Chapter Two

The next morning, after Kotoko woke up to find her son mummified in the rest of the toilet paper while her father kept on taking random pictures, Kotoko and Hiro walked around the city stopping each time he saw a new and intriguing object to gush over.

By the time lunch rolled around Hiro was grumbling about how hungry he was and kept rubbing his belly as if to put emphasis. Kotoko finally gave in to her son's persuasion and took him to his grandfather's restaurant.

"Kotoko! Hiro!" The two were delightfully greeted by Ikezawa Kinnosuke, her personal stalker since the beginning of high school.

"Hello Kin-chan." Kotoko greeted as Hiro ran passed them to the bar counter where he shouted for his grandfather.

"Ojisan! Ojisan!" Over and over til Shigeo walks out wiping his hands clean on a cloth towel

"Hai, Hai I'm coming."

"Ojisan I'm hungry~" Hiro says as he rubbed his stomach and licking lips, "Oh really? What would you like?" As Hiro was ordering his food Kotoko and Kin-chan talked further away from them.

"How is work Kotoko?" Kotoko shrug a bit

"Same as usual. Though I do need to find someone to watch over Hiro while I'm at the photoshoot tomorrow." Kinnosuke raised an eyebrow

"Why don't you leave him with Mrs. Irie? I'm sure she'd help you." Kotoko shook her head.

"Obasan doesn't know about Hiro. None of the Irie's do. I never told them. And also I never told them I was coming back." Kinnosuke froze in his place as he slowly began to back away with an excuse

"I think I better get back to work-ack!" Before he could run away behind the counter Kotoko grabbed hold of the back of his collar

"What did you do?" Kinnosuke stared at Kotoko with a guilty expression as he ducked his head.

~

About two hours before Kotoko and Hiro had arrived, the men were greeted by Mrs. Irie and her youngest son Yuuki, who you could tell didn't want to come.

"Ai-san!" Mrs. Irie calls out as Yuuki sat a the bar counter waiting for his mother to finally talk to Shigeo after five long years. However to their dismay Kinnosuke had bounced out of the kitchen with a goofy grin

"Oh hello Mrs. Irie, evil one." Yuuki grinned at the fascinating new nickname as Kinnosuke glared at Yuuki.

"Oh it's Kotoko-chan's old stalker." Kinnosuke felt a sting at his heart and ego as Mrs. Irie greeted him with such a title.

Swallowing his pride he asks "What can I help you with?" Mrs. Irie looked around the restaurant in search for an old man with a cabinet full of liquor.

"I am looking for Aihara-san, is he here today?" Kinnosuke shook his head.

"Master went out to have more pictures of Kotoko and Hiro printed."

"Aw well that's a shame- Hiro?" Kinnosuke nods with a grin

"Yeah Kotoko's favorite man." Mrs. Irie fallen back into Yuuki arms out pure shock.

"M-man?" Yuuki sputters as he barely held up his mother who couldn't help but mumble 'man' over and over again, Kinnosuke smiles as he began to pull out a photo from the counter

"Yeah this is a picture of them, if you'd like to see it?" Shaking her head and hands furiously Mrs. Irie denied it

"N-no we have to go, tell Aihara we came by!" Mrs. Irie finally found her footing then bowed before she and Yuuki left.

~

Kotoko sat at home in her spinning office chair staring at a blank email addressed to 'Irie Noriko'. Kotoko fingers fiddled with each other as her mind raced over two matters.

First being her work tomorrow and what to do with Hiro, the second is whether or not she should email the woman who was her mother figure for nearly 4 years. She wondered how Mrs. Irie and the others reacted now knowing she had a son.

The person she wonder about most was Naoki, her mind kept on making up different reaction for him but none satisfied her heavy heart.

"Mama..." Whipping her chair towards her son who was wiping his tired eyes, his tiny arms tightly gripped on his stuffed starfish Joey had gotten him the day he was born.

"What are you doing mama?" The yawning Hiro questions, his eyelids slowly closing down on his hazel eyes.

Kotoko clicked out of the email and shut her computer screen "It's nothing important Hiro," She climbs in next to her son and wraps her slightly freezing arms around his warm body.

Kotoko shut her eyes and let the warm embrace of sleep take her into dreamland filled with images of Hiro's father smirking and teasing her like he always did.

~

Mrs. Irie sat at her dining table hours after everyone went to bed. She was just sitting at the dining table with a soft light glaring in from the kitchen and a bit of orange tea in her cup. Mrs. Irie's mind kept picturing her darling Kotoko, being held by a man much different from her eldest son.

The only girl she deemed fit for her cold hearted son and her grandchildren, was now being embraced and loved by another man. As Mrs. Irie takes another sorrow filled sip of tea, her loving husband walked down in his silky-smooth robe.

"Mama what are you doing?" Turning to her husband, a soft sigh escapes her lips,

"Papa Kotoko has a new man in her life," for a second Mr. Irie stood a bit starstruck before sitting next to his wife and patting her head.

"Mama it's been 5 years did you really think Kotoko wouldn't have given up and found someone new?" Mrs. Irie looked as her glass and shook her head.

"No but I had this bit of hope that Kotoko would come back and steal Naoki back!" Mr. Irie chuckled at his pouting wife, his thumb gently grazed against her cheek.

"I love Kotoko as well, she would have made a great fit for Naoki,"

"Thank you!"

"But it's not about how we feel. The two people have made their choice to be someone else and all we can do is support them." Mrs. Irie's eyes began to cloud over with unshed tears,

"But papa we are losing Kotoko..." Mr. Irie hugged his sobbing wife as her small hands gripped onto his robe so tight her knuckles began to whiten from the strength.

~

Unknowingly a man listen from behind the entrance to the kitchen, his heart grew heavy as the realisation of the girl who once proclaimed her love to him like a daily/nightly ritual, now held another in her heart.

A single tear slid down Naoki cheek, He now could no longer hold any hope for her love to be towards him.