Now and Forever...Itsumademo... - Chapter 18C
Title: Now and Forever…いつまでも…
Author: Mayonaka no Taiyou/Unare Haineko
Pairing: [Juntoshi] Matsumoto Jun x Ohno Satoshi
Rating: R-ish, but NC-17 for this chapter.
Summary: This story follows Ayumu, a more or less normal child born in 2012, three years after the ending of ‘Kodoku kara Umareta Ai’ (which you can read here). His parents, Jun and Ohno, are everything but ‘normal’ in their often unconventional attempts to deal with some of the challenges of parenthood as they try to ‘blend in’ with ‘normal people’.
0-0-0-0-0
It was Monday and Gima had been staking out Ohno Satoshi’s supposed residence for over three days without so much a sign of the man and his son. He was tired and running on empty, but he knew that he could not very well go back to Kakia with nothing. There had not been a sign of anyone until the previous night when Gima noted that a middle aged couple returned to the residence. There was no sign of his target, but at least there was light shining through the windows. Gima kept to himself and had been spying from a rented room that overlooked the street address he had been given. Occasionally he would stroll through the area with a large cap shading his eyes and a large scarf covering the lower half of his face so as not to be mistaken for Ninomiya Kazunari.
Gima rarely had hunches, but today felt different. He felt like today was going to be his day. He was going to have a breakthrough and perhaps with a little luck, he would have something to placate his boss, the queen of vice, Kakia. It was early afternoon and Gima felt like taking a walk. Moving silently through the foliage around the neighboring houses, he found himself a quiet spot in the bushes a few houses from Ohno’s parents’ home where he could easily watch the oncoming traffic which he noticed tended to come from the right.
“HELLO!” said a young voice in English, startling Gima from his position.
“W-Wh-Who’s there?!” Gima said, flailing his arms as he fell onto his backside.
“Nino-Oh, it’s not him,” a young boy said.
Gima looked at the little boy who was staring at him curiously. He took out his paper and held it up so that he could compare faces. It was a match.
“Who are you?”
“MY NAME IS AYUMU!” he saluted, continuing in English.
“Do you live here?” asked Gima.
“My baachan and jiichan do,” he replied, suddenly interested in the small white butterfly caught in the spider’s web on the fence. “So what’s your name, oniichan?”
Gima blinked.
“What’s your name? You have a name, don’t you?”
“Gima,” he replied reluctantly.
“Gima what? Don’t you got a first name?”
“Saki…Gima Saki (儀間 咲)….”
“Okay! Nice to meet you, Saki-niichan!” Ayumu bowed while he debated whether or not to let the butterfly go.
“Ayumu-kun?” Gima said, guilt weighing heavily as he prepared himself to try to press the boy for information.
“Yes?”
“Do you know Ohno Satoshi?”
“Yeah-oh, I mean, yes. He’s my papa,” Ayumu said, freeing the butterfly trapped in the spider’s web and moving on to creating a road block on the sidewalk out of pebbles to deter a line of black ants.
“He is?!” Gima said stunned that the boy was so honest.
“Yup. He’s different, but that’s okay.”
“Different?”
“Well, he used to play with me all the time, but now he seems busy. It’s okay. Ayumu will be a good boy and play by himself while he’s at baachan’s house.”
“Are you always by yourself, Ayumu-kun?”
“I used to go to play with my friends and Mamo-chan all day long, but now I have special lessons with Julie-sensei.”
“What kind of lessons?”
“English!”
“English?”
“YES!” Ayumu replied enthusiastically in the language in question. “I LOVE LEARNING ENGLISH!”
“Does your papa speak English?”
“No, Satoshi-papa is bad at English.”
“So what does he do all day long? Where does he work?”
“Work?”
“What company does he work for?”
“Company?”
“You know, does he have a job? You know, doesn’t he get up in the morning, put on a suit or something, and get on the train to go somewhere?”
“Satoshi-papa only goes fishing and does art in his special room.”
“Is he a fisherman?”
“No. He only likes to go fishing.”
“Huh?”
“I learned from Julie-sensei that farmers grow crops and fisherman catch fish. Satoshi-papa isn’t a fisherman because he can’t ever catch nothing.”
“He can’t catch fish?”
“Nope. He only goes out on his boat and puts his bait in the water. He never catches nothing. I think maybe he doesn’t know what he’s doing.”
