This was it. Now or never.
Well, maybe not never, but now or sometime-at-least-a-few-days-from-now. It was one of the burdens that came with being the manager’s son, but it was something Yosuke had never really thought to complain about before. After all, sure, there were plenty of pains in the ass that came with his lot in life. Other employees thought he could get them preferential treatment, or pull strings for them. 90% of the townspeople still treated him like the grim reaper of stores, bringing death and decay to anywhere that wasn’t Junes. They still talked behind his back, acting like they were being so good about keeping their snide comments secret. Plenty of pains in the ass, but he’d never considered his father’s absence to be one. After all, for as many days as Yosuke barely tolerated his place at Junes, he knew his father loved his work. Beyond that, it allowed him to provide for the family he also loved, and even Yosuke wasn’t so shallow as to see that it wasn’t a commendable trait. And in that respect, he did want to be like his father in a few years - ready to do whatever it took to keep his family happy and comfortable. Even if it meant seeing them a little less than he’d like to.
But still. His father’s fantastic work ethic put him in an awkward position, as young Yosuke Hanamura was now faced with a seemingly impossible task: explain to his father that the mysterious biker girl rumors were swirling about was in fact his girlfriend who he’d be moving in with as he attended college, and explain it before breakfast without getting disowned.
So yeah.
End of the world.
Izanagi had nothing on this.
With a deep breath, he sat at the kitchen table opposite his father, poking at the breakfast his mother had prepared for the both of them. Even distracted by the newspaper, it didn’t take the older Hanamura long to pose the question Yosuke had been dreading.
“I heard an interesting story before I left work last night. It started with you and a mysterious biker woman and ended with the two of you ‘riding off into the sunset’. Care to explain?”
It always seemed that no matter the situation, there was the right answer, and the wrong answer. Then, of course, the Yosuke answer. With a deep breath and his thoughts firmly on his angel, Yosuke steeled himself.
“Well Dad, she’s my girlfriend.” The elder Hanamura set his newspaper aside, eyes firmly affixed on his son, but offered no interruption. He’d give the boy this one chance to explain.
“We met-” Yosuke paused in mid-thought, trying to keep straight in his mind just when he’d entered that extraordinary world, “- about a year or two ago, I think. She surprised me at work, then we spent the rest of the day together and she dropped me off here before leaving.” He had no idea what was coming next, and for a brief moment, his courage faltered. He wished he could hide himself within his headphones, lose himself within the music to avoid whatever disaster was certainly coming next. But to his surprise, though his father seemed as stern as ever about the situation, he also seemed almost... calm.
“And just why have you kept a girlfriend secret from us for a year?”
“It wasn’t for a year! We- we just hit that point yesterday. Before now... well, we had different stuff going on.” Lost somewhere between happiness and the sadness that came with how much time she’d lost, he didn’t even notice the look his father was giving him; one of those uniquely parental looks, the one that says ‘I know that’s not the end of the story, and I’m giving you this chance to continue before I have to ask’. Thankfully, the elder gave his son enough time to notice, and the schoolboy rolled on.
“She’s older, too.”
“Oh?”
“... yeah. Not ‘If I were a girl and she were a guy everyone would think she’s a sugar daddy’ older, but definitely ‘Get weird looks on a date’ older.” It took effort to cut himself off there. Yosuke wanted to say more. He wanted to tell his father how she’d waited years for him, wanted to tell him how he couldn’t see himself with anyone else in the world. He wanted to say that they’d been dating for a day, but for years too and they knew everything about each other once. He desperately wanted, somehow, to convey just how important this one girl was to his life. How he’d do anything for her, and if that meant leaving his life behind for a new one, he’d do just that.
Really, he just wanted to scream. Anything to break the heavy silence that lingered over the kitchen table.
His father reached for a teacup. He took a long sip. Yosuke waited for his world to come crashing down.
“You’re still going to University.”
The reaction was almost instant. “Are you kidding? She’d kill me if I didn’t.”
The change in his father’s demeanor was subtle, but a small smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
“I like her already. What’s this mystery biker’s name?”
He could only imagine what his face looked like, but judging from how he felt, he liked to think it was a mixture of it’s-not-terminal relief and the joy of eighteen combined birthdays. It almost matched the happiness he’d felt the day before.
“Tatsuki. Arisawa Tatsuki.”
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