Ahh, another long day done at the office. When they told me the job of a salary man was tedious, I didn’t think they meant it would also be tiring. Having worked there since graduating college, that would make it how long since I started? I’m 30 now, so it looks like that would be about 8 years then. That’s crazy to have already been working for nearly a decade. But that’s not the craziest part of my life.

“I’m home!” I make my announcement, rushing inside to avoid getting more soaked from the pouring rain outside.

“Oh, you’re soaking wet.” Still, even after all these years. It’s insane to me to think that I’m married to the woman standing in front of me. Juria. “Here, let me get you a towel.” She’s still got those scars, she’s still got that eye patch. Well, she doesn’t wear the exact same one since we were little, but she’s still got one. I can’t say much has changed about either of our appearances since we got together.

I’m not too different in appearance since high school either. Maybe I might be a little taller, but that’s about it.

“Papa! Papa!” A little girl runs around me in circles before grabbing my leg in an apparent hug. The only thing different about me and Juria is easily the bundle of joy holding me. We had a daughter about five years ago. Her name is Umeko.

“Here we go!” In joy, I grab her and pick the little girl up into the air. “Who’s my favorite in the whole world?”

“I am!” She cheers as we laugh and giggle in playing together.

“Hideumi, you’re going to get her all dirty.” Of course, Juria’s always been the more mature between us. She returns with the towel, prompting me to put my little girl down. “I just gave her a bath too.”

“Sorry.” I chuckle as I rub the towel over my face and hair. You know, a part of me always thought when I became a company man, that I wouldn’t be so cheerful. Yet, I still feel so energetic after all these years of grinding away. Looking at the beautiful woman and cute little girl standing before me, I can see why.

“Now come on, I’ve made dinner.” Easily one of my favorite phrases coming from her. If I was happy just to enjoy her breakfasts when it was her turn growing up as a kid. Then I’m elated to be able to have her cook for me every day. I feel so selfish about it, like I’m taking advantage of her. “Umeko, go ahead and place all the utensils on the table now.” She says, then turns around to stop me. Juria lays in a tender kiss away from the eyes of our daughter.

“What’s the occasion?” My faces heats up from our moment of intimacy. Even after kissing her for what feels like thousands of times. I still get giddy like a schoolboy over her.

“No reason.” She puts her hands together and looks down. I can just barely make out her trying to suppress a smile. It makes me happy that she gets this way even with just a kiss. “I just felt like it.”

“Papa, mama! I finished setting up the table.” Our little child rushes between us, breaking up the moment.

“Good job!” I reward my daughter with a quick pick up into the air. “Now, let’s eat.”

“Right, let’s.” Juria follows us as we gather around the dinner table. As always, she has created a bountiful dinner filled with common stables like fried rice, veggies, and meats. Tonight she chose to work with pork.

“Now, what do we say before eating?” I ask Umeko to continue our daily ritual.

“Thank you for the food!” The little girl clasps her hands together and bowed to express her gratitude. I give her a pat on the head for respecting the hard work her mother does everyday. With that business taken care of, they were able to enjoy their meal.

“Oh, you won’t believe the letter I got from Taisei.” Juria is the one to bring up our first dinner point. “It’s an invitation for his wedding.”

“Wow, finally.” I chuckle. It’s weird to think that I was the one to get married first between the two of us. Not to mention I did it about a decade before him. But I guess being a professional baseball player makes it hard to find romance. It’s still crazy to me to be able to watch him on television. “Looks I’ll have to get some vacation time.” Obviously I’m not going to miss his wedding.

I remember he was stuck between going to our wedding or taking part in the college championship. Somehow he was able to make it to both. Though it was a rush to make it in time to see us make our vows. “And what about you, Umeko?” Today is also a special time for our family. This was Umeko’s first day in elementary.

“I had a lot of fun meeting everyone.” She tells us with a smile. “I hope they can all be my friends.”

“I’m sure they’ll all love playing with you.” Juria tells her, patting the girl on the head.

“But…” Then, she gets a bit quiet.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, getting a bit too worked up. The idea that another kid would bully my precious daughter is too much to just stay calm. “Was someone mean to you?”

“No.” She answers, but it comes across as unconvincing to me. “No one was mean to me, but when they saw mama…”

“Did they ask you why mama looks the way she does?” I don’t know how Juria does it, but she can stay so calm no matter the situation. I know it’s not like those children meant anything mean when asking. I know that it’s not a common sight, but it’s got to be discouraging that she can’t escape her appearance.

“Yes.” She answers again quickly. “They asked me if I’ll look like you when I get big.”

“Of course not.” I tell her. “We already told you that something bad happened to mama when she was little. That’s why she looks the way she does.” I’d be livid if those kids avoided our sweet daughter because they were afraid of what she might turn into.

“But what if they don’t believe me?” She replies. “Everyone was scared of mama when they saw her. They don’t know that she’s nice.” I can see tears forming in her eyes as she feel helpless in this situation.

