Rin started the sunday morning by asking his mother, who was sitting a bit away from him at the kitchen table, when their dad would come home, seeing as he had come to be gone a lot longer than usual lately, on every fishing trip. It usually only lasted a week or two, but now it had been almost three, and the 7-year old had started to wonder. His sister, Gou, seemed oblivious to that their dad was gone though, seeing as she used her glass as a drum next to him, not even reacting to the question.

His mother, however, did react, but it was a usual reaction: a blink, then smile, and the usual "soon, honey, have patience" before going back to whatever she was doing, which in this case, was trying to stop Gou from smacking her plate down to the floor. The red-haired boy frowned though, not too happy with the answer, but it was something he was used to by now, and decided against asking her again, nodding a small bit to her, receiving her warm smile back.

The next monday seemed off for him though, as he walked hand-in-hand with Gou to get her to the preschool next to his school, and adults all looked at them, but not with their usual gentle smiles, cooing at the sight of cute little Rin holding Gou's hand, and her giggling, skipping next to her and stumbling from time to time. Rin frowned at all the stares, some even looked sad at him, and there was a woman who gave him a saddening smile before going back to gossiping with her husband next to her, who had also looked at them the same way his wife had. Rin was worried of it, but Gou stopped her thoughts as he noticed she bent down suddenly.

"Onii-chan, look!" the small red-haired girl giggled and pointed at the ground at four ants that were walking in a line, carrying a leaf, with one trailing behind the others. Gou poked at it, and suddenly it was on her hand. She yelped and started waving her arm frantically, making it almost impossible for the boy to get it off of her, and after a good minute of waving, Gou's hand was held in Rin's hand, and the ant was back on the ground, hurrying to follow its team of three. Gou pouted seeing as the small ant didn't seem to be able to catch up, and looked at her brother with her big red eyes.

"Onii-chan.. that ant isn't with its family, like daddy." she pointed out, and Rin swore he could hear someone gasp from a bit away, who was listening it. Rin was even more worried, but shook it off and ushered Gou to keep walking, and she happily did, giggling and going back to her cute adorable self, and Rin couldn't help but feel relieved to see that people had stopped frowning, and was once again giggling at the sight of them.

The next day, people at school were looking at him, the teachers kept asking him if he felt alright with doing the schoowork, and the kids were looking weirdly at him, as curious as he was on why the teachers treated him like he was injured. a bigger boy mockingly suggested it was because Rin wasd actually a girl, and thus needed more help than the boys, but Rin simply retorted with the usual "Girls are much stronger than guys, that's why I have this name! Because a boy name was too weak for me!"which made the girls in class giggle, and the teachers to crack a smile. When he went to pick Gou up though, she said the same had happened to her.

Rin noticed his mother was becoming more and more quiet by the time it was thursday, and even Gou noticed it, asking her in the morning "Why is mommy sad?", getting a scared look from their mother before the usual smile and reassurance that she wasn't sad, just thinking about something. Rin was worried now, because Gou was usually very slow in noticing changes, but if even she noticed, something was up. And their dad was still not home.

The stares at school were getting worse, with almost all the teachers asking if he was alright with still coming for the day, and then gasping, realizing he had no idea why he wouldn't be alright. The worst was probably Their homeroom teacher at the end of the day slipping out " Why would your mother let you still go after what happened" and then holding her mouth when he asked to know what she was talking about.

Rin immediately left the school, quickly picking Gou up, and apologized to her teacher before grabbing her, and left the school. Gou barely had time to grab her tiny backpack before he was pulling her along, but not in the direction of their home. She blinked, and looked back at the people who stared almost horrified at them, then back at her brother.

"Onii-chan.. home is the other way.." she tried to say, but he ignored her until she stopped walking, trying to pull him back. Rin sighed and brushed his bang out of his face, before turning around and picked her up as good as he could. "Mom's hiding something from us and.. I think it's about dad. I want to see what the fishermen knows... they should know if dad's come home or not" he explained to her, and waiting for her to nod before keeping on walking towards the fishermen's docks.

The men and women at the boats were shocked to see the two kids, but didn't stop them from walking towards the usual place their father's boat usually was. Rin put Gou down, and held her hand, trying to ignore her terrified face. She was worried, and he understood her, he was too.

The old man whose boat was next to their dad's looked at them with a sad face. The two siblings looked at him, before Rin stepped up, and looked at their dad's place. His boat was there. He knew it was the same one, as he had named it after Rin. The old man sighed and walked over to them, standing next to Gou, while Rin stared, with a face that looked so curious but yet scared. He slowly turned to look at the old man, who let out a small sigh, frowning at him.

"Hey... why's dad's boat here, but not dad...?"

The Matsuoka mother didn't even notice her kids came home until she felt something embrace her from behind, and two sniffling noises, which made her turn around, to look at both, crying their eyes out. Gou's face was red, having cried all the way from the docks to home, and Rin's, who hadn't gotten as red yet, but was still shiny with tears. Looking at them both made her bend down and hugged them both to her, them not slow in hugging her back and bury their faces in her chest, Gou almost screaming. The woman could feel her own eyes tear up as she realized they had figured it out, but just hugged them tightly.

Rin calmed down after a minute, still looking as sad as she's ever seen him, and looked at her straight in the eyes, with almost a desperate face. "W-why did he have to die...?" he choked out, ignoring Gou's screaming next to him, while his mother was still rubbing her back and hushing her. The red-haired woman tried to smile slightly at him, but he didn't let it go like he usually did.

"I don't know baby... I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier... I'm so sorry.." she whispered to him before he started crying hard again, once again bury his face into her while she hugged him with one arm, holding the girl by the other. She sighed as she listened to them both, hushing and trying to calm them down, but she herself felt like she was about to cry too. That was the moment she truly figured it out.

Toraichi was never coming home. And she and the kids all knew it.