"Ehehe! Daddy’s so funny!"
"Puhaha! Papa, your hair tied up with rubber bands looks weird, so it’s even funnier!"
"...Haha."
After feeding them a delicious omelet rice, Kaoru, as always, became the toy(?) of his two mischievous daughters at home.
Ame had apparently learned a hair-tying trick from her friends at school, and since her son was busy helping her wife take care of Amber, she had chosen the easy target(?)—him—as her test subject.
Of course, Ruby came out of her room to drink milk and completely polluted(...) Ame’s demonstration of skill.
"Heehee- Papa, here’s a mirror!"
"......"
Kaoru looked at his own beautiful and sensational hairstyle through the makeup mirror Ruby brought him, tears of laughter welling in her eyes, and let out a snort of laughter.
She had gathered his bangs with rubber bands and tied them up, and done the same to the side hair, the back hair, even the crown whorl... It had become a bizarre hairstyle, sticking out in all directions like a sprout.
Honestly, even to someone like him who wasn’t suited for variety shows or comedy...
This tomboyish sprout Ruby and Ame had made together was pretty funny.
"Hahaha... At this rate, maybe Dad could debut as a comedian?"
"Kyahaha!"
At her father’s limp muttering while looking in the mirror, Ruby rolled on the sofa laughing, clutching her stomach.
Not wanting to miss the chance, Ame ran out from the room with her smartphone and started taking pictures.
"Daddy! Ame will take your picture! Give me a V sign! V~"
"...!"
A photo too!?
But Kaoru was moved by the good-heartedness of his beloved youngest daughter, who was precious enough to make him want to keep her in his eyes forever, wanting to preserve even this ridiculous 모습 as a treasured memory.
To respond, he gently looked into Ame’s smartphone camera and smiled.
Click click—As Ame, transformed into a photographer, tapped the screen and took pictures, Ruby, who had been lying on the sofa and barely calming her laughter, refused to lose and stood up, jumping into her father’s broad arms.
"Papa! Ruby wants one too! I can’t miss Papa’s cool side!"
"C-cool?"
"Yeah! Even if your hair’s sticking up everywhere, Papa’s still the coolest in the world. A little funny, though—puhihit!"
"!"
At the praise from his filial(?) daughter Ruby, Kaoru’s blue eyes sparked brightly, throwing off red [star light].
The magic words from a daughter that make every father in the world flap his wings.
Kaoru watched Ruby, who had leaned her face against his chest and was taking a selfie with a cute expression exactly like her mother’s, and then—
"Heh."
He threw up a V sign and, with the charismatic gaze befitting the greatest actor of the age, looked into Ruby’s smartphone.
Satisfied. Satisfied. More than satisfied!
Kaoru’s lips curved into a faint smile. He wanted to always be a cool dad to his daughter, a third-year middle school girl.
Click click
"Pout! Ame wants to take one too!"
When Ame, having had her father stolen by her older sister, puffed out her cheeks just like her mother and stomped her feet, Kaoru quickly opened both arms to soothe his cute youngest daughter’s jealousy.
"Come on! Our Ame can come to Daddy too!"
"Okay! Hehehe-♥"
Ruby tactfully moved aside so Ame could leap into her father’s wide embrace.
Ruby took the chance to gently squeeze Ame’s plump, soft cheeks, which looked like water dumplings.
"Pfft—did big sis give in to me?"
"Hehe-♥ Thank you, Ruby unni!"
"...Kyaaah! Ame, you’re way too cute—☆ Muah muah muah!"
"Waaah—sister, I can’t breathe!"
While Kaoru was spending happy time holding his beloved two daughters in his arms—
Ai was quietly putting Amber to sleep in the small room with the bed.
Hearing the voices of her husband and daughters laughing and chattering in the living room, Ai smiled to herself and looked at Aqua beside her.
"Eee~ Are the three of them playing some super fun game?"
"..."
Aqua instantly walked to the door, gently opened it, and peeked outside the living room.
Then, two seconds later, he shut the door and came back to his mother.
"No. It’s the usual."
The usual!
Sensing the many layers of meaning in those words, Ai nodded, her starry eyes sparkling.
Our family is always the same, I guess—★
"Aha~ Yeah~ If you’re bored, Aqua, you can go out and play too. Mom’s going to stay here and keep watching Amber-chan."
"I-I’ll stay here. You’re tired from today’s shoot."
At her son’s adorable behavior, sticking close to her side just like his father, Ai couldn’t help but let out a chuckle.
If Ruby was like a sunflower that always gave beautiful love unchanged, Aqua was like a big tree that bent down to shelter you when it rained.
"Puhuhu- Mom’s fine though~"
A wonderful, handsome son who took care of his studies, the troupe, his younger siblings as the eldest son, and even helped with housework.
When her husband was away for a while.
Her precious son stood firmly by her side in his place.
Ai, wearing a deeply content smile, reached out and stroked Aqua’s shining blond hair with a hand full of warm love.
"Thanks to our Aqua... yeah~ Mom always feels reassured. Thank you!"