“What about your mama?”
“Mama? I don’t have a mama.”
“Where is she?”
“I dunno. I’ve never met her.”
“Did she die?”
“No.”
“What happened to her?”
“I dunno. Satoshi-papa just says to tell people that she has never been around since I was born.”
“There aren’t any pictures?”
“Nope.”
“So your papa does everything?”
“Everything?”
“He helps you get ready for school, does the laundry, cleans the house?”
“Satoshi-papa?”
“Yeah. Doesn’t he do everything?”
“No, Satoshi-papa doesn’t do that stuff. That’s Jun-pa…I mean, Jun-niisan,” Ayumu said correcting himself.
“Jun-niisan?”
“Jun-pa…niisan cleans, cooks, and does everything.”
“What does Satoshi-papa do then?”
“Watch the house when Jun-niisan isn’t there?” Ayumu offered. “Hey, Saki-niichan. Can I ask you a question now?”
“About what?”
“Did your face always look like that?”
“Look like what?”
“Like Ninomiya Kazunari.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“You look like Ninomiya Kazunari, but you don’t.”
“I don’t look like him?”
“Well, your face um…shape…?” Ayumu held his head as he struggled to explain himself. “Your hair looks similar…but your eyes are waaaay different. Your nose and your lips look like his, but your um…the line over here…”
Ayumu traced his own jaw line for effect.
“That’s not the same…and your mole. It’s too close to the center of your chin and you’re missing one on your cheek.”
“I am not-“
“AYUMU!” called a female voice from the house.
“Yes, baachan!” replied Ayumu. “You should watch him in HD….I wish I could see him live…Yeah! That would be sooooo cool!! Too bad Satoshi-papa isn’t cool and can get tickets for that kind of thing….I wish Satoshi-papa was famous…”
Ayumu sighed and kicked a rock into the sidewalk.
“Wait, so I wouldn’t pass for him?” asked Gima.
“I don’t understand,” Ayumu said, turning his head from side to side.
“Come inside!” called Ohno’s mother.
“Do I look like Ninomiya Kazunari?” clarified Gima.
“I guess…”
“What do you mean, ‘you guess’?”
“Well, you look similar, but yet so different,” shrugged Ayumu tying his shoelaces. “So…maybe no?”
“Huh?”
“You don’t look like him,” Ayumu said with more conviction.
“But you thought that I was him when you first saw me-“
“That was before I heard your voice and saw your face up close. How can you be Ninomiya Kazunari if your voice doesn’t sound like his and your moles are in the wrong place? You probably don’t like the same things like him. You probably don’t think the same way he does…And maybe from far away if you don’t say nothing, people might think you’re him, but it’s so obvious you’re a completely different person-“
“I’m not him…?” Gima said slowly as if in a trance.
“NOW, AYUMU!” shouted his grandmother.
“COMING!” called Ayumu. “Sorry, I gotta go, Saki-niichan.”
Ayumu brushed his clothes off and bowed to excuse himself.
“Ayumu-kun-“ called Gima.
“Yes?”
“Can I ask you one more thing?”
“Okay!”
“Why did you let the butterfly go?”
“Huh?”
“The butterfly was foolish and got caught in the spider’s web. The spider might go hungry and die because you let his dinner get away…”
“Do you like spiders, Saki-niichan?”
“No, not really, but it just seems so wrong for you to let the butterfly get away because it’s prettier-“
“I didn’t let him go because he was prettier than the spider.”
“You didn’t?”
“No. I felt sorry for him.”
“The butterfly?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He really wanted to get to the pretty flower over there, but the spider was sneaky and built his web so the butterfly would fly into his web when he tried to get to the flower. The butterfly wanted the flower, but he got caught by the spider. Maybe the spider will die, but maybe he won’t. He can spin another web. Wouldn’t you want a second chance if you were the butterfly?”
Gima could produce no response.
“Well, I better go, Jun-niisan is going to pick me up and make me oyako-don. Bye, Saki-niichan.”
Ayumu waved, leaving Gima in the bushes as he ran towards Jun’s car. Gima opened his phone and held down the ‘1’ key.
‘SPEED DIAL 1: AKARI (明)’
“Akari…? It’s me... Are you doing anything right now? Can you play your oboe for me? Play the song you always play for me…What’s it called?...It’s an Arashi song? ‘Ashita no Kioku (明日の記憶)? Yeah…Play that one…”
Gima closed his eyes and leaned against the fence as the first slow sorrowful notes of the introduction flowed into his ears filling the void in his heart like a rich red wine as he remembered the last time he had seen his sister.
