At 7:12 p.m., Arthur pushed open the glass door of the restaurant and immediately spotted his family sitting by the window.
He didn’t walk over right away.
Some habits from work had become too deeply ingrained to shake off.
Whenever he entered an unfamiliar place, he instinctively took a moment to scan his surroundings.
The cashier was on the left.
Several tables lined the wall to the right.
The kitchen was at the back, with a narrow passage beside it for the staff to come and go.
The restaurant wasn’t particularly crowded.
Aside from a few tables of office workers who looked as though they had only recently finished work, there was a young couple sitting near the entrance.
Everything looked normal.
Only then did Arthur turn his attention back to his family and make his way toward them.
As he passed through the aisle, he noticed an empty chair sticking out too far and casually pushed it back under the table so it wouldn’t get in anyone’s way.
By the time he reached the window, Helena had already glanced at her watch.
“Seven twelve.”
Arthur paused halfway through pulling out his chair.
“Traffic.”
“I know.” Helena lifted her glass of water, her tone perfectly calm.
“At six fifty-eight, you sent a message saying you’d probably be ten minutes late.”
Arthur sat down and poured himself some water.
“So I was only two minutes later than I said.”
“Which still makes you twelve minutes late.”
“I’m only explaining why.”
“And I’m only stating a fact.”
They looked at each other for a moment.
Arthur was the first to look away.
“Fine.
I’m late.”
Clara, sitting beside them, finally burst out laughing.
“Dad, why do you always have to argue first?”
“I wasn’t arguing.”
Arthur took a sip of water.
“There really was traffic.”
“And you really were late,” Helena replied without missing a beat.
Arthur turned to look at her.
Helena remained perfectly composed, even giving him a faint smile.
Arthur decided to leave it there.
Trying to argue facts and reasons with a lawyer who had just come from the law firm was never a battle he had much chance of winning.
Besides, after all these years, he had learned that lesson more times than he cared to admit.
There was no reason to volunteer for another round.
He set down his glass and looked at his three children.
It was rare to have all three of them here tonight.
Lucas sat across from him, his laptop bag resting beside his feet.
He was physically present, but his attention clearly wasn’t.
His head was lowered, his thumb moving across his phone screen every now and then.
He looked so focused that he might not even have noticed his father had arrived twelve minutes late.
Clara sat nearby, flipping through the menu.
She went through it quickly from beginning to end, then started over from the first page.
Eventually, she stopped at one particular dish and stared at it for quite some time.
Arthur had no idea what she was studying so seriously.
As for Theo, he looked genuinely exhausted.
From the moment Arthur entered the restaurant, Theo had spent most of his time leaning back in his chair with his eyes half closed.
The fatigue on his face was impossible to hide.
If the restaurant became even a little quieter, he looked as though he might fall asleep right there.
Arthur looked at Lucas first.
“This is a family dinner.”
Lucas didn’t react.
Arthur waited.
“Lucas.”
“Hm?”
Lucas finally looked up.
Arthur nodded toward the phone in his hand.
“What are you looking at?”
“A student’s paper.”
“What did we say before coming here?”
Lucas thought about it.
“No work tonight.”
“So?”
“I’m not working.” Lucas sounded completely reasonable.
He even raised his phone slightly.
“I’m just checking the data.”
Clara peeked over the top of the menu.
“Reading a student’s paper doesn’t count as work?”
“I’m only checking one set of experimental data.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Of course there’s a difference.”
The moment the conversation touched on his field, Lucas visibly became more alert.
He pointed at something on the screen.
“This control data is obviously wrong.
If the experimental conditions haven’t changed, there shouldn’t suddenly be a deviation this large.
It’s more likely that when the samples were taken—”
Arthur reached over and pushed his phone down.
“Stop.”
Lucas fell silent in the middle of his sentence and looked up.
“I wasn’t finished.”
“I know.”
“Then why did you interrupt me?”
“Because nobody asked.”
Lucas frowned.
“Clara just did.”
Arthur followed his gaze.
