Chapter 39: -07- Shota x Nene

~~** Tachibana Mayuri’s Point of View **~~

Once my husband and daughter left the house, I was left alone with my first proper in-law.  That I should only be experiencing this at the age of thirty-six was somewhat shameful, it was also already something I found myself anticipating.

She held up the box which contained a coffee cake and I gave her a head nod indicating we should head to the kitchen.  In the cupboard, I removed a couple of plates and grabbed a couple forks and knives.

“Glass for your beer?”  I asked her.

“Easier from the can.”  She replied correctly.

I already liked her.

I pulled out two beers each for us, one an Asahi Super Dry, and the other a Strong Zero.  Just as she suggested, we’d find out which went better with the cake.  Though we both knew we’d be finding out a lot more than what went better with the cake once we got started.

“So, a man half your age, and your daughter’s former lover to boot, huh?”

“Do you think me shameless?”  I replied with a smile.

“Not at all.  I’m actually a bit sad that he found someone so soon to educate him in my place.”

“Educate?”

“Sexually.”

What exactly was this woman saying?

“Sounds inappropriate for me to say this, doesn’t it?”

“Maa~ maybe less inappropriate if you were only a friend and not family…”

“Well, I owe Shota for many things.  I didn’t expect his relationship with your daughter to last as long as it had, and I was quite ready to pick up the pieces of his broken heart when it finally happened.”

“Are you saying you planned to become intimate with Shota?”

She took another long swig and let the can of beer clang on the table as she released a quality belch.

“Something like that.”  She answered coolly.  “I owe him a debt I can’t ever repay now, thanks to you.”

“Thanks to me?”

“Tell me, how serious are you about Shota?”

This time it was my turn to drink.

“At first, I wasn’t all that serious at all.  Recently however, things have changed significantly for me in that regard.  I can truly say now that I have proper feelings of love for him, and want to be together with him as a wife should.”

My drinking partner nodded.

“Is he gentle in bed?”

“Shota is gentle, but needy.”

She sighed.

“Any boy would be needy with those things.” She smirked, tilting her can of beer directly at my chest. “I lose in more ways than one, it seems.”

This conversation was not going as I expected.  She seemed less angry that I was married to him, and more depressed, like she lost something irreplaceable.

“A long time ago, he asked me to marry him, you know?”

“I had no idea.”

She guffawed.

“He’s too kind for his own good.  I expected your daughter to do a lot more damage to him than she seems to have.  I imagine that’s thanks in part to him finding his way into your arms.”

“Oh?”

“Has he brought up his past with you at all?”

I could only shake my head no.

“We haven’t begun to open up about our pasts yet.  Right now we’re pretty much still in the honeymoon phase.  Though if there is anything you wish to tell me, I would certainly be interested in hearing it.”

“Hmm, where to begin…”

While she contemplated what to say, she finished the slice of cake she had started with and the first beer I gave her entirely.  Then she reached for another slice and popped the top of the second beer placed on the table in reserve.

“Has he mentioned me at all?”

“Only once I think, and only as a family friend.”

She nodded.

“I was his first crush.  It was quite by accident mind you, and of course I didn’t take it seriously at the time.  He was still a young boy, and there was no way I could have seen him as a man back then, you understand.”

This time it was my turn to nod.  If Shota was any younger, I’d be of the same mind in thinking him a boy and not a man.

“Shota didn’t always live with just his mother and father.  For a while, I also lived here with my daughter, and for that very reason I can never repay Shota enough in this lifetime.”

“Do elaborate.”  I prompted her.

“Just keep the beers coming.”

While we drank she opened up about the past, and what I didn’t know at all about my husband’s younger days.

“Shota… was raised with an immense amount of love.  My step-sister Himari and her husband Arata, they had that perfect kind of relationship.  If they ever fought, it was only one time, and due to me.”

“You?”

“I don’t like to dwell on it, but I had a rough marriage.  It lasted five years, and ended in separation and eventually divorce.  Whatever my ex-husband wanted from a wife, it turns out I didn’t possess it.  We had a child together, the only child I’ve ever had, Kumi.  She’s only a couple years younger than your daughter.”

“Was it neglect?” I inquired, only to be met with a much darker answer.

"DV."

DV.  Domestic Violence.  In a marriage there is hardly a thing worse than that.  It’s difficult to talk about and even more difficult to escape, especially if you love your partner and think yourself at fault for causing it to happen.

I was lucky that Daigo wasn’t ever too physical with me.  No, for me, I was the victim of neglect, which is just DV of the heart.  The pain is concealed on the inside, and much harder to prove any wrongdoing because of that.

“If it was only me who was the target, I could have endured it.  I did endure it actually, but one day I saw that he had tired of me not even putting up a fight anymore, and his eyes, which hardly ever looked our daughter’s way, soon became trained on ruining her happy smile.”

What she was saying was difficult for anyone to admit.  She shouldn’t have a smile on her face while saying this, yet one was there for some reason.

