Chapter 101: Chapter 100 - Future Son-In-Law

Minami had woken this morning with dread.

The worst feeling.

The feeling that today would be worse than yesterday.

And yesterday had been a disaster.

Her mother had caused her embarrassment all day long.

Her mom shared her childhood stories with everyone.

She interrogated Kuro.

She didn’t listen to reality.

She survived.

Barely survived.

Then she remembered.

Namida is here.

This thought made her want to stay in bed for eternity.

She can’t because life is cruel.

Very cruel.

---

The smell of breakfast made her heart jump.

Minami froze.

No.

No way.

She ran for the door.

And then she stopped and opened.

Kuro was standing at the door. She opened and welcome him .

Namida was making breakfast for time .

And Kuro insisted on helping her make breakfast.

After the minutes , he taking control over the kitchen.

And now , Namida was sitting at the table enjoying a cup of tea.

It seemed really out of place.

So, way out of place.

And dangerous.

Namida saw her right away.

"Good morning."

Minami made a huge gesture.

"What is going on?"

"Breakfast."

"I know that."

Kuro put food on the table.

"Your mother woke up early."

Namida nodded with pride.

"I helped."

"Not at all," said both Minami and Kuro at the same time.

The breakfast was really good but caused a new issue.

Namida absolutely adored it; as soon as she finished, she placed her hands together and looked over at Kuro, saying, "Wonderful."

Kuro replied with, "Thank you," to which Namida shook her head and said, "Wonderful."

The repeated use of that term seemed like a warning sign.

Recognizing that warning sign too late, Minami said, "Kuro-kun."

Kuro replied, "Yeah?" and Namida said, "You can cook."

Kuro said he could cook a little, and then that he could clean.

Minami said that Kuro could organize, be polite, be responsible and, at the end of it all, that Kuro was reliable.

Minami stood up and went to stop her mom from saying those things as Namida had already said that

Kuro was husband material.

There was silence.

Kuro almost dropped his tea, and Minami almost dropped herself.

Minami yelled for her mom to stop. Minami’s mom replied that she was complimenting Kuro.

Minami begged her mom to stop and not back away, but the world was overwhelming unfair.

The day, in all of its magnificence, still carried on.

After breakfast, Namida took note of an imbalanced shelf in the living room that had been damaged for months.

Of course, Minami had not attended to the shelf. Kuro finally noticed the shelf and fixed it twenty minutes after taking note of it.

Namida applauded Kuro by hitting her hands together; Minami could not believe that at all.

Minami inquired why her mom was applauding; more importantly,

Minami asked, "It’s a shelf."

Namida did not need to fully explain anything to Minami; she just wanted to provide her a legitimate answer.

Minami believed her mom’s logic to be the purest of mysteries and very likely will never be discovered.

The kitchen suffereda similar face .

Kuro opened a disturbing found within the kitchen in one of the cabinets.

There was no organization whatsoever with everything placed in completely random spots.

Tea was next to noodles; plates were next to snack food; cooking utensils were in three separate drawers.

This was chaos. It was pure chaos!

It took Kuro thirty minutes to re-organize the entire kitchen while Namida stood there with a smile on her face like a proud parent.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t smiling at Minami, she was smiling at Kuro.

Minami was very hurt by this betrayal—deeply hurt!

"Kuro-kun," she said.

"Yes?" he replied.

"You’re amazing!"

"Not really!"

"You organized the kitchen."

"Kuro-kun needed to be organized."

Namida nodded her head in agreement and said, "Future son-in-law material."

"STOP SAYING THAT!"

The whole apartment shook., and probably did for her, but for Kuro, little. For Minami, however, it shook everything in the place.

Disaster reached the next level just after noon when Namida discovered the family photo album.

The first thing Minami did was get fearful; she had a look of pure fear.

"Mom," she said.

"Yes?" Namida replied.

"No!"

Namida gave her one terrible smile—the smile of someone who had already conquered Minami.

"Kuro-kun!"

"Please, don’t!" Minami begged.

"Come here!" said Namida.

When Kuro saw this, he knew something horrible was going to happen. He could feel the great danger looming ahead.

Unfortunately, his curiosity had led him to open the family album and, as the pages were being turned, throughout the whole family album, the time had come because the first photo was revealed, and it was that of Minami as a baby.

As soon as Kuro saw the photo, he immediately burst out laughing.

Up until this moment, Minami was in such shock that it was not possible for her to feel any physical pain.

"Destroy It" was Minami’s response when challenged to do the unthinkable.

