Families

Etsuko walked out of the hospital's front doors with a sentimental gait, using a tissue to wipe her eyes. She hugged her mom as she sniffled and blew her nose.
"We're almost done with the videos, Matcha-chan."

"Perfect timing," I said. "Here, take this camera and make sure we [She] watches it. By the way, how's we [She] doin'?"

She pointed a finger at me and beamed.
"That! You two started speaking weirdly like that all of a sudden. I asked her why and she said I wouldn't understand."

Music to my ears. I chuckled, because our joke kept its purpose.

She said, "I noticed you become more of a gentleman as the videos progressed, I never knew you could be like that."

I didn't know how to take that compliment, if it was one.
"I just acted in the way that felt right. Maybe it was the teachings from my parents that stuck subconsciously."

"Matcha-chan, do you like Yasumi-chan?"

"I do."

She embraced me and nestled herself in my lower abdomen.
"If she doesn't get her memories back, will you fall in love with me instead? You're too pure to lose and I'm basically like her anyways."

I knew what she was doing and decided to play along.
"Maybe if you aged several years on the spot, became an orphan, and got diagnosed with depression. Bonus points if you love apples."

She turned to her mom, to which the doctor said, "Forget about it."

Etsuko turned back and groaned.
"Darn my perfectly good life."

"Your what life?" I asked.

She immediately separated from me and started running back into the hospital, giggling impishly.

Doctor Itō said, "I apologize for her choice of words."

"It's okay, she's right. She has a perfect life, and that's great for her, but I've found solace in my not-so-great one. Because of it, I was able to fall in love with the only person who can truly understand me, and the other way around."

Instead of returning to her hospital room, I returned to the orphanage. I didn't see her after they finished the videos because I felt like she needed some alone time to gather her thoughts. She sent no texts nor made any calls.

Tonight, I laid in bed and thought about my memory sanctuary.

In my gray hell, turned fiery and once frozen, on my canoe freely flowing through the lava river, I discovered that all rivers heading downstream would eventually lead to civilization. In my case, it was my orchard hilltop in the form of a singular house from my childhood.

I could finally dock my canoe at the pier in front of it and dismounted with all of my good memories in hand, ready to store them inside. This was where the river led us—just us. It was just like she said when we met at the pie shop after our peer outing to Maruyama: Even if opportunities happen by chance, a conscious choice is needed to seize it.

Both times I met her were by chance, but we chose to grow our relationship. Our second relationship grew in a short amount of time and I never believed it could challenge my years of depression, but I was wrong; shock. It wasn't about the amount of time we had together, but what we experienced in that time. Plus, my heart never stopped forgetting even when my mind did, and it persuaded me to pursue her.

I didn't know if she'd completely restored her memories or not, but I'd find out the next day.

School ended all the same and I got off the bus near the orphanage. The music playing in my earphones was the same as always. Sapporo never failed to deliver with their gray clouds, even in the spring. I didn't mind them anymore, they represented the city we lived in, the city where my life felt complete.

Approaching the front yard, I saw her standing there. A lost angel in alabaster clothing, she stood at the entrance with a backpack that probably contained her laptop and camera. I came to a halt and called out her name.

"Yoru?"

She turned and faced me, her hair unconfined in the wind. The apples in our eyes connected and she took off running towards me. As she got closer, my vision swapped between the present and Aomori. Both times I stood still as she ran, first under the rain and now under the clouds, both times she dove into my chest.

I'd remembered everything, she'd remembered everything. The accidents brought misfortune, but seeing as it brought us together like this, we were glad they happened. Only we could truly understand our uniquely similar experiences.

Despite her resistance, I managed to pull her away from my chest. I used a finger to gently lift her chin until we locked eyes again; she batted her lashes.

No words were needed, we'd heard everything needed to be heard. We'd seen everything needed to be seen, smelled everything needed to be smelled, and tasted everything that we needed to taste. However, we hadn't touched everything just yet.

She put both hands on my chest and rose to her tiptoes to reach closer to my face. My arms descended to her lower back to embrace her. Our eyes shut, but we still saw each other with the connection of our lips.

Cherries? No. Roses? No. Strawberries? No. It was ephemeral, but I knew instantly that her lips tasted like the sweet, aromatic, tasty flavor of an apple that was perfectly ripened, maybe glazed with caramel on top. Our lips separated to inhale, only to press together again. Five times more we repeated the process with longer intervals.

