Chapter 4: Decision making

Usually when he got up after the nurses checked on him Aiko was present, but today she wasn't there.

She was mad at him.

His mother helped him out to a bench that was just outside the back door and let him know that Kyoko and her husband showed up that morning before heading back inside. He was not prepared to talk to her - he didn't think she would actually come to Kyoto so fast. This would also be the first time in five years that he has seen her.

Sho noticed them before they saw him. They were walking side by side with Kuon's arm around Kyoko's shoulder. When Kyoko finally saw him, She ran towards him leaving Kuon behind. As she got closer she let her frustration take over, "Shotaro, you have a lot to explain."

"Mom told me she told you already." Sho responded with a scowl.

Kuon caught up and took Kyoko's hand letting her know he was there. Kyoko calmed down. "She told us some, but it really should have come from you. She told Kuon about your plans for Aiko too."

Sho looked down. "I was going to tell you. She promised she wouldn't tell you, but I guess she didn't promise that she wouldn't tell him."

"It's a good thing she did tell me." Kuon replied. He glanced to the side as if he noticed something. "I think us meeting Aiko would have gone differently if I didn't know what she had heard."

And that's when Sho noticed what Kuon did, Aiko was standing to the side listening to them. "Aiko, I've talked to you about listening in on adult conversations before. At least let us know when you're there."

Aiko walked to sit next to her father on the bench. "But then the adults talk to me like I'm a kid and the conversation gets boring." Aiko responded.

Sho ruffled her hair and laughed. "You are a kid. You've spent too much time with adults."

"Doesn't mean I'm stupid." Aiko grumbled. "Can you tell me who your friends are? Or are you just going to send me inside?"

Sho looked between her and Kuon and Kyoko. Kuon started. "You were listening to our conversation after you left, weren't you. I think you already know, my wife's name is Kyoko. My name is Kuon. It is nice to meet you, Aiko-chan."

Aiko mumbled back. "Sorry for listening in."

Kuon and Kyoko just smiled at Aiko. "I think we all need to hear everything your father has to say. What do you think?" Kyoko added.

"Wait a moment" Sho started. He wasn't planning on talking to all three at the same time.

"Wait for what? you have avoided talking to me long enough. Aiko too from the sound of it." Kyoko responded.

"Yeah, I want you to tell me daddy. Are you sending me away?"

"No." Sho responded quickly. "I don't plan on sending you away, unless you want to. You know I've been sick. And you probably noticed I can't do everything I used to for you."

"Are you dying?" Aiko asked quietly.

Sho grabbed her hands and guided her to standing in front of him. They were eye level with him sitting down. "I'm sorry Aiko. When I first started getting sick, I was told I should start making a will and really the most important part of that is what should happen to you if I do die."

Aiko was staring quietly at Sho. He could tell that she was scared. "Part of that is who should take care of you. You are still too young to be on your own. Your grandparents would take care of you but I wanted you to be with somebody that I knew would make sure that you were not only taken care of, but you also were able to be yourself. Your grandparents can't be that for you."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "Kyoko is my best friend. I know you don't know her very well, but she will support you in everything you need. She knows more about me than anyone else, so you should be sure to get some stories from her. Stories my parents would never tell." He looked up and noticed Kyoko was crying. He turned back to Aiko. before continuing.

"That is if she agrees. I haven't told her about any of this until today. I haven't contacted her in the past year. I was afraid - I didn't want it to be real."

Aiko stayed quiet the whole conversation, but at that point her stomach made a grubling sound. Sho chuckled. "Let's go inside - your grandfather has probably brought us some lunch from the kitchen."

"Now." Aiko responded angrily. She still hadn't really gotten the answer she asked for. "I want to know now. Are you dying?"

Sho sighed. He pulled Aiko into a hug. Kyoko and Kuon looked at each other, then nodded. Kyoko mouthed "We'll head inside."

Sho nodded. The last thing Kuon and Kyoko heard was: "I'm so sorry my Melody."

Sho and Aiko came back a few minutes later. Kyoko and Kuon were talking to his parents around the table with lunch in the middle, but no food was eaten yet. Aiko quietly went to her room and Sho sat down in the wheelchair next to the door. "We should probably set a plate aside for Aiko - she needs time alone. Go ahead and eat."

"Without Aiko?" Kyoko asked.

"I'll take a plate to her room later." Yayoi responded. "You couldn't have waited until after she ate, Sho?"

"She insisted and I've waited long enough." Sho responded. "She pretty much already knew anyways - you know she likes to listen into conversations when she feels like I'm not telling her anything."

During lunch they mostly talked about safe topics like what has happened in the past five years since they had seen each other last and the differences in the pandemic response in Japan and the United States where Kyoko and Kuon were. After lunch, Sho had to take medication and Kuon and Kyoko decided to check into the Ryokan for the night. "Come back later - I usually sleep after this next round of medication. We can talk then."

After checking into their room, Kuon and Kyoko went to the Ryokan gardens. There were benches around a koi pond surrounded by flowers. They mostly spent it in silence thinking about both Sho and their future. Kuon broke the silence first, speaking softly, "Are you ok?"

"When Sho never responded to any emails I sent I was a little worried, but I didn't really think of this as a possibility. I don't know if I can really believe that he's that sick. It's like part of me thinks we'll go back and he'll be back to full health. And then there is Aiko-chan... What do you think we should do?" Kyoko asked.

"I think no matter what we should try to be in her life." Kuon responded. "I think your connection to her father is something she needs."

"I meant do you think we should actually become her guardians?"

