"Hm-hm-hmm~★"
What could possibly have made her so happy? The child hummed a tune as she smiled and placed a slice of pan-fried homemade ham onto a piece of white bread.
Her hands were busy making snacks for Ruby and Ame after they came home from school, but—
"...Heh-heh-heh-★"
She just couldn’t stop the smile from slipping out.
Maybe because she had something good to look forward to, her cooking skills had improved by leaps and bounds too; the ham was nicely browned, and the bread was toasted to a perfect golden color.
Ruby and Ame, sitting in their dining chairs and staring blankly at their mother’s cute, lovable expression as bright starlight floated around her, turned to look at each other and nodded at the same time.
"Yeah. Just as I thought—!"
"Yeah. You thought so too, sis?"
"Yeah. Right. It’s because Mama and Papa’s shoot is tomorrow!"
"Ehehe- Sis is smart!"
Ruby couldn’t resist Ame, who was acting adorable like a baby bird, and pulled her tightly into her arms, rubbing their cheeks together over and over.
The sisters, having figured out the reason their mother seemed so much happier than usual, wore identical smiles as they said, beaming.
"I’m jealous. I want to know what it feels like to appear in a drama with Papa or my brother too..."
Of course, she had appeared in one after accepting Gotanda’s request—a casting offer, really—but it hadn’t been a relationship where they acted all sweet and lovey-dovey like this.
Whether she understood Ruby’s disappointed feelings or not, Ame rested her chin on both hands like a flower and looked up at her sister.
"Ame thought about it, and— it’d probably be just like being in the same class as sis! Going to school together every day, playing together, and~ yeah~"
"...Kyaaah- Ame is so cute~♥"
Unable to hold back again, Ruby hugged Ame tightly and rubbed her head.
Though it might have felt suffocating under her sister’s fierce embrace, Ame instead held Ruby back just as tightly and basked in the warmth.
After eating the delicious sandwiches made by their beloved mother, time passed and evening came—
"I’m home! Mom, here— flowers."
"Eeeeee—!?"
Aqua, who came home with their father, smiled bashfully and handed their mother a bouquet decorated with beautiful flowers in vivid colors like poinsettias and phlox.
Completely unprepared for her son’s surprise gift, the child who had been standing dazed in the entryway only belatedly let her starry eyes sparkle and accepted the bouquet.
Standing beside their mother, Ruby and Ame stared at the bouquet with equally startled rabbit eyes, then simultaneously sent sparkling looks toward their brother, who had prepared the surprise event.
Whether he knew it or not, Aqua scratched his cheek and gave an embarrassed smile under the strange looks from his younger sisters, who were watching him as the only one who had prepared a surprise event.
"Tomorrow’s your first shoot with Dad, right? So... I wanted to celebrate it. Do you like the flowers?"
"Yes-! Wow— they’re so, so pretty..."
"Looks like Mom being so surprised made the thirty minutes I spent agonizing over it worth it?"
When Kaoru patted his son’s shoulder and grinned teasingly, the child who had heard that he’d worried over it for thirty minutes opened her mouth slightly in shock.
He must have been tired from theater troupe rehearsals, and hungry too since it was evening.
Her husband had also just finished filming and must have been utterly exhausted.
So grateful and so astonished that tears welled faintly in her brilliant starry eyes, the child wore an expression that seemed on the verge of crying and laughing at once, then nodded vigorously and said,
"Uu— thank you, Aqua— I’m, Mom— I’m so, so happy...! I’m the happiest mom in the world! Uuuuu—"
"Ah! Mom, don’t cry?!"
Totally flustered by the reaction of his favorite mother, who hugged him tightly and shed tears of joy, Aqua didn’t know what to do and hurriedly patted her back.
"Mom, don’t cry! Ame will hug you!"
"Ah, Ruby too!"
Ruby and Ame hurried to join in and hugged her tightly as well.
The child, embraced by her beloved children, sniffled through her tears but then burst into laughter, as if the situation itself was amusing.
The bouquet event, filled with filial devotion and love, came to an end, and the family’s happy dinner was finished.
And then, late at night.
"Hehe~★"
The child, having placed the lovely flowers Aqua had gifted her into a pretty vase and set it on the vanity, sat on the bed smiling.
Was this what it felt like to be so full just from looking?
