“Be careful because it’s hot, Yuki-chan...wait, Yuki?!” Yuki-chan’s mother exclaimed. “Where have you gone this time?!”
“Mommy!”
Thank goodness we were able to bring Yuki-chan back the moment her mother finished shopping and realized her daughter had disappeared.
Yuki-chan’s mother turned toward her daughter’s voice and sighed in relief as she spotted all three of us. I mean, anyone would be surprised if their child vanished out of nowhere.
“Oh, hello there!” Yuki-chan’s mother called out. “It’s been so long since we last saw each other. Thank you so much for your help back then.”
Maybe because she was holding drinks in both her hands, but Yuki-chan’s mother quickly bowed to us. Yuki-chan followed suit and bowed to us from within Nanami’s embrace.
“Yuki, didn’t I tell you not to go off like that by yourself? You’re causing trouble for onii-san and onee-san too,” Yuki-chan’s mother admonished.
“But I told you that I was gonna go see onii-chan!” Yuki-chan protested.
“And what was I doing when you said that? Was I looking at you when you were talking to me?”
“No... But you said it was okay.”
Oh, Yuki-chan was deflating with her mother’s scolding. I felt bad, but I also knew this was an important lesson Yuki-chan needed to learn.
Yuki-chan seemed to understand that she had done something she shouldn’t, though, so maybe it would be okay to help her out a bit.
“W-Well, Yuki-chan probably didn’t mean to do anything wrong,” I said to the mother, then turned to Yuki-chan and continued. “Yuki-chan, I’m glad you came to see us, but it would be sad if you got lost again, right?”
“Yes,” she muttered after a slight pause.
“Next time, it would make me so happy if you came to see me with your mommy, not just by yourself. That way, your mommy won’t have to worry,” I added.
“Okay. Mommy, I’m sorry. Onii-chan and onee-chan too, I’m sorry.”
Wow, she apologized instantly. She’s awesome. Yuki-chan crawled down from Nanami’s arms and bowed to us in apology, nearly folding her body in half.
Both Nanami and I praised Yuki-chan—a lot—for being able to say “I’m sorry.” We praised her so much that we both suspected this was how we might treat our own child one day too.
Though Yuki-chan had seemed pretty sad just a moment ago, when Nanami and I patted her on the head she instantly let out a gleeful cheer.
“I’m so sorry that we’re bothering you,” Yuki-chan’s mother said.
“Oh, no, we’re sorry too. But please don’t be too hard on her,” I replied.
And though I said that, I still thought this was an important lesson Yuki-chan needed to learn. I could totally understand how her mother was feeling.
That aside, though, seeing a small child being scolded made me want to spoil them a bit too. But on the other hand, whenever I saw a kid doing something bad but wasn’t being lectured, then it made me want to scold the kid myself. I didn’t actually encounter that situation too often, though.
In any case, even as Yuki-chan seemed to recognize what she had done wrong, she still gave us a big smile. Soon after we all decided to move ourselves somewhere where we could sit down comfortably with food and drink. Once they sat down Yuki-chan’s mother handed her a drink.
Yuki-chan looked so adorable as she blew on her hot drink to cool it down. Watching her I was overcome by the desire to buy her anything she wanted—I wanted to spoil her rotten.
Hmmm. Is this how I’ll be if I have a daughter? I didn’t think this way before, but now that I’m with Nanami, I can’t help feeling this way.
I glanced at Nanami and realized she was already looking at me. We were probably thinking the same thing. I mean, her cheeks were slightly red—and I knew mine were too. We each felt slightly embarrassed, and we quickly looked away from each other.
It was hard not to think about the possibility when there was such an adorable example right in front of us.
“Okay, Yuki. We don’t want to bother onii-chan and onee-chan on their date, so we should go now,” Yuki-chan’s mother said, gently taking Yuki-chan’s hand. She must have noticed the wordless exchange between me and Nanami. Yuki-chan looked back and forth between me and Nanami, her head tilted curiously.
“Are you on a date too?” she finally asked us.
“Yeah, we are too... Wait, ‘too’?” I returned.
“Christmas is the day that mommy and daddy go on a date, right? Are you gonna be mommy and daddy too?!” Yuki-chan exclaimed.
At the sudden question both my and Nanami’s minds were wiped blank. All sound disappeared from the world around us, as if time had stopped.
Wow, I guess hearing such an unexpected comment from the most unlikely child really does make our minds freeze. I feel like I can’t even breathe.
Yuki-chan’s mother, too, seemed dumbfounded, but Yuki-chan paid no mind to our mild panic, putting her hands on her hips and puffing out her chest.
Seeing little kids look so proud of themselves could be cute, but in that moment, it elicited nothing but fear in me.
“I’m an understanding woman! So I’m not gonna get in the way of your date!” Yuki-chan exclaimed.
“I see. Wow, you’re such a big girl, Yuki-chan,” Nanami said, crouching so as to be at eye level with Yuki-chan and stroking her hair gently. Yuki-chan looked even more delighted by the doting treatment.
“Yuki-chan, you said that earlier, but...where did you learn such a phrase?” I couldn’t help asking.
“Actually, my husband just said it one day to praise Yuki when she was being particularly agreeable. She seems to have taken a liking to it,” the mother explained.
Ah, it must be that kid thing when they become attached to phrases they like. Even if you tell them not to say it, they will—and like it the more they say it. Well, it’s probably good that she’s so agreeable and understanding.
Probably.
“Also, um...”
Yuki-chan’s mother seemed hesitant, perhaps thinking of something she preferred not to say. It was probably good manners for me not to press her on it.
When I tried to tell her through gestures and glances that she needed to say no more, Yuki-chan’s mother seemed to understand; her expression seemed a bit troubled, but she was smiling a little too.
Except little kids paid no heed to the discretion of adults.
“I’m gonna be an onee-chan next year too! So I’m going to be a super good girl!” Yuki-chan announced, attaching herself to her mother and patting her mother’s stomach happily, as if to fully explain the situation to Nanami that way.
Time seemed to stop yet again, but Yuki-chan certainly didn’t. Very happily, as though wanting and eager to share some of her own happiness with us, she continued unerringly and without hesitation down the path of no return.
“When I said that I wanted a baby sister for Christmas, my daddy said to leave it to him!”
“Yuki?! Let’s put a zipper on it, shall we?!” Yuki-chan’s mother said in a panic, covering her daughter’s mouth—but it was too late. Yuki-chan had disclosed everything, and we had heard it all.
There was a moment of awkwardness, but Yuki-chan seemed not to understand what was happening, looking between us and her mother and tilting her head in wonder.
And then, she gave the final blow.
“When you make your baby too, come and show me, okay?!”
Poor timing somehow always brought together the worst combination of things. Just like catching a cold, misfortune and awkwardness always came at the worst possible moment.
Because just in that moment...our classmate walked over to join me and Nanami. Though, to be precise, I meant specifically Hitoshi.
“Wait, you guys have a kid now?” he uttered.
“Can it, dude,” I replied.
His question, though, got Yuki-chan excited all over again, and we struggled to explain the situation to undo the misunderstanding.
Yeah, people are definitely going to tease us about this at the Christmas party.