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One evening, her husband Akiyuki couldn't go home. The company was restructured. I felt terribly uncool that I had become a social loser. Until he was laid off, Akiyuki thought that people who were in need of jobs or who were homeless were alien to him, and even considered hideous. Akiyuki and Aya had a 10-year-old daughter. The relationship between the two, who met at a matchmaking party held in Shinjuku 15 years ago, had cooled down. When we first met, Aya, who was looking for a marriage partner at the time, was working at a major bank. The beautiful Aya was the perfect match for Akiyuki, who had little love experience. Akiyuki tried his best to persuade Aya. When Aya says to Akiyuki, who always comes on time, "You always come just in time," Akiyuki happily replies, "I'm a banker." When I saw Akiyuki, who was plain but serious, I thought he wouldn't betray me. Aya was strong. For the mild-mannered Akiyuki, that strength of spirit was exhilarating. Aya's words and deeds, which criticize others, were also something that relieved her of the frustration she usually put up with. Except when the criticism is directed at you. . . The two got married within a year of dating. The world was in good shape. The two thought it would be smooth sailing. The beautiful Aya was actually invited by many men, but she refused them all. It was a blissful time for Aya to feel like a petite celebrity when her husband, who works hard and doesn't smell of cheating at all, sometimes takes her to a high-class restaurant. When her daughter Sachiko was born and she entered elementary school, Aya began to have some free time.

Aya had no hobbies. Aya, who has lived a busy life since birth, has never been absorbed in something useless. For Aya, and also for Akiyuki, it was all useless to do things that ordinary people wouldn't do. More than that, Aya was desperate to not lose in the bragging contest with the mom friends at Sachiko's elementary school, and to become a leader. Meanwhile, Akiyuki went on a business trip to Osaka and never came back.

 

Six months before that, Akiyuki was summoned by his boss. I was notified of the restructuring after 3 months. I was immediately transferred to the general affairs department, and for three months I spent every day looking for a new job at the general affairs department. No new jobs were found. I couldn't tell Aya about being laid off. Even after the last working day at the company, Akiyuki wore a suit and left home on time every day. Three months later, a friend from my university days in Osaka asked me if I would come because he was running a company and he was short of manpower. Thinking it was his last chance, Akiyuki pretended to be on a business trip and took a late-night bus to Osaka. When I arrived in Osaka, I lost contact with my friends. When I visited the address of my friend's company, all I could find was an empty office. Akiyuki was planning to stay at a capsule hotel in Dotonbori, but he had little money left. Akiyuki walked through Dotonbori while worrying and lay down on a bench in a corner of the park. The phone call from Aya wasn't all. Akiyuki sobbed when he heard Sachiko's voice left on the answering machine, and sent a message to Aya. That was the only message he had to his family who had been together for 15 years. Within a week, Akiyuki started rummaging through garbage cans. Every day began as a sandwich man carrying a signboard of a pachinko parlor in Dotonbori and picking up and selling magazines. One day, when Akiyuki was sleeping under a bridge, he was lynched by three drunken gangsters. Just when I thought Akiyuki had stopped breathing, a drop of water dripped onto Akiyuki's face from under the pier. Akiyuki got up. Then there was a fair-skinned dwarf the size of a palm standing beside Akiyuki. The fair-skinned dwarf smiled happily as he watched Akiyuki, who was slumped in surprise. The dwarf, who stopped laughing, looked like he knew everything about Akiyuki and pointed at his mobile phone. There was a family photo on the phone. When the dwarf snapped his fingers, the picture disappeared, the screen went black, and the message "Do you want to see me?" Akiyuki froze. After a while, I timidly nodded while staring at the mysterious face of the dwarf. Then the dwarf laughed again. Hearing the dwarf's laughter, Akiyuki tried to smash the dwarf with his right hand like killing a mosquito. When I put my hand away, this time, a dwarf appeared on the screen of my mobile phone. After that, a message saying "I'm going to remodel you" appeared. After that, a message telling me to go here appeared, and a location display on Google Maps appeared. It was the first park I'd ever camped in. I was hallucinating. Akiyuki ignored the thought and fell asleep.The sun rose, and the strong sunlight shined into Akiyuki's face under the bridge pier.The healthy sound of the river, which is inhabited by many creatures, and the openness of the nearby park. Akiyuki woke up with bruises and abrasions all over his body, but for some reason it seemed like a pleasant morning.The battery in his mobile phone was dead.Akiyuki I washed my face with river water as usual, shaved my beard, put on the Uniqlo shirt I had washed and dried the day before, and set off on another trip to pick up magazines while rolling my carry-on bag.April in Osaka. Three months had passed since he came to Tokyo.As Akiyuki walked through the crowds, he remembered the face of a smiling dwarf he had seen yesterday.At that moment, Akiyuki wanted to change.Three months until then, Akiyuki I wanted to do it all over again every day.When I remembered the carefree smile of the dwarf's face, the tension in my whole body seemed to melt away.Akiyuki, thinking he had a strange dream, went to the park indicated by Google Maps. I thought I'd give it a try, maybe something might happen, and I went back to the park where I had first camped outdoors, telling myself that it was for picking up magazines.

