Chapter 12
We arrived at the airport, I straightened myself out. "Are you sure I look ok?"
"Yes, you look fine." Eisuke said as we walked through the airport
"Freya, Mr Ichinomiya, over here." Mum shouted.
"Mum. Dad." I said and hugged them.
"Thanks for coming all this way." Dad said.
"Of course. I'm sorry for the short notice." Eisuke. He sounded so formal.
"Thank you for coming to meet us." I said.
"We didn't really have a choice. Mr Ichinomiya's sent a car to our house." Dad said.
"Really?" I said.
"Thank you so much for going through all that trouble." Mum said.
"I just thought you'd want to see Freya right away. The car should still be waiting for us. Let's go." Eisuke said.
I slipped my arm through Eisuke's and we left the airport. I didn't expect him to be this efficient, he really did think of everything. We climbed into the back of the limo and gave my parents the souvenirs I brought back from England.
"Thank you sweetheart." Mum said.
"It's been a while since we've had good English tea." Dad said.
They seemed thrilled by their gifts.
The limo took us from the airport to a fancy restaurant on the top floor of a luxury department store.
"We've been waiting for you, Mr Ichinomiya." A staff member said.
"Why is the place so empty this time of day?" Mum asked.
"We're the only ones here, so go ahead and enjoy yourselves." Eisuke said.
"You rented out the whole restaurant?" I asked.
"I don't do it very often, only on special occasions." Eisuke said and waiter showed us to our table.
"So Freya, enjoying eating English food or do you prefer Japanese food?" mum asked as we sat down.
"Um… I like both. We have a special chef at the Tres Spades London who prepares Japanese food for us as well as English food. So I get the best of both worlds." I said.
"We have the freshest ingredients you can't get anywhere else." Eisuke said.
"Well that's nice." Mum said.
Everyone ordered and the waiter filled out glasses with champagne.
"First, let's start with a toast. Would you do the honour?" Eisuke said.
"Ok. Here's to our new family." Dad said.
"Cheers." We lightly clink our glasses and each took a sip.
"Mm." this was delicious champagne.
"Please let me apologise again for delaying our meeting. There's something I want to tell you about before I ask for your daughter's hand in marriage." Eisuke said. I heard him move around in the chair. "I know she told you this over the phone before, but I just wanted to let you know again that I'm not Akira Ichinomiya's biological son. He adopted me and raised me as his own."
"Yes, Freya told us." Mum said.
"My real parents had a successful business but it went bankrupt because of certain circumstances. And after my mother's death, my real father left. Akira Ichinomiya adopted me and took me in. I know that I grew up in unique circumstances, but I just wanted to let you know that I want to have a normal, loving family with Freya."
"Eisuke." I gasped, this was the first time he had ever said anything like that.
"I'm very happy that you chose Freya to be your wife." Mum said.
"I'm happy she's found a good man, who can look after her when I can't. And after everything that happened, I'd be proud to call you my son." Dad said.
"Thank you so much. May I call you mum and dad?" Eisuke asked.
"Of course you can and we'll call you Eisuke." Dad said.
"Is that ok Eisuke?" I said.
"Yes, call me whatever you like." He said, his voice quivered. He must be nervous, I reached under the table and gave his hand a squeeze.
"Great, it's settled." Mum said cheerfully.
After we ate, we went downstairs to the store and decided to have a look around.
"It's been a long time since I've been in a large department store like this." Mum said.
"That's because you always spend too much money." Dad said as we walked around.
"Eisuke, I would like to get some Japanese souvenirs for some of my friends in London." I said.
"How about sake? You can't beat some good old fashioned sake." Dad said.
"But George, I want to go look at clothes." Mum said.
"No, let's go to the liquor store." Dad said. "And I need more cigars."
"How about we split up? I'll go with Freya and you two can go where you want." Eisuke suggested.
"No, we're here today to spend time with Freya. George, you can buy your cigars and alcohol another time. Let's go with Freya." Mum said.
"Your right. Let's go." Dad said and pushed me and mum along.
"We can help you choose your gifts for your friends." Mum said.
Eisuke followed along behind, I could tell that he didn't get it. Wasting time shopping when he could be doing something else.
Mum dragged me from shop to shop, we started shopping for gifts but we ended up shopping for ourselves.
"Freya, these shoes would be perfect for you. We should get matching pairs." She said.
"What's the point? It's not like I can see them." I said.
"But they're really nice. Oh how about these?" she dragged me along the shop.
Meanwhile, dad and Eisuke stood not far watching us shop.
"Never get my wife in a shop, we'll be here for hours. Especially if Freya's here, she likes to dress Freya up." Dad said to Eisuke.
"Hm." Eisuke said in response.
I managed to slip away from my mum and found Eisuke talking to my dad.
"I'm sorry, you guys must be bored." I said.
"I can see that the apple didn't fall very far from the tree." Eisuke said, which made my dad laugh.
"Shut up dad, don't laugh." I said which made him laugh harder.
"Maybe I should have warned Eisuke before we brought you and your mother here."
"Freya, come here." Mum said and she grabbed me and pulled me along.
"Mum, how much more are you going to get? Remember, we're here for gifts." I reminded her.
"Oh I know, but look, this dress would be nice on you." She said and I felt her hold a dress up to me. "What do you think Eisuke?"
"Yes, it looks nice." Eisuke said.
We finally left the store and headed back to the car.
"I wish Lucy could have come." I said to mum.
"Yes but she's working. She sends her love though. I'm sorry we took so long shopping, Eisuke."
"No not at all. I'm looking forward to our formal engagement ceremony. I'm sure my father will be there." Eisuke said.
"I can't wait. George, I'll need to buy a dress for the party and you'll need a new suit."
"We've just been shopping." Dad said with a heavy sigh.
"Yes, but that wasn't for our daughter's engagement ceremony." She said.
Dad sighed again making me laugh. "Please tell your father hell from us. We can't wait to meet him." Dad said. "He must be a good man so raise you to be such a nice young man."
"Thank you. I'll tell him how wonderful you two are." Eisuke said. He showed them to a separate car he called to take them home and made sure they got in safely.
"Bye mum, bye dad." I said and hugged them goodbye before the car drove off. "Eisuke."
"What?"
"Thank you so much for everything today. I'm so happy."
"Are you?" he asked.
I never expected him to treat my family like that, it was amazing.
"I thought you might be shopping until the store closed, but it didn't take quite that long, hm?"
"Oh stop it." I said punching him lightly on the shoulder.
"You really are a lot like your parents."
"Is that a good thing?"
"Slowness seems to run in your family… and now it's my problem. Let's go back to the hotel." He said and slipped his arm around my shoulders and we headed to the car.