Atsushi's POV
As Daku sat down and looked at the river, I looked at the river as well and started reminiscing about my childhood.
[Flashback to 7 years ago]
In my aunt's home in Hiroshima, my aunt, who was a middle-aged, skinny woman, was standing in front of me. I was home late at 6:21 p.m., which was beyond my aunt's schedule for my day outside of her home. She was stern at me. "Care to explain why you're late?"
As usual, I was a bit scared of her sternness and feared her wrath.
My parents, meanwhile, are working abroad in Brazil as office workers so they could earn some money.
"I'm sorry!" I responded back vehemently while bowing my head towards her for a few seconds. "I was going out with my friends at the station, and I didn't know what time it is."
Now understanding the reason why, my aunt reprimanded me for that. "Check your time next time, okay? What if something bad happens to you out there?"
To that I apologized once more, and my aunt let me go.
After that, I went upstairs to change my clothes before dinner time, which was always before 7 o'clock every night.
Every time that happened, I said to myself, "It's okay. I can just be careful next time."
[Flashback ended, and back to the present…]
After that reminiscence, I looked at Daku, who was still staring at the flowing water in the river. "Hey, Daku-san…" Hearing that, Daku looked at me. "Yes?"
"Have you ever made any low-key mistakes in your life?" I asked him. "You know, other than what you did to other people?"
Daku then began to think about how to answer my questions.
Eventually, he answered briefly and calmly, "Yes, sometimes, when I was a child, I would get late coming home from school because my home environment had become very toxic."
"Oh, right…that's why…"
Daku then nodded. "Yes, but they are not like that, at least before the company my father used to work for went bankrupt in the 1990s."
To that I was surprised. "Woah, really? The change in your family environment happened during the start of the Lost Decades?"
"Yes," replied Daku back, "and that former home of mine is an apartment complex owned by my father's former company. Since it went bankrupt, my father lost his job, but he couldn't help me and my older sister and late mother move out of that building since he didn't have much money since he used the majority of it in investing in the stock market. So, he left us when I was just 7 years old. Since then, we were stuck in that rotting building while my mother worked around the clock just to put food on the table."
Because of those new details of his past, I became more sympathetic to him than before.
Seeing my expression of mine, Daku let out a slight smile. "Thanks, man."
"No problem," I responded happily. "It's okay, you can always find a way to get out of it and move on."
Daku seemed to be happy with my simple advice.