I’m Ai, 28 years old, living with my husband. I’ve always tried to play smart and never get the short end of the stick. I used to look down on people who just did what they were told, thinking they were fools—because I never wanted to end up like my mother.
When I was a kid, my parents ran a sushi restaurant, and every season they’d host huge family gatherings. One time, someone mistakenly thought I’d hit one of my distant cousins, and my father locked me in the storage room. My mother chose to obey him rather than protect me. I can still feel the despair of that moment even now.
My father was a pompous man who liked controlling his wife. My mother was a coward who lived her life trying not to upset him. Raised by those two, my older brothers—Hajime and Keigo—turned out to be perfect examples of outdated, chauvinistic idiots. I didn’t want to be like them. I decided to live a life where I wouldn’t lose, where no one could force me into anything. I’ve spent my life dodging responsibility, slipping through any situation where I might get stuck with an unfair role. At family gatherings, I used to watch my sisters-in-law working themselves to exhaustion and think, What fools—just doing what they’re told.
As I sipped my beer, feeling smug about that, the door opened. In walked my second brother Keigo, who lived far away, and his wife, Marika.