I’m Mutsuki, and I live with my wife, Sae, and our elementary school kids. Back at my parents’ house, my sister, Kaori, lives with our parents after moving back following her divorce. Kaori has always had a strong personality, and as her younger brother, I’ve never been able to stand up to her. Even when the talk came up about putting our dad into a care facility, she took the lead on everything. All I could do was just follow her instructions. The facility fees are a bit high, but it shouldn’t be an amount our household budget can’t handle. Yet Sae told me that she wasn’t going to pay for it out of her own paycheck.
Sae is the one who carries less of the monthly financial burden, so I couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t want to help out even a little in an emergency like this… Thinking about it just made me feel empty. That’s why part of me wanted to teach her a lesson. My sister’s plan might have been a bit aggressive, but the important thing was for Sae to realize how things really are, so it couldn’t be helped. When I got back home, I purposely blurted out, “Let’s get a divorce.”
I honestly thought that once I threatened her with a divorce, she’d reconsider. But the moment I brought it up, Sae casually just said, “Okay.” For a second, I couldn’t even process what had just happened.