One night after a long day, Satoshi came home to find darkness in the house. He sighed and looked at his phone. A message from his wife told him that she went out. It had been a few times that he had been left alone and there was nothing to be concerned about it. Even though they were a married couple, they were free to do whatever they wanted to do. It was something that they had agreed upon before. He understood that Michiko was busy with her career too.

After taking a quick bath, Satoshi took out some food in the fridge. He popped the food container into the microwave, and after a few minutes it was ready to be eaten. As he walked towards the dining table, he stopped when his feet stepped onto something. With a grimace, he crouched down, wanted to remove the offending object from the floor. His face turned to a frown upon further inspection. It was a men’s cuff link in which something that wasn’t his own. It was a curious finding but he shrugged it off. Perhaps his father-in-law had left it behind accidentally.

Life went on until a few weeks later when Satoshi was at home earlier than usual. Michiko wasn’t home yet. Today, his session with Rei-chan was cancelled due to the girl needing to go to the hospital for a check-up. Sakurai-san had told him that Rei-chan would be hospitalized for few weeks, therefore the tutor lessons would be reduced. Satoshi had been worried so much for her and he wished the Sakurai family would get through the situation successfully.

As Satoshi was lounging in the living room, sketching something in his drawing book, a sound of the doorbell startled him. He wondered who would it be as he walked to the genkan. A young woman came through the peephole made Satoshi frowned. When he opened the door, the woman introduced herself as Yamamoto Mizuki. She asked him whether she could be allowed to enter the apartment since the matter she wanted to discuss was not suitable to be discussed outside.

What the woman told him was something that was really hard to believe. She claimed that Michiko was having an affair with her husband. It was unbelievable. Their marriage was still in the earlier stage and it wasn’t possible that Michiko would be betraying him that soon. It would be understandable if it had been years, but in three months? It was quite impossible.

“But it’s true!” That was what the woman told him over and over with teary eyes, putting doubt into Satoshi’s mind about his wife especially when he thought about how Michiko had been gone quite frequently recently. And especially after the finding of an unknown men’s cuff that might probably have come from that woman’s husband. When he showed the woman the cuff, she wrenched the thing out of his hand saying that it was belonged to her husband. Now the doubt increasing tenfold.

After the woman went home, Satoshi stayed at the kitchen’s table unmoving until his wife came home. He was so troubled, but he kept quiet, unable to breach the topic. They didn’t talk much anyway since it was pretty late and they would be working tomorrow. As Satoshi laid on the bed, he subconsciously scooted farther from his wife. He wanted to dismiss the unfounded claim but he found himself kept thinking about it until he ended up having little sleep.

At work, he was continuously distracted. He wondered whether he could take a leave and spy on his wife. But that was inappropriate. His actions might break the trust between them. He tried to ignore it by working harder.

It was eating him up so without him realizing he was dialling Matsumoto’s number a few days later. They met again, this time in another cafe. Satoshi wasn’t sure at first whether it was right for him to hire Matsumoto again but he had done it. He wasn’t sure either whether he really doubted his wife that much or that he really wanted to quench his curiosity.

“I’ll do what I can, because you’re Amuro Ray’s friend.” The words from Matsumoto were pretty reassuring, so Ohno went back home. He was quite nervous about Matsumoto’s finding but at the same time he was really curious.

His suspicions about his wife were affecting their life a little bit. Ohno cut down his communication with her but at the same time he didn’t mention anything about his suspicions towards his wife. Little fights here and there made Ohno immersed himself into his work further, coming home late and going to work early. Their lovemaking was pretty much nonexistence nowadays making his wife frustrated. Ohno grumbled, saying to himself that he was the one who should be frustrated not the other way around.

No news from Matsumoto after a week made Ohno impatient but he refused to call him. Perhaps Matsumoto was still gathering evidence, he convinced himself. Then, he received a call from Yamamoto, asking to meet up with her to discuss about their spouses’ infidelity. Ohno was hesitant at first but the woman was so insistent, giving him no room to refuse.


Ohno walked uncertainly towards the hotel room that Yamamoto was in. He checked the room number on the e-mail she sent him. After arriving at the room 1205, he pressed the bell button. He stepped back when Yamamoto opened the door scandalously, grabbing his arm and pull him inside.

Ohno found himself standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, facing Yamamoto who was already sitting on a sofa beside the bed. The room was pretty standard for a mid-range hotel with double bed covered in a white duvet, grey furnishings on the wall, and a small painting of flowers perched on top of the headboard.

