Chapter 33 - Mom's Friends Visit - Part 1

Kaidou Aoi missed her friend Saiki Kurumi.

Ever since the night that Aoi had bumped into Kurumi at the grocery store well over a month ago, Aoi had not seen the woman.

Then Kurumi was absent at the bi-weekly neighborhood association meeting.

That was odd. Kurumi was known to be a regular presence at the neighborhood association meetings that Aoi ran. Kurumi was that normal stay-at-home, involved with society type of mom who celebrated every holiday, dedicated to making her home a sanctuary for her husband and children, making delicious meals, always has a happy, cheerful smile, wholesome type of woman.

Out of usual human decency and concern for a friend, Aoi texted and called Kurumi.

The text was simple, saying how Aoi missed Kurumi and was looking forward to seeing her at the next meeting to discuss the next major contentious thing in the neighborhood, the grit that needs to be cleaned out of the storm sewer. The recent unusually prolonged rain event had revealed some areas where water was draining fast enough, and had caused on road accidents and water encroaching into homes.

Aoi also called. Oddly enough, Kurumi didn't pick up like she usually would, or called back either. In chatting with Nendou Midori and Kuboyasu Yoko, neither had heard from her.

In a passing comment with her son, Shun, he indicated that no one had seen Kurumi's boy, Saiki Kusuo, at school for weeks.

Then Shun came home one day, after loitering with his friends, no doubt, with a disturbed look on his face.

"Mom, do you know if the Saikis moved away?" Shun had asked.

Aoi, who was busy at the stove, trying not to overcook the pork at the time, said distractedly, "No. Not to my knowledge." By then, Aoi had noted Kurumi's absence, but it wasn't long enough to be unusual. Kurumi could be taking a vacation. Getting toward middle age had that effect on people. Plus, Kurumi only had two boys, and her younger son, Kusuo was at an age where he could be left home alone for days at a time.

Shun heard her answer, obvious disappointment on his face. He muttered something about Knights of Judgement or whatever and slunk away to his room.

Aoi resisted the urge to ask after him, to remind him to study and not spend time needlessly playing on the computer. That night at the grocery store did make an impression on Aoi. She and her husband, Yoshimoru, had a long nighttime discussion where he put the whole thing into perspective.

Shun was a young man, now. Come October this year, Shun would be able to help the country pick a prime minister and if the circumstances warranted, be called upon to help protect Japan. He was no longer a little boy who was always the smallest in his class and always getting picked on. Shun had made friends now, good friends, who ultimately did the right thing and brought him home, despite Shun's declaration to run away. Whom Shun befriended demonstrated Shun's capacity to differentiate good from bad character. The Kaidou family was lucky that Shun did not decide to befriend a delinquent or one of those biker gang punks.

Yoshimoru stressed further that if Shun did not know right from wrong by now, then no amount of control that Aoi exerted was going to change Shun. Aoi had raised Shun well as evidenced by his grades. Aoi should trust Shun to make good decisions.

After that talk, Aoi backed off very much. Pride and hurt feelings had prevented her from telling Shun exactly how she felt, apologize even less. She still got in the occasional " go study!" and scheduled his cram school sessions since the finals of the first term were coming. Otherwise, she had not berated him over his choice of friends, or given extended nagging about how he needed to work harder.

Shun seemed to understand though. He had not directly challenged and disobeyed her in such a manner since then. Aoi had not done anything to warrant such a reaction. He dutifully attended his cram school sessions without complaint and even opened up to her about the fact that he has female friends in this primary friend group of a dozen or so. Aoi had a chance to meet them when his friends were over to plan a party for one of their school friends. That Teruhashi girl seemed quite charming. Yumehara seemed like a normal ordinary girl who wasn't prone to trouble. That Mera though...she was a little too well developed for Aoi's tastes.

Well, as long as it was not girlfriends, then Aoi could live with that. Shun had too bright of a future ahead of him to be muddling his brain with such relationship nonsense.

On that same night when Shun asked about whether the Saiki family moved or not, Aoi offhandedly inquired why he asked such a question.

By then, they were all sitting at the dinner table, saned Aoi's husband who was traveling for work.

"Oh. Saiki Kusuo withdrew from school," said Shun listlessly. He seemed honestly upset by the fact. "I haven't been able to contact him since that one time two weeks ago. He hasn't responded to any texts or calls. Nendo said that his next-door neighbor saw him but haven't talked to him. Since you talk to his mom, I thought maybe you knew if they moved, or were going to move away."

Aoi gave Shun a queer look.

That was certainly unexpected news.

In their society, most people did not just uproot their family and move elsewhere. Even if the breadwinner of the family had to move because of a job, the spouse and children would've stayed the remaining year so that if school transfers were contemplated, it would occur between grades, not during the middle of the school year. Plus, with a child in their last year of high school, there was a heightened sense of forced stability so that nothing could disturb the all-important march toward the College Entrance Exams.

