JSWGAS Chapter 10

Chapter 10 10.

September 30th, Friday.

Kokonoe Taka finished his activities early and returned home.

In the entryway, there was a pair of delicate women’s high heels, and one less pair of slippers prepared for guests.

Low voices of women came from the living room – one slightly unfamiliar, with a mature and gentle tone; the other speaking quickly, with a somewhat sharp tone, it was his mother’s voice. Kokonoe Taka changed his shoes while raising his voice and asked, “Mom? Do you have a guest?”

After a while, he heard Kokonoe Sumiko raise her voice in response.

“Um – yes, it’s an old friend of mine… Why are you back so early today?”

He walked into the living room and saw his mother, dressed somewhat formally, standing up. The woman opposite her also stood up. “Hello, I’m Sakagami, Sakagami Mai.”

A black lining paired with a beige suit jacket, and a matching knee-length skirt on the lower body. She slightly brushed a strand of long hair that fell beside her ear, her face was delicately made up, making it impossible to tell her exact age.

Apart from that, Kokonoe Taka felt somewhat uncomfortable in the other woman’s smiling yet slightly probing gaze – his mother rarely had guests he didn’t recognize, and he was sure he had no impression of the surname ‘Sakagami’.

“This is my son, Taka,” his mother said softly.

He politely greeted her.

“I’m going out later, and probably won’t be back for dinner tonight.” He said to Kokonoe Sumiko, “Mom, don’t skip dinner just because you’re alone, okay? I’ll bring you some edamame fresh cream Kitafuku mochi when I get back.”

“I know, Taka. My, being so caring, you’ll be a very popular man in the future, won’t you?”

“… Don’t tease me.” Kokonoe Taka’s ears felt a little hot. He hurried upstairs to put his things away and left quickly, Kokonoe Hikohito would be waiting for him at the nearby station.

–

Sakagami Mai watched the boy stride away, drawing out his tone as he left, “I’m leaving –”

Bang, the door closed. Sakagami Mai sensed that her client breathed a sigh of relief, and took the initiative to say, “He seems very energetic, your son.”

Her client was stunned for a few seconds, then a proud smile appeared on her face: “That child is very considerate, he hasn’t done anything to trouble me since he became sensible…”

Sakagami Mai guessed that there would be a ‘but’ coming up next. She held her breath and waited.

“But, sometimes I feel like he’s too sensible. It’s okay for children his age to be a little willful, right? That child is like a tightly wound string, constantly suppressing his feelings, and it will eventually snap…”

A weak mother and her sensible and introverted son – and a male head of the household who had almost disappeared from this house. These made up her next job.

Sakagami Mai curled up the corners of her mouth, her eyebrows furrowed for a moment and then relaxed, a flash of sharpness in her eyes.

“Then, let’s continue our conversation, Ms. Sumiko,” Sakagami Mai said, “About – your request to divorce your husband.”

……

…………

“……”

“……”

Inside the high-end car driving towards the venue, the air between the two blood-related people was stiff.

“There will be many famous coaches and active players at this exchange, as well as relevant leaders from the National Junior High School Tournament. I will take you to meet them first, and don’t let me down on the opportunity I created for you, this is crucial for your future development.”

“… Future development?”

“Yes, future development.” At the intersection, the man stopped the car in front of the zebra crossing, tapped the steering wheel with his index finger, looked at the red light ahead, and said in a calm tone, “The path of a professional tennis player is not so easy. Competition has already begun in the student years. Performance, ability, talent, diligence, and even with all that, there are many players without connections who are not discovered by the tennis world until the very end.”

“You’re different. Taka, I won’t let you be buried.”

The traffic light flickered, the red light went out, and the green light lit up.

The car started smoothly, just like his calm voice.

“What if I fail?”

“You are the most talented person I have ever seen. Maybe only that person’s son has the potential to surpass you… No, you are five or six years ahead of him, he won’t surpass you.”

“I…”

Beethoven’s “Symphony of Destiny” interrupted Kokonoe Taka’s unfinished words. Kokonoe Hikohito answered the phone, his tone enthusiastic, “Yes, sorry, we’ll be there soon… Yes, we won’t let you down. The child is also looking forward to it… Okay, that’s it then. See you later.”

His stomach was cramping. Was it the result of not eating well at noon? Kokonoe Taka silently covered his left abdomen, feeling waves of acid surging up his throat.

“Taka.”

His father stared at him through the rearview mirror: “What were you going to say just now?”

“… Nothing.”

“That’s good. I thought you were suddenly going to say you didn’t want to go — that won’t happen, right? After all, you are a very reassuring child, and you won’t cause me any trouble.”

“……”

……

…………

The courage that Kokonoe Sumiko had accumulated quickly disappeared. She was uneasy, and couldn’t help but tug at the hem of her magenta cardigan, messing up the fabric.

“Um… yes, my divorce with him – my divorce with Hikohito.”

When she said the last two words, Kokonoe Sumiko couldn’t help but sob softly, like the whimper of some kind of weak little animal. Sakagami Mai sat over, reached out and grasped the woman’s hands, rescuing the fabric from her grasp.