Instead of destroying it, the photo album of embarrassing photos was used for a little fun.

There was a second photo, showing a very small version of elementary school Minami, missing two front teeth, wearing an oversized backpack and looking miserable. When Kuro laughed, it was worse than the first photo.

"Why are we making embarrassing photos?"

"Because they are evidence."

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said."

Minami retrieved the middle school photos, but didn’t find it humorous at all.

Then she grabbed the sports day photos, the school festival photos...and the unforgivable pictures.

At one time, Minami attempted to steal the photo album.

When that didn’t work at all, Namida was happy to help.....after all she had been doing it for years.

The photo album is still intact....and Minami’s dignity was not.

"Kuro-kun."

"Yeah?"

"Look."

"No," interrupted Minami.

Namida continues flipping pages.

Then a photo appeared, of young Minami with thick glasses, holding a broom and looking mad. Kuro couldn’t help it and started laughing at the similarities.

"Why are you laughing?"

"Because it is so funny to see your face."

"That’s not true."

"Yes it absolutely is."

Namida’s continued laughter did not help her out and Kuro continued to betray Minami by laughing.

Throughout the entire afternoon, the photo album became the ultimate weapon.

Every time Kuro laughs, a new scar was added to Minami.

After 3 hours of hitting Minami with the photo album, she had survived, somewhat.

The emotional damage will never go away.

Namida shut the photo book.

Then gave a glance back at Kuro.

There was a big, sweet smile on her face.

Unlike the teasing and mischievous smiles she had given earlier.

This was a genuine, sincere smile.

"You understand," she said.

"What do you mean?" Kuro, puzzled, asked.

"Minami has had a hard time."

"Mom."

"Hard time cleaning."

"Mom."

"Hard time cooking."

"Mom."

"Hard time organizing."

"MOM."

Namida laughed, then continued.

"But she’s kind-hearted."

Minami froze.

"She is very stubborn."

That is true.

"She works so hard."

That is also true. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"She cares about people more than she will tell you."

The room was silent.

For the first time during the day.

No one was joking.

No one was teasing.

No one was laughing.

The entire mood in the room changed.

Even Minami quieted down.

Namida smiled again.

The first smile however, became a dangerous one.

"Kuro-kun."

"Yes?"

"Should you ever think of marrying—"

"MOM."

"—I will give you my blessing."

Minami lost all will to live.

Gone.

Finished.

Erased.

Meanwhile, Kuro’s head was in his hands.

Namida was loving the turmoil she had caused.

Kuro was still her choice for or against Minami.

It did not matter to Namida how hard Minami protested.

It did not matter to Namida how hard Kuro fought.

The answer was settled in Namida’s mind.

Kuro Kurogane is for sure a husband to Minami.

Namida was drinking tea and daydreaming way too much.

She turned and looked at the living room.

Kuro was organizing the last few books.

Minami was arguing with Kuro about where the books should be put.

It was a very homely, domestic scene and Namida found it very strange and uncomfortable.

As soon as Namida had this thought, her mind spun off into a totally different direction.

She imagined that years had passed, Kuro and the kids were in a house under a bright blue sky.

Kuro was coming home from work carrying groceries.

When he came into the house, Minami was there to greet him and, although she was acting very composed, it was obvious she was happy to see him.

Then she imagined that she saw a child run from one bedroom and cross the hall.

Another child ran out from the bedroom and also crossed the hall.

One child had black hair and the other child had purple hair, both were laughing.

The children both yelled out, "Papa!" and jumped on Kuro like he was a big trampoline.

In Namida’s mind, Kuro caught both of the children fairly easy.

Minami stood close by with a look of resignation on her face.

She told Kuro not to encourage the children.

He replied with, "they’re children".

The two children created havoc right in front of them.

The first child spilled his juice all over the floor and the second child knocked over their toy box.

Kuro handled all of this with ease while Minami was having a panic attack.

The circumstances hadn’t changed, but Namida couldn’t help but laugh out loud thinking about it.

The lie continued.

Family_meals.

Weekend_trips.

Summer_excursion.

Birthday_celebration.

Comfort of a home.

For one minute, Namida became happy.

Not that she believed any of those things would truly happen.

But rather, she wanted Minami to experience joy in life.

Someone she could trust.

Home filled with joy and laughter.

Group of individuals she could count on.

But then, reality hit.

Minami dropped the book from her hand on her foot and it hurt!

"OW!"

Kuro sighed and picked the book up.

Namida was only watching it happen as she started to imagine having grandchildren again.

Habits that are unable to change.