Chapter 126

I was back home from Fushimi’s house. The front door wasn’t locked, and the lights of the dining room were on. I looked at the shoes in the entrance and noticed Mom was back from work. I popped my head into the dining room and saw her watching a TV show she had recorded, while drinking beer with the leftovers of what Mana cooked for lunch. “There you are, you punk. What were you up to this late?” “Does it matter?” “You let loose just because it’s a festival night? You didn’t have your own personal fireworks celebration, if you know what I mean, did you?” “Stop it with the double entendres.” The same one Himeji used? I grabbed some barley tea from the fridge. “You weren’t on night shift tonight?” “There are two types of night shifts, you know.” Then the diary crossed my mind. “…By the way, where is Dad’s hometown?” “Why do you ask? You’ve been there before to visit your grandpa on New Year’s and Obon.” …Yup. It really was there. I knew it. Which meant the Shinra that came up in the diary was my dad. “I went to the festival with Fushimi and the girls.” “You watched the fireworks with Hina?” “Not just with her.” “Phweee! Young Casanova!” “Stop it with that already.” You’re too old to be acting like you’re my classmate. I sighed. “She brought up her mom. Do you know anything about her? She didn’t say much.” “Oh, Satomi? I don’t know a lot, except she’s really pretty. I heard she got too busy at work and left her home and family behind.” Fushimi also mentioned her grandmother not liking her. She probably didn’t have a good reputation. “I don’t know what the general public thinks of her, but no one in the neighborhood really liked her.” “General public?” “Yup. General public.” “Was our family always close to hers?” “Pretty much. Your dad and Satomi were old friends. And you two kids just so happened to be born in the same year, so we became mom friends.” “They were old friends?” “Childhood friends, like you and Hina.” My dad and her mom? So that’s why our families were close despite not living next to each other. “Were they good friends?” “That I don’t know.” She was curt, entirely different from when she was pulling my leg just a moment ago. She gulped down the rest of her beer and said, “This show’s boring.” I wondered what was so boring about it and spent a few minutes watching. The end credits scrolled by as the show went on. Then, among the cast, I saw the name Satomi Ashihara. Satomi…? Mom pointed at the screen. “That’s her. Satomi Ashihara is Hina’s mom.”