I’m Nanami. I live with my husband, Tatsuya, and our third-grade son, Riku. I’ve poured everything I have into raising my son, believing I had to shape him into a proper, respectable adult. But recently, Riku stopped going to school… At his request, we decided he would stay at my in-laws’ house three days a week. That’s when I found out Riku had been going over to my sister-in-law Haruna’s place and playing video games—the very games I’d always told him were off-limits. I couldn’t forgive it. The whole family had deceived me. And my husband didn’t even try to understand how I felt—he sided with his family instead. I lost all trust in everything and felt completely worn down.
Then my husband suggested, “Let’s do what Riku wants on the weekends.” But while watching anime, Riku kept glancing at my face, watching my reactions more than the show itself. That’s when it hit me. Where are this child’s feelings…?
It wasn’t about whether the anime he wanted to watch was fun or not. All Riku cared about was the look on my face as we watched together. Seeing that, I knew I had to free him from this somehow.
So I asked him. I wanted to know his true feelings. I wanted to release him from a world where everything revolved around me. And then, gathering every bit of courage he had, Riku finally spoke. Clenching his fists, clearly nervous but with a look of resolve in his eyes, he told me plainly that he had gone to Haruna’s house by his own choice.