When his beloved mother, his beloved oshi, stroked his hair, Aqua’s face instantly turned red, and he muttered in a shy voice.
"...N-no, it’s nothing special..."
Even while embarrassed, her teenage son never avoided his mother’s loving pat on the head.
Ruby, on the other hand, would burrow into her arms and act cute, demanding affection.
But Aqua was different. Just like his father, he was usually indifferent, but when it came to this kind of skinship, he couldn’t hide that he secretly liked it even while feeling embarrassed.
How adorable her affectionate daughter was, and how adorable her different son’s shy reaction was!
Looking at Aqua’s reddened face, Ai smiled and said, "Hee~ Aqua, your face is red? Puhuhut—your embarrassed expression is really just like your dad’s, you know?"
"..."
It wasn’t as if he had done it to get praised.
For the promise he had failed to keep in his past life. And to protect the beloved oshi and his family.
It was just something Aqua had been quietly doing on his own, with his own sense of responsibility and guilt...
But still... being praised really did make him feel like he was floating.
Still awkwardly scratching his cheek, Aqua stared at Amber, who was peacefully walking through dreamland, and then—
"...How was the last shoot?"
He remembered how, at dinner, his mother had brought up [Arima Kana] and said she had been sad to see it end.
He was curious, and also trying to shake off his own awkwardness, which was why he hurriedly asked the question.
But Ai, hearing the words "last shoot," blinked her starry eyes for a moment and tilted her head.
Since Aqua had casually omitted the subject, she had taken the words exactly as they were and stored them in her head.
"Huh? Eee, Aqua~! Mom’s not at her last shoot yet?"
"...Ah, s-sorry, I meant Kana, the last shoot with Arima! Sorry."
"Heh~ I was just thinking it was strange. There’s no way our Aqua wouldn’t know Mom’s schedule."
What!
Aqua pressed his lips together and blushed.
As if he wouldn’t know the schedule of his oshi, as her son!
In his head, not only the drama shooting schedule but even the weekly schedules for exercise like Pilates and yoga were already entered in full!
He didn’t bother saying that if he wasn’t this thorough, Ruby would scold him.
Anyway, Ai looked quietly at Amber, who was sleeping soundly, then turned back to her son with a face full of starry smiles.
"Kana-chan told Mom this. She said she learned and experienced a lot during the time they spent together. She’d been embarrassed all this time, and kind of... how should I put it? She was awkward around Mom! Mom wanted Kana-chan to do her best, so even though I knew, I kept going closer and closer to cheer her up..."
"..."
A quiet, calm voice.
The twelve-year-old girl had now become the mother of four children, and had grown into an [adult] who knew how to soothe the heart of a girl who couldn’t be honest with herself.
"Actually, I’m not very good at that kind of thing. But when I saw Kana-chan, Mom just wanted to do it!"
The girl only a year older than Ruby. Proud, and on set always seen as an unshakable, spirited, strong genius child actress, that was how everyone else saw her too.
But to Ai’s eyes, she looked completely different.
Arima Kana’s heart, anxious, wavering, and unable to love herself, was nothing but a dark night sky.
"It wasn’t only Kana-chan who learned and gained experience. Mom did too. Mom had such a fun, happy time. I learned so, so much from that child, from Kana-chan!"
She had never approached Kana with some grand ambition to become her light.
She simply wanted to become one.
An [adult] that young Kana could, even for a moment, even just for a little while, put down her dark feelings and lean on.
And.
She also really, really wanted to tell her that there were so many, many people who loved and cherished her, the one who blamed herself for being "alone."
Brightly shining starry eyes. And the warm-colored [sincerity] overflowing within them.
For a moment, Aqua quietly gazed at his mother.
He remembered the countless vows he had made to himself on the hospital rooftop that day.
That proud, confident voice declaring she would seize everything—her mother’s life, an idol’s life, all of it.
His oshi, his mother, was still shining brilliantly by her own power just like she had on that day fifteen years ago, like a [morning star] in the night sky.
And once again, Aqua’s heart and emotions began to tremble violently as he felt that.
That his beloved mother, his beloved oshi, had successfully finished filming with Arima Kana, perfectly satisfied.
A faint smile, exactly like his father’s, spread softly at the corners of Aqua’s mouth.
"She cried a lot when they said goodbye, but they promised to meet Kana-chan again... Ah, right!"
Ai gently clapped her hands so as not to wake Amber, then took Aqua’s hand and said, her starry eyes sparkling, "I’m pretty sure Kana-chan, just like Akane-chan, will become a good [big sister] for our Ruby?"
"...Huh?"
A good [big sister]?
Aqua already knew that Ruby, because of her bad history with Kana from childhood, didn’t think very highly of her and ranked her at the absolute bottom of the dislike scale.
So he missed the timing to react, unable to deny it or agree with it.
How did the conclusion end up there, Mother!?
Was silence agreement? Misreading Aqua’s reaction, Ai nodded with a very satisfied smile.
"Yeah~ Come to think of it, Kana-chan and Akane-chan are totally opposite in style and personality, aren’t they? Both of them are kind and sincere, so I thought it’d be nice if they could become good older sisters for Ruby-chan. The two of them would definitely get along. Same agency... Ah! If I ask Dad, that’ll work!"
