Family

Even after putting their heads together for several hours and frantically searching through Kana’s favourite places in the city, they came up with nothing. She wouldn’t be out in the open somewhere. People meant possible exposure. But if she had holed up in some hotel, even close to her home, they would never find her. Not until she wanted them to. They knew this was by design, but they couldn’t accept it.

There was no other option… Yuto would have to call her parents, as unlikely as it seemed and as much as it pained him.

The cafe remained closed. There was a sign in the window that said ‘Family Emergency’, which was ironic in its own way, Yuto thought as he stared at the number in his phone. Sakuya and him had met up at Kana’s place to look for clues, since the crowd in front of it had partially dispersed. It was a major invasion of privacy to search through her things, but they’d rather apologise later than to never get the chance to apologise at all. Yuto watched Sakuya sort through the piles of documents on Kana’s desk, sometimes stopping, then shaking his head, continuing ever onwards. He sat on the floor next to her bed, just like where he had sat on the night he watched over her.

“Here goes nothing…” he mumbled and pressed the call button.

“Takagi residence,” the voice on the other side said. It was female. Kana’s mother.

“Good evening, it’s Nishida Yuto speaking. I hope you remember me.”

“Yuto-kun! Of course! You always came by our house.”

Yuto swallowed. “Right. Yeah. That’s me. I was wondering if you’ve heard from your daughter recently.”

“Kana-chan? No. I’m afraid I haven’t. You know… you know what happened back then, don’t you?”

“I do know. But I need to talk to her and somehow cannot reach—”

“You don’t have to pretend. I read the news too. I… I always read everything about her.”

Yuto was momentarily taken aback. That…

“So… okay. Then…?”

Kana’s mother made an uncomfortable sound through the speaker. “I’ve been trying—we’ve been trying to speak to her for the last two years. We even went by her cafe, but she refused us again and again. Do you think she’d talk to us now?”

“You’ve been trying… that’s the first I hear of it.”

“Figures. She’s always been too independent. Never asking for help. I wish we’d been more persistent. What happened?”

Yuto bit the bullet and told her the outline of the recent happenings, down to her disappearance the day before. Her mother listened quietly.

“I don’t think she’d take her things if she… you know,” Yuto said.

“Yes,” her mother replied. “Maybe if we’d tried more, she’d come to us instead of running alone.”

The broken tone in her voice made Yuto physically uncomfortable. Sakuya looked at him in question and he shook his head.

“Thank you for telling me all that. It’s one thing to read the articles. It’s another to know the story behind it. I don’t think she did anything wrong. It seems like she just wanted to help,” her mother said.

“Yes,” Yuto said. “But she helped the wrong person.”

“If I ever get my hands on that boy, I… oh. I apologise.”

Yuto had to smile. He never thought he’d hear Kana’s mother say these things. He would have to tell her if he found Kana. No, when he found her. Not if. When.

“Thank you for that. Please, can you call me if you hear anything?” Yuto asked.

“If you promise to do the same. Here, let me give you my mobile number…”

Yuto wrote the digits down in a daze and said his goodbyes. After the phone call disconnected, he let his head fall back against the bed. Sakuya looked at him with a question in his eyes.

“No, they don’t know where she is either. But she promised to call if she shows up at their house.”

“It seems complicated,” Sakuya said.

“That’s not even half of it. But it’s not my place to air that particular laundry. Just… it doesn’t seem to be as bad as it was. Maybe they can reach her, now that they know we’re looking.”

“Okay. It’s not my place to ask, anyway.”

Yuto looked at Kana’s face on the album covers. She was smiling widely under her colourful wig, the very image of a pop idol. He knew she didn’t fake it back then. She really had been that happy. No matter how slow her success came, no matter the long hours she put in. It was what she’d always wanted to do.

“Did you find anything?”

Sakuya shook his head. “It’s almost all documents regarding the cafe. Orders, payments, that kind of thing. There’s a manga magazine in there, but it’s just last week’s new issue. Other than that…”

“Did she mention any place she’d like to visit?” Yuto asked. “We talked about many things, but nothing concrete.”

“No. I was surprised she came out to Atami at all.”

“Do you think she went back there?”

Sakuya smiled bitterly. “Why would she? She shouted at me to not contact her again. Do you think she’d go where we went?”

“Honestly, I don’t know. At this point, I… I don’t know.”

Sakuya sat down on the bed, next to Yuto.

“It’s my fault she left. She told me it wouldn’t work, but I didn’t listen.”

Yuto kept quiet.

“I invited her and it all went wrong. It broke. No, it was already broken. I just didn’t want to see it,” Sakuya continued.

“I think you would’ve been good for her. If not…” Yuto trailed off.

“She wouldn’t have helped me that day if I wasn’t who I am. It’s no good thinking in circles.”

“You’re one to talk,” Yuto said.

Sakuya chuckled. “You’re alright.”

“I know. I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“I think we need more help. Let me introduce you to someone.”