Opposite of him, Yamamoto looked to at ease. While lighting a cigarette in one hand, her other hand patted the empty part of the sofa, motioning for Ohno to sit beside her. Hesitantly, Ohno sat, his hands were holding each other tightly on top of his lap. Her strong whiff of perfume, as well as her choice of clothing made Ohno really feeling uncomfortable. Sitting with one of her leg crossed on top of the other, her mini skirt exposing most of her thigh making Ohno thought that she looked vastly different from the proper housewife who came to his house crying over a week ago.

“Don’t you think we should do something?” She asked, exhaling an amount of smoke that swirled heavily making Ohno wiggle his hand in front of him to clear it away.

“You mean, we should confront them together?” Ohno asked back. She turned to look at him with a face that said are you kidding me?

“No, silly, I mean if they’re betraying us, we should betray them back,” she said neutrally like it was the most logical solution to solve their spouses’ infidelity. Ohno stared back at her, in disbelief.

“What do you mean?” Ohno was afraid to admit that he caught the meaning of her question but he asked anyway, he prayed that he was misunderstanding her question.

“We sleep together, same as what they were doing now. It serves them right.”

Ohno stood up in an instance, watching her with his mouth opening widely in shock. This woman was crazy for even suggesting it, he thought.

“What? Don’t you want to sleep with me? Am I not alluring enough to you?”

“No!” Ohno said, then he added hastily, “I mean you’re pretty but this is not the right thing to do!” Ohno, who was never raised his voice in his entire life found himself to be losing his temper.

She stood up too, her similar height to him made them stared eye to eye in equal measure. Ohno was furious.

“You’re so kind but a coward too. That’s why you’re being cheated.” She said simply, like she knew him well but the fact was she knew nothing about him.

“I don’t care what you say about me but I’m out of here,” Ohno said, his feet making a move to the door but he was stopped when Yamamoto grabbed his arm with both of her hands. She pulled him towards her and kissed him squarely on the mouth. Ohno was stumped, he was frozen on his feet. It was much later on that his mind was working again so he grabbed her at arm length, stared at her unbelievably. She stared at him back, daring him to slap her or something.

“I'm going. Don’t contact me anymore do you understand?” Ohno hissed in fury before he turned on his heel and rush out, trying to slam the door but the door closer prevented it. With a huff, he walked away, no, he actually ran out wanting to stay away a far as possible from the crazy woman.

He never thought that this could happen. He wanted to solve his wife cheating problem but instead he was being tested with this kind of situation. Raking his head disturbingly, he headed back into his empty house. Sitting alone in the dark, he took deep breaths to calm himself on the couch.

The next day, when he was busy doing checking of the factory product delivery with his colleague, he was summoned to his father-in-law office. Ohno was faced with a serious looking look stamped on his father-in-law’s face. He crunched his eyebrows in confusion. Did he do something wrong?

His father-in-law shoved a tablet at him, playing a muted video. Ohno was shocked. Even with the low quality of the video especially when it seemed to be recorded in a distance, it had shown clearly the incident in the hotel room yesterday. What made Satoshi more furious was that it was conveniently cut just right after the kiss stopped.

“How did you get this?” Satoshi asked, balling his hands into fists. He had the suspicion that the damn woman sent it. But why?

“It doesn’t matter where or how I get it, but the most important thing is that you’re cheating on my daughter!”

“I’m not cheating! It’s… it-“

“Are you denying that it’s you in this video?!”

Satoshi was speechless. He wanted to explain that it was just a misunderstanding but the words didn’t come out. He couldn’t believe this was happening, that someone out there wanted to ruin his life.

“I need to explain…” begged Satoshi. He wanted to say that it was his daughter who was cheating on him but since he couldn’t produce a single evidence--except his suspicions—and he found that he couldn’t say it to his face.

“You don’t need to. It’s clear what you’re doing to my daughter. Clean up your things and get out from my daughter’s house right now. I don’t want to see you again!”

Satoshi was shaking on his feet as he saw his soon-to-be ex-father-in-law pointing at his door, a dark face stared angrily at him. He dragged his feet out slowly, hearing the door being closed behind him. He stood there, in confusion and disbelief. It was with the prompt from the secretary that he moved sadly towards his small desk, grabbing a small box and cleared all his belongings. All of his colleagues just watched him silently, some were whispering among each other, speculating at his sudden departure. They might have heard what had happened since his father-in-law didn’t bother to keep his voice down.
He sighed. In addition to his impending divorce, it was clear that he was once again jobless, and this time without a house too.

