episode_0002

“Aaaaah!! Aaaaah─!”

“Ugh… !”

I woke up with a start to the sound of crying that made it sound like the house was going to burst.

I found the calendar and just laid down on the bed and fell asleep.

I turned my head to the side and saw Mirae frowning and crying. The hot sunlight was pouring into her exposed forehead. It was so blinding that I covered my face with my palm.

“9:20… .”

I checked my watch on the phone next to my bedside. I had been sleeping soundly for almost 14 hours.

“Whoa, Whoa, Whoa!”

“Why, why? Are you hungry?”

I haven’t been feeling well since this morning. I need to figure out how to calm myself down first.

“Diaper? Did you not sleep well? Or was it food?”

There are so many reasons why a baby might cry.

If she had cried all night, she would have woken up, so it couldn’t be sleep deprivation, so I decided to check her diaper first.

If it had been taken care of, it would have been left unattended for quite some time.

Mirae pushed aside the blanket she was wrapped in and lifted up her fluffy one-piece pajamas.

Fortunately, the diaper wasn’t that complicated. It was just a snap button. I carefully pressed the front of the diaper and snapped the snap button off.

“It wasn’t that cheap… .”

There was just a small water stain. There was no diaper to change, so I thought it would be okay to put her back on?

Slurp slurp… .

As I was thinking seriously with my head down, I felt a warm, wet sensation on my cheek.

“Eww… !”

I turned my face back in shock, and only then did the force of the water stream subside.

“Ouch!”

Mirae smiled brightly as if it was very refreshing. But she quickly frowned and started to cry.

“Uuuuu, ah, ahhh… !”

I wiped her cheek with the tissue on the desk and quickly took off the diaper. Then I patted Mirae’s butt with the tissue and carefully picked her up.

“I’m hungry… .”

Well, first of all, I’m hungry.

I starved for at least half a day, or at most a whole day. I was very thankful that Mirae didn’t cry at night.

The problem is that there is no food to give to the baby… .

no.

It’s not that there is no rice.

It hasn’t hit me yet because I haven’t had time to think about it, but I’m sure I have a baby’s lunch box now.

“Sure… .”

There is no other way. In order to satisfy the hunger of the future, it had to be attempted. Humans are creatures of imagination. Who knows if Iharu has such an ability?

I swallowed hard and lifted the white t-shirt I was wearing.

“Ma, Mom, let’s eat?”

“Aww, aww, aww!”

I pulled Mirae, who was crying with her fists clenched, to my chest. Mirae bit her lips a few times, then instinctively looked for the food and bit into it.

“Um, woof, euuuung, eww! eww!!”

But she seemed displeased and started crying again.

It still doesn’t work.

He pulled his T-shirt back down with a gloomy face. Breast milk doesn’t come out of an 11-year-old child.

There are limits to imagination. What can’t be done, can’t be done.

“Aww, aww!”

Mirai’s crying grew louder as she realized there was no food. My heart grew more anxious as she did so, but then I noticed a pink post-it note stuck to the blanket.

─I made too much dinner, so could you please give me a little bit? Please help me out, ma’am!

The rounded font, I already wrote “Auntie” before, so it was certain. She has the rice of the future.

maybe.

I jumped up, holding the future in my arms. I didn’t have time to think. I ran to the front door, put on my leather shoes, and headed to the house next door.

Ding dong! Boom bang bang!

“Are you there? Excuse me!”

As I knocked on the door and shouted urgently, I heard some loud footsteps from inside and the door flew open.

The person who came out from inside was a very young woman, to be called an old lady.

The ivory hair, tied with a white scrunchie and hanging down over her shoulders, naturally blends with the cozy light yellow knit.

The thin eyes, which were difficult to tell whether they were open or closed, were gently curved, giving an overall good impression.

She is the ideal mother who makes you want to call her ‘Maman’ without even realizing it.

“What’s wrong?! Are you hurt? Are you hungry? Are you scared and can’t sleep?”

The woman next door, crouching on the porch, holding my shoulder and asking me with concern… no, the woman next door. Her worries were not much different from the worries I had when looking at the future.

“Oh, no! Baby, I mean… Baby food… .”

“Baby… ?”

“Ugh, ugh!”

The eyes of the woman who had just discovered the baby widened slightly. The soft light of her hazel eyes that were revealed made the viewer feel at ease.

“Hey, let me hold you first? Yeah, yeah. You must have been really hungry.”

“Who is it? Haru?”

As the woman skillfully held Mirae in her arms and soothed her, a black-haired man holding a baby walked out from inside.

“Yeah, it’s only one day… . Ah, it’s cold, so come in first.”

“Excuse me… .”

As I nodded and went inside, the old man’s dark blue eyes widened.

He was a handsome man who looked cool even with his arrogant expression, as if he had ‘I’m handsome’ written all over his face.