“Please calm down, Ms. Sumiko.” She slowed down her voice and said softly, “You can speak slowly, there’s no rush.”

Kokonoe Sumiko took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Sakagami.”

“Where were we just now?” she asked.

Sakagami Mai replied, “We were talking about the cold violence your husband inflicted on you.”

“Ah… is that so.”

“My husband… Hikohito, he was actually running around for tennis-related things even before we got married. However, he would always bring flowers back to apologize to me. When I saw him talking about things he liked with high spirits, my heart would soften, and I would forgive him.”

“He wasn’t by our side when Taka was born. I should have realized it from that time on. Why wouldn’t my husband and my child’s father be there when we needed them the most? – I’m sorry, Ms. Sakagami, I avoided this issue at that time. If I had faced our relationship squarely, things might not have turned out this way.”

“Ms. Sumiko, this is not your fault.”

“That child also said that: ‘Mom didn’t do anything wrong’. But I know very well that wrong is wrong. It was a wrong step from the beginning when I married Hikohito, and every step after that was wrong. If I were to say what I’m most grateful for in these years, it would be the birth of that child.”

“Hikohito was originally a professional tennis player, but he retired after Taka was born. That period of time was when I was closest to seeing his ‘true self’. He refused to go out to work, and spent his days drinking and smoking, relying entirely on the money we had saved up in previous years to live on. When I came home, he would become a responsible father and husband. But when I saw the empty bottles in the corner and the cigarette butts on the balcony while cleaning, I should have realized his irresponsibility.”

“But as far as I know, Mr. Kokonoe Hikohito is now a popular coach in a domestic professional tennis club, right?”

“Yes. … I don’t know what happened that day, but after I came back, I found that Hikohito had returned to the energetic state he had before we got married. … Ah, I remember now! Because of his retirement, Hikohito refused to see anything related to tennis appear in the house. But that day, he actually took out the tennis racket to play with Taka.”

“I see, he perked up after discovering his child’s talent for tennis? Using his son as a continuation of his own life?”

Sakagami Mai looked at Kokonoe Sumiko inquiringly, and the latter smiled bitterly in acknowledgment, “Hikohito’s personality, to be honest, was once described by his classmates as ‘persistent, self-centered’. Part of the reason why my father refused to let him become his son-in-law back then was because he felt that Hikohito’s way of treating close people was full of control. At that time, I thought this ‘what I say goes’ personality was very handsome. So I would rather break off relations with them to get married.”

“Didn’t you think about telling your parents about these things?”

“How could I bring it up? Admit that I was being foolish, and now I regret it, and then abandon everything and return to my parents’ arms?” Kokonoe Sumiko took a deep breath, ” — I – I’m afraid. Back then, I so resolutely and ruthlessly said to them ‘If I can’t be with Hikohito, I’d rather die’, without considering their feelings at all.”

“For a disobedient daughter like me… why would they still accept me?”

“… I’m sorry, Ms. Sumiko, maybe it’s not convincing for me, an outsider, to say this. But I think, since your parents chose to respect your decision back then, they won’t blame you for this mistake now that you have already regretted it.”

“Is that so…?”

“At least try it. Just like you are seeking help from me now.”

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing, shall we continue?”

“Yes, Ms. Sakagami.” Kokonoe Sumiko’s emotions stabilized a little, and she spoke again, “Hikohito started by hiding it from me, and I only found out after that child let it slip that he had started getting him into tennis when he was so young. After I found out, Hikohito was unwilling to let go because of the amazing talent Taka showed.”

“… After Taka turned six, his demands became more and more strict, he had to train him to become a world-renowned tennis player.”

“I… to be honest, I haven’t been in touch with society for a long time in these years, I’m just an ordinary housewife. I don’t pay attention to Hikohito’s talk of that child surpassing all the players he’s ever seen in the future, I just want him to be happy. But even so, I can see that the child is not willing to move forward on a predetermined path. So I mustered up the courage to talk to Hikohito and tell him not to put so much pressure on the child.”

“… I didn’t succeed. And because of this, Hikohito got very angry and rarely came home.”

“So, the root cause is the disagreement on education issues?”

Even though Kokonoe Sumiko glossed over how they quarreled, Sakagami Mai could imagine what the scene was like. She calmly summarized, and after Kokonoe Sumiko nodded, she pondered for a moment.

“Not allowing his wife to object, forcefully arranging the future for the child,” she paused, wrote a few notes in her notebook, and asked, “Has Mr. Kokonoe Hikohito ever used violence against you?”

Kokonoe Sumiko hesitated, “Not really. … He would throw things when he was angry, but he hasn’t laid a hand on me.”

“Is that so? I understand. Ms. Sumiko, excuse me for being blunt, since this kind of life has gone on for so many years, why did you only decide to divorce now?”

Kokonoe Sumiko’s face turned pale. She had prepared well for this meeting, but at this moment, the intense sadness made her tremble uncontrollably, and her voice even changed.

“I… I – I found out that Hikohito he.” She swallowed, blinked, and tears streamed down her cheeks.

“He — cheated on me.”