Before he knew it, the weather had turned to early winter.
As he got older, and as his children grew… Kaoru found himself feeling more and more that time was slipping by faster and faster.
Every morning when he opened his eyes, he wondered whether it was really okay to live such happy days—especially whenever he saw his wife asleep in his arms.
Happiness, peace, love, and affection so abundant he had never known them in his past life. Devotion toward the precious people in his life.
His family, whom he would protect even if he had to give his life.
Now that Aqua, Ruby, and Ame were the whole of his world, whenever he looked at their smiling faces—
Kaoru would feel a sudden sting deep in his heart for no reason at all.
"Daddy! Why~?"
On the wide living room floor, Ame—the youngest—was playing with dolls on a spread-out mat. She tilted her head and asked her father, who was quietly looking at her with blue eyes.
Kaoru blinked several times to hide the moisture gathering in his eyes, then smiled softly.
One thing he had learned while raising three children was that kids were far more perceptive of emotional changes than adults expected.
If their guardian was sad or angry, their sensitivity in picking that up was unmatched.
So Kaoru, worried that Ame might somehow get anxious over her young, pretty father looking upset, sat down beside her as if nothing were wrong.
"No, no. Is our daughter having fun playing with her friends?"
"Mhm! Daddy, you know~ this one is Biki, and this one is Anno, and this one is Elsa! Elsa~ said hello to Daddy!"
"I see. Elsa. Nice to meet you~ I’m Ame’s daddy, Kaoru."
"Heehee! Elsa said Daddy looked~ super cool!"
"Wow~! Hahaha. Thank you, Elsa. I’m happy to be complimented."
The father and daughter, with their matching blue eyes, looked at each other and smiled brightly.
"Biki looks hungry. Ame, should we make some food for your friends?"
"Yes! Yes! Oh~ the food comes out here~ It shoots out from here and they all eat it up!"
So the robot toys Aqua had bought her when she was little had been rehired as chefs who cooked meals.
At Ame’s adorable idea, Kaoru let out little bursts of laughter and nodded.
"Nom nom~ Biki eats so well, too? Om nom nom~"
"Biki is~ a pig~"
"Huh?"
It looked more like a mouse no matter how you saw it. A pig? Ame grinned and pointed at Biki’s belly.
"It’s a pig because it eats a lot~ Oink oink~"
"Ah—hahahaha. Really? Biki’s a pig because it eats the most? Hahaha!"
"Kyahaha!"
With her long purple hair swaying, Ame seemed delighted to be playing with her dad. She flashed a starry smile just like her mother’s, hugged her beloved stuffed animal tight, and giggled.
Seeing his lovely daughter laugh so happily made Kaoru’s body practically bounce with the urge to scoop her up.
"Come here, Ame! Daddy wants to hold you too~"
"Kyaaah~!"
Kaoru lifted his tiny youngest daughter into his arms and held her close, blooming into the biggest smile in the world.
When he kissed her plump cheek, Ame wriggled in his arms and burst into laughter.
"You’re making me laugh~! Heheheh~"
"Our Ame… Daddy really, really loves you."
So that this little daughter in his arms could always live a life blooming with happy laughter.
So that she could spread her wings freely for the things she wanted to do and the dreams she wanted to achieve.
So that he could be a dependable father, like a tree she could lean against whenever she was tired or sad.
"Hehe—Ame loves Daddy too~ Oh~ two hundred thousand and one thousand times~!"
Hearing his youngest daughter say she loved him that much—using the biggest number she knew—
the father, feeling a happiness beyond compare, hugged her tightly and smiled.
-
"…A reality show shoot?"
"A variety show where they set up cameras in the house and film like they’re observing you…?"
Kaoru and Ai both tilted their heads at the same time.
Rentaro, sipping the milk tea Ai had personally made to welcome their guest, nodded.
"Yeah. Ahem—wow, Ms. Ai. You make milk tea even better than Kaoru now? Nice, this could sell."
"Heheh—oh, you flatter me~★"
"Ahem. Anyway, NHK really sharpened its knives for this one."
He explained that they had put forward an audacious plan to insert a pilot variety program with a new format into the New Year special lineup, airing the day after the Red and White Song Festival.
It was a pilot they were preparing with ambition, and because it would draw attention from the start by featuring famous stars, they were desperate to nail the first step since, if it worked, it could become a dependable format with solid ratings.
Even after Rentaro’s neat explanation, Kaoru folded his arms and thought with a distinctly unconvinced look.
Even if it was a so-called "family observation variety show," the production staff would have trimmed the script to some extent… but the fact that they’d be opening up the inside of their home made him worry about privacy invasion.
"…"
"Oh-ho~★"
But Ai’s starlit eyes were shining with obvious interest.
Kaoru, sensing something ominous, pressed his lips together for a moment.
Ever since getting married, Ai had become even more eager to make special memories with their three children.
