to lift your leg, slammed it to the bed, and then giggle. You did it a lot as your amusement.”
“Really?” Aizawa asked as her eyes brimming with happiness and curiosity.
“Yeah, when Big Bro warned you that if you kept doing it you would break the baby box, you would look at Big Bro with your clear eyes, and it was the most clear and beautiful eyes that Big Bro had ever seen.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, Big Bro then would give you a strict gaze, but you would respond it by laughing breathlessly.”
As Aizawa happily smiled, Hide was also smiling widely, but inwardly he tried so hard to hide the truth. At that time he actually was truly angry to Aizawa who made a lot of noise and disrupted his study. There was even a time when he scolded her, but Aizawa treated his anger face as an attempt to amuse her, and she would laugh breathlessly on it.
As he suppressed the dark truth in his heart, Hide honestly said, “Even right now, you still have the most clear eyes and sweetest smile that Big Bro has ever seen.”
“Kaede Sensei also always said that Kana and Aizawa have a very sweet smile.”
“She is not wrong.” Hide smiled and continued, “Well, it seems the rain will remain all the night. You can just sleep here.”
“Okay.”
Hide immediately slightly move to the side, while Aizawa sneaked into under the blanket. After pecking Hide’s cheek, she then laid her head in Hide’s shoulder while Hide coiled his arm on her little back. It was pretty much the position when Aizawa slept with Emily. Wasting no time Hide then hugged Aizawa.
Well, even when he was nine years old, Hide was often sleeping with her father and Emily. So, it was natural that Aizawa who still six years old would happily sleep with him, and Hide considered himself as replacement for Emily and his father because now Aizawa couldn’t sleep with them anymore.
In short, for Aizawa’s sake, Hide would gladly become her father, her mother, her brother, her best friend, and supported her until she was 20 years old and could live independently.
A moment later, the two had already fast asleep.
---
Sunday morning, Takeo had no school so he had a lot of time to cook. After taking morning bath, he took his time to made chicken stew and steaming white rice using rice cooker. Then, as he bathed Rei and Kei who had just woke up, he let the chicken stew into simmer. After that, it was breakfast time under the casual but refreshing morning air.
A few minutes later, Takeo had just helped Rei and Kei took their second serving when his mother came out of her room. While tying her sleeping robe, she walked straight to dining table and sat across Rei and Kei. A smiled instantly bloomed on her lips as she saw Rei and Kei heartily enjoyed their breakfast.
“That smell nice,” Takeo’s mother happily said.
“Do you want some?” Takeo asked as he poured a glass of warm tea for his mother.
After a smile Takeo’s mother replied, “Yeah.”
Wasting no time, Takeo served his mother a plate of white rice topped with a ton of chicken stew. Then, as her mother happily enjoyed it, Takeo started a conversation about his morning training.
“Mom, I and Hide are trying to spare some of our time in the morning, just before we go to school, to complete some of our part time project. So, can we use shuttle pick-up to drop Rei and Kei off to their kindergarten? I will pay the bill.
And in the afternoon, I will pick them up and took them home as usual.”
Takeo’s mother gulped down a big piece of chicken meat before gave a reply, “Let me take care of Rei and Kei in the morning. You do what you have to do. I will also pick them up from their kindergarten in the afternoon.”
“And the restaurant?” Takeo curiously asked. “Can Dad handle the morning rush without you?”
“He will easily handle it.” Takeo’s mother confidently replied. “Your money gives us a lot of breathing room. So we have hire two additional workers and now our restaurant is in full force just like when we don’t have to pay the debt installment.”
“I see.” Takeo said as relieved filled his face. “Thanks Mom.”
“You are now is one of main bread winner for this family. So, I shouldn’t burden you with my responsibility,” Takeo’s mother proudly said. “However, your father will still need my assistance at afternoon rush, just before and after the dinner time.
So you have to be at home at 18:00 and accompany Rei and Kei as usual until their bed time?”
“No problem,” Takeo firmly replied.
“Do we really can’t go to school with Big Bro Takeo anymore?” Rei dejectedly asked.
“Your brother now is having a serious job. We can’t disturb him.”
Takeo’s Mother gently’ said, but Rei and Kei responded it by pouted their lips.
