034 – Show me your Secret
She'd been particularly quiet over dinner that night, only ever speaking so as to request that he pass her the soy sauce.
Ayaka Takaishi had never particularly been a loud woman, something that Takeru had inherited; however she had never been this stoically quiet either. The silence had long since crossed the border of awkwardness, and was now starting to leak into a blatantly and unnecessarily tense atmosphere.
"Mum…"
Her bright blue eyes faced him curiously, fingers clutching tighter at the tiny teacup in her hands.
"…you okay?" Takeru asked, casting her a worrisome glance.
Ayaka sighed, placing her cup back on the table, and leaning back in her small wooden chair. "I'm fine."
He nodded, not convinced, but continued fiddling with his chopsticks over the bowl of steamed rice.
The tense atmosphere hadn't taken the hint, rather it kept growing at an uneasy pace, before Ayaka sighed again, loud, clear and frustrated.
"Takeru, I…I thought you'd have told me by now."
He looked up from his chopsticks, startled. "Told you what?"
She sighed again, fiddling with the collar of her shirt, "I wasn't intending to say anything, I wasn't planning too, but I thought you'd have told me by now. I am getting tired, Takeru, of having to play ignorance."
Takeru gave her a peculiar stare, waiting for her to continue.
The woman groaned, "Daisuke is a nice boy, Takeru."
His jaw dropped, and he stumbled over words and phrases that maybe would sound better to her than they did to him. "N-no, it's not – of course not, and – but, it's –"
"Daisuke is a nice boy, Takeru." She repeated, a small grin playing at her lips.
And he resigned himself to his fate, nodding awkwardly, "Yea, he is."
Next up: 035 - Your lips