Kuon sighed. "I think we need to agree if we do become her guardians. We could make it work. I know we already have our new house set up, but we could easily let her have the guest room or combine the gym and the office."

"Right, we will have to see what room she wants and try to get it set up for her before she comes to stay with us." Kyoko responded.

"So you want to take her in?" Kuon replied surprised.

Kyoko looked at the fish in the pond gathering her thoughts. She leaned into Kuon's shoulder before answering softly. "I feel like we have to take her in. After talking to her in the forest, and really she's already connected to the entertainment industry. It's probably best we take her in. I just don't really know if I can be who she needs me to be."

"You know, Maria was about that age when you met her. You were able to help her heal from her mother's death."

"We should call her soon. Maria may be able to have some ideas of things we should do when she comes to live with us that we won't even think about. Maria will love to hear about Aiko. We'll have to introduce them to each other."

"My parents are going to be excited. We're finally giving them a grandchild."

"They will overwhelm her. I wonder if we can get her to meet them when they visit next month." Kyoko giggled.

"They're going to overwhelm us when we tell them about her with their questions." Kuon laughed. "Maybe we should try to convince them to stay with Boss instead of us." Kuon got more serious. "This is not really where I expected us to be when we decided to move back here last year."

"I always figured if I happened to get pregnant we would have time to figure things out. Now I don't think we have much time. Sho looked weak and tired."

"We have each other and I'm sure we can get help from others too. If only Boss wasn't moving to Australia to be with Maria. He will be disappointed he won't be around to observe us struggle to be parents."

Kyoko frowned at the word parent" Can we use a different word? Maybe guardian, or aunt and uncle."

Kuon gave a smirk then started imitating Lory. "Kyoko-san, whether you embrace the term or not you will be that child's mother. She will want you to be a mother." Kuon switched back to sounding more like himself. "We'll see what Aiko needs from us and go from there ok?"

Aiko spent most of the day in her room. She tried working on school work, but she couldn't concentrate at all. She ended up drawing, adding to the picture she started inthe forest earlier. She had been drawing a picture of her daddy as a strong dragon on stage with a guitar.

But he won't get strong again.

She stayed in her room past dinner. Her grandmother brought her food, but Aiko barely ate any of it. Daddy was supposed to get better when they came to Kyoto. She shouldn't be planning on going to some strangers' house when her daddy dies.

Though she recognized Kyoko. Kyoko is not a stranger to her daddy. He never talked about Kuon at all though. Was Kuon a friend that she never met?

Early in the evening, she heard her grandmother letting in somebody and leading them to her Daddy's room. It was time to become a spy so she could learn more about these people that daddy is sending her to live with. She waited a few minutes before leaving her room - daddy usually caught her if she started listening in immediately after he started talking to somebody, but if she waited it was less likely he would catch her. Grandmother and Grandfather were in their room watching TV so they wouldn't catch her.

There were two unknowns though. She had to be careful to not be caught by them. She would have to take a risk.

The risk paid off. As soon as she peeked into the room, it was only Kyoko in there talking to daddy and she didn't notice. Her daddy was talking "Aiko always had trouble fitting in with kids her own age. She is around adults so much it's easy to forget she is a kid. She needs to be reminded sometimes. I was hoping if she lived with you she would be able to have more of a childhood. I don't think she'll get that here with my parents. As much as they love her, I think they would try to get her to learn how to run the Ryokan like we did when we were kids."

"Are your parents expecting her to take over the Ryokan?" Kyoko spoke softly. Aiko never really thought about the Ryokan. She got to visit a lot, especially when her daddy was playing concerts in other places, but her grandparents never tried to get her to help out at the Ryokan.

"I don't think they have a plan yet. They are slowly letting a management company take over. Before they were starting to have me do some of the communication to be involved but now, I don't really know. Dad is always in the kitchens since we came here though."

"He probably isn't doing well with knowing..." Kyoko stopped and swallowed before continuing, looking down. "I'm not really either. How is Aiko doing with everything?"

"She spent all day in her room today. Most of the time she's either doing school work, in the forest, or with me. I know she's not really happy here. Maybe it's selfish of me but I want to be able to spend every bit of time I can with her."

Kyoko nodded. "You should spend what time you have left with her - for her too. It's something no child should have to live through but I think she'll regret it in the future if she doesn't stay here. Kuon and I can worry about the after."

Aiko decided then she had enough of listening in. She should have a say in where she goes right? But if she didn't go with Kyoko, where would she go? She wanted to be a part of the conversation though, not to have adults make all the decisions!

She stormed into the bedroom, surprising Kyoko, but her daddy just shook his head - he probably expected she was listening in. "They are strangers Daddy. Why do I have to go with them?"

Kyoko stood up, walked to Aiko who was still in the doorway and crouched down to be able to look into your eyes. "You are right, Aiko-chan. Right now we are strangers. Would you like to get to know us a bit better? Even if you don't come to live with Kuon and I, we would still like to support you in any way we can. Kuon and I are heading back to Tokyo tomorrow, but we can give you our email addresses and phone numbers so we can get to know each other better. What do you say? "

Aiko nodded but wasn't sure what to say so her daddy spoke instead. "Does this mean you will take her in?"

Kyoko took a deep breath. She was still not sure about this decision, but at the same time knew that it was the only one to be made. "If Aiko agrees, yes. Kuon and I will take her in.

Author's note: When I first started thinking of writing this story, I was actually going to start in Tokyo when Aiko came to live with Kuon and Kyoko, but while writing that I thought some character development for both them and Aiko was needed before I put them together. It also gave me a way to have Kyoko have closure with Sho before he dies. Hope you are enjoying this story.