 

It was a week after he stopped coming back from Osaka when I learned that my husband had been laid off. When Aya called the company where Akiyuki worked and found out the truth, her first action was to find Akiyuki's passbook. Money was transferred from Akiyuki's account every month. When I checked Akiyuki's passbook, there was no entry for the past six months. Even if I went to the bank, I could not check the balance because I was not the person. Aya realizes that she will soon leave the apartment and returns to her parents' house in Urawa with Sachiko, who is on spring break. For the beautiful Aya, this event was incredibly terrifying. Sachiko didn't want to go to Urawa because she had promised to have a sleepover with a good classmate, but she had no choice but to listen to her mother's strong tone. I told my mom friends with a smile that I had to go home in a hurry because there were a lot of things going on at my parents' house. Aya, who couldn't tell anyone the truth, returned to her parents' house and told her mother everything about the situation. I called Akiyuki many times, but there was no sign of answering. Sachiko and I left a message on the answering machine. Aya was 40 years old, but the world was suffering from an unprecedented recession. I couldn't find the job I wanted. The job I finally found was a receptionist at a dentist. Aya, who didn't want Sachiko to quit school, decided to work at a cabaret club in Ginza about two months after she started working as a receptionist with the introduction of her close colleague Mana. You can even marry a customer. When Aya heard from 28-year-old Mana-chan, she secretly thought she might still be able to do it. At first she was nervous, but after a month Aya got used to it. "We apologize for the inconvenience. I received a message from Akiyuki when I was accompanying a customer who runs a restaurant. The man seemed only interested in sex. Since I turned down the man who insisted on it, I stopped coming back, but one day he came and was nominated again. "You fucking old lady. It's boring," said Aya from the man. It was the first time in my life that I was called an old hag, and I couldn't shut my mouth when I was called shit. The guest was immediately taken away by the boy and banned, but Aya cried for the first time in front of her daughter that night.

 

Sachiko wanted to join the sleepover party. We were supposed to talk about Takahiro-kun there. Takahiro could play the guitar when he was 10 years old. Takahiro was a clever man who could exercise and spoke clearly. Takahiro-kun was popular with the girls in his class. Sachiko also liked Takahiro-kun. I didn't know what a guitar was, and it was unimaginable for Sachiko to have a child who could do that. My family had never been exposed to music in the first place. So I didn't know. Takahiro, who played the guitar in front of everyone at the class recital, was a miraculous figure for Sachiko. Sachiko read a lot of comics. And I liked to draw pictures in secret from my parents. Sachiko worked hard to draw Takahiro playing the guitar. The painting was carefully stored in the drawer of my desk. Sachiko had a friend named Rei. Rei was supposed to come to the sleepover party too. Rei-chan and I were arguing about Takahiro-kun. On Valentine's Day, instead of giving Takahiro-kun chocolate, Rei-chan went home with Takahiro-kun. Escape. I didn't know the language, but I felt strongly that I was being treated like that. After that day, Rei-chan bullied Sachiko. That's because Takahiro-kun only told Rei-chan about Sachiko's drawings. It was painful to be bullied by her friend Rei, but Sachiko wasn't so bad. After my father passed away, I was bullied at school. Mother was not at home day or night. Everything was a pain. Sachiko read the manga silently. That was Sachiko's only salvation. And the big piece depicting Takahiro playing the guitar was added every day, and Sachiko's paintings were as rock'n'roll as Takahiro's rock.

