By the time the twins had settled into kindergarten and summer had begun, the film Kaoru had shot, [Wolf Tail], had finished every stage of production and held its preview screening.
The movie was an action thriller about a young police officer from the Metropolitan Police Department who gets caught up in a massive conspiracy, is framed for murder, and goes on the run. With a USB drive containing the "evidence" needed to expose the people above him and prove his innocence as collateral, he fights with his life on the line.
The response at the preview screening was very good. The story was somewhat predictable, but the long takes used in the chase scenes, the car chases, and the sharp cuts and direction that kept the tension and immersion high throughout the relatively short 105-minute runtime made it a strong summer action film.
With a long-awaited action thriller finally hitting theaters, audiences flooded in, and critics and film magazines alike showered Kaoru’s new performance with praise. The box office was looking bright.
For Kaoru, it was a proud moment that proved to the public, beyond any doubt, that his marriage to Ai and the existence of their twins were no longer flaws.
Of course, at the private VIP screening where Ai and the twins watched the film with him...
"Wooooah- Kaoru runs so fast!☆"
"M-my heart is pounding...!"
"Papa, you’re so cool!"
Every time Kaoru appeared on screen, they watched with shining eyes, utterly absorbed. They had always trusted his acting, but the human emotion he showed here—fear and helplessness mixed together as he faced a huge power with nothing to his name—hit the three of them like a shock.
When Kaoru, covered in dirt and sweat with blood running down his head from an injury, hesitated after the villain tried to tempt him, the carefully calculated emotional arc created an immersion so strong that...
"Hoo..."
Even Aquamarine, who had already figured out how the movie would end, sat there blankly with his hands clasped, holding his breath in suspense.
While Ai, Aquamarine, and Ruby were so absorbed in the movie that they forgot all about the popcorn and even the cola they were drinking,
"......"
Kaoru quietly scratched his cheek, a little embarrassed, and watched his family’s reactions. He hadn’t been able to watch [You in the Time That Falls Like Rain] together with them, since that was before he revealed they were family, so this was the first time they had ever seen his acting in a theater together.
Kaoru had never paid much attention to other people’s acting evaluations, or even to the opinions of a famous Japanese critic.
But for some reason, he kept watching to see how Ai and the twins would react to every scene he appeared in.
So this was the heart of a husband and father who always wanted to look cool!!!
Still... seeing his family enjoy it so much was adorable and made him grateful, and Kaoru couldn’t help smiling.
Not long after the film’s release, Ai’s new drama, [Coming Closer to You: Love Line School], also began airing for the first time at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday.
It was a drama about a cheerful country girl who transfers into a prestigious girls’ school in Tokyo, a school attended only by daughters of the upper class, after receiving a recommendation letter from an unknown person. Even while being ostracized and looked down on, she stubbornly pursues her journey to become student council president.
True to Ai’s star power, the production committee backed it heavily and major corporate sponsors poured in funding, so the overall quality of the drama was excellent.
More than anything, the awkwardness that often came with school dramas was softened by the director’s stylish touch, a story that never felt stale, and Ai’s outstanding character performance. The show exploded with a record-setting 15 percent rating from just its first episode.
It was also another moment that proudly proved to the public that Ai’s marriage to Kaoru and the existence of their twins were no longer flaws.
Of course, it went without saying that the Hoshino family TV was included in that 15 percent.
- My dream is...
Aquamarine swallowed hard. Ruby clasped her hands together. Kaoru, too, held the twins tightly in his arms and stared at the TV.
"Heheh☆"
The actual lead, Ai, only smiled, leaned against Kaoru’s shoulder, and calmly munched on Häagen-Dazs. She already knew what the next line would be, so she was looking forward to her family’s reactions.
Ai’s face on the TV was suddenly shown in close-up, and with her starlight eyes shining brilliantly, she smiled and called out with a grin.
- ...to become the student council president of this school!
- Eeeh!?
With the startled faces of the young ladies and the swelling OST, a short trailer appeared.
At Ai’s performance, which made a powerful impression from the very first episode and captured viewers instantly, the twins’ eyes sparkled as they threw their hands up and cheered.
"As expected... Mom’s acting is the best in the world...!"
"If the girls’ school where Mama becomes student council president is real, Ruby could go there forever!!"
After slipping out of Kaoru’s arms, the twins puffed out their noses in excitement and praised Ai’s acting, and at their cute, adorable cries—
"Heeey-?! Really? Aquamarine and Ruby praising me makes me sooooo happy-♥"
Ai gave them a big hug, then even pulled Kaoru in beside them and hugged him too.
"Wait—fine, then!"
Kaoru immediately played along with his wife’s generous embrace as she boldly hugged him too, despite her small frame.
"Heave-ho!"
Kaoru spread his long arms wide, gathered all three of them into his broad embrace, and fell backward onto the floor.
Thanks to that, Ai and the twins were all trapped in Kaoru’s arms, letting out delighted cries.
"Kyaaaah-♥"
"Heheh! Papa, I can’t breathe~!"