Dejectedly, he left the factory with his bag and the small box he carried to walk towards his apartment. He retrieved his phone to call Yamamoto but he found out that the number wasn’t in use. He cursed under his breath. Why was he so gullible enough to meet her at the hotel? Who took that video? Satoshi was raking his brain to find the culprit. Upon further thinking, he came to suspect Michiko. She could be doing this to break up their marriage so that she could be with her current boyfriend. Decisively, he planned to stay in the house to wait for her and asked Michiko about it personally. He was done running around the matter.

After waiting for so long inside the house, walking here and back impatiently, Satoshi’s phone beeped. Michiko was calling him. No words were uttered at first. Satoshi didn’t know how to start. Was asking directly whether she was cheating on him a good opener for their conversation?

Instead, it was Michiko who finally talked. “I heard from father. Is it true?” she asked in cold manner.

Satoshi snorted. She made it looked like he was the one who cheats. “No.” He said the truth.

“Don’t lie to me Satoshi. I saw the video.”

“That video means nothing. In fact you’re the one to explain.”

“Me? Why would I do that when it’s clear you’re cheating on me?”

Now Michiko was throwing the accusation to him to make her innocent. It won’t do, Satoshi won’t lose.

“You’re the one cheating with Yamamoto!” yelled Satoshi angrily.

“Yamamoto? Who?” Now Michiko sounded confused.

“Yamamoto Shoji. Your former colleague. What, you want to deny it?”

Michiko went quiet. Satoshi smirked, telling himself that he had won the argument but then the smirk wiped out soon after.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about. About this Yamamoto Shoji. I don’t even know who he is.”

She was being defensive, Satoshi thought. But she sounded honest and it threw Satoshi off a little.

“But-“ Satoshi wanted to say more but now that he thought about it, he himself didn’t have concrete evidence besides the woman’s claim in which to be honest he was beginning to question it himself.

“I never thought that you would be someone like this. I swear my faith on you but you’re tearing it apart. “ She sighed. And then she added, “And I can’t believe all your relatives were fakes. When father told me I didn’t believe him and now I don’t know anymore… Is it true Satoshi?”

Satoshi froze. How did they find out about it? Satoshi shivered. Things were really going downhill too fast for his liking. And he didn’t know what to say to deny it because it was the truth. He heard Michiko sighed again. Satoshi gulped.

“If you really want a divorce than I agree. I’ll send you the divorce paper tomorrow.” She sounded so disappointed and sad and it hit Satoshi. What is really happening?

Ohno blinked when the line was cut. He dialled his wife’s phone again and again but she didn’t pick up. He never thought that they would be divorcing this quickly. They needed to talk more to solve their problem but it was apparent that Michiko had closed her door and ended their marriage.

True to her words, the divorce paper with Michiko’s stamp was sent to Satoshi who was still staying in the apartment, alone. She didn’t come home at all and apparently, she went to stay at her parents’ house for the time being. Michiko’s family told Satoshi to move out as soon as possible. With a heavy heart, Satoshi put down his stamp and gave the form back to his father-in-law’s assistant who delivered the form himself to him.

There was no point in staying longer when he wasn’t welcomed anymore. It was understandable that it was Michiko’s house to begin with. In record time, Satoshi was already hauling a luggage and a backpack and walked around the neighbourhood without knowing where to go. It was hot and Satoshi was drowning in sweat so he stopped at an empty street. That was when he realized that he didn’t know where he was at the moment. He turned around. There was no houses in sight, only a train track behind him with no station. Then he began to panic. His mind was heavy, still reeling from feelings he suppressed inside him. And then he burst into tears. It wasn’t a very manly thing to do. It was so far away from his calm side but right now he was lost, confused and alone.

He just lost his family in a blink of an eye.

A phone call startled him suddenly.

“Hello, Ohno-san?” It was from Matsumoto. Hearing his voice made Satoshi felt a relief beyond words. He needed help, from him or from anyone else who care.

“Okay calm down Ohno-san, just open your maps. You’ll be okay, you’ll be okay.” Matsumoto kept telling him that in a gentle and reassuring voice. Satoshi stared at his phone, his mind became clear all of the sudden. It didn’t occur to him that the solution was simple, he just needed to open his maps apps on his phone. He couldn’t believe that someone needed to tell him that. He was grateful to Matsumoto who helped him right when he needed it.

