I’m Ayumi, and I live with my husband Kazuma and our three kids. I’ve always kept my distance from my overbearing brother-in-law, Kousuke, and his wife, Rie, because I can’t stand how they treat people. But when we tried to invite my in-laws to a well-known inn, Kousuke suddenly demanded that we give him our reservation. He started yelling, throwing his weight around as usual. And my husband’s family—who always brushed off his behavior with “that’s just how he is”—did nothing. Even Rie blindly follows whatever her husband says. When I pushed back, Kousuke blew up and took it out on my mother-in-law and on Kazuma.
Kousuke grew up getting special treatment just for being “the oldest son.” His parents let him have his way his entire life, and now he’s basically turned into a full-blown monster. If they insist on spoiling him, then they should at least take responsibility and make sure he doesn’t cause problems for anyone else. Keep it in the family and stop dragging outsiders into it. When I said that, both my in-laws and Kazuma had nothing to say.
Somehow this whole thing even turned into a weird proxy battle between me and Rie, which makes no sense. We married into the family later—there’s no reason we should be forced to obey their strange, unwritten rules. I told them plainly that their warped family dynamics shouldn’t be dumped on me or on Rie.