Fatherly Advice

The voice was his fathers and he sounded worried. Michio didn't want to talk to him. Not now.

“What do you want?” He intended to sound angry, but though his tears it sounded more pathetic than anything.

“Can I come in?” His father said, sounding unusually gentle. Michio wanted to object, but the words just wouldn't come out and so his father finally opened the door and looked into the room.

“Michio, are you alright?” he asked.

“No, I'm not as you can see. What do you want?” This time he managed to actually sound angry, but instead of making his father leave he was entering Michios room. “Shouldn't you be working?” Michio added quietly.

“Yes, I should be. But I had a terrible feeling at work and so I rushed home to see you.”

Now Michio looked at his father and to his surprise his father looked like he was close to tears.

“Are you alright dad? What is going on?” His father sat down next to him on the floor.

“You know, this feeling I had. I had the same feeling the day your mother died. And so when I felt that way again... I... I thought I would never see you again as well.” Now his father actually started to sob. Michio didn't know how to react. Was this the same man that spent all his time at work and didn't even seem to recognize that he had a son?

“I don't really remember mom at all.” Michio finally said. He never talked to his father much about his mother or how she died. He just knew she had a traffic accident.

“It's no surprise, you were only three years old back then.” His father seemed to think back to that time. “Your mother was so obsessed with you. You were her everything. After her death I swore I would take care of you as good I could, but I guess at some point I forgot about that and just worked and worked.” After that his father went silent and he seemed to think about all the time since Michios mother died. “I'm sorry.” He added after a while.

“For what?” asked Michio.

“For being a terrible father.”

Michio didn't know what to answer. He truly did think his father was terrible at being a father.

“Maybe we can work out together how to make it work.” His father added.

“Yes, that sounds good.” Michio could agree to that at least. If Aida wanted to be back with her family so bad she would lie to him he could at least use the time he had to build a better relationship with his father.

“And what were you crying about?” His father asked. Michio didn't really want to talk about it, but since they were trying to rebuild their relationship he wanted to at least make an effort. Maybe his father had some fatherly advice to offer.

“The girl I like lied to me in a really bad way. At least I think she did.” Michio said. I guess that was the truth without giving the actual truth away.

“What did she do?”

“She told me she was in love with me to get me to do something, but she actually likes someone else.” That was the truth as well.

“Are you sure she like someone else?”

“Maybe she likes me as well, but she did say she doesn't like the other guy, but agreed to go on a date with him. So I don't know how to still believe her when she says she loves me.”

“That's rough. But maybe you should try to talk to her again and figure it out. Sounds like you make a lot of assumptions.”

What his father said was probably true. But it just hurt so much and she didn't even try to deny it when Taiki confronted them. So was she really in love with him? Or Taiki? Maybe she was using Taiki as well.

“I know this probably isn't helping, but I have to go back to work now. Maybe we can talk some more tonight.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.” After that his father left and Michio was alone in his room again.

So what was he supposed to do now? Should he actually talk to Aida? Or Taiki even? He was reaching into his pocket and got his phone out. He hadn't looked at it since he was back and now he could see that Taiki had tried to call him several times. What was that about? Michio was fighting with himself over whether he should call back, but then he pressed the button on the screen and Taiki answered right away.

“Michio, I'm so glad you picked up. Are you okay?” He sounded quite stressed.

“I'm okay.” Michio answered. Was that what Taiki wanted to talk about?

“That's not why I called though.” Taiki continued, even more stressed. “After you walked away Aida went as well. And she was crying. Like a lot. I tried to reach her as well, but her phone seems to be off. Do you know where she might have gone?” Now Michio was panicking as well. So she wasn't with Taiki? What did that mean? And why was she crying? Did Michio get it wrong after all? Did he make a huge mistake?

“I don't know where she is either. But I'm going to look for her. Thanks for telling me.” After that he ended the call without waiting for Taiki to answer. He wasn't important right now anyway. Where could Aida have gone? Home? Probably not if she was feeling distraught. Or if she was he could look there later anyway. Suddenly Michio had an idea. What did they talk about earlier? The viewpoint over the city? Maybe that's where she was going. But what would she be doing there alone? Suddenly he remembered how he felt after Aida had told he she was dating Taiki. He just wanted to die after hearing that. Was she feeling the same now? Did she actually love him after all and think she screwed everything up because she did actually say yes to Taiki in another life? Then she would probably try to... Michio jumped up and ran out of his room and onto the street. He had to get there as quickly as possible.