“Ha, one day, say hello… .”

“… Yes?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. Come on. Did you eat breakfast?”

I was wondering what to say and eventually just nodded my head when I saw a lady sitting on the sofa pulling up her knitwear, so I was startled and turned around.

Even though it was just a scene of feeding the future, I had a feeling that I shouldn’t look at it.

Woohoohoohoo─ Woohoohoohoo─.

At that moment, I felt a vibration in my pocket.

phone call?

It wasn’t even a saved number. But, from my perspective of needing to get some information, I couldn’t just pass it by.

“Who… …?”

[Who is it…! Ahem, Haruya, what’s wrong? Should I go home, teacher?]

The voice that had been shaking violently at first gradually calmed down. The person who continued speaking in a tone that seemed to suppress everything as much as possible said that he was a teacher.

By the way, there was a household newsletter.

I have to go to school on weekdays. It was so chaotic that I completely forgot about it.

“Ah, ah, sorry. I, I’ll be right back! I, I overslept… .”

[Oh, oh? Really? Oh, I see. Anyway, everything is fine, right? Then that’s fine.]

“Yes, thank you for calling.”

[Hey, hey, hey, are you coming slowly?]

Somehow the teacher looked more flustered. I hung up the phone and looked around restlessly.

Even though I said I was going to school, I didn’t actually know where the school was located.

“Shall I bring you?”

“Ah… .”

A handsome man offered me a helping hand. When I looked up at him, he smiled. My nose stung for no reason, so I blinked and slowly nodded.

“Thank you… .”

“No, no. We should help each other and live together as neighbors.”

The man who said that went into the room and came out wearing only a cardigan over the loose t-shirt he was wearing.

“Honey, there’s toast on the table, give it to me!”

“Okay, I got it.”

The man handed me a piece of toast covered in strawberry jam that he had taken from the table.

“Want to eat?”

It’s a really warm family. As I was receiving their kindness, the gloom from yesterday came rushing back to me and my eyes kept getting sore.

“Oh, yes… .”

I took the toast with both hands and went out, but stopped dead in my tracks in front of the doorway.

The future was so dazzling that my feet couldn’t move easily. Is it okay to continue like this?

But even those worries seemed to have been dispelled, as a bright voice soon came from behind.

“Don’t worry, Auntie will take good care of you, so go. I’m glad my son has a friend!”

“Aww!”

“… Thank you. I’ll be back.”

“Yeah, work hard and come back!”

* * *

On the way to school in my uncle’s car.

The silence was uncomfortable, so I ended up speaking first.

“Why don’t you ask anything?”

Although it is certainly something to be thankful for, sudden favors tend to bring about fear and suspicion.

I wonder if he’s being nice to me because he has some ulterior motive?

What if something happens to the future?

Even I can’t understand the current situation, so why did they accept it so easily?

Is it simply because it’s a world in a novel?

If the world is this happy and sweet, why did Iharu decide to commit suicide?

My thoughts were not organized. My chest was so heavy that I couldn’t bear to not hear his answer.

“Can you tell me?”

“… … .”

A gentle question came back from the driver’s seat. I bit my lip and thought about it for a while, but eventually I ended up spitting it out.

“Baby… Future… Um… . Well, a monster showed up yesterday… and I found Future there… and I thought I could raise it… and brought it home… .”

I couldn’t get my words together. My throat kept getting choked up, so I had to swallow several times.

“Yeah, that’s how it happened.”

The old man’s smiling face was reflected in the rearview mirror inside the car. He didn’t stop there, but he clenched his fist to the side and spoke brightly.

“Saving a child? Sounds like a hero?”

“Hero… .”

Even if there are real people called heroes in this world, can we easily just pass over it with such words?

I had that thought for a moment, but when I saw the old man’s smile, the dark suspicion that had been pressing down on me melted away in an instant.

As my mother said, it may be that the hand I extended to the future has returned. If not, I would not have been able to meet such great people.

“Thanks to the future?”

“… Yes?”

“The reason why you suddenly changed. When you greeted me, I was so surprised that I almost cried. Thank goodness. I think things have gotten better.”

Iharu seems to have been that kind of child. A child whose wounds were so deep that even a single word he uttered was seen as something strange.

I nodded my head without even trying to deny it.

“… Maybe so.”

If there had been no future, I would not have been able to recover from the shock so easily. The confusion caused by the appearance of the future made the things I had experienced up until now seem like nothing serious.

“Let’s do our best as new parents! Actually, it was my first time as a father, so I was really nervous.”

As I continued to have those thoughts and let out a hollow laugh, the old man turned around and stuck out his fist.

As I looked out the window, bewildered, a dirt playground and a red brick building came into view.

Nari Elementary School. This is where Iharu was supposed to be.

It’s also where I start anew.

“Yes, I will take good care of it.”

I looked at the old man again and bumped our fists.