The entire playroom was shrouded in silence once the girl's words fell.
The girl's eyes were firm as she looked straight at Shouko who was caught in a daze.
Her words carried a heavy sense of truth ladened with sorrow. Director Shinohara and Teacher Shoda too were speechless when they heard what the girl had said. Even more so the children around them.
After what seemed like a long period of silence, Shouko's lips curved into a bitter smile. From bending her knees, she crouched down to meet the girl's eye-level.
This girl muttered out what Shouko herself always secretly hidden deep inside her heart during her youth.
In the blurred memory of her childhood, Shouko remembered a man coming to get her, saying she was his daughter. She, a little girl who had just lost her mother, was so happy to suddenly gain a father. Who knew, this so-called father actually despised her.
