The two exchanged a few more pleasantries before finally stepping out of the room.
The moment the door swung open, they found Yukinoshita Shizuku plastered against it in her pajamas, caught red-handed mid-eavesdrop. She stared up at them both with the unmistakable expression of someone who had just been thoroughly caught out.
Mrs. Yukinoshita's brow furrowed sharply.
"Utterly disgraceful!"
—
That night, in the room shared by the Yukinoshita mother and daughter.
Mrs. Yukinoshita finished applying her night cream at the vanity mirror, then settled onto the bed with the quiet exhaustion of someone who had been carrying too much for too long.
Shizuku, who had already been lying on the bed, shuffled over to her mother's side. She latched onto her arm and looked up at her.
"Mother, what did the two of you talk about in there?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita glanced at her with a smile.
"Didn't you hear it all yourself, standing right at the door?"
"I was not eavesdropping!"
"I had only just walked up to the door when you two opened it and came out. That's all."
With that protest lodged, Shizuku knelt up on the bed and began kneading her mother's shoulders.
"Come on, tell me, tell me~"
Mrs. Yukinoshita shook her head with a fond, helpless smile, then reached back and gently patted Shizuku's head.
"We simply changed Kagami's family register back to Tsushima. That's all."
Shizuku's hands went still.
"Why have you stopped?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita kept her eyes closed, enjoying the massage — or rather, the absence of it. She smiled when she felt the hands stop moving.
"And... and Kagami just accepted that? Without any fuss?"
Shizuku resumed the kneading as she asked.
"Why wouldn't he?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita replied with a question of her own.
Shizuku thought about it for a moment, then said with a trace of indignation.
"Honestly. It was Mother who suggested bringing him here in the first place — you were the one who asked Father to take him in and raise him."
"And now he just takes his name back like it's nothing. Ungrateful!"
The rhythm of her hands slowed again, little by little.
"But... but..."
"What if Kagami doesn't come back anymore? What if he just... leaves?"
"Press harder on this side."
Mrs. Yukinoshita indicated one shoulder, then continued with a calm smile.
"Kagami's home is here. Taking back his family name doesn't change the fact that we are family."
"Besides — you've lived under the same roof with him for so long. Don't you know what kind of person he is by now?"
Shizuku pursed her lips.
"Hmph. What if it's all been an act?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita, still resting with her eyes closed, raised one eyebrow ever so slightly.
"And would that be so terrible?"
"You've never been in favour of taking Kagami in as a live-in son-in-law to begin with."
"Kagami himself has never once brought the matter up."
"Now he's taken back his family name."
"And if he moves out."
"Aren't you free?"
"You won't be obligated to marry someone you don't even want to marry."
As she finished speaking, Mrs. Yukinoshita noticed that the hands on her shoulders had gone still again.
"Why have you stopped this time?"
She waited. Nothing came. Mrs. Yukinoshita finally opened her eyes and turned around.
Shizuku was sitting there in silence, her eyes red to the rims, not saying a word.
Mrs. Yukinoshita let out a soft sigh. She reached out and gently stroked Shizuku's hair.
"Writers, you see... they are creatures of overflowing emotion."
"The greater the writer, the more true that becomes."
"And precisely because of that, they are always surrounded by all manner of different women."
Her hand glided slowly down the length of Shizuku's silky hair and came to a stop before her face. With both hands, she gently cradled her daughter's cheeks.
"Falling in love with a man like that... will only wear you out."
"But — but Mother, you were the one who told me to trust in Kagami's character."
Shizuku's voice came out halting, slightly hoarse.
"Yes. Kagami is the best family we could ask for. But..."
Mrs. Yukinoshita paused, drifting for a moment into some memory from long ago. When she returned, she looked at Shizuku with a soft, tender smile.
"But Kagami is not destined to be the kind of husband your father was — the best husband. That kind of man, he will never be."
She held Shizuku's face in her hands and gently brushed away the tears gathering at the corners of her daughter's eyes with her thumbs.
"All your mother wants is for you to live a simple, ordinary, happy life."
"Kagami has already gone too far down his own road. He is no longer a suitable match for you."
With that, Mrs. Yukinoshita drew Shizuku into her arms.
Shizuku buried her face in her mother's embrace, her body shuddering in silent, suppressed sobs — fighting with everything she had against the urge to break down and cry aloud.
Mrs. Yukinoshita simply held her, stroking her back in slow, steady circles, until at last Shizuku's trembling gradually stilled and she lifted her head.
Mrs. Yukinoshita smiled and offered her a tissue.
Shizuku took it, blew her nose, wiped her eyes dry, and finally looked up at her mother.
"But... but what if?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita looked at her daughter — still clinging to that last, fragile thread of hope — and shook her head with a helpless, fond smile.
"All right. Let's talk about 'what if.'"
"The two of you have been living together for quite some time now."
"In all that time, has Kagami ever done anything that felt... different? Out of the ordinary?"
"Has he ever shown you any feelings that seemed unusual?"
Shizuku thought about it, then shook her head and looked at her mother with a puzzled expression.
"What counts as unusual?"
"Good grief."
Mrs. Yukinoshita pressed her hand to her forehead.
"For example — based on your observations, has Kagami ever seemed to have any... indecent thoughts about you?"
Shizuku thought about it, then shook her head.
"He draws adult manga and his eyes are always completely clear. Nothing about him seems off at all."
Mrs. Yukinoshita had already known that Tsushima Kagami drew adult manga commercially, but hearing Shizuku describe it that way for the first time gave her pause.
She pressed on.
"And Kagami's room — does he ever suddenly lock his door, pull the curtains shut, leave the wastepaper basket overflowing, and fill the room with the smell of... rhododendron lotion?"
Shizuku immediately understood exactly what her mother was getting at. She deflated visibly.
"No. His door is always open. He doesn't even close it when he sleeps at night."
"And besides — apart from being a hopeless late sleeper — he is absolutely meticulous about hygiene!"
"That disciplined?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita's brow creased.
A celebrated author he might be, but at the end of the day, he was still a seventeen-year-old boy in the full bloom of adolescence.
Living under the same roof as a beautiful girl, drawing adult manga on the side — not feeling anything, that was one thing. But not even indulging in a little private relief?
Actually, wait. He had mentioned today that it was becoming inconvenient living together, and that he wanted to move out on his own.
Could it possibly be—
Mrs. Yukinoshita turned to Shizuku with sudden urgency.
"Kagami's social circle — is it mostly boys, or mostly girls?"
"All girls."
"Well — actually, I think there might be one boy."
Hearing that, Mrs. Yukinoshita let out a quiet breath of relief.
She continued.
"Has he ever shown any unusual feelings or behaviour toward any of those other girls?"
Shizuku thought again, then shook her head.
"I can tell... it doesn't seem like he has any of those feelings for them either."
"Is that so?"
"Then could it be..."
Hearing something in her mother's tone that sounded almost like a reversal — a turning point — Shizuku immediately grabbed her mother's arm.
"Could what be? What are you saying?"
Mrs. Yukinoshita looked at her for a long moment, then spoke slowly.
"Could it be that Kagami is exactly like your father — the self-disciplined, career-first type?"
____
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