"No. I haven't seen Saiki Kurumi," said Aoi presently to Shun. "I'll ask the next time I see her."

Oddly enough, Shun looked appreciative and relieved. "Oh. That's good. I am concerned since he didn't look too hot the last time I saw him. I hope it's not one of those, he's actually super sick, sort of thing. He's the only guy I know who had ever fainted, you know, back during sports festival in second year." Shun looked down at his pork chops. He seemed to have realized something. "He used to miss school a lot because of doctor visits."

"Oh yeah?" followed Aoi her attention elsewhere.

Toki started playing with his food. Peas in fact.

Little boys needed to be constantly occupied. Aoi should've known this.

Shun beat her to it. "Toki. If you eat like a proper gentleman, Onii-san will take you to the store get you a carton of chocolate milk."

Of course, for some reason, younger children tend to obey their older siblings better than their parents. The idea of chocolate milk at the end also helped. Toki immediately stopped trying to use his spoon as a pretend catapult for his peas and picked up a pair of chopsticks. He went back to scarfing down his rice as fast and as delicately as a third-grader could.

Sora, who sat to mom's right side, looked upon Shun and Toki with that profound critical expression reminiscent of their mother's usual default. "Nii-san, if you keep on feeding Toki those sweetened dairy drinks, you're going to make Toki fat."

"Nuh-uh!" Toki bit back. "Just because Nee-chan is getting fat in the chest because she keeps on drinking milk tea doesn't mean I'm going to get fat too."

Sora's face reddened immediately. "You dumb little squirt. I'm not getting fat in the chest because I drink milk tea."

Shun was positively not helping as he busted in laughter. "But Sora, it's technically mostly fat there."

If looks could incinerate, Shun would've already burned to a crisp. Sora stood up, ready to beat her shorter-than-average older brother into submission.

Before an open war could happen, Aoi stepped in. "Okay! No more talking! Shun apologize to your younger sister. Sora. You accept your older brother's apology. And mean it before I make you two hug it out."

The threat of forced gross touching between two self-effacing teenagers was enough to make Shun mumble a half-hearted apology to Sora and Sora begrudgingly accepted such apology.

Dinner proceeded again, this time, with Shun keeping Toki occupied by whatever fantasy stories that Shun liked to tell Toki. Toki listened, with rapt attention while munching on his food. Toki then told Shun all about what his friend Shinji and Haruki thought of a particular girl in their class and all the cooties she had.

Aoi chatted with Sora about her plans in getting into Todai and hair care tricks. Sora was nodding in approval as her mother suggested taking extra collagen to help hair growth.

Eventually, dinner ended, and Shun ended up helping mom with cleaning the table. Normally, it was Sora's job. But Sora had cram school, Toki was too young to do dishes well and it was an off cram school day for Shun.

Aoi would rather Shun helped anyways. He would need whatever training she could provide since, if all goes well, he would be in college by this time next year. Aoi was not going to send her son off without him knowing how to do dishes properly.

They somehow ended up talking about Kurumi's boy again.

"Yeah, it was weird," said Shun to Aoi at some point, mindlessly drying the dishes. "Kusuo apparently gets really bad fevers back in elementary school and missed a lot of school days back then." Shun looked at the cloths he was using the wipe the dishes dry. "You know, mom, if you just leave them out on the drying rack, they'll naturally dry on their own."

Normally, Aoi would had responded with "just do as I say." But Aoi wasn't paying attention. She thought back on the night that she drove Kusuo back to the Saiki home, after Saiki brought Shun back home.

Aoi had to drive particularly slowly that night because by the time she started driving, a misty rain began.

These light rains were the worst since they made the roads just slick enough to hydroplane, the windshields just wet enough to smear dust on the windshield and cause terrible glare. As much as Aoi wanted to get home soon and finally have that family dinner she wanted, she needed to make sure she actually got to her destination and back safely.

"Do what you like with the radio and the air conditioning," said Aoi to Kusuo right after they into the car. It was somewhat unusually hot in the car. Probably because of climate change or whatnot, causing the ambient temperature to be higher than normal.

Aoi drove extra slowly due to the conditions and how she was shuttling one of her friend's precious boy, which made time for idle talk with Kusuo who sat in the front passenger seat.

"I've texted your mother before we left to let her know that I'm bringing you back," said Aoi without much ceremony.

Kusuo remained silent, looking straight ahead, hands held together.

"You shouldn't sneak out," said Aoi, fully in her lecture mode. Mom friends look out for mom friends' children. It was a fact of life. "You'd worry your parents."

Kusuo looked out the window instead, as if he didn't hear her.

Aoi frowned then. She did not recall Kusuo being this disrespectful. For all of Kurumi's professed hands-off parental habits, Kurumi seemed to have at least drilled the foundational and charming Japanese politeness into her children. Aoi's interaction with her Kurumi's two boys indicated as such.

"Well, thanks for bringing Shun back," said Aoi, almost begrudgingly, to distract her from her growing irritation at Kusuo's attitude. "He's lucky to have you as a friend."

