So he hadn't forgotten after all.
"He wants to be an Insei." Hikaru moped in gloom, suddenly not feeling quite up to a fancy restaurant on their first night out in Japan.
Yeongha didn't seem surprised in the slightest. In fact, he was just this side of smug and looking like the cat who got the cream. "Of course he does!" The Korean laughed. "How could he not, when I'm his father, and you're his mother?"
"What do I have to do with this?" Hikaru retorted, crossing her arms. "You're the one who's so passionate about it."
"But you were the best Go player to ever have lived." Her husband remarked, seriously.
Hikaru cracked an eye open, face falling. "You know that's not true." And, after a moment, "And a complete overstatement."
"You'll still lie to me?" Yeongha replied, coolly, disregarding her latter comment. "Not only can I see it in your Go, but Hikaru, you named our only son Sai. How could I not know?"
"And like I've already told you," Began the woman, feeling as if they'd had this argument multiple times. Albeit the fact that they hadn't had it as frequently since her pregnancy, in which she adamantly refused to name her son anything but Sai, and also refused to explain why. "You've got it wrong."
"And yet you won't tell me what's 'right'." Yeongha surmised, leaning back in his chair. He idly played with the fold of his napkin.
Hikaru refused to say anything else.
"You're secrets are your own, I suppose." The Korean added after a lengthy amount of time. "Of course, since you don't care to enlighten me, that just means I'll have to come to conclusions of my own, right?"
Stubborn, she only sniffed.
He smiled. "I have a match with Ogata Juudan next week."
So soon? Her eyes raised. "Oh? That's soon."
Yeongha shrugged. "He asked."
The food came quickly after that. Hikaru wasn't the biggest fan of peking duck, but she picked idly at the dish regardless. Yeongha spoke rapidly to their waitress in Chinese, the woman giggling something in return and flouncing off. He always had a way with woman… it didn't help he was fluent in the language.
"So, will you come?"
She looked up from her rice. "To your match?" She reiterated hesitantly. "… Where is it?"
"The Go Institute."
Oh no…
He smiled again. "It'd be nice to have my wife supporting me."
She narrowed her eyes. He might always have a way with woman… but certainly not always with her. Sometimes, he could be transparent as glass. "I thought this wasn't an official match?"
"But a lot of people want to watch."
She sighed.
Of course they did.
"If this is about me playing again—don't even bother."
It didn't take a genius to know this whole thing was half a convoluted plot to get her back into it. In Korea, it was almost easy to ignore Go. Sure, Yeongha was a professional, but at first her attention was diverted towards finishing school, then her job, and then Sai came along… But now they were back in Japan, much of which she thought had to do with coaxing her back into Go. It was one of his dreams—for the two of them to play a match—and why come to Japan on a sabbatical? He was at the height of his career. People considered him one of the strongest of Korea, and the world at large.
There wasn't any logical reason.
"I can't just want my lovely, wonderful wife to watch me play the game I love?" He took her hand with a sweet smile.
Hikaru melted—a bit.
He really was rather charming.
"Alright, alright." And then, with a huff. "Of course I'll come." Even though the thought of the Go Institute—a place which had remained mostly submerged in her deeper memories—rose in her cautious trepidation.
"And bring Sai too?"
Hikaru snorted. "Right. Like Sai could sit still for that long."
.
.
.
"Are you kidding me?-!" Sai bounced up onto the couch. "Mom. Mom. I have to come. Dad's playing against Ogata-sensei! Ogata Juudan! That's so cool! Please can I come? Please? Please? Please?"
If there was one thing Sai excelled at—aside from being a mirror image of her loud, obnoxious and whining younger self—it was nagging her into submission.
Especially when there wasn't any real reason not to let him go.
"And you'll have all your homework done for school the next day?"
Sai rolled his eyes. "Of course!"
Hikaru frowned, pausing the TV. "And you'll behave? You know it's not like a soccer tournament, you can't just yell and cheer and—
"I know mom." Sai cut her off. "I've been to a Go match before!"
