" Good work today, everyone! I look forward to seeing you all tomorrow." The chef of production uttered to the workers before exiting the building while the rest of the staff were packing their belongings to retire for the day.
Among the workers, a tall guy of about 2.5 inches approached another worker and asked as he was a couple of meters away, " Would you like to grab a drink before heading home?"
" Ah, sorry, not today. I have a family gathering, maybe another day." The coworker responded faintly.
" That's too bad, then." Retorted the tall guy in a disappointing tone. " See you tomorrow, Hasegawa!" He waved slightly before walking away seconds later.
As Takumi Hasegawa exited the building, he fixed his phone and the text message he got and sighed, " What could they want now that they asked to see me? I hope there's no trouble at home."
Entering his car, he drove from the office to his parents' house where his siblings also reside.
Two hours later, he entered the premises and as he got out of the car and headed toward the door, he hesitated before ringing. It was at that time that someone came and opened the door.
" Welcome home, big brother!" " Why would you just stand there immobile instead of knocking?"
The one that opened the door for Takumi Hasegawa was none other than his younger brother, Haruki Hasegawa. Grinning brightly and innocently, the big brother asked, " How did you even know I was the one at the door? What would you have done had it been someone else and not me?"
" Big brother, I could never be wrong about you and you know it, don't you? Had it not been you, I wouldn't have opened the door and wouldn't be standing in front of you."
Takumi was speechless and didn't know what else to say to his little brother in retortion. As the little one spread his arms, he said, " If you're done with your numerous questions, may I please have my hug now?"
" Of course, Haruki! Come here!"
Haruki jumped into his brother's embrace and hugged him lovingly. They stayed at the door for five whole minutes, but Haruki wouldn't let go. Takami then uttered, " It's enough now, Haruki, you've had your fun. Now let go, will you?"
" If we keep staying here, our parents will wonder what we're doing."
At the sound of their parents, Haruki let go of Takumi and the two walked inside the house to meet with the rest of the family.
" You made it, Takumi. Have a seat somewhere!" Takumi's mother said as she grinned joyfully.
Takumi sat on the sofa still wondering why his parents asked him to come home on such short notice.
" You might be wondering why we asked to meet with you, right?" As if she could picture her son's mind, she forwarded to which the latter retorted, " You must have asked me here for something important, so what is it?"
As he asked the question to his mother, the latter responded, " Takumi knows me so well, but you're right. I asked you to come home for something important."
Without further ado, she handed him pictures rendering Takumi speechless and confused as to what the pictures were for.
" What are those pictures, Mom?" Takumi asked his mother, harboring a suspicious tone. Grinning slightly, she retorted, " Why don't you take a look at them first? Once you do, you'll understand right away what this is all about."
" No!" He nodded, " Before anything, tell me what these pictures are for, first or I won't even take a glance at them!"
Harboring a persistent expression, the mother had no alternative but to answer the pondering question.
" These are pictures of potential brides for you, Takumi." He flinched at the sound of his mother's words. " Now that I've answered your pondering question, will you take a look at the pictures now, please!"
Takumi faced the pictures down on the table and said, " Sorry, Mom, but I won't take a look at the pictures."
The mother was offended by the response she got from her son and asked, " Why? Why won't you look at them?" " Give me a reasonable explanation for your attitude right now!"
Takumi sighed and answered his mom, " I have no intention of getting married now, so please don't force me to choose anyone for the time being."
" You have no intention of getting married now! What is that supposed to mean?" The mother asked for an explanation as her anger increased.
" Honey, calm down and let Takumi explain himself!" Mr. Hasegawa, the head of the household calmed his wife down and asked his son in an assertive tone, " Tell me, Takumi, what reason do you have for not wanting to get married now?"
…" Dad, I'm not ready for marriage yet, that's all. There's no other reason behind my refusal, I promise."
" I see, so when will you be ready? Do you have an estimate?"
" I don't know, Dad, I'm sorry." Takumi retorted to his father in an apologetic tone.
" If there's nothing else, I'd like to leave if that's okay." Takumi uttered the following words as he stood, but—------------"
" It's late now. Why don't you stay the night and leave tomorrow morning?" Not wanting to upset his parents further, he agreed to stay the night.
Heading toward his room, memories flashed through his mind as he entered the room in which he spent his childhood to the moment he became an adult.
Laying on the bed, he thought of his childhood and uttered in the middle of it all, " Mom and Dad are angry at me for not taking a glance at the pictures, but how do I tell them the reason why I cannot bear to look at them?" " If I were to tell them what's going on inside my mind, they wouldn't understand and would misunderstand me again."
In Takumi's parent's room, the mother wondered, " Why do you think that Takumi doesn't want to get married?"
" He never said that he didn't want to get married. What he said was that he wasn't ready to be wed for the time being."
" That's the same thing no matter from what perspective you look at it." The mother sighed before adding, " I simply don't understand why he doesn't want to settle down. After all, he has a stable job with a stable income coming in each month. The only thing missing is for him to start a family."
At the sound of his wife's words, the husband sighed in turn and said, " That might be the problem."
" What do you mean?" She asked in confusion to her husband who retorted, " Takumi has always pleased us in every aspect, but when it came to him, we weren't supportive of his life choices. Maybe that's why he doesn't want to settle down."
Ringing a bell with that phrase, the wife said, " By life choices, you don't mean that, do you?"