Her beloved son’s surprise gift, and the warm embrace of her two daughters as well.
The child thought, her starry eyes sparkling, that today would become a day she would never forget.
"You were looking at the flowers?"
"Mm!"
Kaoru, who had returned to the bedroom after putting Amber to sleep, sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the child gazing at the flowers.
If there were a face that could be called 100% satisfied, this would be his wife’s expression right now—she was truly, sincerely happy and delighted.
Kaoru, deciding that once the flowers wilted he’d dry them and keep them separately, sat beside Ai, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and pulled her into his arms.
"Hey, Kaoru."
"Mm?"
"I... used to get confused a lot about what it really meant to become a mother— yeah! But now I finally know for sure."
"Know for sure?"
"[Tears]... maybe?"
The child rubbed her face against her husband’s warm chest as she spoke.
"I cried because I was happy. In the past, even when I was sad, sometimes I’d just laugh instead. But after becoming a 『mother』, I don’t hate that anymore. If anything, I’m happy."
"......"
"The child is the happiest [mother] in the world."
Kaoru, whose heart had been deeply soaked by his wife’s words, quietly lifted a hand and gently stroked her soft hair.
The small-bodied wife, like a rabbit searching for even more warmth, burrowed deeper into his arms.
Finding his cute wife’s behavior adorable, Kaoru decided to add one more line.
"Then, of course I’m..."
Warm blue eyes held his wife and bloomed into a smile.
"The happiest [father] in the world. And the [husband], too?"
"...Puh-heh— heeheehee— You know what? Ah, right! You’re also the happiest [younger brother] in the world~?"
Finding her husband’s joke cute, the child playfully pinched Kaoru’s cheek.
No matter how terrifying his past life as some scary agent uncle may have been, the man hugging her right now was her beloved husband, one year younger than her—so what was the big deal!
But— that little bit of banter had lit a fire in her husband’s heart, and she didn’t know it.
"Well. I do know that. And..."
The child didn’t know.
"Kyaa?!"
Skillfully and lightly.
Kaoru laid his wife’s small body down and climbed on top of her, wearing a wicked smile.
Oh no!
As Kaoru’s vividly shining blue eyes looked down at her, the child had turned into a tiny rabbit and was at a loss for words—
"I’m also the [man] who’ll make you the happiest [woman] in the world?"
"U... uuu?! K-Kaoru?!"
Tomorrow morning was the first shoot, y-yet?!
But honestly, the words she couldn’t quite get out because her pounding heartbeat blocked them in the end—
The child swallowed them down with her fluttering heart instead.
-
The next morning. A convenience store in Shibuya, the filming location.
"Ah, ah-choo! Agh— sniffle—"
Director Gotanda suddenly sneezed, grabbed a tissue from the table, and roughly wiped his nose.
He didn’t think drama shoots were tiring, but had he been unknowingly overworking his body?
He vaguely remembered something he’d once heard—that you don’t catch colds in May and June—but that wasn’t the important thing.
"Hmm......"
This was the very moment they had prepared with deep care, checking the cue sheet without pause and holding meetings with the cinematographer and other key staff.
It was Aqua and Kaoru’s first face-to-face scene!
The staff, too, seemed to understand the symbolism and weight of it, and the tension in the air felt even higher than usual.
"...Hm."
Director Gotanda checked the time on his wristwatch.
He’d been told the Kaoi couple would arrive soon, and since both actors were veterans, once they finished getting ready they could start shooting at least thirty minutes earlier than scheduled.
A filming set had all kinds of variables, but Director Gotanda already had enough experience, age, and know-how to control them to some extent.
Rubbing his rough, unshaven beard, Director Gotanda picked up a pen and checked today’s script once more.
‘If I’m going to direct this properly, I can’t slack off as a director.’
Because they were a real married couple, the moment they acted opposite each other, their actual habits and mannerisms could leak out without them realizing it.
As a veteran director, the most important thing was to correct that and direct the actors in real time.
With a bored-looking face that nevertheless held the sharp eye of a hawk, Director Gotanda mentally laid out each scene of the drama he had drawn and played it out in his head.
Then a voice came flying into his ears, adding fuel to his burning artistic passion.
"They’ve arrived!"
"Okay."
Before long, the child, having finished makeup and changed into costume, entered the convenience store and greeted the staff.
