I felt so miserable that I could almost cry. “Almost” being the key word. If you included my previous life, I’d lived forty years at this point, but my mom was sitting here lecturing me. Marie sat next to me, legs tucked neatly beneath her.
“Besides, do you have any right to mock other people?” my mom droned on. “You get upset over others cheating, but you already have three brides yourself! What’s that about? As your mother, I’m ashamed of you.”
I sat ramrod straight, the dark-gray cat with red eyes also sitting politely on the floor to my right.
As Mom went on, Dad nodded in agreement. “I’m jealous of you, I’ve got to say. If you’re this reluctant to go back, you must be hiding something. Something I assume you have a guilty conscience about.”
I stared at him coldly. “No.”
He turned to mom, whining babyishly. “I’m telling you, Missus, he’s being sneaky!”
We’d finally reunited after all this time, and almost the first thing I wanted to do was plant my fist in my old man’s face. But it was my fault I let him distract me with that.
“Are you even listening to me?!” my mom snapped.
“Y-yes, ma’am!”
“And reflecting on what you’ve done?”
I dropped my gaze and meekly muttered, “Uh, yeah. I’m reflecting on stuff.”
“But you don’t regret what you did, do you?”
“Nope,” I said.
She sighed at me, exasperated. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
Noelle perked up. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of kid was he?”
Mom studied me for a moment. “Well, when he was younger, he helped a girl who was being bullied.”
“Aw. So he was nice, even back then,” said Noelle.
I averted my eyes. Hearing her recount my past like that was embarrassing.
“Except he pushed the boys who’d bullied her off a bridge,” Mom added. “Even the girl he saved started crying that she never wanted him to go that far.”
Noelle frowned. “Yeah. That kind of sounds like him too.”
“That’s not all! Know what my idiot son said afterward? ‘I’ll be smarter about it next time.’ I was at my wits’ end at that point.”
Noelle and the other girls shot me sideways glances, not the least bit surprised by this revelation.
Mom turned to me. “Leaving that aside, do you realize how lucky you are to have so many women dedicated to you? Whining about not wanting to go back is just selfish and silly.”
She had a point. I nodded. “Look, I didn’t expect to land this many women either.”
Smiling, Mom chopped me on the forehead with the side of her hand.
“Um, Mother, you don’t, uh, have to be so hard on him,” Angie stammered. “W-we’ll be happy as long as he comes back with us. That’s all we need. Given Leon’s status and special circumstances, it’s almost inevitable that he’d have multiple brides.”
Dad had to weigh in, of course. “What an awesome cultural value! If I reincarnated in another world, I bet I’d have a harem too.”
I seriously doubted he’d ever have had a harem. Marie seemed to share my opinion; her lips drew back in disgust.
“You have three women who love you. Why don’t you want to go back?” Mom demanded. “What’s wrong with you? You’re such a coward, it sickens me. All they want is your return. You’ll have them all crying if you don’t go, and then we’ll have another funeral with a bunch of girls sobbing because you left them. Do you understand that?”
Another funeral? What was she talking about? Certainly not my first one.
I huffed and looked away, which somehow prompted the cat to jump into my lap. “Hey, kitty. You understand where I’m coming from, don’t you? You’ve got an arrogant look, but I’ll bet you’re a nice little—gah!” It stuck its front paws on my face and dug its claws into my skin. This thing isn’t cute at all! “Rotten cat!”
I tried to grab the scruff of its neck, but it darted away just in time to escape my clutches, then raised its hackles and hissed at me.
“What? You want to fight?!” I leaped to my feet, ready to take it on.
Mom chopped me on the head again. “You idiot son!”
“Yeah, well, I had to inherit it from someone, right?!” I spat back.
Dad looked away from me. “Honestly, the only upright person in our family is Erica,” he muttered under his breath.
He was absolutely right. I was shocked by how together she was.
“She grew up watching Marie, so she never felt like she could ask for anything for her own sake. That really hurt her at times. I’m glad she seems to be doing so well now,” said Mom. “When we got old, she looked after us—which is exactly why you need to go back!” She spun and jabbed a finger in my direction. “You need to take good care of Erica. It’s the least you can do after you devastated us by dying before we did!”
“That wasn’t my fault!” I cried.
I realized the moment the words left my mouth that they were nonsense. It was my fault that I’d passed away.
“Of course it is!” Mom retorted. “You were a grown man who pulled multiple all-nighters playing a video game!”
Crap. I couldn’t say anything in my defense. She was absolutely correct.
Marie was sweating bullets next to me, as if sensing she’d be next. She couldn’t have been more right.
“Marie.” Mom turned toward her this time.
“Y-yes, ma’am?!”
“You’re as bad as your brother. Don’t be so eager to throw your life away because you think everything’s your fault. You’ve accomplished plenty in your second chance at life. What’s more, your father and I forgave what you did a long time ago. Don’t worry about the past anymore.”
Marie burst into tears. “Mooommmy!” She flung herself at Mom and clung to her.
Dad fidgeted restlessly beside them, awaiting his turn to receive her affection. “You can hug me too, Marie,” he said.
I felt so bad for him that I threw my arms open. “Want to hug me instead?”
He wrinkled his nose at me. “A hug from my son does nothing for me.” At least he was honest. Too honest, I’d argue, but I’d forgive him. I’d probably say the same thing in his shoes.
Mom wrapped Marie in her arms and stroked her head. “Honestly, no matter how much you grow, you’re as much a fool as ever,” she said affectionately.
Long before my parents fell out with Marie, she’d earned top grades in school, and they’d trusted her over me. At times, it broke my heart. Marie was always the one they doted on.
“Being able to put on such a convincing act for people must be nice.” I sank back to the floor.
Dad plopped down next to me. “Don’t get jealous of your sister. We always knew she was putting on an act.”
“What? I don’t buy that. You especially fawned over her all the time!”
He shrugged. “Because she’s cute. I wasn’t going to fawn over you. That’d be weird.”
“But you trusted her more than me!” I said.
“Leon, be honest with yourself and ask yourself about all the trouble you caused growing up. Have you forgotten what you did when you were still in grade school?”
“I didn’t do anything wrong! Some nasty kids decided to pick on me, and I wanted them to stop. They didn’t, so I roped in my teachers and the law to fight back. That’s all!”
Dad pulled a face at me. “You don’t seem to realize how abnormal you are. Why do you keep thinking of yourself as a background character? No background character acts like that.”
Wait. He knew I always called myself a background character?