CH 23

At the end of the working day at the call centre, I stretched out to relax my body, which was stiff from sitting for so long.

“Uuu~n, I’m so tired!”

I was unusually busy today, but I had to work hard because I spent quite a bit of Mika’s money when I went to Shibuya.

Of course, I was going to save all the money when I get paid.

“Thank you very much.”

“Thank you, Saki.”

“Hide and seek?”

“After dinner, okay?”

“When?”

Why, I wondered, did she not need to have dinner at night? No, from the way she was tilting her head, it looked like she was just baffled that she couldn’t play.

Saki liked the rabbit hoodie she bought in Shibuya, and she wore the two she bought, white and brown, alternately every day.

Today she wore a white-coloured one with pink ears.

“Hey, which one?”

Sad that she couldn’t play, Saki curled up and squatted down.

These days, our little angel wore a skirt or trousers underneath, but her hoodie was so long that she looked like a real rabbit in this position.

But, I was in trouble.

I wanted to play with Saki as much as possible, but I had to prepare dinner.

As I pondered what to do, an idea occurred to me.

“Yes, Saki. Shall we go on a treasure hunt?”

“Treasure hunt?”

“Yes, yes. What’s your treasure, Saki?”

“Bear!”

“Yeah, can you bring that to me, please?”

“Ai!”

Saki got up quickly and brought a stuffed bear that was in the corner of the room, because she thought it would be fun to play with.

The advantage of a treasure hunt was that you could do it while you prepared dinner, whereas in hide-and-seek you had to look for each other and hide.

“Bring it back.”

“Yeah, thanks for bringing it.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Can you wait a moment while I get ready?”

“Ai!”

“Now, Saki, close your eyes and count to ten.”

“Ai! One, two!”

I took the stuffed bear from Saki and wrapped it up, covering only the top of it with a black sweatshirt.

Then I put it in a bag I got from the clothes shop the other day and threw it in the wardrobe.

“1Juu, are you done?”

“Yes, it’s done.”

Saki thought it was a game similar to hide and seek and counted to ten to make sure she was right.

“Michuketa!”

Maybe I should have taught her the rules first.

“Well, no, Saki, it’s not that. We’re looking for the bear.”

“Bear!”

“Yes, that’s right. See how the bear is missing?”

“Did it go to the forest?”

“It’s not going back to the forest. It’s hiding.”

“Huh?”

“It wants to play hide-and-seek with Saki.”

“Play with the bear!”

Saki’s face lit up with joy as she played with her treasured bear.

Her smile was so pure and bright.

It was a funny story about a rabbit looking for a bear, but if you enjoyed it, that was all that matters.

Now, the bear was hidden, so you had to find it.

“Saki?”

“Yes.”

Then Saki started to look for her stuffed bear.

“Hide and seek with the bear!”

Strictly speaking, the game was different as it was a treasure hunt, but she seemed to enjoy it.

“Now, let’s get ready for dinner.”

When I was finished supper, I could ask Saki to hide the bear and teach her about real treasure hunting.

So I was in the kitchen, taking ingredients out of the fridge, when I heard a voice from inside the room, “Michuketa!”

“It’s early…”

This flat did not seem to be suitable for hide-and-seek or treasure hunting.

One day Saki would want her own room and we might as well move out sooner rather than later.

“It’s your turn to be the onii, bear!”

“Saki, you can’t do that!”

Apparently, teaching the rules of the treasure hunt came before dinner.

‘Juu’ is how to say ten in Japanese. (十)