I’m Kyoko, living with my husband and our two kids. Our son Masato is a high school junior in the soccer club, and our daughter Sara is a middle school third-year in the basketball club. They’re both busy enjoying student life. We used to visit my parents’ home often when the kids were little, but now we only go back around New Year’s. My niece Hikari (my brother’s daughter) and Sara are close, and they used to play together a lot. I also hadn’t seen my sister-in-law Shiori in a long time, but recently we finally met my brother’s family again at my parents’ house.
Sara and Hikari always got along well, probably because they’re close in age, and they used to have so much fun together. I hadn’t seen her for the past two or three years, and I imagined she must have grown into a lovely first-year middle schooler. But when I finally saw Hikari again, she looked completely different from what I had expected. Her appearance had changed—in fact, I could even say she looked “unkempt,” maybe even “unclean.”