Episode 370: The Meaning of an Adopted Son-in-law

Mayumi POV

I watched Kazunari-kun and Sara-chan leave the room with a smile, and now only we… the parents of both families… are left inside.

And what’s about to start is the main topic of today. Two extremely important discussions, including an explanation of the circumstances behind welcoming Kazunari-kun as an adopted son and a formal request for your consent once again.

For now, regarding the latter, we’ve already received consent over the phone, and they just said they「respect the person’s own will,」so I don’t think it will be much of an issue. If anything, the problem is the explanation of the circumstances.

After all, we are the Satsukawa family… though I feel a bit self-conscious saying this, the fact is that we are the founding family and the management clan of that globally renowned giant,「Saba Electronics.」I wonder how much of a shock this truth will bring to Kazunari-kun’s parents…

But since Sara-chan is our daughter, we cannot avoid this topic. Especially since we have a strong desire for Kazunari-kun to take over as the successor.

But that’s not just a hope as a management clan, but as parents who care for their precious daughter…

Because…

The only man in the world who can make Sara-chan happy is Kazunari-kun…

For a parent, a child’s happiness is the absolute top priority. But Kazunari-kun’s existence is, for me… no, for us, the「Satsukawa family」…

「…I didn’t interject, but it seems there was a reason for having Kazunari and the young lady leave early, doesn’t there?」

Kosei-san, who had watched the two leave in silence just like us, suddenly let those words slip.

But his atmosphere was somehow… his previous cheerfulness had vanished, and both his tone of voice and everything about him had clearly changed.

What on earth is this…

「As you’ve guessed, the contents we are about to discuss include things we haven’t told Kazunari-kun himself yet… our own intentions. However, we intend to tell him formally once he has become a bit more of an adult…」

「I see. Under those circumstances, it seems best for us to keep this conversation off the record for now.」

「If you could do that, it would be…」

「Understood. Well, I’m convinced it’s not a bad story, so I’ll leave that judgment to you.」

「Thank you. Then, once again, I’d like to begin the discussion.」

「Yes. I look forward to… wait, what’s with that look, Mother?」

Kosei-san suddenly said that and looked right next to him. Following his gaze, I saw Fuyumi-san wearing a wry smile, looking a bit fed up.

「Nothing really… I was just thinking that Kazunari wouldn’t have been so troubled if you’d just acted like that from the start.」

「…My bad. I just didn’t know what kind of face to make when meeting him either.」

「Sigh, you really are so clumsy in that way… you could have just been normal. You were able to talk normally on the phone the other day, weren’t you?」

「W-Well, yeah…」

「Honestly, the way you try to cover things up by just relying on your energy whenever you’re a bit troubled is a bad habit of yours, really.」

「Guh…」

Um, I wonder what that conversation was about?

To be honest, the content was quite intriguing… surely, the Kosei-san we’ve seen up until now wasn’t…

「Now, now, that doesn’t matter right now, so hurry up and continue. But this time, be serious, okay?」

「I know, I know. Honestly…」

「Haha, it seems you have your own circumstances over there as well.」

「Haha, I’m sorry. For interrupting the flow… more importantly.」

「Yes. Then, without further ado…」

「…Wait, before that, would it be alright if I said something from my side?」

「Y… yes.」

Interrupting Masaomi-san, Kosei-san looked our way with a meaningful expression and stood up from his seat…

「Kosei-san?」

Ignoring us as we watched his movements curiously, Kosei-san moved to the spot next to where Kazunari-kun and Sara-chan had been sitting… right near the head of the table. He then slowly lowered himself down…

「I cannot find the words to thank you all for everything you’ve done for my son. First, allow me to use this opportunity to offer my deepest gratitude…」

While saying that, he corrected his posture into a formal kneel, and then threw his upper body forward toward the floor… wait, hold on a second!?

「K-Kosei-san!?」

「Please stop!! You don’t need to go that far…」

At the completely unexpected action of a「prostration,」both Masaomi-san and I let out panicked voices. But Kosei-san didn’t stop, and finally pressed his body deep against the tatami mats, in a perfect prostration position that anyone could see… I mean, why did he do this so suddenly!?