After all, she had had to keep the twins hidden for four or five long years—from pregnancy to birth to finally revealing them to the world.
He knew better than anyone how much she wanted to make up for all the happy memories she hadn’t been able to share with the babies because they had to stay hidden from the world’s eyes.
Still, the twins’ opinions came first, so Kaoru decided to discuss it with the family for now and said to Rentaro,
"What about President Ichigo?"
"He was busy today so he couldn’t join us, of course, but he did get in touch. President Ichigo was positive about it for now.
Oh, and do you know who called? It wasn’t a PD or even a division head—it was the head of Production Division One himself, calling my personal phone!"
"…"
A public broadcaster’s executive calling the agency head’s personal mobile… just how serious were they…
Rentaro, still trying to calm his racing heart, spoke in an excited voice as if he couldn’t help himself.
"And on top of that… they said your commercials and even all the PPL while filming would be okay too…"
At this point, Kaoru was starting to worry they might soon ask him to join NHK’s board.
When Kaoru let out a low groan, Ai blinked her starlit eyes, thought for a moment, and then casually asked Rentaro,
"Taro, would other people besides our family be appearing too?"
"Ah, if we say yes, they said they’d immediately make an offer to Kurosaki Takuya and his wife, Kubo Shizuka. Seems like they’re thinking across a lot of fields. They’re even considering not just the music world but sports too…"
"Wow~★"
His wife’s starlit eyes sparkled even brighter. From the looks of it, this meant they had been approached first, and no matter how many other people were on the list of future offers, if this side refused, that would be the end of it.
That was probably why the division head, an executive-level figure, had personally called Rentaro to make such an eager love call.
"What do you think? Do you want to do it?"
"Hm? Me? Heheh—if Kaoru’s okay with it, then sure~ It sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it? The station would be coming to film memories of our family, right?"
"Ms. Ai says she’s fine with it."
"…Let’s first hear from the PD about how they plan to film and edit it. Asking the kids for their opinions comes after that."
At Kaoru’s words, Ai smiled and nodded too.
If the PD had any sense, they wouldn’t recklessly barge into someone else’s house and tear it apart under the guise of filming, but since this was a format they’d basically never done before, they needed a proper explanation.
Once Ai agreed with Kaoru, Rentaro nodded, drained the rest of his milk tea, and hurried out, saying he’d contact them by tomorrow.
And then—
"Y-you really don’t need to worry about that!!!!!!!!"
"That’s right! No, I mean, yes! The thing is, technology in this world has gotten so good! Once the cameras are installed, they can move wirelessly in full 360 degrees, and the zoom adjusts itself automatically. It even does facial recognition!"
"You absolutely do not need to worry about privacy or any damage to your children’s image! We’ll review the final cut in full! Of course we’ll put that in the appearance contract!"
"Naturally, our carefully selected writers are also preparing a guideline script designed to be as natural as possible and avoid any harm!"
"As for outdoor filming, if you say the word, we can have a team on standby 24 hours a day from Hokkaido all the way to Miyazaki!"
"Of course, since this is only a pilot, you don’t need to feel pressured about becoming a permanent cast member!"
The CP and two PDs of the ambitiously prepared program [Eyes Full of It! Family of Stars!], their eyes bloodshot as they desperately tried to persuade Kaoru with near-mad intensity, made for a scene that was… not exactly pleasant to watch from a third-party perspective.
Rentaro quietly—
"…What if that camera doesn’t work properly and can’t capture the footage? Do you have a contingency plan? Have you prepared for the possibility that the broadcast might be impossible because the final cut review is delayed?"
—sipped his tea while glancing at Kaoru, who was slicing through the CP and the two PDs with that signature cold, merciless stare that looked like it wouldn’t bleed even if you pricked it with a needle.
Terrifying.
Seeing that heartless side of him brought back the trauma from the day he first met Kaoru, and Rentaro couldn’t help shivering!
After an hour-long interview(?), Kaoru, representing the Hoshino family, finished signing the appearance contract, having personally added special clauses.
Watching the CP, burned out to a crisp, bow deeply to Kaoru and Rentaro before trudging away—
Rentaro patted Kaoru’s shoulder and said,
"Hahaha… Kaoru, you really haven’t changed at all, have you?"
People really don’t change. He was still the same, even after becoming the father of three children and reaching his mid-twenties.
"…What are you talking about?"
"Nothing. Let’s go eat~"
And that night.
After giving the twins the clean final proposal the CP had kindly handed over and explaining everything in detail, Kaoru asked the children for their opinions together with Ai.
Aqua and Ruby thought for a moment, then—
"I think this should be fine. I’ll appear. Father… no, Dad."
He remembered Ai secretly telling him with a smile that Kaoru would be hurt if he started calling him "father" already, so Aqua quickly corrected himself.