Finally, Satoshi found a cheap inn. With the money he had, he calculated that he could stay for at least a week before he ran out of money. In the meantime he could try to find a job, anything would do.

“You’re in a different room.” The first statement that came out from Rei-chan didn’t surprise Satoshi. He was well aware how observant she was. So he said yes, that he was staying in a new room. When she asked why, he said that he needed a different view, a fresh start. Well partly it was true, he wasn’t really lying to her. A white sterile view of her room in the hospital could be seen clearly from the laptop. He didn’t want to dragged her into his misery and trouble therefore he took a deep breath and he started the lesson. He was more subdued than usual though, letting Rei-chan showed him her drawing and then making her draw more pictures with him just staring at her small fingers, a longing to have a daughter like her was apparent on his face. It was only a wistful thinking because obviously that dream had been squashed by his recent divorce.

After a few days staying inside his room without nothing to do, with him just staring into nothingness, Satoshi decided that he needed to find a new job. He bought newspapers for jobs ads, scouring through internet for online job postings—foregoing the education agencies again since he had decided that he had enough of that job. Temporarily, he found a job at the hotel’s café as a helper.

Matsumoto had call him again to ask how he was doing and also to give him his report. Although Satoshi thought that it was meaningless to know about his ex-wife infidelity right now, he agreed to meet him. Thus during Satoshi’s lunch hour break, Matsumoto visited his workplace with two boxes of bento in his hand.

They went to the nearest park. Settling themselves comfortably on a bench, Matsumoto showed Satoshi his tablet.
“I’m sorry it took me a lot longer than I thought,” Matsumoto said, genuinely apologetic.

Satoshi shook his head weakly, saying that it didn’t mean anything anymore. He swiped at the pictures Matsumoto took. The more he saw the more he was disappointed at himself. He wasn’t even shocked. He had suspected that something was wrong with the whole situation and he obviously had been rushing to the conclusion prematurely. It served him right.

“Apparently the guy your wife is seeing is his brother. He’s just gotten engaged so she helped him to plan for his wedding.”
Satoshi sighed loudly. Michiko had once told him of his brother’s engagement. She had probably told him about the upcoming wedding but he might have missed it. Of course she would be the one who would be fussing over his brother’s wedding, it was in her nature to plan. Satoshi buried his face in his hands. He had made a huge mistake and he didn’t think he could reverse it anymore. However, he didn’t think that he would be running back to his ex-wife again. The embarrassment would be too much for him to handle. He needed to make a fresh start, preferably alone.

Matsumoto touched his shoulder and squeezing it, seemingly sorry for Satoshi. He understood Satoshi’s unspoken pain and let him be. Satoshi was thankful that Matsumoto didn’t say anything about it since he didn’t want to be reminded.

Satoshi sighed again before opening his bento box and eating silently beside Matsumoto. Before they separated, Satoshi didn’t forget to give the payment to Matsumoto in which he received it quietly.

Satoshi hadn’t gotten any reply from any of his job quests so he continued his work at the café. His tutoring lesion with Rei-chan were getting a bit later too but Sakurai didn’t seem to mind at all.

“As long as Rei-chan is happy, I’m okay with the time arrangement,” Sakurai said making Satoshi nearly chocking up in gratefulness.

Matsumoto came to see him again. Once again, he brought Satoshi a bento. As they ate together, Matsumoto smoothly asked that he got a job for him for the weekend. Thinking there was nothing to lose, Satoshi accepted since he had a day off this coming Saturday.

Apparently, the job Matsumoto proposed was similar to the first job Satoshi had once requested when he first met the guy. Satoshi chuckled to himself, feeling a slight déjà vu. The only thing was his role was reversed. He was now one of the fake relatives to the groom.

A day before the wedding, all of the actors were gathered in a rented seminar room. Satoshi had requested a leave just to attend this. When he arrived, there were already a few of them inside the room. Nervously, he sat at one of the chairs, feeling out of place without anyone he knew or recognized. He was afraid too if anyone recognized him since it would make him so embarrassed that he ended up like this. According to his memory, it seemed to him that no one who had once attended his wedding was here. He wasn’t really paying attention too much last time but he was quite sure of this. Therefore, he was pretty much relieved by that.

Satoshi stayed quietly on his chair, tapping his fingers on his seat nervously, occasionally watching Matsumoto who was busy registering the actors who had agreed to participate.

Then feeling that somebody took a seat beside him, Satoshi turned his head towards the person. He was startled by the wide toothy smile he received in return of his blank look.



Part Three