Chapter 25: She hugged me tightly

Friday, 9 May, 20XX - Part 6

Yui answered the call.

“Hello?” She paused for a moment. “This is Nishiyama Yui. May I ask who is calling?”

She stayed silent for a while. She glanced at me, her eyes filled with trepidation. Then she looked away.

“Yes…he is with me. Iyama Haruto, that’s right. I understand. In that case, I will give him the phone. Please wait a moment.”

She tapped the mute button on the screen, then looked at me.

“Who is it?” I asked. Did the police call her?

“It’s your father.”

I said nothing.

“Uhm…just to confirm, your father’s name is Iyama Denji, right?”

“R-Right.”

My parents were still legally married, so I took my father’s surname. I wanted to change it to my mother’s surname, but the legal process was too complicated since they were still legally married. In the end, I kept the Iyama surname, even if I had a distaste for it.

I looked at her phone. I hadn’t spoken to him ever since he left. What did he want? My gut feeling told me nothing good could come from taking this call.

“Why is he calling you?”

“He was looking for you, remember? I gave my phone number to the police officer. He must’ve passed it on to your father.”

I looked at Yui’s phone. It was still muted. My father was waiting on the other side of the call.

“Did he tell you why he wants to talk to me?”

Yui shook her head. “He only said that he wants to speak to you.”

I gritted my teeth. I didn’t want to speak to him, but at the same time, this was the best way to protect our journey. There were only so many roads to Aomori. We’d be caught sooner or later if we were wanted.

I took the phone and unmuted it.

“Hello, this is Iyama Haruto speaking.”

“Haruto? Hello, it’s been a while.”

It’s been a while…

Is that all he had to say? Not even an apology? Anger rose in my throat.

“Haruto, I received the letter you sent me.”

Months ago, I sent a letter to his last known address, informing him of mother’s passing. He was last known to have lived in a town somewhere in Miyazaki prefecture. I never received a reply, so I figured he didn’t care about mother’s passing.

“I’m sorry to hear that Miyako has died,” he said.

“You didn’t attend the funeral.”

“Yes, I was busy with work. I’ve left Japan, so I didn’t know that she died.”

He spoke in an even, almost emotionless tone, as if he was reading his words off a newspaper.

I was talking to my father for the first time in over ten years, but it felt like talking to a disinterested stranger.

“What happened to you after you left?”

“Ah…I moved to Vietnam for work. I was going to ask your mother for a divorce, but I just never had the time to do that. Work has been busy.”

I swallowed. It was better to end this phone call before I lost control of myself.

“Is there something I can help you with?” I asked.

“Ah yes, this is the reason why I called. You see…”

My father explained that he never had the chance to divorce my mother, so they were still legally married. When he received news of her passing, he realized that as her husband, he should receive whatever she left behind.

“I came back to Japan to sell the house, car and transfer the rest of the money. But when I went to our old house, there was no one home and the car was gone. There was no way for me to reach you, so I asked the police for help.”

I was shaking with rage.

This was the only reason he came back? He just wanted the money mother left behind.

“I don’t understand,” I said. “Why do you care about the things mother left behind?”

“Uhm…I’m still her husband, so her things belong to me now. It’s just common sense, right?”

“What about me?”

“What?”

“I need the money to go to university.”

“Ah…that’s a little difficult. Haruto, you’re an adult now. You should work for your own money.”

I stared straight ahead, at the steering wheel.

I wanted to tell him to go to hell.

But –

“Haruto?”

Yui leaned over, inserting her face between and the steering wheel. Her dark eyes drew in my gaze, gradually calming me down.

I couldn’t just end the call. I had to protect our journey, no matter what.

Yui put a hand on my arm. Her warm touch reminded me that I wasn’t alone anymore.

“Do you need help?” She silently mouthed those words.

What would Yui do in this situation?

I closed my eyes and imagined that it was her who was on the phone. She would listen to my father’s outrageous demands. She’d smile and then say –

“Sure, that isn’t a problem at all. Please give me your bank account details, and I will transfer the money as soon as I am back in Tokyo.”

“When will that be?”

“I will return to Tokyo in about two weeks.”

My father groaned. “That’s inconvenient for me. I have to leave Japan by then.”

“Will ten days be okay?”

“I suppose that is fine…I have some business in Japan anyway.”

“Yes, I’m very sorry about that. Once I am back in Tokyo, we can sell the house.”

“Mh. That’s fine. In that case, I can tell the police to stop looking for you.”

“Yes, thank you very much. In the future, you can reach me using this phone number. I will call you as soon as I am back in Tokyo.”

We had nothing more to talk about, so we ended the call.

Yui stared at me, her eyes filled with curiosity. I told her about everything we talked about, and how I imagined her speaking to my father to come up with a scheme that would buy us more time.

“That is unbelievable! How can he do something like that!” She was furious. “Let’s go back to Tokyo and beat the stuffing out of him!”

“It’s okay. None of it matters. We need to get to Aomori and meet the person responsible for the end of the world.” I paused and then added, “The only thing that matters right now is our journey.”

“Haruto…”

She wrapped her arms around me. I could feel her chest press against me. It was the first time she has hugged me this tightly.

She spoke.

“In that case, there is something important I have to tell you once we reach Aomori.”