"A-ask him?"
"Yeah! If we all get together and have dinner, Ruby, Kana-chan, and Akane-chan might get closer! Puhuhu- I think it’d be fun."
No!
Nooooo!
You absolutely must not do that!
Aqua’s expression stiffened rapidly, like someone whose country had been taken away.
His blue eyes shook violently, and he unconsciously felt his lips go dry. Aqua licked them and frantically spun his genius brain to stop his mother.
It was an open secret(?) that the kind-hearted Akane had a very bad impression of Kana, something even that oddball Taiki had noticed.
As for Kana... they hadn’t met many times, but as Ai said, she wasn’t honest with her feelings and had a very strong pride.
In any case, their relationship was extremely complicated(?), so if Ruby, Akane, and Kana met, it was obvious that an unexpected conflict would arise.
Even if they smiled and acted friendly in front of the adults, in the end the one who would get crushed while stuck between the two people who would reveal their true colors—maybe three people—would be...
'Me.'
He hated that.
The one thing he had learned from social life in his past life was that there was no path more full of thorns than being the third party stuck in the middle.
Of course he would have to side with his precious and beloved little sister Ruby, and he would also have to consider Akane’s position as a close colleague and partner from the same troupe.
On the other hand, Kana was the most dangerous person of all, and there was the crucial fact that she had become acquainted with his mother through this drama shoot, who had taken a great liking to her.
And in any case, his own relationship with Kana had also, for some reason, become strangely frequent in terms of face-to-face encounters lately, so if it was a persistent connection, one could objectively call it a "persistent connection," which made it hard to simply turn away and draw a line.
Besides... easy to overlook, but something that absolutely had to be kept under close watch was the fact that Kana and Akane were child actresses under his father’s agency...
In other words, they were colleagues eating from the same pot, and junior members directly under his father’s agency.
The whole thing was so tangled it felt like some drama character relationship chart, and he couldn’t help but shudder.
In this life, he had vowed to live a life of peace and happiness, full of milk and honey, together with Ruby.
The only way to avoid touching the tripwire tangled up with all those complicated detonators and end the situation early was...
'I have to... persuade Mother...!'
Aqua, sincerely weeping blood in pain over his own wicked(?) behavior that would ruin his beloved oshi’s plan for a happy future!
But if this road was the only path toward a future where everyone could be happy...
Even if he had to shoulder all the blame, whip his own back, and be judged for his sins...
At last, Aqua made a grand, decisive resolution and opened his mouth, his blue starry eyes shining with determination.
"Th... Mo—"
"Waaaaaah~"
"Huh!? Amber-chan woke up~! Uu~ Mom’s here! Uwa uwa~★ Hush hush~"
"......"
He was ruined.
Just when the youngest, Amber, had been sleeping soundly, she woke up at the most perfect timing and burst into tears.
After all the arduous process of worry and judgment this older brother had gone through before making his decision...
And now it had all turned to foam and vanished.
Aqua shut his eyes tightly and imagined himself helplessly floundering in the dark, cruel future he had failed to prevent...
"Yeah~ Puhuhu~ She fell asleep again~★ Milkie-woo~"
As expected of a veteran who had raised three children with her own hands, Ai held Amber in her arms and patted her expertly, wearing a triumphant smile.
Like magic, the whining Amber slipped back into dreamland.
Ai carefully laid Amber back down in the bed and let out a relieved "Phew~"
And then.
"But honestly, no matter how much I think about it, I just can’t figure out when or how to set the schedule."
Looking at Aqua, who was staring blankly at her, Ai tapped her lips with the index finger of her right hand and shook her head.
She was worried that Akane and Kana were both busy with their own schedules, making it hard to find time.
And when Aqua finally realized that, he quickly nodded.
"Yes. I think it’d be better to think it through slowly. The drama shoot isn’t over yet, and Ruby and I still have to prepare for high school entrance exams, right?"
"Hehe, Aqua’s right! If you rush something this important, it’s the textbook recipe for things going wrong, isn’t it?"
"Haha. That’s true."
Aqua smiled in relief at his cute mother, whose starry eyes were sparkling.
Ai smiled back at her son and hugged Aqua tightly, patting his back.
"Hehe- It reminds me of when you were little, Aqua."
"When I was sleeping?"
"Yeah! Aqua was this tiny too, just like Amber-chan. You slept well, and you ate your milk well too. If I laid you down next to Ruby, the two of you would even look at each other, remember?"
"Wow! Really? That’s amazing."
"Yeah! Isn’t it amazing? Ah! And..."
At Aqua’s amazed reaction, as the memories of his newborn days had grown hazier while he gradually awakened to this life as he grew up, Ai broke into a bright smile and whispered, telling him stories from his childhood in a small voice like she was reading him a book.
Things he already remembered. Things already forgotten. There were blurry parts too.
But Aqua, blooming with a happy smile at the childhood stories his beloved mother was telling him about himself and Ruby, sank into old memories.
The Hoshino family’s spectacular night passed peacefully.
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