HA3 6.3 – Morning Talk

Tuesday morning, Ishida Household, thing went calm as usual. Exactly at 3:20, Mrs. Ishida woke up from her bed. It was still too early to the start daily activity, but Takeo would leave the house in a moment and she wanted to walk him to the door.

Initially, Takeo would leave the house at 4:30 to meet Hide and Shizuka, for part-time job and hiking exercise, and then went straight to school. Then, recently, he would leave at 5:00 to meet only Shizuka. But today, he left far earlier because he had something he had to do with Hide.

After wearing her jacket, Mrs. Ishida went straight to kitchen and she found Takeo was leaning his lower back on the sink, while enjoying banana. At the same time, Kei and Rei hugged his leg tightly. Kei was on the left, while Rei was on the right. The two were still wearing their pajamas and top it with their jacket.

‘Again?’ Mrs. Ishida muttered as she fixed her gaze on her twin daughter.

This was the second time Kei and Rei hugged Takeo’s leg while showing resolute expression in their childish face. The first time they did it was when the two were 18-month-old.

It started with National Geographic journal about Nikko’s wild duck. When they watched it, they heard the narrator said, “Wherever the duck mother goes, the duckling follows.”

After that, for some reason that only the two could comprehend, they identified themselves as a twin duckling. However, they didn’t identify their mother as the duck mother. They chose their Big Brother as the duckling mother. Then, they decided they would follow him at all cost.

The next morning, they hugged Takeo’s leg tightly like right now and said they would follow him to school. It was cute to see her twin little daughter wanted to stick to their brother at all cost. However, it became headache when they became too stubborn. It even almost ended up into disaster.

Without any warning, Rei and Kei cried as loud as they could when Mrs. Ishida tried to peel them off from Takeo’s legs with force. In the end, it took two hours to coax them to let go Takeo’s leg, and that became the only day Takeo arrived at his school late.

‘Oh God in heaven,’ Cold sweat drenched Mrs. Ishida’s back as she muttered. ‘If this twin rascal explodes into cry again, in this early, we will receive a storm of complain from the neighborhood. Someone most likely will also call metro police officer and firefighter like the last time.’

“Mom, I need your help,” Takeo casually said while Rei and Kei tightened their hold on his legs.

Mrs. Ishida immediately took a deep breath and braced herself for the worst case scenario, before gently saying, “Rei, Kei, don’t start a fuss in this early.”

“But if we don’t do this,” Kei resolutely said. “No one will take our request seriously.”

“Yeah,” Rei added.

“What request?” Mrs. Ishida curiously asked.

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“Bringing Big Sis Aizawa to sleep here on Saturday,” Kei said.

“Mhm, we want to play with Big Sis Aizawa soooooo… badly,” Rei added.

“Mommy already gives you permission to invite her,” Mrs. Ishida casually said. “Just invite her again until she comes.”

“We did, but she still didn’t come,” Kei dejectedly said.

“And Big Bro and Mommy have promised us. You will talk about it with Big Bro Hide, but you never did.”

“Well…” Mrs. Ishida actually forgot about this promise, and now she put her brain in full rotation to find an excuse. “Aizawa loves to play with you two so much and Hide knows it. He will bring her here as soon as he can.

Meaning, if up to this moment he doesn’t do it, it must be because the circumstances don’t allow him to do so, and if in such situation we insist he should still take Aizawa here, it will put them in difficult spot. We shouldn’t do such thing.”

“What circumstance?” Rei asked while giving Mrs. Ishida a skeptical look with her childish face, and it was very cute.

“Well…. Maybe they are busy with something.”

“If they were busy with something, how could they have time to go camping in Uruba Hill on last Saturday?” Kei protested.

“If they can’t come here because they go camping, we and Big Bro can go with them,” Rei added.

“I see,” Mrs. Ishida said before taking a deep breath.

Last night, before a chest match with opponent from Hakaido, Aizawa told the group about her camping with Hide in Uruba Hill. She also shared the pictures she took. It seemed it triggered Kei and Rei eagerness to play with her.

“So, now, you want to come to their place?” Mrs. Ishida casually asked.

“It doesn’t have to be their house,” Rei said.

“Go camping with them is fine too,” Kei said.

“In summary,” Mrs. Ishida said. “As long as you can play with Aizawa, anything is fine?”

““Mhm.”” Kei and Rei nodded at the same time.

Mrs. Ishida immediately turned her gaze to Takeo. “Son, talk it to Hide, ASAP.”

“Roger,” Takeo said while looking at Rei and Kei alternately. “I will make sure you two have the chance to play with Aizawa this weekend. If this Saturday they go camping again, we will go with them.”

“Now,” Mrs. Ishida gently said. “Let a go your brother’s legs. He has important part-time job waiting for him.”

““Okay.”” Kei and Rei said at the same time.

“Go back to your room and get some more sleep,” Mrs. Ishida said.

““Mhm,”” Kei and Rei obediently replied.

After Kei and Rei returned to their room, Mrs. Ishida immediately took a deep breathe full of relief. Initially, she thought it would be much harder to coax Rei and Kei, but it seemed they understood that they shouldn’t make things hard for their Big Brother like the last time they pulled the legs grabbing protest.

After drinking a glass of water Mrs. Ishida turned her gaze to Takeo, “How can they are up so early?”

“Last night, they asked me when I will depart this morning. They also ask me to teach them how to put alarm on.” After an amusing smile Takeo continued, “They prepare their ambush well.”

“Kids this day,” Mrs. Ishida was complaining, but like Takeo, she also had amusing smile all over her face.

“Well, I should go now,” Takeo said before putting the banana peel to the bin.

“Wait, Son,” Mrs. Ishida said in hurry. “How is your part-time job?” Why Hide suddenly ask to meet you in the morning again? Do you two face a problem?”

“Not at all,” Takeo casually said. “We just have to check each other progress.”

“And your training for Hiking Club?”

“Everything is fine,” Takeo gave his mother another casual reply. “I have good progress.”

“You know, when you went home from your first hiking exercise in your school, you were so pale, haggard, and burn out, and the next morning you looked in so much pain. It worried me to the death,” Mrs. Ishida said in complicated tone. “But you kept insisting you are fine and refuse to take a break.”

“Mom, as I have said before,” Takeo casually said. “If I take a break in the initial phase, it will put more harm on my body. It will also hinder my chance to reach the highest outcome. The pain is part of the growth. Avoiding it, is not an option.”

“I see.”

After taking another deep breathe Mrs. Ishida gave Takeo a meticulous check from head to toe. Now, she found Takeo looked sturdier. His shoulder also looked wider, while his jawline became clearer.

“I never thought you can become so good looking.”

“So, you never thought I was good looking all this time,” Takeo casually said.

“Well, before you start the training, you look pretty plain like your father,” Mrs. Ishida honestly blurted out. “But inside, you are a great young man with gentle heart.”

“I see.” After a smile Takeo continued, “I’m off.”

While having big smile in her face, Mrs. Ishida walked Takeo to the door. Then, she watched as Takeo walked down the empty road in front of their house, under the combo dark sky and street lamp, carrying his school bag in his shoulder and mid-size sport bag in his hand. His pace was casual, but his step was steady and firm.

‘He doesn’t look like high school kid at all,’ Mrs. Ishida muttered, and waited until Takeo disappeared from her view before returning to her room.

She still could get another two hours of sleep and she really needed it.

*****

Author’s note:

I put two advance chapters in my Patreon. Thank you and Best regards.