Clara, who had been peeking over the menu only moments earlier, had quietly hidden her face behind it again.
“I regret it.”
Lucas stared at her.
“…”
Helena sat beside them, watching the exchange with the faintest curve at the corner of her lips.
“Eat first.
The paper can wait until tomorrow.”
Lucas clearly still had that strange set of data on his mind.
But after looking at his father, then his mother, he finally locked his phone and put it aside.
Only then did Clara lower the menu.
“Class dismissed, Professor.”
Lucas gave her a flat look.
“You’d better never ask me another question about my field.”
“Don’t worry,” Clara replied immediately.
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Arthur couldn’t help laughing.
Lucas had always been like this.
Whenever he came across something he knew well or found interesting, he could easily lose track of time once he started talking about it.
As a child, he had followed the adults around, asking endless questions.
Later, as he read more and learned more, he gradually stopped asking so many questions and started explaining things to everyone else instead.
Sometimes, all it took was one casual question from someone in the family.
Lucas could start with the simplest explanation and keep going until everyone thoroughly regretted asking in the first place.
Arthur had long since grown used to it.
He turned toward Clara.
“What are you studying the menu for?
Haven’t we already ordered?”
“The prices.”
“I’m paying tonight.”
“I know.” Clara didn’t even look up.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not going to eat.”
She turned another page, comparing several numbers.
“This place raised its prices.”
Helena looked up.
“How long has it been since you were last here?”
“About three months.”
“And you still remember what everything cost?”
“More or less.”
Clara pointed at one of the dishes.
“This used to be cheaper, and the portion was bigger too.”
Arthur followed her finger.
The price on the menu didn’t look particularly unusual to him.
“You even calculate things like this when you’re just out for dinner?”
Clara finally looked up.
“Dad, when you walked in just now, did you check where the exits were?”
Arthur paused.
“…Habit.”
“Exactly.”
Clara closed the menu.
“So is this.”
After years of working in trade, she had become exceptionally sensitive to prices, costs, and quantities.
Whenever she saw something, she instinctively estimated its value.
Before buying anything, she habitually compared prices from several places.
And when she was actually negotiating a deal, even the smallest change in cost rarely escaped her notice.
The family had long since stopped finding it unusual.
Arthur had no answer to that, so he turned toward Theo instead.
“You didn’t sleep again last night?”
Theo slowly opened his eyes.
“I slept.”
“How long?”
“Three hours.”
Helena had been drinking water.
At that, she immediately looked up.
“You call three hours sleeping?”
Theo remained leaning against the back of his chair, exhaustion still heavy in his voice.
“Three forty to six forty-five.”
Clara turned toward him.
“Three hours and five minutes?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you even remember it that precisely?”
Theo was silent for a moment.
“Probably because it was so short.”
Clara laughed.
“Busy at the hospital all night again?”
“Two emergency cases came in during the second half of the night.
Then another one arrived just before the shift change.”
Theo spoke about it casually, clearly long accustomed to that kind of schedule.
Arthur studied him for a moment.
Theo looked exhausted, with faint shadows beneath his eyes, but otherwise he seemed fine.
He was alert, his speech was clear, and there was nothing unusual about him beyond the obvious lack of sleep.
Arthur decided not to press the matter.
“Go home and get some sleep after dinner.”
Theo nodded.
“I know.”
Just then, the servers began bringing out their food.
One hot dish after another was placed on the table, quickly filling the empty spaces between them.
Theo had still been leaning lazily against his chair, but when the server set down the final dish, his eyes suddenly opened fully.
His gaze settled on the hand holding the plate.
The server’s thumb was resting on the rim, only a short distance from the food.
Theo watched for two seconds.
Once he was sure the finger hadn’t actually touched the food, he quietly looked away again.
It was such a small movement that most people wouldn’t have noticed.
Clara, sitting beside him, did.
“What were you looking at?”
“Nothing.”
“You were staring at his hand.”
Theo picked up his water.
“It didn’t touch the food.”
Clara paused.
Then she understood.
“You’re like this even when you’re off work?”
