In the afternoon, Takumi asked Alice what she thought after handing her the second part of Kid.
"Except for wonderful, I can't find other words to describe it."
Alice seemed excited and said, "I can't wait to hand it over to the publisher!"
She carefully put the manuscript into her bag, patted it, and nodded with satisfaction.
"Then I'm leaving."
Takumi accompanied her to the entrance. Alice bent down to change her shoes, stepped on them a couple of times, opened the door, and prepared to leave.
"By the way!" she turned and reminded him, "Don't stay home all the time. Go out and exercise when you have time."
Alice was very worried about Takumi's physical condition.
Takumi said yes, but inwardly he was thinking about buying a treadmill and going home. Last month's manuscript payment had been deposited into his bank account, and the reward for the poster was 40,000 yen, so after deducting the rent, there was still over 100,000 yen in the account, and the funds were sufficient.
This was not only convenient, but also allowed Aika to use it.
Aika had been looking for work lately. She said her body would rust if she didn't do anything. If possible, Takumi wanted her to stay home.
She came home very late that day, with a pile of vegetables in her hands, but her face wasn't looking very good.
"I walked all day for nothing, and no one wanted to hire me." She complained while cooking: "I've wasted food, Takumi, do you think it would be better if Mom went back to Saitama?"
"What are you talking about?"
Takumi frowned slightly: "Mom, don't joke!"
"But I, as a mother, eat from you all day, and I feel bad..."
"Mom!" Takumi was angry and amused: "What kind of thinking is this? Where is the mother who eats her children?"
He went to the kitchen to help, and by the way, comforted Aika. Takumi knew that his mother was not used to leaving her hometown, and now was a time for sentimentality. But of course, 'why didn't the school's academic bully show any signs of nostalgia?'
Takumi felt that she must also feel it, and that perhaps she was talking on the phone with her parents every day.
Today's dinner was fish or meat, which made Takumi smile bitterly as he ate.
"Mom, please stop buying meat all the time. You're almost making me fat."
"It's good to be fat; you're just too thin." Aika glared at him. In her opinion, fish and meat are good things: "You work so hard drawing that you don't take care of your body. If Mom doesn't help you, who will?"
Takumi has been working very hard these days. To finish the two Kid episodes on time, he only sleeps four hours a day, which breaks Aika's heart.
"You work so hard, Takumi, with a manuscript worth thousands of yen?" Aika complained. "Mom doesn't spend money. I save seventy or eighty thousand yen a month, which is enough for you to grow up and get married."
Takumi laughed and cried.
"I'm still young; why am I thinking about such distant things?!"
But there are some things he should make clear. Takumi wants to make up for the regrets of his previous life and make his mother happy, but happiness is not solved with money. Takumi wants to support each other with her, but 'doesn't he harbor some expectation in his heart?'
"Mom, I want to ask you something."
Takumi put the bowl on the table with a serious expression: "Is Dad rich?"
In his previous life, he had suspected who the unknown person who adopted him was. He knew all his mother's relatives, and there were no rich ones. And the person who adopted Takumi, with unimaginable financial resources...
He pays him no less than six hundred thousand yen a month.
Takumi doesn't know who he is, but even if he's not his father, he's at least a relative.
"..."
However, Aika remained silent, and after the silence, she gave an unexpected answer:
"I don't know."
She laughed and shook her head: "I don't know anything, except your father's name."
Aika never told her son about his father because she had nothing to say. That man was just a dream for her, an accidental encounter, an unexpected combination, and separation was inevitable.
"What's his name?"
Takumi frowned, trying to find some clue in the name.
"Makoto, the Makoto from the word 'sincerity,' he's the most handsome and perfect person I've ever seen in my life." Aika's eyes reflected a certain nostalgia: "To be honest, I was the one who took the initiative to pursue him...".
"Huh?" Takumi's eyes widened: "You pursued him?"
He looked at her with new respect.
"Yes, I fell in love with him at first sight. Back then, I overestimated myself a lot." Aika smiled: "For some reason, your father was very depressed, so I bothered him and made him laugh. Then he asked me why, and I told him I was fascinated."
Her face flushed slightly.
"And then there was you..."
Takumi almost gasped. 'His mother was so strong when she was young!' But he didn't find it strange. She preferred to raise Takumi alone than remarry. She was very strong.
"Mom, is the reason you're not remarrying because of me or because of Dad?"
Takumi suddenly felt sad. He had always thought that Aika hadn't remarried because of him, but now it seemed she was obsessed with his father.
"Both, I don't want you to leave me." Aika smiled slightly: "And any woman who has seen your father won't be interested in other men."
"Even if he abandons his wife and children?" Takumi couldn't help but complain: "Why are you like a nymphomaniac? Is it enough for a man to just look good?"
Aika's smile stopped.
"Takumi..."
She didn't continue, but looked at Takumi with a certain sadness: "Do you want to go look for him?"
"No."
Takumi shook his head, picked up his bowl, and ate in silence.
In fact, he had worked hard before and more or less expected to see his father. He wanted to know why his father hadn't visited him in his previous life. 'Could it be because he wasn't good enough? If Takumi had been able to become very good in this life, would his father appear before him?'
However, Takumi changed his mind after hearing Aika's words.
'Why should he see the person who abandoned himself and his mother? Even without him, Takumi could live happily with Aika and support his mother in this life.'
As for the reason to work hard to make money, there is another: Takumi wants to become more powerful. He wants to become an unbreakable man who moves forward bravely. This is also a promise to the admirable woman.
But at that moment, Aika's gaze became a little blurry. She looked at her son, not knowing what to say. Takumi, who was eating with his head down, had clear and bright eyes. His temperament had become so mature that Aika was attracted by his behavior. It wasn't until that moment that she realized that the child's face had changed slightly.
His outline seemed to have cleared, and his eyebrows were thicker than they had been six months ago...
Aika seemed to have found traces of Makoto in his face. She shook her head, and 'she must have been dazzled.'