Vol 2 Chapter 1 (1/2)

SHORT STORY (1)

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Hiyo had been making quite a fuss since some time before in front of the television, watching the video streaming across the screen which showed the earlier Field Day festivities as recorded with a hand-held video camera that Kiris.h.i.+ma had borrowed.

“Ah, look look!! There you are, Oniichan!”

“Yeah yeah, I see…” Yokozawa grimaced, glancing off to the side to catch sight of himself on screen, standing at the start line. Looking at himself like this, it was easy to see he was a good decade younger than most of the other fathers who’d been standing beside him—a fact made all the more embarra.s.sing by how uncharacteristically fired up he’d been at the time.

“Oniichan~! Do your best~!!”

“What do you mean do your best? You know how it turns out!”

“Oh come on, It doesn’t hurt to cheer you on! Ah—are you blus.h.i.+ng, Oniichan??”

“No.” Of course he wasn’t; it was only that he couldn’t stand this. The reason Yokozawa had partic.i.p.ated in the parent-guardian obstacle race in the first place had been because Kiris.h.i.+ma had been saddled with some work he couldn’t get out of at the last minute. While Hiyori hadn’t protested one bit even after her father had informed her he couldn’t take part in her school’s Field Day activities, she’d been overjoyed to learn that Yokozawa would go in his stead.

Once he’d offered to partic.i.p.ate, though, Yokozawa had vowed that he wouldn’t embarra.s.s himself, and so, well out of sight of Kiris.h.i.+ma or Hiyori, Yokozawa had been running laps every morning and doing a bit of muscle training to prep for this day.

In the end, Kiris.h.i.+ma had finished lunching with his author in time to make the afternoon program, but he could hardly run dressed as he was in a suit and dress shoes, so Yokozawa still had to take part.

At the sound of the pistol, Yokozawa had taken off at a dash, clearing the obstacles one by one, easily becoming the first to reach a small table where several cards lay face down. Without hesitating, he picked up the card nearest his feet—and reflexively glanced in a certain direction. Immediately afterward, though, he recovered his senses and s.h.i.+fted in place to face the opposite direction, taking off running again.

“Kyaa!! Oniichan, you’re so cool!”

Yokozawa was now off and running towards where Hiyori was sitting with the other 5th graders. Leaning down, he lifted up Hiyori from where she sat on the front row and took off again towards where the teachers acting as judges were stationed, running with all his might. After having them stamp his card as proof that he’d cleared the task, he then headed for the goal, leaving the other partic.i.p.ants in the dust as he crossed the finish line. Hiyori, whose eyes had gone wide with surprise when Yokozawa had scooped her up, was all grins, thrilled that Yokozawa had managed to nab first place.

“You were amazing Oniichan! But you really gave me a start when you picked me up!”

“I didn’t have much choice in the matter—I had to just grab you and go!”

“Hehe, yup! All my friends were totally jealous, too! They said I was like a princess!”

Just as Yokozawa allowed himself a moment of relief at his image disappearing from the screen, though, Kiris.h.i.+ma cut in with the one question he absolutely didn’t want to entertain right now: “That reminds me—what was written on that card anyways?”

“…That’s a secret.”

“What? What’s it matter—tell me! Hey—Hiyo, what did it say?”

“Can’t tell you, Papa! It’s mine and Oniichan’s little secret~! And—I’ve got plans with Yuki-chan tomorrow, so I’m off to bed! G’night!”

“What the h.e.l.l—tell me! Why’re you two messing around like this?”

“You heard Hiyo—it’s a secret. I can’t tell you.” Yokozawa had pasted on a calm, superior expression, but inside he was breaking out in cold sweat, all nerves.

The card had had Your Most Important Person written on it.

Yokozawa a.s.sumed it had been phrased so with the intent that the parent who picked it up would run and grab their child, but the moment Yokozawa had read those words, without thinking, he’d sought out Kiris.h.i.+ma in the crowd.

“When you picked up that card, though—didn’t you glance up at me for a second?”

“N—no. I was looking for Hiyo.”