 

In October, an annual learning presentation is held. Under the initiative of the teacher, a program of plays and performances by the students will be organized. Takahiro-kun was chosen to play the most prominent role by majority vote. The role of Sachiko was not easily decided, but it was decided by majority vote that she would play the role of Himawari, who has the least lines. Takahiro was also entrusted with playing the guitar at the concert. It was around this time that Sachiko received a call from Mr. Kobayashi, an artist. Sachiko's drawing of cherry blossoms won a special prize on the day of the study presentation and was to be hung in the hallway.

 

When Akiyuki visits the park again and is digging through the trash cans as usual, a woman's voice asks, "Are you looking for something?" Akiyuki ran away out of shame at being found by someone. The owner of the voice was a woman in her late 40s. The woman, dressed as a janitor, picked up a magazine from a trash can and followed Akiyuki from behind. When a woman says, 'I'm sorry. This is it, isn't it?' Akiyuki turned around in confusion. I said, "Ah," and received two magazines from the woman. "I always throw away my magazines here, so should I save them for tomorrow?" the woman said casually. From that day on, Akiyuki went to the park at the same time. Each time I received a magazine from the woman. The magazines I received were always carefully wiped with a cloth. After two weeks, the two started talking. The woman was Kiko, in her late 40s. There is currently one vacancy in the cleaning staff, so I was invited to go for an interview. Akiyuki decided to take an interview. Akiyuki was hired. From that day on, Akiyuki started cleaning every building and place. I often talked with Itsuki, but I avoided talking about myself. It was the same with Itsuki. One day, when I was working with Mikiko to remove chewing gum that had stuck to the ground, stock price news was picked up on the streetlight TV. During the break, the two of us sat down and had tea while Akiyuki stared blankly at the TV. Seeing him, Mikiko said, "Akiyuki-san, you worked for a good company, didn't you?" Without being deceived by those words, I stared at Akiyuki. “Would you like to have tea next time?” “Tea?

Their first date was with Renoir. Mikiko listened to Akiyuki's story with an expression that seemed to envelop everything, intermittently backtracking. After listening to it, I don't know because I've never experienced it. You're having a hard time too, aren't you? It must be hard. said. Hearing that, Akiyuki said, "No, not right now. I've forgotten about my family. Right now, I'm desperate to survive." Hearing those words, Itsuki looked a little puzzled.

 

 

There were various customers, but Aya was occasionally nominated by 35-year-old copywriter Tanaka. Tanaka was always humble. Aya liked the talented Tanaka, but he was in awe of Aya, who had no hobbies. Aya went to Tanaka. "I don't know if you're kind or cold, aren't you, Mr. Tanaka?"

Aya noticed something while dealing with many customers here. A successful child has a lot of self. My colleague Mana-chan was a popular girl. And Mana-chan was able to get through the conversation from any terrible man without difficulty and was able to give an interesting reply. Time passed, and when Aya was finally starting to look like a hostess from Ginza, she was invited by Tanaka to accompany her. The companion was a famous Chinese restaurant in a hotel in Shibuya. So the two of them talked mostly about work. Tanaka is a copywriter and a professional who thinks of phrases that attract people's attention. From that day on, Tanaka often accompanied me. As I talked with Tanaka, I became able to do my own work better and better. Then one day, I was going to Atami because I had to come up with a promotional copy for Atami tourism, and he asked me if I wanted to come with him. Without hesitation, Aya answered that she would go.