「No, this isn’t just because I want to offer my thanks. There is the matter of leaving my son’s daily life entirely to your precious daughter… a young lady of her age. But more than that, the fact that he recovered his old brightness… and that he stood back up like that, I am truly…」

「Eh…?」

「Kazunari-kun did?」

Kazunari-kun recovered his brightness…?

That was a complete bolt from the blue. I truly have no idea what Kosei-san is talking about…

And the meaning of the word「recovered」as well…

「I noticed that back then, he was harboring some kind of trouble, yet was acting as if nothing had happened. But no matter how many times I asked, he wouldn’t give me a reason. In the end, all he asked for was to take the entrance exams for a school outside the prefecture and for the financial support to live on his own… I was anxious because it was so sudden, but I decided to support him since it was what he wanted…」

「I-I see… certainly, we were curious about the circumstances of Kazunari-kun living on his own while still a high schooler…」

Actually, this matter had come up for discussion with Masaomi-san before. But since there was a high possibility it was a family matter, and the person himself didn’t want to touch on it, we concluded that we shouldn’t force him to talk about it…

「But in this way, he has successfully recovered his old brightness. He’s started cracking jokes again, and he’s started interacting with me without reservation. I was so happy about that, I accidentally got involved with him more than necessary today…」

「Ah…」

So that’s what that was all about earlier. No wonder I thought he was too different from the impression Masaomi-san had gotten over the phone… in other words, the word「clumsy」that Fuyumi-san used fits his personality perfectly. That makes total sense.

「That’s why I want to offer my heartfelt thanks to you all. I am a pathetic Father who couldn’t do a single thing to help him recover, but at the very least, I can bow my head to the people who looked after him…」

「Kosei-san…」

I can feel almost painfully how much Kosei-san is rejoicing over this, and how much he wants to thank us.

But I…

Both Masaomi-san and I, and surely Sara-chan too…

「I understand your feelings well. However, we really don’t remember doing anything that warrants being thanked this much, so please, that’s enough…」

「My wife is right. To begin with, we didn’t even know Kazunari-kun was dealing with such circumstances, so to be honest, we don’t know what you’re thanking us for…」

「…I see, so he really didn’t say anything… but even so, the fact remains that we are greatly in your debt, so I still wish to convey my gratitude…」

「…Understood. If that’s the case, then from our side…」

「Eh?」

Saying that, Masaomi-san stood up from his seat this time… and moved to the spot right next to Hirosei-san, near the head of the table, and lowered himself. Of course, in a formal kneel…

「Our daughter and both of us are greatly in Kazunari-kun’s debt. Especially regarding our daughter, we cannot find the words to thank him for saving her heart and becoming her hope for the future. Therefore, I must also offer my thanks to his parents…」

And in the same way, Masaomi-san took a prostration position and spoke his words of thanks.

I had a feeling it would turn out like this… of course it did.

「W-Wait a minute!! We haven’t done anything to deserve being thanked by you…」

「Th-That’s right!! We are the ones who are truly grateful to Sara-chan and her parents. So the ones who should be giving thanks are…」

「It’s the same for us. So why don’t we call it mutual? Even if both sides don’t quite realize what they did, we both have feelings of deep gratitude, so for now, let’s just accept that honestly right here.」

「Th-That’s…」

Kosei-san and Fuyumi-san looked at each other with a bit of bewilderment at Masaomi-san’s compromise.

I think that’s a pretty clever way of putting it… now then.

「If you still wish to offer your thanks, please do so directly to our daughter. We will also convey our thanks to Kazunari-kun once again.」

「…You’re right. Understood. If you put it that way…」

Having apparently been convinced, Kosei-san, Fuyumi-san… and Masaomi-san finally relaxed their postures and expressions.

Thank goodness… it looks like the conversation will finally come together now.

But regardless, to think Kosei-san was this type of person… isn’t his duality just a bit too strong?