Whereas, in Takumi's room, the latter was thinking about the past and what he loved most of all, " Did I make the right choice back then?"
' Mom and Dad wanted me to look for a financially stable career, so I went into the Business Major and later on, after graduating, I applied to work for the G Consortium and got accepted. I remembered how Mom and Dad were happy when I got the job, but I on the other hand felt mixed feelings about it. In order to please my parents, I had to give up on what I always loved most of all and that was writing.'
' Writing has always given me a sense of peace and that was why I loved it so much. It was my dream back then to make it as a professional writer, but when life and its responsibilities came crashing down, there was nothing I could do but give in. What else could I have done?'
' As the eldest of my family, there were some duties and responsibilities I had to carry out and one of them was to find a stable job with a stable income which is what I did, but today I'm having some regrets about the life choices I made back then. Did I make the right choice? If so, what is this unsettling feeling about?'
As morning rose the following morning, Takumi shared breakfast with his family before standing to leave for work. As he was about to leave, his parents stopped him. His mother forwarded the following question, " Did we force you to do something you didn't want to?"
Takumi flinched at the sound of the question but remained silent nonetheless. What was he supposed to answer to the sudden question?
Throughout his twenty-five long years of life, he had always made sure never to trouble his family in any way. No matter what he had to do to make them happy and no matter what he had to sacrifice on the way, he did it without a second thought. The happiness of his family is his happiness and that has always been the reason behind every one of his actions.
" Answer me, Takumi!" The mother raised her voice a little, " Have we ever forced you into anything you didn't want to do?"
…
As the atmosphere became silent yet again, Takumi broke the silence at long last and uttered in response to his mother's question, " No, Mom! No matter what I did until this point had been nothing but my decision. You didn't force me to do anything I didn't want to, believe me!"
…
" What about writing?"
As the mother touched a sore spot with her second question, Takumi uttered in response, " Writing was nothing but a hobby and not something I took seriously."
Grabbing his bag, he added, " I have to go now, or I might be late for work. See you guys later!" He waved goodbye to his family and walked out of the house.
' Who am I kidding? Writing has never been a hobby for me. More than anything, it was more than that, but I couldn't bring myself to state the truth when she asked me. I knew just by looking into her eyes that my response would have disappointed her and that was the last thing I wanted.'
' Although I didn't state the whole truth, there's something I didn't lie about. I wasn't serious about writing back then which is why it all backfired on me. After eleven years of leaving it behind, there's no way I could get back at it as if it was nothing.'
Inside the house, the mother uttered, " Did you hear his answer just a moment ago?" " We didn't force him into anything he never wanted to." The mother uttered proudly.
While she was harboring a triumphant grin, the father internally thought, " I don't think he was being completely honest with us."
At the G Consortium, work was going great as usual, but Takumi was still thinking about his mother's interrogations early in the morning and wasn't all that focused on the work in front of him.
" What are you thinking about, Hasegawa?" His coworker asked, " Your mind's elsewhere."
" It's nothing, don't worry about it and focus on your work!" Takumi brushed the matter aside and focused on the workload in front of him.
Hours later, work concluded. Takumi packed his stuff to head home. His coworker from earlier approached him and said, " You rejected me last time. Will you do the same thing this time too?"
Staring at his coworker for several seconds, he grinned slightly and said, " I don't have a family gathering this time, but I'd rather go home and rest if that's okay."
" No, that's not okay! Accompany me tonight, will you?"
Staring into his poppy eyes, Takumi didn't see how to refuse and nodded as he agreed with his request. " Okay, fine, but we won't stay for too long."
Half an hour later, Takumi and his coworker, Saonji were at the bar. While Saonji ordered some wine, Takumi only ordered orange juice to accompany him.
" What was that about at the office?"
?
" Your mind was elsewhere and although you told me it was nothing, I don't believe it."
…
" I wasn't thinking about anything important, just life." He answered the question halfway.
" About life, huh?"
" Is there something in your life you're not satisfied with?"
" Something I'm not satisfied with?"
" Thinking about life in general would imply there's something you're not quite satisfied with and that you wished you would have done differently. Would there happen to be something like that?"
Saunji asked to which Takumi retorted, " Did you ever make decisions that benefit your family instead of you? Have you ever been in a position where your family's happiness was the most important thing?"
" Yes, many times." He nodded before adding, " For a child, their parents' happiness is the most important thing. We would do anything to see them happy and unstressful."
" Did you happen to regret those decisions?" Takumi asked his coworker who retorted, " Sometimes, but when I see their happy faces, I tell myself that whatever I did was for the better good."
After listening to Saunji, Takumi stated, " Thanks for giving me your honest opinion about this. Now I know that whatever I did back then was for the best."
Two hours later, Takumi and Saunji went their separate ways. On the way back, Takumi kept thinking about the expectations that had always been on him since he was young. Adding those expectations to his experiences, he internally thought, " I did pretty well for myself, so I think the next step after this would be to settle down just as Mom and Dad wants."
Stopping at a store, he went inside and did some shopping. When he walked out of the store, he noticed a little girl crossing the street while a car was speeding in her direction. The driver seemed to be drunk from Takumi's observation and wasn't paying attention to where he was heading.
" That drunken driver will hit that little girl at the speed he's driving."
Leaving the groceries aside, Takumi ran to the little girl and had enough time to push her aside, but unfortunately couldn't save himself in the process as the driving car hit him.
" Mister, Mister, wake up!"