Picking up the paper bag full of books, Rintarou headed to his room on the second floor. Bringing the books he’d decided to get rid of back up to his room made him have second thoughts about it all. Despite knowing that opening them up again would end up wearing down his determination, he reached into the bag for a book and flipped through the pages.
While he settled into reading, the interphone rang. He could hear his mother’s excited voice from downstairs, a far cry from moments earlier. Her guest had arrived.
“I should get changed for dinner, at the very least,” Rintarou muttered to himself.
Rintarou opened his closet and pulled out a shirt and a sweater. Just as he was about to close the door after getting changed, Chiyo jumped inside through the crack.
“No can do, Chiyo-san.”
He grabbed her around the stomach to try to pull her out, but she dug her claws into a storage box and braced all four legs. Why did cats like small spaces so much? If he left her inside, his suit for interviews would probably end up covered in fur.
“C’mon, Chiyo-san. Listen to me.”
But the cat had no intention of listening to her servant’s pleas. When she dug her claws into the back of his hand, he had no choice but to surrender.
Leaving his room, Rintarou ran down the stairs. He could hear Kimiko’s cheery voice coming from the living room. Dinner was more or less ready. His mother wasn’t much of a cook, so the plates were all piled with side dishes she’d bought in the basement of a department store.
“Evening, Niimi-san,” Rintarou called out toward the kitchen.
The thin man who was retrieving the chopsticks from the cutlery drawer turned to him with a soft gaze. He wore a light-gray shirt with a navy-blue V-neck sweater on top and well-fitting slim pants. Rintarou knew the man had gone home to change out of his work clothes, but this outfit admittedly wasn’t much different.
Niimi was Kimiko’s boyfriend. He was in his mid-fifties but took care of his appearance, and so he appeared around the same age as her despite being twelve years older.
“You’re home early, Rintarou-kun,” the man greeted.
“I haven’t been taking many shifts at my part-time job lately, since it’s so hard to plan around job interviews.”
“Ahh, that’s right. It’s already November,” Niimi nodded, expression clouding over.
“I guess companies are rushing to hire. The cycle for getting an interview has been short, so I’m trying to avoid making too many plans. Don’t wanna cause trouble at the rental shop by calling off work on short notice,” Rintarou explained in a light tone, not wanting to darken the mood right off the bat.
Chiyo slipped into the living room through the crack in the door, walking straight over to Kimiko and rubbing up against her legs affectionately. She was like a completely different cat. It was because she knew that when everyone gathered, she’d get fed too.
Rintarou opened the fridge to grab the dressing. “Oh. You bought beer for us, Niimi-san?” he commented, seeing two six-packs lined up on the very bottom shelf.
“I thought it might be nice for a change. Feel free to drink any leftovers.”
“They’re gonna be all gone by the time I think about having one,” Rintarou grumbled, muttering that his mother would drink them all while watching her dramas. Niimi gave him an understanding smile. Between the three of them, Kimiko was the biggest drinker.
Chiyo had been gallantly following Kimiko as she walked between the living room and kitchen. Once the cat finally gave up and sat still on the floor, Niimi opened the cupboards. Looking for her meal, Chiyo jumped from a chair to the sink, then inside the cupboard to meow beside the cans of cat food.
“Okay, okay, I’ll get your food out,” Niimi cooed.
Despite usually prioritizing her beloved kitty over everything, Kimiko tended to lose sight of anything else when she had something that needed to be done immediately. Niimi understood that part of her completely, which was why he’d always feed Chiyo.
Once everyone was at the table, they began eating. Conversation was always livelier with three people rather than two.
The first time Kimiko had brought Niimi home was when Rintarou was in his second year of junior high. He’d been shocked when his mother told him there was someone she wanted to date, but when he saw his usually cranky and high-strung mom smiling so happily, he’d been impressed by how much love could change a person.
From then on, they spent most weekends traveling. Then, even when he knew that Kimiko was busy and wouldn’t be home, Niimi would always come over. He’d take Rintarou on drives, just the two of them, take him out to watch baseball games, and things like that. He was the first adult the boy had wanted to become a part of his family. Niimi would happily drive him to go play with his friends, and when Rintarou got stuck on his summer homework, Niimi would patiently talk him through it.
Wanting to show off, he’d introduced the man to his junior high friends as his mom’s boyfriend. They had always been jealous, but things were different with his high school friends. When they visited his home and he introduced Niimi the same way he always had, they’d act sympathetic, apologizing for not realizing sooner that his homelife was so tough. It had felt like a slap in the face to Rintarou. But before he could feel indignation, he started wondering if his life really was that pitiful, which ended up causing problems with his relationships both at school and at home.
When he’d entered university and met people from other prefectures, he finally realized that his values and the environment he’d been raised in were peculiar. Living in a city with so many different sorts of people for so long had made the idea of worrying about being different from others feel stranger than anything else. He’d grown up only interacting with other people who’d been born and raised in Shinjuku, so he hadn’t had any prejudices about people’s families, but he now realized that wasn’t the norm.
“Going back to what we were talking about before, how is the job hunt going?” Niimi asked as he poured a can of beer into Rintarou’s glass.