Putting up with his daughter's questions, Takumi was pushed against the wall. How was he supposed to respond? Was he supposed to deny the inevitable, or admit to the facts?
" Daddy, answer me, please! " Do the stories written in all these notebooks belong to you? Are you the one who wrote them? "
Questioned for the second time, Takumi conceded defeat. He came to the resolution that honesty was the best possible outcome.
" Yes, my angel. All the stories inside the notebooks you're holding in your hands were all written by me at some point in time. "
" I was a high school student at the time, and I was full of dreams and hope. These scenarios came to me during that time. "
Listening to her father speak, Luna asked the following, " Why didn't you publish them? "
—
Takumi had no answer for the second question his daughter asked. Knowing fully well why his father had suddenly stopped speaking and had gone all quiet, Luna asked yet again, " Was there a reason why you couldn't publish any of them? "
—
Answering the question hypothetically, Takumi uttered, " Writing was nothing but a hobby for me. When the time came to choose a career, I majored in Business when I entered college and now, I'm a working adult. "
" It's getting late. We should all call it a night and head to bed. " Takumi uttered as a means to change the subject.
Standing up, he headed inside his room. Haruki, his younger brother, closely followed behind him.
By the time he was about to close the door of his room, he was stopped by his younger brother, who blocked the way through.
" Not now, Haruki! " Takumi said with annoyance before his younger brother. " Now's not the time to have a conversation, so please leave me alone for now! "
Not wishing to put his big brother in a difficult spot, Haruki took out his hand and watched as the door of the room slowly shut itself.
The following morning, Takumi left the room early as a means to avoid his younger brother and daughter confronting him.
While out jogging, Takumi ran into Saunji, his colleague, with a beautiful young lady.
" Hasegawa, what a coincidence! " Saunji joyfully waved to him. Slowly returning the gesture, he said, " Yes, what a coincidence! "
The beautiful young lady beside Saunji spoke, " Is this the friend you've been telling me so much about? "
Nodding, he confirmed, " Yes, that's him. " He's Takumi Hasegawa, my colleague and friend from you and Hasegawa, this wonderful woman here is my wife, Catherine. "
" Your wife? "
Takumi was shocked by the revelation before his eyes. As Saunji barely talked about himself, it never occurred to him that he was married. Despite it all, he was happy that his friend and also colleague had settled down with someone he loved from the bottom of his heart.
" It's a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am. '' Takumi acted gentlemanly before Saunji's wife.
" Ma, am! " " Am I that old? "
" Of course not! "
" I'm your friend's wife and that means I'm also your friend, isn't that right? "
—
" Simply call me Catherine when you refer to me, Hasegawa. "
—
" As you wish, Catherine. "
Afterward, Takumi joined Saunji and his wife to get better acquainted with each other. While at the restaurant, Catherine uttered suggestively, " I heard from your husband that you're single and have a daughter. Is that correct? "
Staring at Saunji as if he was being nosey, Takumi responded to Catherine's question, " Yes, I indeed have a daughter, and she's six years old. Her name is Luna and she's my sweet little angel. "
Forwarding with a second question, she asked, " Do you intend to stay single forever? "
" Not at all. I intend to get married when the right person shows up. "
Catherine had something up her sleeves with the way she was questioning Takumi yet and yet again. Stopping her from going overboard, Saunji uttered before his wife, " Cat, I think you should stop me. Hasegawa might get uncomfortable. "
Realizing the state of things, she looked over at Takumi and said, " Ah, sorry, Hasegawa! Was I being too nosey? "
" Not at all. "
Two hours later, as the three walked out of the restaurant and Takumi was about to leave, Catherine got his attention, " Here's my number! Let's meet some other time and chat! "
Takumi didn't understand why Saunji's wife was suddenly giving him her contact info. " Sorry, but I can't take this. " He told her and Catherine retorted, " We didn't get to interact much today and there's something I wanted to tell you, so that's why I'm giving you my number. "
Understanding where she was coming from, Takumi said, " Alright, I'll hang on to it, goodbye! "
Walking away from the two lovebirds, Saunji asked suspiciously, " Asking all those questions to my friend, you intend to do something, don't you? "
Instead of answering, Catherine simply grinned at her husband, who found her behavior even more suspicious. " Let's go home! " She said as she irremediably dragged her husband alongside her.