She pulled away for the final time, lightly patting my chest like bongos. I'm sure she could feel and hear the thumping of my heart. She then stood to my left.

She said, "As I watched the videos, it was like you were walking me down my orchards, picking out the right apples and handing them to me. Through sounds, smells, tastes, and touches, you've helped me see all my memories. Rather than the apple of my eye..."

Rather than my Buddha in hell...

"In the past and now, with the future to come..."

""Through memory, we're [You're] the apple of our [My] senses.""

She giggled, placing her right hand over her left shoulder. I extended my left arm behind her neck and placed it on her left shoulder too, interlocking fingers. We walked to the front doors and entered it with the intention of dropping our bags in our rooms, but a loud cheer resonated inside, consisting of a crowd of orphans and caregivers welcoming her back.

She individually thanked each one of them, like a celebrity to paparazzi. I led her upstairs to her room where she unpacked her backpack. I stood by the door; she sat down at the foot of her bed and gently patted the area beside her. Once I took my seat next to her, she rested her head against my arm. I opened up and wrapped it around her so her head nestled on my chest.

She said, "There's something I never got to tell you."

"I know," I replied. "Your apple trivia of the new year."

"It's less trivial this time and more of an opinion, but that's okay. I've finally deduced it, the symbolism of apples. Apples are a symbol of love and rebirth, alongside knowledge and wisdom."

"Yeah, that is an opinion. But for us it's a fact, it'd be hard to disprove that."

We were silent, then a thought came to my head.
"Maybe what happened to me needed to happen. Maybe forgettin' my memories was so I could experience fallin' in love with you all over again."

We planned to stay like this for a while, but then a caregiver said Ringomori was needed at the main office. Confused, she held my hand and took me along with her.

At the office, the receptionist told her something she'd never expected to hear.
"An official application has just been approved for you. You've been adopted."

The gravity of those words dropped her jaw to the floor, her eyes as pretty as a doe. She looked at me as if I knew something about it, but truthfully I was as shocked as her.

I didn't know they'd do it right away...

Bouncing like a rabbit, she asked, "Who is the family, Naomi-san?"

The receptionist looked past us and we turned around with interest.

There they stood, the three of them.

"Yasumi-nee-chan!"

Ringomori took one step towards them, cupping her mouth. She took another step, tears welled ready to form a waterfall. She took another step and another step, until the four of them shared a familial hug. That's who she was now.

Shizuko Ringomori "Yasumi" Yoru.

The snowy cherry blossoms arrived in Sapporo three weeks later, just in time for high school graduation. The ceremony was reaching its end, I think—I was too busy full comboing the latest song added to D4Dream on the special difficulty.

Shortly after Ringomori's adoption, the two of us had a psych-eval that cleared us of our formerly dominant depressive symptoms. Depression wasn't something that was gone forever, it would forever linger within us as our lives continued, but what this evaluation told us was that we discovered a way to suppress it enough to enjoy our lives once again. That was a luxury that not many are blessed to find; it was all about timing.

She planned to move out during the spring break, and so did I. I wasn't going into the Shizuko household too, but somewhere else.

"I'm go'n t'miss call'n you Chaimaru-senpai! Goodbye forever, friend!"

Hara's plentiful tears stained my uniform, and his embrace was tight enough to easily crush every bone in my body.

"Y'know we'll still be seein' each other, right? I'm quite literally movin' into your house for university until I can find my own place. Plus, ow, we're workin' at CLARIS too."

"But your senpai status will be be gone!"

"You should still call me that."

"Nope, it's gone Chaimaru."

"Alrighty. Speakin' of CLARIS, we have to head over there now."

On the walk back to the pie shop, I thought, Nearly a month since Yoru and I began datin', though truthfully we might've started a long time ago.

We arrived. Ringomori and her family, Miss Hara, and two other guests were all talking. Besides them, the place was empty. Hara and I separated and I approached Ringomori's table, she was talking to those two other guests. I recognized one of them, though I only saw her once.

"Maru-chan, you remember Fujita Anzu-san from Aomori. This is her mother—Fujita Tsubasa-san."

I introduced myself.