 

One month before Sachiko's study presentation, the class decided to go to Shirahama at the beach school. When I visited Shirahama Aquarium, I decided to sketch fish. Sachiko looked carefully at all the fish. The first thing that caught my attention was the seahorse. As I was doing my best to sketch, I realized that Takahiro was next to me. In contrast to Takahiro's drawings, Sachiko's seahorses were drawn quietly and brilliantly in the darkness. "Sachiko-chan's seahorse is so amazing," said Takahiro. "Eh..." Sachiko was at a loss for words. "I always thought that Sachiko-chan was really good at drawing." But when I noticed, the knees of the two legs were hitting. Sachiko felt Takahiro's warmth. Takahiro-kun didn't seem to feel anything about Sachiko's heart pounding. "Let's do our best at the recital," said Takahiro. "Yeah," Sachiko nodded while blushing. The two walked together from the aquarium to the bus. I didn't care about the bullying from Rei-chan.

 

As the days passed, the distance between Akiyuki and Itsuki gradually narrowed. About once a week, we were dispatched to the same site. The two started going out to eat together after work. Akiyuki, who is diligent, was liked by the office more than the other cleaning staff. The two laugh about their boss, Kamei, who assigns work, and discuss various cleaning techniques. But there was an unspoken rule between the two of them not to mention the past. Itsuki didn't want to talk about herself at all. He had a smiling face and was kind, but deep down there was something dark and Akiyuki couldn't touch it. One day, when the two of them were walking home after dinner, Akiyuki's left hand, who was slightly tipsy, hit Kiko's right hand. Akiyuki held out his hand and grabbed Itsuki's right hand. Mikiko shook off her hand at first, but Akiyuki held it firmly. While his heart was pounding, Mikiko sighed for a moment and then remained expressionless. The two walked silently to the station. Two people who usually parted at the station got on the same train that day. On the train, Akiyuki kissed Itsuki on the lips. The two of them lay on top of each other on the bed in Akiyuki's small room. The next day, the two were working at different places. Days passed, and when they met again and again, Mikiko asked Akiyuki while looking at his somewhat lonely back. "How's your family doing?" Akiyuki said silently. Yukiko said. "You're not divorced yet, are you?" Akiyuki continued smoking.

 

Aya and Tanaka arrived at Atami by Shinkansen. On the way to the inn, the two talked about gourmet food, fashion, and their upbringing. Tanaka could come up with any kind of story, and gave Aya a fun and witty answer. When I checked in at the inn, there was a room bath. The view was great. In the evening, Tanaka took a bath. While Tanaka was taking a bath, Aya, after thinking a little, undressed and entered the bath where Tanaka was. Tanaka was surprised for a moment, but after that, the two couldn't hold back. However, after the event was over, Tanaka was a little more blunt than usual. Aya was worried, but the two of them fell asleep without incident that night. The next day, Aya got up early. Tanaka's mobile phone rang. The name of Akiko Tanaka was displayed on the screen. Tanaka got up and answered the phone. Tanaka leaves the room and seems to be talking with his family. Aya is stunned by the situation. Aya asked Tanaka, who returned after finishing the call. "Family?" "Yeah. That's right." "What's wrong? Oh. Didn't I tell you?" Aya couldn't say a word. Aya was quiet on the bullet train on the way home. Tanaka is dissatisfied. When they parted at Shinagawa Station, Tanaka said to Aya, "You're old, what are you thinking? Do you understand?" Tanaka said coldly.