A week later, inside an apartment, someone was typing at great speed on a laptop when his phone suddenly started ringing. Ignoring the phone calls, he kept on with what he was doing.
As the phone calls were being quite persistent, preventing him from concentrating on what he had in front of him, he was left with no other alternative but to attend the phone call.
" Hello! " The guy said from the other side of the line.
The one calling said, " Will you be coming? "
Retorting, the guy said, " I don't think I'll be coming. I have lots to do, so don't count on me. If you have no more business with me, I'll be hanging up. "
As the guy was about ready to hang up the phone, his caller uttered from the other side of the line, " Hasegawa will be attending the reunion. Are you certain you still won't come? "
Hearing the name " Hasegawa ", the guy uttered nothing more to his caller and simply hung up the phone. Putting his phone down on the table, he mumbled, " Takumi. "
During dinner, at Takumi's house, Luna interrogated her father on the matter they debated about recently.
" Daddy, was writing truly nothing else but a mere hobby to you? "
Taken aback by the question, Takumi uttered, " Why are you still hung up on the matter? "
Takumi asked hypothetically to his daughter, who retorted, " That's because I find it hard to believe. I find it hard to believe that someone with such talent as yourself could only treat writing as a hobby. "
" If you ask me, I'd say that writing was more of a passion than a hobby. "
" Why did you have to give it up, Dad? "
—
" I read some of the stories you wrote, and I found them entertaining and interesting to read. Pausing for an instant, her tone suddenly changed to a gentle tone. Continuing from where she left off, she said, " While I was reading your stories, I could feel all the love and attention you've put into it. "
While listening to his daughter praise his writing and how great it was, Takumi was delighted that he didn't even realize the moment his eyes were full of tears.
Noticing the tears that were overflowing, Luna helped wipe them up, but Takumi stopped her and said, " I'm not unhappy at the moment. Rather, I'm very happy that you found my pieces of writing entertaining and interesting, Luna. "
" You asked me why I didn't pursue my call back then and simply give it up, didn't you? "
" Yes, I want to know the reason why you didn't pursue your dream at the time, Daddy. What stopped you? "
" Had you not given up back then, you would have been so successful now. "
Holding his daughter on his lap, Takumi uttered before his daughter, " I always loved writing. Whenever I wrote stories, I was the happiest, but simply being happy wasn't enough. "
" What do you mean? "
" Just as you said, I did intend to make it as a professional, but I wasn't motivated enough, and neither did I have enough courage to go after my dreams. Had I had those two things, I wouldn't have given up at the time and I wouldn't have been influenced by my entourage. "
" When I told my mother as I was about to graduate high school about my intention of pursuing writing as a career and to be a professional writer, she turned me down without hearing me out. "
" There was a writing competition I intended to partake in which would have made my dream a reality, but I didn't get to partake in it in the end as I didn't want to fail the expectations my parents had of me, so I took another route and here I am. "
—
" Alongside that dream I cherished, I also had to give up everything that was connected to it. I had to grow up and become responsible for the well-being of my family and the expectations they had of me. "
Responding to his daughter's interrogation more or less, Takumi uttered in a closing statement, " Writing and alongside the sentiments attached to it now belong to the past. Today, I'm a working adult and a father. I have responsibilities and duties to undertake toward you and the rest of my family. "
Putting Luna down, Takumi walked away. Heading to her room, Luna picked up the notebooks and mumbled, " Your dream doesn't belong to the past, and I know you still love writing very much despite you denying it as best as you can. "
" I'm going to light up that passion inside of you again, Daddy, but I have yet to know how I'm going to do that. "