"Hello~★ Wow~"
Kaoru followed right behind, entering the convenience store, greeting the staff, and walking toward Director Gotanda.
"I heard you didn’t go home last night and slept in the office?"
"...I’m a director. Either way, I’m the kind of guy who sleeps latest and wakes up first."
"Haha..."
At Director Gotanda’s words, which somehow carried a very determined air, Kaoru gave an awkward laugh.
It was definitely the wise choice not to mention that he’d stayed up until 2 a.m. with his wife, whose starry eyes had been sparkling at the mochi cream roll on the display shelf.
"Well, anyway. Once we start shooting, show me something real. Not just me— everyone here is looking forward to it."
"...Yes."
Kaoru lifted his blue eyes to look at his wife and gave a slight nod.
The person who wanted to match acting with his wife more than anyone else was none other than Kaoru himself.
"Director! Can I buy this? I’ll eat it quickly before filming starts!"
Of course, the child who couldn’t resist the sweetness of the mochi cream roll would be the same.
At the sight of her pointing at the mochi cream roll with her starry eyes sparkling like a hamster’s, Director Gotanda quietly told the assistant director standing beside him,
"...Tell the manager to ring that up for her."
"Yes, Director."
After the child’s little snack break was over, Kaoru also began filming, feeling the moist softness of the mochi cream roll his wife had fed him one bite at a time.
Though he bore the surname of his in-laws, 「Fukumoto Hiroki」, his original name was 「Matsukura Hiroki」.
Since the reason Matsukura Hiroki had returned to Japan was to attend the funeral of a high school friend he had been close with, after hearing that the friend had died by suicide following a failed business venture—
"..."
Kaoru, getting one final makeup touch-up from the staff, slowly raised his emotions outside the convenience store.
Through the convenience store window, he could see his wife also receiving makeup touch-ups while reciting her lines with a calm expression, unlike before.
"Hah."
Quietly memorizing the script in his head, Kaoru thought once more.
After paying his respects at the funeral and heading toward Shibuya, where his father-in-law’s company branch was located, he had happened to stop by the arcade he used to go to with that friend long ago—but it had already disappeared and been replaced by a convenience store.
Just like himself, who had changed, everything about the place soaked in memories had changed too.
Though lunchtime was not far off, he was still alone at the Shibuya branch.
There was no chance his wife would pack him a lunchbox, and inside the company, Hiroki lived by keeping a wall between himself and the employees, choosing solitude. The same was true for the other employees.
For him, who had lived lonely and without support, the convenience store lunch set that replaced the vanished arcade was—
a kind of memorial mark for a friend who had turned his back on the world in pain and tragedy, and a device that expressed the self-destructive state of his exhausted mind.
At that moment, 「Aizawa Honoka」 appears in his life.
A radiant presence like a ray of light, warming the lonely and cold life of 「Matsukura Hiroki」, who had no light at all, like a comforting meal.
Kaoru belatedly realized that he was smiling while looking at the child without meaning to, and awkwardly cleared his throat as he adjusted his glasses.
"..."
He was once again made keenly aware that Director Gotanda really was... observing the relationship between him and the child in depth.
"...Good. Stand by."
Director Gotanda’s voice rang out.
The child pressed her lips together slightly and fidgeted with her fingers.
Outside the convenience store, beyond the window, she could see her husband standing there in a suit.
His dazzling blond hair glittered in the sunlight, and though he wore glasses, his clear blue eyes still shone as brightly as ever.
Looking at her husband, the child remembered the conversation she’d just had with Director Gotanda.
‘Just like the director said... he’s a stranger. While we’re filming, he’s a stranger.’
Director Gotanda kept warning them over and over.
During filming, he was not 『Kamiki Kaoru』, her husband and the father of her babies, but 「Matsukura Hiroki」, a complete stranger she had never met before.
And absolutely not 『Hoshino Ai』, but 「Aizawa Honoka」.
The child understood that. Maybe she was the one paying even more attention to it than Director Gotanda was.
Only—
"Action!"
At Director Gotanda’s cue, Kaoru walked in from outside and entered through the convenience store’s automatic doors.
"Welcome!"
The child, having just finished stocking the shelves and returned to the counter, smiled and greeted Kaoru as he came in.
But Kaoru merely swept a complicated gaze over the inside of the convenience store and did not answer her greeting.
