Her arrival had gone unnoticed at first. After all, young mothers leaving their children at the daycare wasn’t anything unheard of in Japan during this day and age. It was after a few weeks I started to notice her presence when I would return home from University. By that time in the late afternoons, I’d catch her leaving the Masamori Daycare with three children in her wake. She didn’t look old enough to have children, and the thought that she was another inexperienced mother left with the burden of raising children on her shoulders made me think that she was another irresponsible person in the world. Of course, it was none of my business, but a passing thought nonetheless.
Another week went by this way. If I met her gaze she would always share a smile with me, even if I didn’t return one and pretend I hadn’t looked her way. Her brown eyes were always behind thin-rimmed glasses yet never hidden, and her jet black hair was always pulled back into a ponytail, only her bangs left loose to frame her face. Her presence was subtle but consistent, and it made me wonder.
At one point, while having dinner with my mother, I happened to bring up the children in conversation. This is where I realized I was paying more attention than I thought.
She looked surprised.
“You’re curious about the triplets, Shiro?”
I shrugged, knowing that bringing up the subject was uncommon. I usually didn’t bother unless I was working, and with school the way it had been, I haven’t had the time recently. I glanced up to meet her knowing gaze.
“I’ve just seen them around a lot, with the mother. It’s a little odd to see them even on the weekends.”
She gasped softly as realization hit.
“Did I not tell you about NessLee? Oh dear, I really am getting old.”
I tried not to smile at the comment, knowing she was barely past her forties, before raising a brow to remind her about what we had been talking about.
“NessLee?”
“Oh yes, NessLee has been working for the daycare.”
So that was why I saw her so often. It made enough sense for me not to pry anymore. Later when I was gathering the dishes to be washed, the phone rang. It wasn’t unusual to get phone-calls at this hour. To my mother, the daycare was a twenty-four-hour business. I had made it to the sink when I overheard the name of the very person we had just discussed.
“Oh hello NessLee, we were just talking about you! Oh nevermind, what did you need?”
I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but my ears just perked up at the silence from the other line until she continued.
“Mmhmm, that’s no problem, Dear. I can manage a few hours with them. I do run a daycare after all.”
She laughed before continuing.
“Alright, don’t worry about it. Bye bye now.”
I managed to look busy when she came back into the room, finishing up the first plate, but she must have realized I had been listening. She had a scary sixth sense about those kinds of things.
“Curious, are we son?”
I whipped my head around, slightly embarrassed.
“Mom!”
“What? You’re allowed to be curious about a young woman at your age. It’s even healthy!”
I groaned. I was twenty-one and single, I know, but that didn’t mean she had to treat me like a lovestruck teenager or something.
She merely laughed at me.
“Who knows, you two may hit it off!”
I rolled my eyes, drying my hands with a towel.
“Yeah, okay, me and the girl with three kids, sure. Like I’d want to get caught up in that mess.”
I mean, it’s not as if I dislike kids, but who knows what kind of drama would spring up from the ex-boyfriend or worse, a divorce case where the husband is nowhere to be found.
My mother only giggled as she left, waving me off with a sense that she knew more than I did.
“You never know!”
That motherly tone was thrown over her shoulder before she disappeared completely for the night, leaving me to wonder what she thought she knew that I didn’t. With a sigh I retreated back to my bedroom, knowing I had classes in the morning.
Unbeknownst to me, I would overhear an important conversation the next day while walking to the student lounge in search of something to eat. I hadn’t meant to, but the counselor's office was on the way and I couldn’t help but stop in my tracks.
“But NessLee! You had such a bright future ahead of you!”
That name again. It just seemed to follow me everywhere I...