Not even a modest, 'it's not a big deal.'

It was then that Aoi remembered that Shun and 'the guys' had wanted to visit Kusuo tomorrow and inquired Kurumi for permission.

Kurumi had explicitly told Shun 'no' and that 'he needs rest.' Something about the stomach flu? From the conversation earlier it seemed like it was serious enough for Kusuo to miss several days of school. Aoi did not examine Kurumi's boy too much when he brought Shun back, her focus on making sure that she doesn't break down in tears of relief. Now, from the corner of her eyes, his complexion was notably ashen and his posture drawn in.

"Are you feeling okay, Kusuo-kun?"

Aoi almost thought that she wasn't going to get a single word out of him until he uttered one word.

"No."

The "mom' in Aoi automatically kicked in as she unconsciously drove slightly faster, despite how now the thicker clouds had moved in, transforming the droplet of the light misty rain to the globules of a summertime rain shower.

"You'll be home soon," said Aoi placatingly.

Within a couple of minutes, they were at the front door of the Saiki family home. The lights were not on. Everything was deathly still. It did not seem like anyone waited up for Kusuo.

Well, it was probably a good thing. No doubt that Kusuo's parents would be upset to know that their son snuck out and would likely give him a stern talking to and maybe punishment once they find out. Not that Aoi wanted to get Kusuo in trouble; she was simply looking out for her friend Kurumi and by extension, Kurumi's children.

Though it was a small distance between the car and the Saiki family home's front door, Aoi's automatically fished around the backseat for the umbrella that she always kept in the seat pocket behind the passenger side. She pulled the small black umbrella out and held it in front of Kusuo.

"Take this," Aoi commanded per habit. She was already busy digging into her purse for her phone so she could notify her family that she was on her way back, her mind already preoccupied with the discussion with her husband about Shun's behavior and ways to mitigate his rebelliousness.

When the weight of the umbrella in her hand didn't change, Aoi looked over.

Kusuo looked straight ahead. He seemed to have spaced out.

Concerned, Aoi reached over to put a hand on Kusuo's shoulder.

Aoi yelped and withdrew her hand quickly. Damn, that was hot!

"Kusuo-kun! You're burning up!" exclaimed Aoi. It was then that she noticed that he was in winter clothes, instead of summer clothes like a normal person.

Kusuo didn't look at her. Kusuo fussed with something small in his hand and tilted his head in a gesture reminiscent of someone putting on a hairband or something. Whatever it was, he didn't look any different from how he looked before. "Sorry about that," he muttered.

Somewhere in the back of Aoi's mind, she noticed that there was something drastically different about Kusuo's voice. However, her maternal instincts to immediately mitigate illness in children completely bowled over that note. "Kusuo-kun. Do you need to go to the hospital?"

Kusuo shook his head. "No. I'm always like this." He seemed lost in thought. "Come to think of it, my older brother and I had always been like this."

"Like what?"

"Burning up," said Kusuo, looking at his hands. "Ani...even in the summertime, he almost never wore short sleeves. He always wore layers. He only ever rolled up the sleeves. He's been doing this for as long as I remember." He began to shake his head, eyes closed. "It was right in front of me and I've never noticed."

The conversation train had turned strange, but Aoi didn't let it bother her. It was pretty late, after all.

Luckily, Kusuo seemed to note this and took the umbrella gratefully. He got out of the car, closed the car door, gave Aoi a well-practiced bow to demonstrate respect and thankfulness.

Aoi waved and began to drive away. Normally, she would have waited to see if the boy went into the house. However, Aoi had the impression that Kusuo was a responsible young man, since he did bring Shun back. Aoi assumed that Kusuo would go inside the house, probably get scolded a bit, before being hurried to bed.

As she was about to turn the corner, she quickly checked the rearview mirror to see if Kusuo had gone in.

By that time, the heavy rain that had so plagued the town almost a week ago had returned, completely obscuring the view of Saiki's house. Aoi never did end up seeing if Kusuo went back inside the house.

Contrasted to the last time that Aoi was at Kurumi's house, which was close to a month later, it was an overcast day.

Aoi was prepared. She brought an almond sponge cake with strawberry topping and a separate case of persimmons as gifts. Though Kurumi never responded to Aoi's calls and text, Aoi felt that she needed to take it upon herself to check in on the woman invited or not.

Since Aoi had time, with her children all in school and likely be doing afterschool activities with their friends, her work demands all squared away, dinner preparation won't be for another three hours, Aoi had the time to walk over to Kurumi's house instead. It was a good brisk fifteen-minute walk. The added weight of the cake and persimmons felt like a good light exercise. She already had her dinner plans in place so she would be visiting the grocery store after a polite 1-hour visit.

Aoi didn't have many expectations but she felt that Kurumi needed a friend right about now. With her well-practiced politician-like posture and of the need to compete in business, Aoi pressed the intercom call button on the wall next to the Saiki family home gate.