She continued, "I've been communicating with Anzu-san through messages since regaining my memories. Sometimes we'd regale on the phone and share stories of our lives, which were both far from normal."

Fujita spoke, her vernacular was still a mystery to figure out.
"We're here on vacation this spring break. I'm boutta become a third year!"

My eyes were dazed.
"You were a second-year student when we met you?!"
And to think you easily intimidated me at first.

Hara came up to the table and asked who the new girl was, looking flustered and unlike his cool character. Fujita and her mom stood up and introduced themselves to him, followed by his formal introduction.

I told the ladies, "This is his family's bakery."
I turned to Hara and said, "They also have a family bakery in Aomori."

His eyes lit up with stars.

Fujita said, "It's called 'Ryo's Homemade'! Right now it's only my mom and me, got a lot of complications with my old man back home."

"I'm no stranger to that," said Hara.

Now there was a moon accompanying his eyes of stars. I knew that sort of look.

I took my leave and approached my therapist.
"Thanks again for rentin' out the whole shop for us to celebrate."

"It was difficult to convince Hara-san to let me pay for it, she was keen on letting us do this for free. However, I felt like the news you're about to receive deserves payment. You'll be sharing the money."

I raised an eyebrow and titled my head. Before I could ask for clarification, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. The place fell silent as I turned around.

All eyes were on me as Miss Hara and her son stood before me. They delightfully presented me with a piece of paper, I read it internally.

Miss Hara said, "I learned that you assisted in get'n Ringomori-san adopted into a caring and close family. I believe you deserve a family too."

Adoption Confirmation Document.

The bottom of the paper had a few wet droplets not originally there.
With blurred vision and a wobble in my throat, I looked at Miss Hara and muttered, "Y-You're my...mom?"
It was impossible to say that without smiling.

Hara chimed in.
"Welcome to the family, Chaimaru-ani!"
He leaned forward and grabbed my arm, pulling me into a bear hug. My own waterfall hadn't shown any signs of stopping.

The pie shop cheered and celebrated with the first waves of pastries and drinks.

Ringomori and I sat at a table of our own and watched as our new families bonded together, harkening memories of the first time this happened. Hara and Etsuko played around, Fujita and her mom—Tsubasa—talked about sweets with Miss Hara—Akiyoshi—and Doctor Shizuko and Doctor Itō spoke with Hara's uncle—his name was Toono.

We sipped our tea and ate some apple cake, two items that would be newly added to the CLARIS menu soon, and tenaciously held hands.

I could count all the people I held strong connections with only my ten fingers, but that wasn't a bad thing. My fingers were what held the hand of the girl I loved the most, they'd hold the fruit that defined her life, and they were what rowed my canoe to the finish line.

"Yoru," I said.
To say her name tasted like pan roasted apple cake.

"Hmm? What is it, Maru-chan?"

"You ready for university? Sociology's quite a difficult subject. It requires a lot of studyin'."

"Now that we'll be going to the same school, I believe I'll be able to get through it. It's not like you have it any easier, majoring in psychology."

"It feels right, especially since I've experienced sittin' on one side of it for years."

I summarized the day for my parents at the grave.

The plan for school is to meet Yoru at her house and take the train together to the University of Sapporo; that is until I get my license and enough money for a car.

I'm thankful to everyone from CLARIS and all who reside in the Yoshida orphanage. Most of all, I'm thankful to you. While I had to find my own path to get here, it was because of your continued support that I never got lost, even when I felt like I did.

You can finally rest without worry, entrust my new family to continue to care. Of course, I'll never forget you just because I have a new family. After all, I still have a healthy amount of memories about you stored in the house of my memory sanctuary. Thank Yoru's parents for me too, they've created and raised the personification of purity. I'll protect her.

During the spring break, Ringomori and I moved out of the orphanage and said goodbye to all the caregivers and bawling kids that would miss our presence. I thanked Kaya-san the most.
"Stop by CLARIS whenever you want a break. Yoru and I will serve you her best recipes."

I once believed I'd never care for any of these kids and caregivers, nor did I want to leave a mark on their lives. But I did. If I was able to find my current path, then I knew these kids had brighter futures waiting to be discovered too.

"Best of luck," I said to them. "Don't join the parents."

Ringomori and I bowed to the sign with the orphanage's name emblazoned on it. We thanked it for bringing us together and seeing us out.