 

When Sachiko came home from Shirahama Seaside School, Aya was at home. Aya knocks on the door of Sachiko's room. "It's still good." "Come here, it's still good." Sachiko was in the middle of drawing a picture. "What is Sachiko?" "This is..." Sachiko hides. Aya closes in on Sachiko and looks at the painting. "What's wrong with this?" "Sachiko decided to work hard with Takahiro-kun." "I'm not going to be like Mama. Sachiko." The two of us ate our meal quietly. "What's Daddy doing?" "Now, I wonder where he is." "Why don't you look for him?" Aya doesn't answer. "I'm worried," said Sachiko. The next morning, I decided to file a missing husband report with the police. Ten months had passed since he disappeared, but the police quickly found out where Akiyuki was. Aya is summoned to the police station and given the address of Akiyuki's place of work and current apartment. Aya tried to write a letter. . Aya noticed that Sachiko had drawn a dwarf on a piece of paper on her desk and picked it up. The dwarf was smiling. "Do you want to see Daddy?" Ever since Akiyuki disappeared, Aya, who has led a life completely different from the status she had been chasing up to that point, was desperate for a new life. I was full of frustration from the faint hope of finding a new partner and the event that destroyed it. However, when I tried to calm myself down a little and regain my composure, Akiyuki's face from when we were good friends popped into my head. But then I started to hate it. After thinking about it for a while, Aya stopped writing the letter and stood up.

 

Arriving in Shin-Osaka early in the morning by bus, Aya headed straight for Akiyukiboro Apartment and knocked on the door. After a while, Akiyuki, who was just about to go to work, opened the door. The moment the door opened and his eyes met, Akiyuki stiffened on the spot and looked down. "What have caused you trouble? What are you doing here?" Akiyuki silently tried to leave. "Where are you going?" "No, it's work." Akiyuki silently accepts. Also, this is a letter from Sachiko. Aya gives Sachiko's letter as well. Aya was about to leave the place, but she stopped for a moment and looked back. "Why are you always silent? How much trouble do you think you've suffered?" "What are you talking about? Even I." I did it." ".....

But it's not just the two of us. "I don't have money anymore." "So?" "That's why I'm worthless."

 

Aya gets on the subway.

Akiyuki reads Sachiko's letter in her room.

Akiyuki goes to work after that

Sachiko practicing for a play at school

After Akiyuki finishes his work, he invites Itsuki to dinner.

"What's wrong?" Itsuki happily asks Akiyuki.

"I'm going to Tokyo," said Akiyuki with a serious look on his face.

"That's right. Good luck."

 

A few days later, finally. The day of Sachiko's learning presentation has arrived.

Aya watched over Sachiko, who played Himawari. After the play ended, Takahiro-kun's performance began. Takahiro was a child prodigy who could play not only rock but also classical music. Takahiro perfectly performed Paganini's 24 Capriccio No. 24 on the guitar. after playing. This time, Aya went to see the exhibition of Sachiko's paintings. Sachiko's paintings were as good as Takahiro's. Sachiko and Takahiro held hands and looked at the painting together. Aya was watching the spectacle nearby. When Aya was looking at Sachiko's exhibition, Akiyuki came walking from afar. Akiyuki was puzzled by Aya and Sachiko, who hadn't seen each other in a long time, but was genuinely surprised by the growth of Sachiko, who was holding hands with Takahiro. Aya said to Sachiko, "See you later," and Aya and Akiyuki went to the park. “It still fits perfectly, doesn’t it?” Akiyuki nodded silently, looking at Aya. "It was my fault that I didn't say that I was fired from the company."

 

The three had dinner at a Western-style restaurant in the Shinjuku station building. Aya and Akiyuki talk about each other's recent situation in front of their daughter. For some reason, the three of them have a fun atmosphere. “Dad, I have work in Osaka tomorrow. Akiyuki parted ways with the two at the Shinjuku Bus Terminal. On the way home from Shinjuku, "Mama and Papa will change little by little from now on. I hope Sachiko and Takahiro-kun will get along well. If there is someone who cares about Sachiko, 〇〇〇〇" Aya tells Sachiko about it.

 

finished