✍🏻 Little Matchmaker

22 - A History Lesson

Once Sophie heard the TV from the living room, she figured that Akira is not coming back and wondered if Yuzuru is there with him. Maybe he just found the whole story too personal and thought he might be invading their privacy or something. But for her, it was the opposite. Akira so rarely ever mentioned his dad to anyone except her, that she was always ecstatic when he was willing to talk about him with an outsider.
Or maybe she was simply reading too much into it and since the story was already over he just went to the bathroom or something.

But it was still making her curious what he thought and so she reached for her clutches and hopped to the living room.
When not seeing him there, she moved to the kitchen but had no luck there either. And so she at least heated up lunch for Akira, letting him eat it by the TV, and made it back towards her bedroom, knocking on Yuzuru's door.
She heard some shuffling on the other side and after a moment he called for her to come in.

"Why are you hiding here?" she asked giddily and hopped towards the bed. He was sitting on the edge, though from the imprint on the duvet it looked like he was lying on it just a moment ago.

"I am not hiding," he replied with a smile that seemed completely fake and she sat down next to him.

"I don't mind that you heard the story," she told him reassuringly, "quite the opposite. I am always glad when Aki is willing to talk about his dad with somebody else. And I enjoy talking about Akio too."

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"Why do you like talking about Akio?" he elaborated, "Doesn't it make you sad?"

"It makes me happy, Yuzu," she explained, "he was such an amazing guy and I don't want him to be forgotten. Especially by Aki, but if more people would learn how great he was, even better."

"But it must hurt so much to talk about him," he countered, "since he died so young."

Sophie sighed, understanding what he means, and put her hand on his knee, "you know, the tumor in his brain would be there even if he wouldn't have met me. No matter what, he would have died that young. But he kept saying, that thanks to us, he can leave in peace. If he wouldn't have met me, he would be dying and regretting he never got a chance to fall in love or to have a family. And maybe we did it way too soon, but if it wouldn't be that way, he would pass away without knowing what it's like to be a father. So he said he is leaving without any regrets and that is such a rare blessing. So I am happy I could give that to him. That thanks to me, one great guy found his death less scary than the others."

"But I mean you," he put his head in his hands, staring at the wall, "you were left completely alone."

"I have Aki."

He didn't say anything to it and so she moved closer, moving her hand from his knee and putting it around his shoulders.

"It might be different for me, Yuzu, because he didn't die suddenly. We had months of him in bed and whithering away when we talked about death a lot. And I worked in the hospice before, I have seen many people die. And even though there is not a single thing that would make me think his death was for a reason or some higher stupid plan, it still happened and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. So I choose to focus on the positive things. It's enough I have the fear of the small spaces or a constant fear over something happening to Aki. If I was to also drown myself in negative thoughts over my childhood or Akio's death I would go insane."

"But how do you it?"

"Do what?"

He raised his head and turned to her, scanning her face, "focus on the positives so the past doesn't haunt you. How?"