Busy.
Busy, busy.
Busy, busy, busy.
Busy, busy, busy, busy.
Honestly, busy enough to work someone to death.
One stretch of busyness, and a whole year was gone.
A little more busyness, and there went another year.
Time passed quite a bit faster than Soyo had ever imagined.
Her company went public, she took over her mother's enterprise lock, stock, and barrel, and she became a successful career woman just like her mother——
"Little Soyo, I've brought Little Chiose to come see you!"
"Hm?"
Nagasaki Soyo didn't look up; she heard the door of her office being pushed open, but didn't react much to it.
Because she was still busy dealing with the documents in her hands.
The resources under her control kept growing now; the pace at which the company expanded was nearly outstripping the bounds of her control——
In other words, she simply had no time to manage her own personal life.
Her mother walked up in front of Soyo, wanting to brush aside a stray strand of hair stuck to Soyo's face, but Soyo instinctively dodged away.
"Mama, I've already told you I've been really busy lately. If it's nothing important, please don't come..."
"Now now, doesn't Little Chiose want to come see her mama? So I brought her along."
When she heard the word 'mama,' Soyo instinctively knit her brows tight.
"How many times have I said it—I don't need and don't want to raise a daughter. It would've been fine if you'd just adopted her yourself, Mama, so why did you have to put her under my name too?"
"But she's the one you.." Ms. Nagasaki seemed to be skirting around something; she bent down, leaned in close to Soyo's ear, and said softly, "She's the one you picked up, you know. If she doesn't count as your daughter,
don't tell me she counts as mine instead! Little Soyo is so silly."
"Ugh, even though... never mind. Honestly."
Soyo was at her wits' end with her own mother, but from beginning to end she never once raised her head.
"Hurry up, Little Soyo, say hello to Little Chiose."
"Hi, hi."
Soyo kept her head down and waved her hand carelessly, paying no mind to her mother or to her "daughter."
"Now that the greetings are done, hurry on out. I'll be leaving on a business trip in a little while; we can talk about anything else when I get back."
"Ugh, honestly—she's your daughter and yet I'm the one who has to raise her."
Ms. Nagasaki rubbed Nagasaki Chiose's little head; she knew this little one was well-behaved and sensible.
But she'd never have guessed she'd be sensible to the point of not making a single sound.
Only when her mother walked out with the daughter she'd picked up did Soyo quietly raise her head.
She saw the back of that little girl her mother had named "Nagasaki Chiose."
Atop her silver-white hair sat a little yellow cap.
It was the kind of cap all the kindergarten children wore; she'd worn one herself when she was small.
A glimmer flickered across Soyo's eyes, yet still she couldn't bring herself to utter any words of farewell or any plea for her to stay.
She had no real feelings for this child. Over these years her mother had often brought her to see her, yet Soyo had hardly ever looked at Chiose's face.
"Ms. Nagasaki, the client has arrived."
The Haizuka secretary outside rapped on the door, pulling Soyo's thoughts back to reality.
She cleared her throat and said in a low voice: "Mm, all right."
Ah.
So before she'd even realized it, she too had come to be called "Ms. Nagasaki."
Sigh.
Before walking out of the office, Soyo took one last glance at the photo frame set on the bookshelf.
Sealed inside it was a group photo—of the band she'd been in back in middle school.
That band was called [Crychic].
It had been a brief but astonishing streak of tenderness.
And that was how things were.
Wake early, go to work, eat, work, get off work, watch some boring TV drama, sleep early without staying up late.
This was a whole day in the life of Nagasaki Soyo.
Having been a bit of a shut-in all her life, even now at thirty Soyo was still in the habit of spending most of her leisure time on her bed or on the couch.
Another weekend...
Yesterday was the last day of the work week, and as usual Soyo had gone to catch up with old friends over drinks.
Tomori had somehow grown even more withdrawn; she hadn't been seen in ages, and word was she was now taking medication for depression.
Taki, on the other hand, was doing fine—as bold and unrestrained as ever.. or something? It was hard to describe, that's all.
But what astonished Soyo was that she'd actually run into Wakaba Mutsumi yesterday, after not seeing her for so long.
Mutsumi was a celebrity now; Soyo had seen her on TV too—it was a variety show that pulled pranks on entertainers, where a crew of staff smashed a cake nearly half a meter long into Mutsumi's face
and burst out laughing.
It seemed that in that episode, Mutsumi was the only one who didn't laugh.
"Phew."
A warm breath tinged the icy air.
Work had finally leveled out lately—it really hadn't been easy.
The quiet of the early morning was something Soyo savored deeply. Taki had once said that the better the quality of the liquor, the less rotten you'd feel the day after getting drunk——
So ever since then Soyo had pursued the ultimate in drunkenness, since it could ease the heavy pressure she was under.
Bzzt——
Bzzt——
Bzzt——
Her phone—it rang at a most inopportune moment.
Nagasaki Soyo, who had meant to laze in bed and catch a bit more sleep, had no choice but to reach out and grab the phone off the nightstand.
"Hello? Who is it."
"Hello, is this Ms. Nagasaki Soyo?"
"Speaking."
"Your mother fell unconscious and was hospitalized at around eleven-thirty last night.."
"Eh?"
She forced herself up from the soft bed, letting out a disbelieving, trembling sound.
And that was how things were.
Her mother had been hospitalized for ten days now... ah, how could time pass so fast.
Soyo felt dazed.
There was actually nothing much to say about her mother's illness.
Because in her youth she'd often worked through the night, she'd accumulated too many hidden ailments, which all erupted at once in her old age, ultimately causing her body to collapse.
Most of those who came to the hospital to visit were her mother's former business partners, and a small portion were her mother's close friends or classmates from her youth.
They all comforted Soyo, saying it wasn't a big problem, yet Soyo couldn't quite feel the reality of it.
Once everything had basically settled down and her mother's condition had stabilized, Soyo called in a caretaker, arranged the hospital's best ward, and then returned to the place where her mother now lived.
Kneeling blankly at her mother's bedside, Soyo simply knelt there, making no movement at all.
They say that a family member's injury or illness will cause one's tears to burst their banks, but Soyo found she didn't particularly want to cry.
Was this the brain's defense mechanism? To keep the body from breaking into sobs in order to prevent excessive grief? Surely not—she wasn't that sad.. was she..
Her eyes drooped, her spine for once was not held taut; Soyo even felt relaxed.
"Mm.."
She wasn't thinking of anything at all now, just spacing out for a long while, and only when she finally came to her senses did she notice the tears pooling at her chin.
"Mama, all these years—you've worked so hard..."
Sigh.. it seemed she could still feel sad after all.
Creeeak——
From behind came the sound of the door cracking open and then suddenly shutting, which made Soyo turn her head.
Accompanied by scattered, faltering footsteps, she seemed to glimpse a small figure, but that figure quickly vanished once more.
"Who's there?"
This residence was private; no outsiders would come.
Soyo seemed to think of something; she got up and slid the door open, but came away with nothing.
Yet when Nagasaki Soyo glanced sidelong toward the corner of the hallway, she caught, just in time, the trailing hem of a garment vanishing swiftly around that corner.
"Is that Chiose?"
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