“My step-sister had an idea of what was going on without me ever saying a thing to her.  But after one night where his hand flew without me being able to intercept it in time… My daughter who cried herself to tears that night… When that scumbag fell asleep, I packed what was necessary to us and fled here with my precious daughter in my arms.”

“I’m sorry to hear that…”

“Don’t be.  At first I was only going to be here for a day or two, to give that man a chance to reflect on his actions, but men like that never do.  It became clear after a week of sleeping on the couch that things weren’t looking good for either of us refugees.  I had no job, no prospects of a job, and a young daughter who had a mouth and needed to be fed. ”

I understood that last part intimately.

“Cue one day a few weeks into my stay when I was sat down by my step-sister and her husband about the exact duration of time remaining in my stay.  I was told I should finalize my divorce and move into my own place, which I could hardly hope to afford, even with their help.

Shota should have been asleep, but he was eavesdropping for some reason, and when the matter of where I would land came up, Shota ran into the kitchen and dropped into a dogeza right there on the kitchen floor.”

She pointed right behind the chair which Chigusa usually sat in.

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“Mom!  Dad!  Please don’t send Nene-san away!  I’ll take care of her!  I’ll… marry her!  That way she will become our family!  That way she and Kumi-chan can stay safe!  If she’s my wife, then both of them can stay in my room!  It’ll be okay, I promise!  I'll quit school and get a job immediately!  I’ll work hard to protect them!”

She mimicked a squeaky voice as best she could.  She was giggling a little bit, but I didn’t miss a little extra water draping over her irises.

“That little brat barely knew me.  It’s not like I was extra nice to him, and quite frankly, I foisted my own daughter on him for most of my stay to look after quite a few times so I could job hunt and also for some momentary peace.

But he was serious about what he said.  No one was more affected than his father with his actions at that time.  I expected Arata to let him have it, about how impossible a task it was for a child, and all the societal bullshit that went along with it, but you know what his father did?”

I shook my head, not having the first clue.

“He said for him to step up then.  The first step was finding a way to earn money and proposing to me properly.  ‘If she is your wife, then she needs a ring.’  He said this to his own ten year old son as if he was a full-grown man.”

She emptied the second can, and I disposed of the ones on the table and fetched a whole six pack of both, as she continued her riveting tale about my husband’s youth with the eventual opening of her third can.

“Shota swore he would do so, and the first thing he did was take his favorite video game console to a second hand store the next day, and sold it.  He had gotten a fair amount for it and bought me a ring.  He didn’t know he needed a pair, so instead he got a single decent one… something that a ten year old who sold one of his most favorite toys would be proud of, and not some gacha machine shit.  

I found out later that it cost about 5,000 yen. 

That night at dinner, surrounded by his parents, myself, and my daughter at this same table, he proposed to me properly in front of them like an adult.  The ring was just a tad too big to fit me, but I let him put it on anyway.

I mean, my credibility as an adult was shot.  I was a failure of a parent, I was a freeloader in the last of my sister’s good graces, and had nothing remaining but the fear of when I would have to leave this house.  My step-sister was my last remaining support system…

Now, his parents were stunned at first with what happened, but Arata instead of saying it was ridiculous, nodded at the action his son did.  After that, my nights on the couch with my daughter ended.  Shota insisted we move into his room, and Arata gave his approval. Telling Shota ‘it’s where a wife should be.’ 

Because Shota was so small, all three of us fit, and my pretend married life with him began.  I went along with it to protect Kumi, but more than that, to protect myself.”

I was quite surprised to know Shota had done something so endearing at such a young age.  It really made me wonder just how much of an idiot my own daughter was.  Shota was clearly the marrying type, and if she had done anything other than be her delinquent self, I might be calling him son-in-law instead of husband.

“In fact, I’m proud to say that I was the recipient of his first kiss, too!”

She lifted up her bangs and pointed at the center of her forehead.

“He was a charmer as a kid, let me tell you.  Constantly telling me all the things I needed to hear, ‘I will make sure to love you properly.’ or ‘I’d never be so weak a man as to need to hurt you.’ and ‘I’ll only let my wife know happiness, not pain.’ 

I imagine most of those lines were either dreamed up by him with no foundation in how the real world is, or that it was borrowed from things Arata may have said to Himari which he overheard and embellished.  

Such an impassioned set of promises for my welfare came with a seal.  His own two lips pressing a kiss right on my forehead as a guarantee.  

Of course even through all of this, how could I see a little boy as a man, let alone a husband?  I mean my own daughter was only two years younger than him, and she was taller than he was!”

She laughed again, showing just a smidgeon of being uncomfortable.

“But he was serious about everything.  He slept in the middle between my daughter and I, burying his tiny head into my chest and letting my daughter clung to him from the other side.  She even took to calling him papa now.  If he were only a decade older, I would have given him everything just for that.

I stayed for a year and a half in this house before I was able to save enough from a job which I finally managed to land about three months into our fake marriage.  