Silently, with a shadowed face, he walked over and stood in front of the lunchbox section.
"......"
Director Gotanda, checking Kaoru’s acting through the camera, stroked his beard.
Kaoru, immersed in emotion as he looked at the displayed lunchboxes, picked one up and walked toward the counter.
In truth, since this was an act of recalling a lost place soaked in memories rather than a means of filling his stomach, the lunchbox menu itself was not very important to 「Matsukura Hiroki」.
Director Gotanda watched the two of them standing face-to-face at the counter with a sharp, unusual glint in his eyes.
It was a very important scene in which Honoka, who also lived a lonely life with no light, recognized Hiroki, who lived alone without a single ray of light, and spoke to him first.
"Hello!"
"......."
Kaoru placed only a single 400-yen lunchbox on the counter, with nothing else.
She greeted Kaoru again and, wearing a gentle smile, rang up the lunchbox.
"That will be 410 yen."
"...."
Kaoru, who had been about to take his wallet out from inside his suit to pay with cash, suddenly remembered and touched his empty chest pocket.
In the confusion, he had left his wallet in the car, and embarrassment clouded Kaoru’s blue eyes.
He awkwardly shifted his gaze, bit his lip slightly, and spoke his line while looking at the child.
"S-sorry. My wallet... I left my wallet in the car."
"Ah... it’s okay..."
For a moment, the child’s starry eyes stared straight at Kaoru.
Those starry eyes shone brilliantly, like the evening star in the night sky.
It was the first time they were acting together, and the first time she had looked into her husband’s eyes this closely—so—
"..."
Kaoru found himself losing immersion, his world wavering as he looked into his wife’s eyes without meaning to.
They were supposed to be strangers.
The wariness and awkwardness toward a stranger belonged to the child.
The guilt and remorse toward his dead friend, and the ceaseless fear of life, belonged to him.
That was how an 「actor」 should be.
In any situation. Even if it meant acting in his underwear on the summit of Mount Fuji.
He had to immerse himself in the role without wavering and bring an unreal, fictional person into reality, making others 'believe' they existed.
But—
This feeling.
The everyday moment between husband and wife that Director Gotanda had spoken of— had, in an instant, leaked out with a hiss like carbonation escaping from a soda can’s opening.
Kaoru and Ai’s gazes collided in the air at the same time, as if by prior agreement, and tangled together.
These were absolutely not the eyes of strangers meeting for the first time.
Their eyes were too warm. It was obvious they were trying desperately to find something familiar about each other.
Director Gotanda, who had been watching the two of them with a sharp gaze, slowly closed his eyes and let out a sigh.
‘Ha... I had a feeling.’
Forty percent of him had expected otherwise, sixty percent had expected this.
The fierce tug-of-war of weights had finally been decided.
He had thought he understood Kaoru and Ai’s relationship well enough as someone close to them—but no.
Their real relationship was deeper and more intense than he had imagined.
So intense that it erased even the mindset a veteran 「actor」 uses to separate work from private life—
So intense that even 『Kamiki Kaoru』 himself, looking at his wife and working on a project with her, had, for the first time in his life, failed miserably with a meaningless NG.
It was that deep and that intense.
Dammit, if you’re going to give off the look of someone who’s really met their fated partner, at least wait a little longer!
Clicking his tongue with a sharp "tch," Director Gotanda shouted toward the Kaoi couple, who had gone red-faced, were staring at each other, and couldn’t even get their lines out.
"Stop pretending otherwise and do it again! I’m not asking for a full-blown married-couple fight, so just go out there and have a decent argument!"
"Hahahahaha!"
At Director Gotanda’s signature cynical order, the surrounding staff couldn’t hold back their laughter.
The person observing the two actors with such fascination wasn’t only Director Gotanda, so the staff from the filming team handling the making-of footage were already blooming with laughter.
Of course...
"S-sorryyyyy..."
Embarrassed at having perfectly carried out the very mistake she had been so careful to avoid, the child covered her face with both hands, her cheeks blazing red—
And Kaoru, who likewise couldn’t bear the embarrassment and had his ears red in a way unlike his usual self, looked at the child and gave an awkward, bashful laugh.
It was, beyond question, the best sight imaginable.
"Haa..."
Forcing down the loneliness washing over him, Director Gotanda leaned back against the chair and quietly let out a sigh.
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