"Uwoooah-!"
At the joyful cries of his wife and twins, Kaoru smiled happily at the warmth and comforting weight in his arms.
Then the next day, the twins who arrived at Shiroyama Gakuin Kindergarten were in for a shock.
"Aqua-chan! Ruby-chan! Yesterday’s drama was sooooo fun!"
"I want to go to a girls’ school and become student council president too!"
"I’m so jealous! I wish my mom was pretty and kind like Aqua-chan and Ruby-chan’s mom!"
"Give me an autograph! An autograph!"
Because of [Coming Closer to You: Love Line School], which had aired just the day before, their kindergarten friends all rushed over to Aquamarine and Ruby at once.
They were the children of business leaders, entertainers, athletes, politicians, and other top professionals, but in the end, families all seemed to gather around the TV the same way, and every one of them had sparkling eyes.
They were still young kindergarteners, but it was only natural that they would envy the twins, who had the most famous, youngest, and prettiest idol mother in the world.
What’s more, as the 15 percent rating proved, most of their classmates swarmed around Ruby like a cloud, each of them chattering nonstop about the drama they had watched the day before.
"Hah, hahahaha! Of course! Mama’s beautiful looks and incredible acting are already way beyond the heavens! You guys have good eyes, even though you’re still little~!"
Ruby had been flustered at first by her friends’ unexpectedly passionate reaction, but after all the praise for her favorite and all the envious cheers, she puffed up with pride and smiled grandly.
Even while surrounded by her friends, Aquamarine could only let out a dry laugh and shake his head at his twin sister’s smugness.
It was incredibly proud and heartwarming, as a son and a fan, to hear kindergarteners praise the charm of his favorite, who had completely captivated even children that young.
But to be honest, Aquamarine didn’t have the thick skin to get that carried away the way Ruby did.
"Aqua! I’m jealous!"
"Jealous! I want to live at Aqua’s house!"
"Me too! Me too!"
"Haha, hey, hey. If you say that, won’t your parents be sad?"
The mature Aquamarine broke into a cold sweat and calmed the increasingly heated children’s disrespectful(?) behavior.
They were still too young to understand, but Aquamarine knew that most parents worked hard for their children.
"Heheh~☆ Ruby’s ‘Mama’ is, like, not just amazing at dancing but also naturally shows her cute and adorable charm in front of the camera on stage..."
"Even so, if you start feeling that way about your parents this early, you’ll grow up and really regret it as a child later on..."
The kindergarten teacher, watching the twins’ wildly different reactions and the children who had become completely captivated by them, could only roll her eyes and break out in a cold sweat.
The twins’ speech was so smart, so precocious, and so mature for their age that even she, an adult, found herself swayed by it.
And on top of that, she had been a longtime fan of Kaoru, so seeing Aquamarine—only five years old—teach his friends about filial piety and respect for parents made her realize that blood really did not lie.
"All right, everyone! It’s English time! Let’s sit in our chairs~!"
"""Yesss~!!"""
The heated atmosphere settled down, and class began. As expected of a prestigious private kindergarten, the level of instruction was very high compared to other kindergartens, but for Aquamarine and Ruby, it was just a string of boredom.
"......eh......"
Ruby struggled to keep her eyes open as she fought off sleep, while...
"Care... Start... Clean... Disinfection... Hoo..."
Aquamarine recited the English vocabulary in a lifeless voice.
The kindergarten teacher had a headache looking at the twins, who were slumped over without any motivation like people who had already lived through life, especially compared to their energetic classmates. But since their academic level was already beyond that of other children who were receiving expensive private tutoring and cram-school education, she had no real grounds to complain and could only endure it.
The boring time passed... and passed...
At last, it was a happy lunch break.
"Kyaaaauaaang~!"
"Today is... curry? Ohhh~"
Aquamarine and Ruby were more high-strung and excited than they had ever been since coming to kindergarten. Their shoulders bounced on their own.
Food at home—whether it was Kaoru’s or Ai’s... or the meals Kaoru cooked—was delicious, but being able to eat a nutritious, tasty school lunch perfectly suited to growing children was one of the few joys of kindergarten life.
In particular, Aquamarine, as a doctor who had worked in a general hospital cafeteria in his past life, gave a thumbs-up to the luxurious menu that could not even be compared to the food there.
Chomp, chomp—Aquamarine and Ruby happily finished their lunch and even drank down the full carton of nutrient-rich milk served as a side.
Watching the twins head off to the bathroom together to brush their teeth without anyone telling them to, the kindergarten teacher rolled her eyes again and nodded.
"Hehe~ Ruby-chan! Let’s play dolls!"
"Dolls~ dolls~"
"Ruby gets to be the pink rabbit doll! It’s the prettiest one!"
"Eh. That’s a hassle... Heh—since I’m full, I guess I’ll try it once?"
"Aqua! Let’s play ball! I’ll be outside!"
"I brought my robot toy!"
"...Haha. You two. Don’t run... you’ll fall if you do."