“But going to school with Mommy is not fun,” Kei said.
“Yeah,” Rei eagerly added, “Mommy always make a stop here and there to dig some gossips.”
“We call it social interaction,” Takeo’s Mother firmly defended her old hobby of gossiping with her friends. “And it’s a very important aspect in daily life.”
Seeing her twin little sisters giving their mother a palm face as a protest, Takeo immediately said, “Rei, Kei, don’t be fussy. Big Bro will still accompany you at evening and read you bed time story.”
“But a few days ago Big Bro looked very tired. Your face was also very pale.” Kei worriedly said. “Big Bro should directly go to the bed after dinner.”
“Don’t exaggerate it,” Takeo calmly said. “Big Bro had a cold at that time, but now I’m fine, totally fine.”
“But Big Bro Hide also goes directly to the bed after dinner,” Rei added, “Because his job makes him very tired.”
Big question mark in an instant popped up on Takeo’s forehead, “Rei, how do you know Hide directly goes to the bed after dinner?”
“Big Sis Aizawa told us,” Rei innocently replied.
And Kei happily added, “We make a group chat with her.”
“You make a group chat with Aizawa?” Takeo’s mother asked as she gave Rei and Kei dumbfounded look. “Isn’t that another means of gossiping?”
“Of course not,” Kei firmly replied. “We call it social interaction.”
“And it’s a very important aspect in daily life,” Rei firmly support Kei.
“Kids this day….” Takeo’s mother looked at Rei and Kei with a complicated gaze as she muttered, ‘They grow too fast.’
Takeo’s mother had to put her attention to help her husband for the last sixteen months. Slowly but surely, as time went on she changed from a happy go lucky housewife into a serious restaurant manager. She also fully realized that her decision to help her husband would made her missed some growing moment on Rei and Kei, but never did she imagine that she would miss such huge gap on their growth.
“You two listen,” Takeo’s mother gently said, and she unconsciously mixed a bit of her sadness and regret in her tone. “Mom will try not to gossiping too much, so let’s give your Big Brother some room to do his job. Okay?”
As they sensed the trace of sadness and regret in their mother’s tone, Rei and Kei immediately replied, “”Okay.””
“Good,” Takeo’s mother happily said, without realizing that she had just caused some worry on her daughters.
Meanwhile, Takeo inwardly was heaving a deep sighs. He was so glad that he could help his parent paid their debt, but at the same time he felt a slight of guilt because he didn’t tell them the truth.
Takeo believed that his mother would get a heart if she knew that he put his life on the line to get the money he used to help her. So, as he looked at his mother silently, he made a promise that he would stay alive at all cost until he got enough money to pay his parent’s debt.
His father had said that one million Dillar was more than enough to give them a breathing room until they got enough money to pay their debt. So, Takeo would stop the hunt with Hide and Shizuka once he got one million Dillar for his parent, and one hundred thousand Dillar to pay his study at university.
Then, Takeo’s mother suddenly put her empty plate forward. “Son, stop daydreaming and give me another serving. Your chicken stew is incredibly delicious.”
Takeo instantly woke up from his contemplation, and after a big smile he then said, “Right away.”
A moment later, as she cheerfully looked at Takeo, Takeo’s mother said, “You know, your father never brag about your achievement in programming competition. But now, he can’t stop himself from bragging left and right about your part time job to our customer.”
‘What the…’ Takeo gave her mother dumbfounded look as he recalled that Elven Robotic’s fake site had a lot of traffic and incoming query recently. “Mom, can you ask Dad to stop from doing it? It’s embarrassing.”
“It’s not embarrassing at all,” Takeo’s mother proudly said. “And I will not stop him.”
One glance at her mother’s sparkling eyes and Takeo realized it was useless to argue further. So, he could only purse his lips while handed over the second serving of chicken stew and white rice to her.
*****
Author’s note:
Well, I just want to make a little notification. Initially, I plan to post this work only in my blog started from Book 3, but it seems I have to change it. I will post this work only in my blog from the next chapter.
So, in the future I will only put TF Amethyst in other site than my blog. When I complete it, I will put another new and long work. In short, I will only put one ongoing work outside of my blog.
Thank you and Best regard.