“Maybe I can set something up with your teacher.” Juria had an idea. She believes that a short session of the kids getting to meet her up close will show them that there’s nothing to be worried of. “I met everyone’s parents. They all seem so nice, so I know their children mean no harm.” I feel like she said that to assure of that it’ll be fine. Yet I still can’t help but feel unease about this situation. “It’ll be a good learning experience.”

“But you don’t have to keep putting yourself through this.” I tell her. This part I hate the most. She’s always having to explain herself. She always has to be reminded of her difference from the rest of us. Why does this have to be her life?

“Heheh, but it’s no problem at all.” She giggles, rubbing away the one tear I didn’t notice running down my cheek. “I never told you about why I gave you a second chance that day, did I?” She’s referring to our first meeting all those years ago. The emotions of guilt rise up inside my body yet again on just the mere mention of it. Yet I also get that feeling of relief as well. Since it’s also due to that event that we became friends and eventually lovers.

“Heheh, it’s the day when papa called you a monster.” Hearing Juria bring it up seems to bring a smile to Umeko’s face. Not sure why that would make her giggle. Wait a second…

“You told her?” I wasn’t aware that our little girl knew about our initial meeting. Personally I’d been holding back since I didn’t want her to think I hated her mom due to her appearance.

“I knew it would make for an important lesson for her growing up.” She answers.

“She said that she knew if you knew who she was. That you wouldn’t think she was a monster.” Umeko explains what she had been taught while I wasn’t watching.

“I didn’t want to tell you because it might’ve sounded like I was testing you back then. But the truth is that I wanted to know if I could make friends. That people could look past my scars.” Huh, I’ve gone this far not knowing why. I somehow never once considered her to think of me as proof that people around her could like a girl with her scars. “It’s because of you that I know that the kids here will accept me if they get to know me.”

“Then, can you come into class tomorrow?” Now it seems like Umeko can’t wait for that moment. “When they see that mama is the most kindest and nicest mama ever. They’ll all know that she isn’t scary.”

“I don’t know if I’m the most kindest or nicest, but I’d love to.” Juria picks up our little girl as dinner draws to an end. “But you have to go to bed early so you can go to class in the morning.”

“Okay!” After being put down, Umeko runs off to the bathroom to get ready for the night.

“She really is full of energy, isn’t she?” She’s about to get all the dishes in the sink to get them washed. However, I stop her by putting a hand on her arm. “Hmm, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” I say. “But it’s only fair if I tell you a secret I haven’t told you before.” Now that I know how she felt about me when we were very little. She should know how I felt about her growing up. “It’s about when we were younger.”

“If it’s about the time you wet the bed that night you slept over, I’ll let you know that I was only pretending to sleep while you and Taisei washed the sheets.”

“N-no, that’s not it.” I cover my mouth in embarrassment. Granted I was like 7, but it’s enough to make me blush on her knowing about my blunder. “I mean, it’s about when I fell in love with you.”

“It’s when we had that kiss by the river.” She recited the story as if it happened a day ago. “When I told you that I loved you. But to be honest, I thought back then it was because you felt guilt-”

“I was in love with you before that.” I cut her off. It had been a bit of a touchy subject with her friends, even though they accepted me as her boyfriend. A lot of people thought I got swept up in the moment and only later did I grow my feelings for her.

But in my heart, I realize I was only denying the obvious for a long while before that. That’s why I ended up getting teased by Taisei and my parents a ton before high school. “It was when you were in high school and I was in junior high.” It was considered my roughest year in terms of wanting to be with her.

“Is it because you missed me?” She asks. One could easily make that assumption and typically be correct. However, there’s more to it than just that.

“It’s because of that time you had a project and your partner was that boy.” I remember heading to their house on that weekend to spend time with her. Since we couldn’t see each other at school, I had made more of an effort to swing by to hang out. That was when I met that older boy in her room.

“Him?” She probably didn’t think much about that boy. They were probably just friends, or maybe only saw each other as classmates.

“Taisei said that maybe… Maybe you might finally get a boyfriend.” Looking back, it was just a joke. However, it triggered something in me that filled me with guilt at the time. “My heart felt heavy hearing that. I didn’t want you to have a boyfriend because… I felt like I wanted to be your boyfriend at the time.” I suppose jealously, even before I knew what love was, was a powerful emotion. “It felt wrong to like you when I was younger because you were Taisei’s older sister. So I got scared of my feelings and tucked them away in my heart.”

I remember the way I looked at her when we were in her bed that day. As much as I tried to deny them, I felt those emotions I locked away breaking out once more.

“I guess the two of us are not very different at all.” She wraps her arm around me, bring us closer into a warm embrace. It really wasn’t so different with her holding back her feelings. Believing that I should be with someone else instead of her due to the scars. I know now that we were both wrong before confessing our love to each other.

“I love you so much.” I say to her as we get closer to one another.

“And I love you too.” She seals our feelings together with a tender loving kiss. Its taste has never once faded after the many years we’ve spent together. And I know it’ll never fade through the many more years we will spend together.