“Well you weren’t going to find her looking in the parents’ seats.”

“I know that! I just made a mistake was all.” There was no way in h.e.l.l he was going to let Kiris.h.i.+ma know that the first person Yokozawa had thought of when he read most important person was him. At Yokozawa’s hesitation, Kiris.h.i.+ma didn’t let up on his investigation one bit, though.

“Is it perhaps that you don’t want me to know what was written on that card?”

“It’s not that—I’m telling you, it was nothing! Don’t get bent out of shape about it—ah, Hiyo, isn’t it almost time for you to be in bed? Don’t think just because it’s the weekend you can stay up past your bedtime. Go brush your teeth.”

“Already done! Sora-chan~ let’s go to bed!”

At hearing his name called, Sorata lifted his head up from where he’d been curled up on the sofa, then jumped down from the sofa and followed Hiyori into her room. The two had become quite close, behaving as if they’d been friends for the longest time.

Seeing Yokozawa watching the pair head off together with a soft smile on his face, Kiris.h.i.+ma jumped in with a low voice, “You tried to give me the slip just now, didn’t you? But I must say I find this hesitation of yours rather suspicious…”

Yokozawa flinched as Kiris.h.i.+ma hit the nail on the head. “Why the h.e.l.l are you so obsessed with that stupid card anyways? It’s a gag for an elementary school field day—”

“Because now my sensors are going off.”

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? I don’t get you at all.”

Yokozawa s.h.i.+fted away from Kiris.h.i.+ma, moving as if to grab his empty beer can—but subsequently found his arms pinned behind his back. “Trying to run away, are we?”

“I—am not! I was trying to get my beer is all…!”

“Fess up.”

“No. Way.”

“If you don’t—I’m afraid I’ll have to kiss it out of you.”

“What the h.e.l.l kind of threat is th—” Twisting around in astonishment at how much they sounded like a flirty couple just now, Yokozawa quickly found his lips captured just as Kiris.h.i.+ma had sworn. His breath was taken away by the kiss as his lips were practically molested. “What—are you doing?”

“I just a.s.sumed that not confessing was your way of saying you wanted to be kissed.”

“Don’t just make your own a.s.sumptions like that!”

“Did you not like it?”

“That’s not something you do out here in the open.” It was one thing if they’d been in Kiris.h.i.+ma’s bedroom—but this was the living room where they shared meals and played with Hiyori. He didn’t want to a.s.sociate anything other than a normal, everyday atmosphere with this place.

“Ah~ it’s fine. Hiyori falls asleep quick.”

“It’s not fine. It’s important to make distinctions in this type of situation. Maybe it’d be fine tonight—but you never know when something might go wrong in the future.”

“You sure are hard-headed when it comes to stuff like this—though I gotta say I love that about you.”

“………”

Just as he was wondering if he should shy away from the lips that had drawn close again, though, Hiyori’s voice drifted in: “Papa!”

“………?!” Yokozawa tore himself away from Kiris.h.i.+ma just as their lips had been about to brush. Fortunately, they’d been nearly sitting on the floor by now and had thus been s.h.i.+elded from view by the sofa, so there was no way Hiyori had spotted them.

A stark contrast to Yokozawa, who was trying to keep his heart from feeling as if it were about to leap from his throat, Kiris.h.i.+ma pasted on a cool, unruffled expression. “What’s up?”

Fidgeting with herself, Hiyori approached Kiris.h.i.+ma, who’d slowly situated himself back sitting properly on the sofa. “Umm do you think…you can get a picture of Yuki-chan from the video we took…?”

“Sure—she should just call us up tomorrow and let me know where to grab the image. I’ll teach you how to use the camera’s software.”

“Yay! Thanks, Papa! I’ll text Yuki-chan and let her know, then! G’night, you two!” Her worries dispelled, Hiyori flashed them a bright smile and returned to her room.

Yokozawa released the breath he’d been holding at the sudden interruption and felt the tension flow from his body. He felt as if he’d just lost a good ten years off his life from the past five minutes.