Someone You Want to Invite

At Amane's school, the campus was not open to the public, not even during

the culture festival. Only friends and family were able to attend, and even they

needed to file applications beforehand. Tickets were distributed to students

once they applied for them, and nonstudents used those tickets for entry. That

was the system.

Of course, there was a limit on the number of tickets that any one student

could request.

This measure was a reaction to a number of disturbances in recent years,

including an incident several years earlier, in which a visitor had committed an

act of violence on campus. Even during the culture festival, the students' safety

was still the top priority, so the current policy had been decided upon after

careful consideration.

"I don't suppose I have anyone to invite, do I?"

After dinner, Mahiru mumbled this like it was nothing out of the ordinary. She

was gazing at one of the application forms that had been handed out in school.

Mahiru was often called an angel and was very popular, but it seemed she

had never really made any particular close connections. It sounded like that had

been the case during her middle school years as well, so there was no one

whom she could call a good friend.

If she wasn't going to invite friends, the next option was family, but there was

no way Mahiru could invite her parents. She wouldn't have wanted to invite her

parents anyway, which must have led her to the conclusion that she had no one

to invite.

"I don't have anybody close enough to want to go out of my way to invite, so

I'll be on my own," Mahiru said. "Everyone I care about will already be at

school, so I don't have to worry about it."

"Yeah, me too… Actually, if I don't say anything about this, my mom and dad

will make a fuss…"

"Are your parents going to attend, too?"

"Last year I didn't mention it, and I got an earful afterward."

When his mother had found out, her pouting had been tremendous. She'd

sent him a flurry of unhappy messages, and it had been bad enough that even

Amane's father had called him to tell him how very sad he was making his

mother.

From Amane's perspective, it had seemed too troublesome to invite them

from so far away, and for something like a high school culture festival, it hadn't

really seemed to make sense. Plus, he knew how his mother could get all

touchy-feely even in public, and he didn't want people to think that he was such

a mama's boy now that he was a high schooler. On top of all that, he also didn't

want anyone to see how his parents flirted constantly.

As he might have expected, his mother was already aware that the culture

festival was happening again, because she had already sent him a message that

said, "It's almost culture festival time, right?" Without a doubt, that was her

roundabout way of demanding a ticket.

Of course, Amane felt like he didn't have much of a choice, given what had

happened the year before, but he was nevertheless reluctant to invite them.

"I'll invite them, I guess, with a reminder not to flirt in front of other people."

"Ah, ah-ha-ha."

Mahiru was perfectly aware of how naturally Amane's parents flirted with

each other, so she was wearing a strained smile.

"Well, that means I'm only inviting two people, I guess," Amane said. "My

hometown is far away, and I don't have any friends there who I'd want to invite

anyway."

"Right…"

Mahiru, who knew a bit about the turmoil that Amane had experienced, and

who had witnessed his farewell with a former friend, didn't seem like she was

going to continue to say any more about it.

Amane was more worried about Mahiru, who had even more problems with

her parents than he did.

As far as Amane had been able to determine, Mahiru's father, Asahi, was a

pretty decent person, but it sounded like neither father nor daughter were

inclined to see each other again. And Mahiru didn't seem to want to see her

mother at all. Even Amane, who had only overheard the one conversation

between the two of them, could tell that much. Her mother wasn't someone to

invite to a culture festival.

Having said that, he didn't know everything about Mahiru's life before high

school, so he didn't feel it was his place to say anything, but—

"That reminds me, you said you weren't going to invite anyone, Mahiru, but

what about that housekeeper?"

Mahiru had been neglected by her parents, but Amane remembered that

there had been a woman who had showered her with love and pretty much

raised Mahiru herself.

The fact that Mahiru was so handy at housework and skilled at cooking was

apparently thanks to the housekeeper's tutelage, and whenever Mahiru talked

about the woman, she wore an affectionate expression. It would probably not

be an exaggeration to say that, in a sense, the woman had acted as Mahiru's

foster parent.

Amane's suggestion had clearly caught Mahiru by surprise because her eyes

grew wide.

"You remembered Miss Koyuki? I think I only talked about her a little bit,

though."

"You talked, so I listened. You don't want to invite her?"

"…I can't."

He'd thought it was a good suggestion, but Mahiru's face warped into a look

of slight loneliness and sadness, which made him realize he had said the wrong

thing.

"…Sorry."

Amane frowned, imagining she was about to tell him that something had

happened to Miss Koyuki, the woman who had been her housekeeper, and that

she couldn't just invite her. But Mahiru seemed aware of what he was

imagining and waved her hand in a panic to dispel the thought.

"No, not like that! Miss Koyuki resigned as our housekeeper a little while after

I started middle school… She, um, had back trouble."

"…Ah—"

"It may have been her job, but she was expected to manage a huge house all

by herself. She was forced to work too hard. I still feel bad thinking back on it."

Once Amane heard that she had strained her back, he understood why it

would be impossible for her to continue.

Once someone injured their back, even if it healed, it was easy to injure it

again.

It was like going through life with a bomb in your lower back. She would have

been unable to do any heavy labor, there was no way she could take the risk.

Amane could imagine how it might be impossible for someone in such a

condition to go on an outing, and he understood perfectly well why Mahiru was

hesitant.

"She's living now with her daughter and her daughter's husband. Even if I did

get her to come, I would worry about her physical condition. There aren't too

many easy resting spots for visitors to use, and we're some distance from

where she lives anyway, so I would feel bad even inviting her."

"Gotcha. That's a real shame."

"Yeah."

He could tell by looking at her facial expression that Mahiru adored her

former housekeeper.

Amane would have liked to meet the person who had been so involved not

only in teaching Mahiru her life skills, but in shaping her personality, and he

would have liked to thank her. But if she was in poor health, then there wasn't a

lot they could do.

"I'm a little disappointed, too. It's too bad I won't be able to say hello to her,

even though she's the one who worked so hard to take care of you. I wonder if I

ought to go introduce myself one of these days."

"Huh, i-introduce yourself?"

"Yeah. She's like a parent to you, right?"

He was just guessing, but the housekeeper had played a great part in shaping

Mahiru.

Amane felt he owed a great debt to the person whose attitude and behavior

was more parental than her parents, and who had taught Mahiru many things.

If she hadn't been there, Mahiru might not have grown up so well, and might

never have connected with Amane.

"…Yes, she is."

"Then I need to meet her, don't I?"

He had basically declared to her real father that he was going to be courting

his daughter, and her father had accepted it. But Amane figured he ought to say

something to the parental figure who had actually raised her.

As far as he had heard from Mahiru, the woman had taken remarkable care of

her, going above and beyond her professional duties to shower Mahiru with

affection. So Amane felt it would be wrong to take her hand without getting

approval from the person who he owed such a great debt of gratitude.

In any case, he felt like he wanted to meet the person who had raised his

girlfriend, face-to-face, and tell her directly of his intentions.

"Well, let's think about it a little further down the line, once things are more

settled, shall we? It would also be rude to visit out of the blue, so I would want

to wait for the right time and make an appointment. You seem to know where

to reach her, so you could write, or call first…uh, Mahiru?"

Since he intended to romance the girl who was basically like her daughter, he

reasoned that he needed to formally introduce himself, and he was thinking of

the best way to do that.

But Mahiru, the girl in question, was peering around the room awkwardly.

"N-no, it's nothing!"

"That's not what your face says."

"It's nothing."

Mahiru didn't seem inclined to say anything further. Instead, she pressed her

favorite cushion into his face, blinding him, so Amane smiled resignedly and let

her do as she pleased.