After lunch ended, thirty minutes of free time arrived. Beautiful and lively Ruby, and handsome, quiet, but warm Aquamarine, were the most popular children in the class—and even in the entire kindergarten.
Even without approaching them, their classmates came up first and begged to play.
In Aquamarine’s case, since he was mentally in his mid-thirties when you combined his past and present lives, the concept of "playing together" was much stronger than "being played with."
Ruby, on the other hand, had gone from a painful twelve-year-old past life to a healthy present life and was now happily living again, so she found it much easier than Aquamarine to play along with others.
And naturally, there were also children who envied and resented the twins for being so popular.
"Hey, Ruby-chan. Does Ruby-chan’s mom play with you a lot?"
"Yeah. A lot. Almost... every day, if she doesn’t have a schedule."
"I’m jealous! Eri always only has the maid at home..."
"Me too... I want to play with my mom and dad, but they always come home late."
"......"
At her friends’ gloomy expressions, Ruby gave an awkward smile, her heart stung by a familiar pain for a moment.
In her past life, her parents rarely came to visit her when she was always left alone in the hospital room, and in the end, the only person who stayed with her at the very end was Doctor Goro.
If not for Doctor Goro, she might have long ago given up on life and met a lonely death much earlier...
The bitter, lonely ache of not having the people who should have been there beside her was something she would never have to experience again after being born as the daughter of her favorite.
But when her friends complained about the absence of their upper-class parents, busy with work, Ruby couldn’t help but sympathize with that pain and remember it again, and so she gave a bitter smile.
"Hehe... still, your parents probably... love you a lot. They must always brag about you, right? They’d probably be so proud to say you’re their pretty, kind, cute daughter."
...Probably. Her own mother probably had been the same. She definitely had been.
Feeling sorry for them, Ruby patted the little ones on the head to comfort them.
"Heeey—Ruby-chan! You’re so grown-up, just like my mom! I guess Ruby’s mom must be amazing too, since she’s as cool as Ruby!"
"Yeah, yeah! That’s right!"
Just as Ruby was awkwardly smiling and breaking out in a cold sweat at her friends’ sparkling eyes,
"Hmph~! I didn’t even like that drama~~"
"Right, right. My mom said not to watch stupid stuff like that and study instead~!"
"Who was it again? The one who just acts all cute? My mom said she wasn’t that great either~"
A blond boy with deeply tanned skin and a cheeky face came over with his followers and snickered.
At the rude interruption that shattered the peaceful, warm atmosphere, the girls stepped forward first and shouted at the boys.
"Cheetah! Apologize to Ruby-chan for that!"
"Yeah! Ruby-chan’s mom was so pretty!"
"My mom became a total fan of that drama!"
Even with the girls defending her, the boys only burst into sneering laughter, clearly taught by someone how to be nasty.
"Heeey~! I’d rather watch another English documentary than that childish stuff~"
"Exactly~"
"Honestly, I don’t even know if Ruby’s mom is that good at acting..."
"You."
At the chillingly cold voice and murderous intent that came from behind the girls, the boys—and even the girls standing in front to protect Ruby—flinched and stepped aside.
Ruby, who had been sitting on a picnic mat, rose to her feet and lifted her eyes, now dark with no light at all, to glare at the blond boy who had spewed that blasphemy.
"What did you just say?"
"Hic?!"
That terrifying look, impossible to believe came from a child the same age, made the blond boy gulp and stumble backward.
That fearsome gaze, that voice, that expression—there was no way to face it.
As Ruby slowly approached him, looking utterly merciless, the blond boy’s legs trembled and he kept backing away.
Ignoring all that, Ruby strode toward him with the momentum of someone ready to tear apart the mouth of the bastard who had dared insult her favorite.
"You don’t know if she acts that well? Hah...? You want to die? Want to stack stone towers in the Sanzu River?"
"Hiiiiiik- hic- hiiik!?"
Thud!
The blond boy’s back hit the wall.
Bang!
Ruby slammed her hand against the wall beside his head, and he froze solid, trembling all over.
Ruby’s true murderous mode, which she had never shown before, was not something a mere kindergarten child could handle.
She poked his philtrum with her index finger and said,
"One more time. If you insult my [admire] again, you’re dead. Got it?"
"Y-yes, yes, y-yes!!! Waaaaah-!"
At Ruby’s calm but murderous warning, the blond boy burst into tears and collapsed onto the floor.
Ruby snorted and turned away coolly, walking back to her friends.
At Ruby’s charisma, which had subdued the troublemaker with nothing but a look, all three friends’ eyes sparkled as they shouted,
"""Ruby-chan, you’re amazing!!!"""
"Hmph. Let’s keep playing dolls."
Ruby flicked her brilliant blond hair with cool elegance and began playing dolls, wearing that familiar, indifferent smile just like her father’s.
"......"
The kindergarten teacher, staring blankly at the scene and sweating buckets, could only wipe her forehead.
Kaoru...
What on earth... kind of blood did you pass down?!
The teacher’s silent scream echoed through the kindergarten.
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