After Story: Resolve

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Lunch with the Father

"Ah, now this is nice!" Mei's dad exclaimed as we entered the restaurant. "Nothing like this at home!"

"Don't you have restaurants?" I asked as a waitress seated us. "I'd tease Yohei about where he lived, but I didn't really think..."

"Tomoya!" Mei cried, causing my face to heat up. "You think we live in the country or something?"

"We do have restaurants, but they're smaller than this," Sunohara-san replied. "More like the size of a café, but they are nice."

We talked about the weather and other mundane topics until our food arrived.

"Mm!" Mei's dad exclaimed between bites. "Haven't had food like this in a while."

"Dad," Mei complained. "You said you were coming here to investigate Tomoya."

"'Interrogate' was the word, but you're right." He set down his chopsticks. "I hear you've been filling out some kind of paperwork to help Yohei get into professional soccer."

"That's right."

"Why?"

"Why?" I repeated. "Good question; I haven't thought about it in a while...'cause I've been busy doing it, I guess." I rubbed at my face as I thought back. "At first, it was because of Mei."

"T-Tomoya..." Mei squired in her seat.

"No, seriously," I said, turning toward her. "You had a head full of steam about it just like in April, and it got me interested. But," I said, turning back toward her dad, "eventually I saw how serious Yohei was about the whole thing, and I guess I wanted to see how far he could go." I spread my hands. "I want to see him succeed."

Sunohara-san rested his elbows in the table, his chin on his folded hands and fixed his gaze on me. "Hm."

"See Dad? He helped me and he's helping Nii-san."

I saw his eyebrows jump at the same time mine did; maybe he noticed the change in the way she mentioned her brother too? "Indeed," was all he said, though.

We continued to eat, with Mei occasionally trying to tell her dad about my 'virtues'. The elder Sunohara sat quietly, eating his meal and occasionally looking at his daughter or me.

After we finished our meals, he ordered a cup of coffee. "A bad habit of mine," he explained. "Hopefully you won't begrudge me this one indulgence."

I wasn't sure what 'begrudge' meant, but it sounded like a bad thing, so... "I won't; enjoy yourself, sir."

He wrinkled his nose at me. "About that...don't call me 'sir'; I keep thinking you're talking to my old man." He thrust his hand across the table, causing Mei and I to jump. "Sunohara Jubei...call me Jubei-san if you would, please."

I felt a little confused as I took his hand. First name? Does this mean he accepts me? "Okazaki Tomoya. C-Call me whatever you're comfortable with."

"Tomoya-kun?" he tried.

I gasped as several memories plowed through my mind; the first was, of course, my dad, causing a feeling of revulsion. The second was interesting, though. For the briefest of moments I saw a girl in a white dress, her face covered by a white veil covering dark purple hair partly tied up in beaded ornaments. The sight gave me a feeling of...nostalgia?

The third and last one was more surreal; a short girl with long brown hair with a purple bow tied toward the end of it stood facing me in the park in front of Furukawa Bakery.

"Tomoya? You okay?"

I shook my head to clear it. "Weird. It's like when we were leaving after the beach trip. I saw...stuff."

"Mei-chan, he doesn't do drugs does he?"

I straightened up immediately. "No, I don't! I think I'm just a little tired." I allowed myself to relax. "It's been an exciting summer."

I heard a chuckle from across the table and looked up to see Jubei smiling at me. "It's okay, Tomoya-san; I'm just giving you a hard time." He made a point of stretching. "I'll occasionally 'zone out' myself, so don't worry about it."

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, sir."

"Jubei," he corrected.

"Thank you, Jubei-san," I corrected in turn.

"Anyway, I suppose that 'Tomoya-kun' is out of the question, then?" he asked.

"Yeah," I reluctantly agreed. "Just 'Tomoya' would be good, if you're okay with that."

"That's fine," he replied. "So, what do you like about my daughter?"

I blinked; I had been expected him to ask some form of that question, but it came out-of-the-blue which surprised me. Fortunately, I had given the subject quite a bit of thought. "She's all about others," I said.

"Explain."

"Well..." I scratched at my face. "...when she first came here a few months ago, she was all-concerned about her brother doing well." I smiled at the memories. "She thought of and tried so many things...and had me thinking of and trying things, too."

"Like pretending to date my daughter?"

I blinked in surprise again before looking to Mei. "You told him?"

She nodded bashfully. "I thought it would help him understand how we ended up like this."

"You're not wrong," I mused. Getting back to Jubei's question I said, "Anyway, because of all that I ended up kinda motivated to overcome...my old self? To stop letting my past tell me how my future would be."

"To stop dictating your future?" Jubei offered.

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "To stop dictating my future." I smiled awkwardly. "Looks like I need to work on my vocabulary more, though."

"It'll come with experience," he said reassuringly. "You're still young."

"Thanks. So...right now, that's pretty much it. I like how she's about other people...I admire that. I look forward to learning more about her and finding other things to like about her."

"T-Tomoya," Mei stammered, her face nearly scarlet.

Jubei chuckled lightly before looking to his daughter. "What about you, Mei-chan? What do you see in this lunk?"

"Lunk?" I protested before settling down at his wink.

We both watched as she squirmed in her seat, glancing up at her dad or at me. "I...I also like how he thinks about other people."

"Huh?" Did I hear her right. "Mei, I'm actually pretty selfish, you know."

"No you're not!" she cried, latching onto my arm. Looking around at the eyes on our table she lowered her voice. "No you're not. You've been all about me and all about Nii-san. You're a very giving man, Tomoya!"

It was my turn to blush. "I...I..."

A rap on the table pulled me out of my embarrassment. "All right, I've heard enough." Jubei declared. "You two have my blessing...provided you behave yourselves, both of you," he finished, giving his daughter a meaningful look.

Just like that, I was accepted. Weird.