Summer was drawing swiftly to a close, and Kuwabara was determined to spend as much of it out with his friends as possible before school started once more and his freedom was snatched away. In pursuit of this, they stayed out later and later, eventually even staying out past their normal dinner times. It was because of this that Kuwabara saw something he really wished he hadn't seen.
"Hey, Kuwabara, isn't that you're dad?" Sawamura said.
Kuwabara looked, and sure enough, his father was leaving a nearby restaurant in the company of…a woman? She was short and petite, with dark brown eyes and black hair cut in a short bob. Dressed in khaki slacks and a silky green blouse, she made a picture that was completely the opposite of the one presented by Kuwabara's mother.
He struggled to process what he was seeing as Mr. Kuwabara and the woman walked down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of Kuwabara and his friends, their arms casually linked. "Dad said he had to stay late at work," Kuwabara protested feebly.
"I'm no expert," Kirishima said, "but that doesn't look like work to me."
Kuwabara felt like the ground was dissolving beneath his feet. His father had lied. To him, and to Shizuru, all so he could go on a date with some, some woman, and how could he do that? How could he want to go out with any woman after he'd been married to the most wonderful woman ever?
"Are you okay, Kuwabara?" Okubo asked.
"No," Kuwabara said. "I'm not."
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