During this time, Shota had received advice from his father about how a man should treat a woman, and the most important thing was loyalty, something Arata drilled into him with all the seriousness he had as a father imparting his most precious knowledge to his son.”

Loyalty… yes.  If there was a single word to sum up Shota’s demeanor, it would be that.  I see, so it’s his father who helped sculpt him into such a man.  I suppose I will need to thank his father later with a prayer.

“Shota behaved without fail as if he was my real husband though.  He stopped treating my daughter like a friend, and like his own.  He was patient and kind, and doting to us both.  We even used to take baths together, all three of us.  His little thingy was so cute.”

I nearly choked on my bite of coffee cake when she said that.

“Haha, it was only this big.”

She held up her fingers and even I had to laugh, though I also had to protect his dignity as his current wife.

I corrected the size with my own fingers and her eyes widened.

“Hot damn!”

“Ufufufu~”

“Thanks to Shota’s actions giving me a stay of execution, I was able to get back on my feet.  I had a decent job, and I had actually met someone…”

My face soured when she said that, but she held a hand up asking me to reserve judgment for a moment.  I obliged her.

“I didn’t betray him, at least not like that.  Shota was twelve by then, and becoming aware of what our relationship really was.  He was at the age where he would find a girl his age soon, and It was also time for me and Kumi to move forward with our lives as well.

We had a quiet conversation between us one night in his room while my daughter slept.  Shota asked me if I ever actually loved him, so I told him the truth.  The problem was because of our ages, but to say that I didn’t love him… I did.  I loved the boy who saved me and my daughter from a potentially horrible fate, how could I not love him?  But the world of adults was complicated and cruel and we could never truly be man and wife until he was a legal adult.

Shota said he understood, but that he didn’t know what to do.  

‘Do I pay alimony now?’

I died a little inside when he said that.  He truly thought of us as a husband, wife, and family.  And even wanted to make sure I and Kumi were supported afterwards.

While Shota never had a chance of dropping out of school, since his parents wouldn’t allow it, he did find ways to earn money during that whole time we were together.  He was a clever and talented boy when it came to providing.  He did as his father asked, and he did his best to provide for me and Kumi-chan.

So, I promised him as I left that should he ever need anything at all in the world, he could always turn to me even after he became an adult, and no matter what he asked of me, I would give it.  

And I meant it. Whether it was myself or even my daughter, I would give it to him.

That time came a few years later.  First his father caught the third strain… delta, then because his mother was the one taking care of him… she also contracted the virus.  They both went to heaven about three weeks apart from each other.

I handled all the funerary affairs, and had a chance to meet the girl who I should have fended off of him, but who I also parted with Shota for the very sake of letting him find in the first place… your daughter.”

It was time to put the nabe on, so I went into the fridge while Nene-san wrapped it up.

“I was in and out of his life for a while during this rough patch of time in his life, helping him with insurance claims and showing him how to pay the bills.  He never approached me as my husband, nor did he ever call me auntie.  I was just his friend, Nene-san, and it hurt to be that with him.  Because I saw how splendidly he grew up in just a few years, and how he ended up with a girl who only used him.  

It hurt because I knew I had done something similar to him, and I even suspect you of doing so as well.  Because Shota is who he is… his nature makes it so easy to do that to him.

I had found a partner as I said, never betraying Shota once until I left this house, and we also had our share of hard times during the pandemic.”

“Is he a good man?”

“She is.”

She?

“I… never recovered my trust for a man since my ex-husband. Shota and I couldn’t be, and she was interested in caring for me and my daughter.  We met while I was still Shota’s fake wife, but I never did a thing with her until after I left, not even a kiss.  I owed him that much not to leave a scar like that on his young and delicate heart.”

I could approve of her actions then.  At least she ended it properly, unlike how I had to find out.

“Shota called me up shortly after the breakup with Chigusa, and I wanted nothing more than to comfort him.  I was prepared to use my body to do so… For the first time in my life I felt like I needed to return the favor he gave Kumi and I all those years ago. To be his wife if only once properly… to be there for him so he wasn’t alone… even though I knew it would harm the relationship I have with my partner. 

Shota instead said to trust him and that he would be alright.  That trust has lasted until last night.”

“Ah… that would be my fault.”  I admitted.

“It’s because of you that he called me?”

“Yeah.  I would have loved to meet you sooner, perhaps at our wedding, but it was just a simple visit to the prefectural office to submit our application I’m afraid.  It all happened quite fast, nothing fancy, and I am every bit as guilty as you suspect.  

As for me, I went unmarried for twenty years.  I also have a child with my former lover and only just discovered him cheating on me a few months back.  I went on a bender and it led to Shota-kun picking me up at my lowest point.  

It’s only because of the current situation, I thought he needed to ask someone he was close to for an outside opinion on what is most certainly a serious matter to him.”

This time it was my turn to explain.

The beers slowly dwindled as I laid it all out on the table.

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