The morning sun shone through the wide glass windows of the Yamazaki mansion. The house was a quiet place despite its size. Servants moved carefully, not wanting to disturb the silence of the family that lived within. At the center of the home was a boy whose name was Ren Yamazaki.
Ren was seventeen years old. He was tall for his age, with sharp black eyes that seemed older than the rest of him. His classmates often said he had the look of someone who thought too much. They were not wrong. Ren was a genius, a boy who could take apart a machine and rebuild it without help. He loved puzzles, books, and anything that challenged his mind.
Ren's father was Dr. Haruto Yamazaki. To the world, Haruto was one of the greatest scientific minds of Japan. His research in energy and particle physics had made him a billionaire. He was known as a man who never stopped working, always chasing the next discovery. Ren admired his father's brilliance, but he also saw the weight it placed on him. Haruto's obsession with proving that other worlds existed had slowly taken over his life.
Ren's mother, Aiko, was the softer part of the family. She was gentle, with a smile that could light up the cold halls of their mansion. Unlike her husband, she cared less about theories and more about the simple joy of family. She loved cooking meals even though they had chefs. She would often tell Ren that no matter how high he reached, he must never forget the ground beneath him.
The three of them had once shared quiet dinners together. But as the years passed, Haruto spent more time locked away in his private laboratory, and Aiko spent more time visiting hospitals. Ren watched the family slowly drift into silence.
Ren was still close to his mother. When she was strong enough, she would sit with him in the garden, reading his essays or listening to his thoughts about mathematics. She called him her little star. Ren would smile at the name, though he knew she only used it to hide the pain in her chest.
Haruto, on the other hand, grew more distant. His office was a room filled with screens, equations, and models of strange machines. Whenever Ren walked in, his father would speak of parallel worlds. He believed that another version of Earth existed. Not just one, but many. He believed they were like mirrors, each with the same people but different choices. Ren would listen, fascinated, but also worried. His father's eyes were restless, like a man haunted by something no one else could see.
Despite the distance, Ren still loved his father. Deep inside he wanted to help him, to prove his theories right. Yet he also longed for the days when his family was whole, when laughter filled their home instead of silence.
At school, Ren kept a quiet presence. His teachers praised him for his intelligence, but his classmates sometimes saw him as strange. He preferred books to games, and long conversations to gossip. Still, he had a few friends who understood him. With them, he felt normal, not just the son of a famous scientist.
Every evening, Ren would sit by his window, looking at the stars. He would wonder if his father was right. Could there really be another Earth, another version of him living a different life? The thought excited him, but it also frightened him. What if his father was chasing something that should not be found?
The Yamazaki family lived in comfort, but it was a comfort built on fragile ground. Aiko's illness was getting worse, and Haruto was slipping deeper into his obsession. Ren felt caught between them. He was the son of a dreamer and the son of a woman fading away.
That morning was no different. Aiko sat in the garden wrapped in a shawl, smiling faintly as Ren poured her tea. Haruto was already gone to his laboratory, lost in his theories. Ren looked at them both and silently promised himself that he would keep the family together, no matter how hard it became.
He did not know then that his life was about to change forever.