"I’ll do it! I’ll do it! Like my brother said, Ruby’s fine with it too~"
Ruby, too, was highly interested and readily agreed to appear on the show. Beneath that was also a buoyant determination to make her face known more widely—but still!
"Ame… hahahaha. If your brother and sister are doing it, then you’ll do it too?"
"Mhm! Mommy—pick me up~!"
"Heheh~♥ Up you go~!"
Even Ame, cradled in Ai’s arms, cheerfully expressed her approval—
"In that case—"
"You’ll do it?"
Ai’s starlit eyes were sparkling, so Kaoru snorted a laugh and nodded.
"It’s the rule of majority vote, isn’t it?"
"Kyaaah~★"
"Kyaaah~ Mama~!!!"
Watching Ai bounce around with Ame in her arms, and Ruby bouncing along just because her mother was excited too, Kaoru finally burst out laughing.
-
Preparations for the shoot and the filming date moved forward quickly and smoothly.
The filming day was set for Saturday, when the three children didn’t have school or kindergarten.
- If you all visit some kind of memorable place together and shoot an outdoor location scene, that would be pretty good for making memories too!
At the young PD’s fervent suggestion, dark circles practically hanging down to his chin, Kaoru and Ai put their heads together for a moment and thought it over—then both of them simultaneously remembered one place and told the PD about it.
To prepare for the shoot, the family even spent some time doing a thorough cleaning together and enjoyed a rare, peaceful stretch of family time.
And at last, the morning of the filming day dawned!
"…"
Kaoru came out of his room dressed in a neat, comfortable long-sleeved top and long pants suitable for wearing at home.
He gave an awkward glance at the staff members installing cameras all over the house except for the bathroom.
For privacy and image-management reasons, they had agreed that sleeping scenes and anything else that violated dignity would not be filmed or would be edited out.
It was early morning, but Kaoru and the rest of the family had already washed up and changed clothes; only their makeup was left undone.
Still.
"…"
Kaoru stared blankly at the camera pointed at him.
So they really were bringing cameras into the house.
Watching the camera that automatically followed him once it recognized him, Kaoru walked over to Ame, who was sitting on the sofa in the living room watching TV with her mother, and sat down beside her.
"Phew."
"You’re up?"
Rather, Ai—who had plenty of variety show experience—opened the conversation naturally and without awkwardness.
Kaoru was about to answer her greeting(?) in kind, but then he let out a snort of laughter and nodded.
"Yeah. You too?"
"…"
"…Kk—"
"Pffft—"
For a moment, the atmosphere was awkward and absurd enough that they both failed to hold back their laughter and turned their heads away at the same time. Ame, who had been watching an animated show on TV, turned around with a look that clearly asked what was going on.
"Why are Mommy and Daddy laughing~? Why~?"
"No, n-nothing. Ame."
"Ahahaha~★ I’ll get the sandwiches ready."
Ai got up from the sofa and trotted into the kitchen.
Last night, the production team and the Kaoru-Ai couple had agreed that breakfast would just be simple sandwiches, and Kaoru would cook lunch.
At first, the PD had suggested that Ai prepare both breakfast and lunch, but Kaoru had silently shaken his head and declared that he would handle lunch himself.
While his wife headed to the kitchen—
Kaoru clicked his tongue at the variety show format he was practically experiencing for the first time.
Was he supposed to juggle the toy ball Ame was playing with in front of the camera? Could they really get broadcast footage just from him sitting here like this?
Even the guideline script the writers had given them was nothing more than: [The family prepares breakfast. Have casual, everyday conversations in a relaxed atmosphere, just like usual.]
Kaoru looked at the camera installed on the shelf beneath the wall-mounted TV that was filming him and Ame.
Kaoru, who in his past life had neither known nor seen a variety show concept like this, was starting to wonder whether appearing on the program had really been the right choice.
"…"
[Wow~ We finally have a baby too~!]
[Amazing, amazing~ So you’re finally a dad~!]
While Kaoru was seriously lost in thought, the voices of the voice actors drifted out from the children’s anime airing on TV.
Ame’s eyes sparkled as she stared at the screen, then she suddenly tilted her head.
A baby?
She was four years old, a child full of curiosity about everything in the world.
Ame looked at the TV, then turned to stare at her father, who was thinking deeply about something.
"Daddy~!"
Kaoru, who had been worrying about how to lead the family as a father and as the head of the household, snapped out of his thoughts at Ame’s call and looked at his youngest daughter with a smile.
"What is it, sweetheart?"
Just looking at his beloved youngest daughter’s bright, shining eyes made his heart ease on its own. Kaoru picked Ame up and held her close, then kissed her on the forehead.
At that kiss, full of her father’s love, Ame let out a delighted little laugh and pointed at the TV.
"Um~ how are babies made?"
Hearing Ame’s question, Kaoru’s gaze instantly drifted far, far away.
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