And then. "You have?" She turned around fully at that.
Sai settled himself onto the couch next to her, wrestling the remote out of her limp hands and switching the channel onto Animax. "Yeah, duh." He said like it was obvious. "Waya took me to one. His dad was playing some really important guy in a really important room—
"The Room of Darkness?" Her brows raised.
"In a really important tournament—"
"The Tengen tournament?"
"And we watched from the waiting room thing, I think. It was really cool. And we were really quiet! And afterwards, a lot of people came up to us and discussed the match with us—
"People?" She sat up straight, alarmed. "What kind of people? Did you introduce yourself?"
"… No?" Sai titled his head, eyes prying away from his anime to look at her, confused. "Why? Should I have?"
"No." Was her immediate answer, which she immediately regretted.
She wasn't trying to hide Sai… was she? That certainly wasn't fair to him. Personal feelings aside, if Sai wanted to become a professional Go Player—even if he was much too young—as a parent she shouldn't deter him. There were a plethora of worse things he could endeavor in.
And of course people were going to ask questions. She named him Sai, after all. And her untimely leave from the Go World, coupled with SAI's disappearance from the internet only set further rumors ablaze. It wasn't exactly the most difficult connection to make. That being said, it was somewhat inevitable that this day would come.
She heaved a great sigh, flopping back into the couch. "You can come, Sai." She said, defeated.
He whooped enthusiastically.
"Why don't you bring Waya-chan or something with you?"
"Noboru?" Sai paused. "Hey, that's a good idea!" And then, fiddling with the remote, "Actually, I'm gonna call him right now! Can I invite some friends over?"
She shrugged. "Why not."
They had finally managed to get the house in order—what was it if a couple mangy kids destroyed the place in under an hour? She almost felt a little sorry for their yard—by the end of the day it would be destroyed with soccer balls and mud fights and whatever other messy concoctions Sai could come up with.
Suffice to say she was rather surprised when, in the middle of Grey's Anatomy, a solemn procession of bobbling heads trudged up the stairs to Sai's room, shut the door, and remained soundless for the majority of the afternoon.
Finally, around eight, Hikaru paused in cooking dinner to listen intently upstairs. The silence was rather unnerving—did they all escape out a window or something? Or worse, make up some kind of swimming game and drowned in the bathtub—
However, when she swung the bedroom door open, she was met with a small handful of kids kneeling around a Go board, playing Go (or watching) in staunchy silence.
Sai looked up at the sudden intrusion, startled into dropping his stone. "Mom!"
At this, all the other kids jumped too.
She blinked, stunned.
"What are you doing?" Sai pouted, looking somewhat embarrassed and annoyed. "We're in the middle of the game!"
She leaned against the doorway, still surprised. "Huh. I was just making sure you weren't dead."
"Why would I be dead?-!" Sai harrumphed.
"Is this your mom, Shindou-chan?" One of the girls asked.
Sai blushed, looking coy and slightly boastful. "Yeah! Isn't she pretty?"
There was a lengthy chorus of polite and bashful greetings from the group of munchkins on the floor, most of which Hikaru wasn't sure what to make of. Waya-chan, at least, looked kind of familiar. He resembled Waya a lot, anyway, and it wasn't hard to see the resemblance.
"Are these your friends, Sai-chan?" Hikaru looked down.
Sai brightened. "Yep! This is Waya," He motioned to the redhead with a floppy, puppy cut. "And over here is Miyumi-chan and Rui-chan," Were the two almost identical looking little girls, "And this is Isumi." He pointed to the boy he was playing with.
"Isumi?" She echoed. Huh… There was something of a resemblance.
"They're coming with me to watch the game tomorrow!" Sai crowed happily.
Hikaru palmed her face. She said Waya-kun… not a small collection of under ten children! How unfortunate that being a parent meant free babysitting.
She sighed.
This is starting to sound less and less like a good idea…