Volume 1 - CH 2

Volume 1, Chapter 2: Taking a Detour

Answer the phone

→ Don't pick up the phone

"―― Sorry for the abrupt request. Thank you."

"No, no! I am always happy to be of help to your mother. Please come again anytime!"

I exited the hair salon, which was already after their business hours.

As expected, I couldn't cut in between those with reservations, but I still was able to get in on their after hours, so I had my hair taken care of and dyed a bit.

Before I went here, I stopped by the optician and got contacts. All this and that were through my mother's arrangements.

"Good work today, Ikuto-san."

"Sorry for the trouble, Koudzuki-san. Thanks."

The person who came to pick me up in front of the salon was Koudzuki Akane, my mother's secretary.

She was a career woman who wore a neat, black suit with pants in contrast with her pale-colored hair.

As was the case, this pick-up was also arranged by my mother, since it was already late at night.

"You've changed a lot."

"I wanted to get a fresh start...does it not look good on me?"

"No, I think it suits you well."

It was a relief to hear the beautiful, mature Koudzuki-san say so. I wasn't worried about the style because the person who did my hair was a popular stylist who was often talked about as someone you couldn't easily get an appointment with.

Although even if my hair was excellent, I couldn't do anything about my face. I had no intention of messing with the face my parents gave me, so if she said it didn't suit me, then this would be the end of it.

"With this, I don't think the girls at your school would leave you alone."

"Hm? You really think so, Koudzuki-san?"

"Fufu, of course. If I were ten years younger, I might have fallen in love with you."

Koudzuki-san had plenty of charm as an adult, but she looked young enough to even pass as a teenager.

If someone like her could say that about me, I guess I could be confident.

"Then, I'll be taking you home."

"Please take care of me."

Koudzuki-san drove and dropped me off to my place to where I was the only occupant.

It wasn't exactly that I lived alone, but rather my mother, who was busy with work, rarely came home.

At some point, my mother rented a place near her office and began living there. She offered to send me a housekeeper, but I politely declined.

But my relationship with my mother wasn't bad. She was a bit overprotective and was also easygoing, and she could be enthusiastic enough that I get overwhelmed.

The only person who could keep up with such a powerful mother was my father.

"―― I'm back, Dad."

I got home and greeted my father.

But what faced me wasn't really him, but rather, a small relic and a portrait of him.

My father had passed away in an accident quite some time ago, leaving me and my mother the only ones left in the family.

At the time, mother was very depressed and I wondered what would happen to her, but she soon recovered and decidedly took over father's business, which was great.

How many years had I dragged it out? I remembered being in denial for a long time.

"If it was an illness instead of an accident, would Dad have died?"

I once asked my mother that after he passed away.

I knew that my dad had died, but I didn't know the difference between dying from accidents compared to illnesses. I only understood that you could be cured if you were sick.

My mother only cried and hugged me, but she didn't answer, and now that I think about it, maybe she changed that day.

My father was the president of a pharmaceutical company. How many times did I hear in my childhood that he was going to create a medicine that would cure any disease?

"That kind of medicine is still yet impossible."

In order to support my mother, I worked hard even at a young age. I wanted to become a man that could protect my mother in place of my father, and I studied to reach my father's dream. Even now, I continued to do so.

My dream was to make my mother happy and my father's dream come true.

"A tall dream your son has, don't you think?"

Making a cure-all on behalf of my father.

It was a pipe dream, but I was, without a doubt, serious about it.

"Little by litte...right, dad?"

My father's words had become a principle of mine.

I had been working steadily up to this point. I tried not to worry my mother nor push myself too hard, and I was doing so without straying away from my dream.

From here on...I was going to keep moving on this path.

"However, can I take a quick detour?"

I might be deviating away from the path to chasing my dreams...but somehow, I felt like it would lead me to the right answer. I didn’t even know myself.

Of course, my goal remained the same.

However, I just couldn't help but feel like doing these things.

That was why, for the first time in a long while, I said ――

"Can I go out and play with girls for a bit? I've always wanted a girlfriend."

(Uh...what...)

"I didn't know what came to me, but I suddenly wanted to do so."

(Well...uh, yeah...good luck...)

I felt like I heard my father's voice, dumbfounded and supportive at the same time.

Well, I did hear that father was also a terrible womanizer, and being the son of such a guy, I couldn't help it now, could I?

Anyway, now that I got my father's permission, I could veer off my path for a while.

Part of me wondered why I had to do that, but another part of me thought I needed to do so.

But I was already used to this feeling.

That again, the usual déjà vu.