「Haha… even so, I never expected things to take such a turn so suddenly.」

「No, my apologies. I’d been thinking the whole time about what I should do… and I decided this was the only way to express my deep gratitude.」

「Honestly… I understand your feelings, but if you suddenly prostrate yourself like that, of course the other party will be troubled, right?」

「W-Well, that’s true, but still…」

「Hehe… but thanks to that, I feel like we’ve gotten a sense of Kosei-san’s character… so I’m relieved that we can talk with peace of mind now, you know?」

「I-Is that so? Well, hearing you say that makes me happy, Ma’am.」

「Oh my…」

It seems he’s being genuine about this part. Well, I don’t feel any nastiness, so I guess I should just take it as social etiquette.

But… it was a good harvest to find out he’s someone who can take a sincere approach when it really matters. For now, it seems like the first impression for the「other matter」is fine… I guess?

「However, the reality of the situation is that we are leaving Kazunari’s entire life to your daughter, which is a concern.」

「Hehe… as for that, it’s not something you need to thank us for, you know? That’s something Sara-chan is doing because she wants to.」

「My wife is right. Our daughter is doing that of her own accord, so please don’t let it worry you. Well… I was certainly taken aback when I learned our teenage daughter had forced her way into a home where a man was living alone…」

「No, that’s only natural, I think…」

Ethical talk aside, taking care of Kazunari-kun is like a lifework for Sara-chan… in fact, if we were to scold her for it, she’d probably be the one to get mad at us.

「I’m sorry, Sara-chan is such a good girl that I’ve somehow just relied on the situation… really, I don’t know what to say to you both…」

「Fuyumi-san. Let’s stop there, shall we?」

「Y-Yeah. Sorry.」

Well, even so, I don’t think they can just easily say「Yes, I see,」but… I suppose this is unavoidable.

「By the way… regarding the story of Kazunari-kun from earlier.」

「About Kazunari?」

「Yes. About him… recovering…」

「Ah, that. My apologies for speaking about it one-sidedly when you aren’t aware of the situation.」

「No, that’s not a problem, but…」

「I thought that if Kazunari had opened his heart that much, he would have told you all at least part of the story… so he really didn’t say anything after all.」

「No, nothing in particular. Although if it’s our daughter, she might have heard something.」

Certainly, if it’s Sara-chan, it wouldn’t be strange if she’d heard something… no, I feel like she definitely has. And it’s highly likely she’s keeping quiet out of consideration for Kazunari-kun.

「I’m not sure if it’s related to this matter… but actually, just the other day, an acquaintance suddenly came to visit to apologize. They said, “My daughter caused Kazunari-kun a great deal of trouble”…」

「Trouble?」

「Yes. When I heard that, I asked for an explanation of what it meant… but they told me that if the person himself hadn’t spoken about it, they couldn’t explain the details… because that was the promise they made… they said.」

「…That’s quite a difficult situation to read. And what else did that person say?」

「No, strictly that their daughter had caused him a great deal of trouble… and they asked me to accept this as a token of apology…」

「Well, to put it plainly, a large sum of money under the name of settlement money…」

「S-Settlement money?」

「That’s quite…」

I think it’s a bit of a vague story, but if we infer from the word settlement money… it means that person… or rather, their daughter(?) caused Kazunari-kun a corresponding amount of trouble.

Moreover, if we think about it normally, for the word settlement money to even come up in trouble between children, it has to be something quite serious… which means the trouble Kazunari-kun was harboring might have been more severe than we thought.

「For now, the other party insisted that they wanted me to accept it, so I accepted the money as a form of “safekeeping”…」

「But… I only noticed this recently, but I can’t get in touch with them at all. It’s not just the phone; before I knew it, their house was even up for sale.」

「…That is.」

「Once when I was talking to Kazunari on the phone, I tried to bring it up jokingly, acting as if I didn’t know anything. At that time, it felt like he had some idea of what I was talking about…」

「…I see. However, since we haven’t heard anything regarding that from the person himself… but still.」

「…Do you have something in mind?」

「No… right. Before we talk about that, may I proceed with the main topic first? There might be some parts that relate to it slightly.」

「…Understood. Then, once again.」

「Yes. Once again, I look forward to your kind regards.」

Now then… the discussion has taken an unexpected turn, but I suppose it’s a stroke of luck that our evaluation of Hirosei-san has changed. After all, one of the purposes of today was to size him up in that regard.

And as for Kazunari-kun…

If「that matter」is part of the things related to this…

This might be a more important discussion than I thought.