“Akari?”
“Oniichan?”
“Hey, how’re you feeling today?”
“I’m fine. Today is a nice day, isn’t it?”
“It is. The sun is shining.”
“I was sitting by the window until just a minute ago. I love the sun…”
“Akari?”
“Yes, oniichan?”
“Forgive me…”
“Why?”
“I…I was being stupid…I got into an accident with my motorcycle…and well…”
“Oniichan, your face…?”
“DON’T!-I mean, please…don’t touch my face…”
“Oniichan?”
“I don’t want you to touch my face with your pretty hands.”
“Why can’t I touch your face?”
“Because…It’s not the same…and, well, I want you to remember my face as it used to be…Do you remember?”
“I do, oniichan. Even though I haven’t been able to see since I was ten, I remember your face. The last time I saw you, I touched your face. My fingers remember.”
“Don’t forget…”
“I won’t. I promise, oniichan.”
“Akari…I should go-”
“Oniichan, shall I play my oboe for you before you leave?”
“Okay, one song…”
Gima held the side of his face in the palm of his hand as he crumbled to the ground. His mobile phone fell onto the grass and Akari continued to move into the bridge of the song.
“I’m sorry, Akari…” Gima whispered as tears spilled from his eyes.
Our parents may be gone, but I will protect you! You have nothing to worry about. Everything will be taken care of. I am only glad that you cannot see the shadow of darkness I’ve become…
0-0-0-0-0
Several days later 9:45 PM…
Jun walked into Ohno’s art room and found mixing some odd liquid in a cup.
“I just put Ayumu to bed. Are you coming to bed?” Jun asked.
“I’m still working on this piece,” Ohno said, pointing to the tea set he was working on. “How was your day?”
“I was super productive today,” Jun said, sitting next to Ohno. “I formally hired Ayumu’s tutor, went down to the day care center and changed him from full-time to part-time, and I signed the paperwork to make my company.”
“You have a company now?”
“I just started a real estate company so that I can run all the renovations through it. With the new laws, there are some significant tax advantages that I can gain if I run it through a company.”
“What’s it called?”
“Helios Kabushiki Kaisha (縁押株式会社).”
“Helios?”
“He drove the chariot of the sun across the sky in Greek mythology. I thought it sounded kinda cool,” Jun said standing up to pick up some rubbish in the corner.
“So you really are going through with all these improvements on your properties?”
“Yeah, it’ll give me something to do during the day while Ayumu has his tutoring.”
“I see,” Ohno said, quietly shaping the lip of one of the cups. “And what about his tutor? You still haven’t told me much about her…Julie-san was it?”
“My investment advisor recommended her. She’s the sister of his friend…this guy, what was his name? Todd? No, Tony…yeah, I think that was it. Tony-sensei. He’s a professor or researcher or something at Tokyo University. His sister, Julie been doing English tutoring for over ten years. She signed her contract today.”
“That’s nice. You always do such a good job at these kinds of things.”
“Leader…” Jun said, looking back as he circled the room, checking for new pieces.
“How’s the nicotine patch working for you?”
“It’s okay, I guess,” Jun said, rolling up his sleeve to pick at it. “I still want cigarette from time to time, but as long as I keep myself busy, I don’t think about it. And if I feel myself getting weak, I just tell myself that it’s for Ayumu and somehow I find the strength to overcome the temptation.”
Ohno’s phone suddenly buzzed loudly on the table.
“Who is it?” asked Jun.
“It’s just an email from Tomomi,” Ohno said, wiping his hands on a cloth and picking up the phone.
‘One new email from Reiya’
‘Are you coming tonight?’
Ohno scrolled down to reply.
‘Yeah, at 1:00 am.’
Ohno closed his phone and placed it in his pocket.
“She wanted to know if my mom called me recently,” Ohno said to Jun. “Do you want to go to bed? Are you tired?”
“I was kinda hoping you’d join me…” Jun said, sliding his long arms down Ohno’s shoulders and nipping at Ohno’s ear.
“Okay…” Ohno said, allowing Jun to pull him away from his work and lead him back into the main unit.
>>> Chapter 18D
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