Theo glanced at her.
“Bacteria don’t disappear because I’m off work.”
For once, Clara didn’t know how to answer.
Arthur laughed.
“At this rate, are you going to start bringing your own utensils whenever you eat out?”
Theo actually considered it.
“That’s not a bad idea.”
Helena immediately turned toward Arthur.
“Don’t give him ideas.”
Arthur laughed even harder.
At last, the family properly began their meal.
It had actually been a long time since all five of them had sat around the same table like this.
When the three children were young, the house had almost never been truly quiet.
Lucas had endless questions and wanted to know why everything worked the way it did.
Clara had always been quick-minded.
She kept a close eye on her own things, yet loved trading away anything she didn’t need to her two brothers.
Sometimes, through one trade after another, she could turn a single piece of chocolate into several completely different things.
Theo, meanwhile, had never liked people touching his belongings.
Food was especially off-limits.
If someone stole something from his plate while he wasn’t looking, he could stare at that person for a very long time afterward.
Put the three of them together, and something was bound to happen every day.
Back then, whenever Arthur came home from work, there were times when he could hear them talking and arguing before he even had the door fully open.
Sometimes the noise gave him such a headache that he found himself thinking—
Once these three grow up, the house will finally be quiet.
Then they really did grow up.
And the house really did become quiet.
Perhaps a little too quiet.
After finishing his doctorate, Lucas stayed at the university to teach.
Besides conducting his own research, he had classes to give and students to supervise.
Clara worked in trade and traveled regularly.
Sometimes she would be away for ten days or even half a month at a time.
Once Theo started working at the hospital, his schedule became even less predictable.
Arthur and Helena had their own jobs as well.
All five of them lived in the same city.
Yet somehow, finding a single evening when everyone was free had become increasingly difficult.
Thinking about it, Arthur suddenly felt a little wistful.
“When you three were kids, I used to complain every day that the house was too noisy.”
Clara looked up.
“Regretting it now?”
“A little.”
Arthur looked at the three of them.
“It’s certainly quiet now.
But if I want everyone together for dinner, I have to ask whether any of you have time first.”
“Can’t be helped.”
Clara casually pointed at the two men beside her.
“One professor.
One doctor.”
Then she pointed at herself.
“And one who’s always traveling for work.”
Lucas looked up.
“Strictly speaking, I’m not as busy as you make me sound.”
Clara didn’t argue.
She simply looked at the phone sitting beside him.
Lucas followed her gaze.
After two seconds of silence, he said, “I’ve been a little busy lately.”
Satisfied, Clara looked away.
Arthur was about to reach for the bread when Theo suddenly spoke.
“Dad.”
“What?”
Theo looked at his hand.
“Did you wash your hands?”
Arthur’s hand stopped halfway to the bread.
“I used a wet wipe earlier.”
Theo said nothing.
He simply looked at him.
Arthur waited a few seconds.
“Wet wipes don’t count?”
“You pushed a chair in after you came through the door.”
Arthur stared at him.
“…”
Now he understood why Theo had occasionally been looking at his hands.
“I barely touched it.”
“Do you know how many people touch the backs of those chairs every day?”
“No.”
“Then go wash your hands.”
Theo said it in an entirely calm voice.
Somehow, that made it even harder for Arthur to argue.
Father and son looked at each other for several seconds.
Arthur was the first to give in.
“Fine.”
He put the bread back and stood.
“I’ll go.”
After taking two steps, however, the more he thought about it, the stranger the whole situation felt.
He turned around.
“You’re already in your thirties.
Why are you still watching to see whether your father washed his hands?”
Theo took a sip of water.
“If you wash them, I won’t have to watch.”
Clara immediately lowered her head.
Her shoulders were already shaking.
Lucas turned his face away as well, obviously trying not to laugh.
Arthur noticed.
“What are you laughing at?”
Clara quickly shook her head.
“Nothing.”
Arthur was about to continue toward the restroom when Helena calmly added from behind him,
“Wash them properly.”
Arthur stopped.
He turned around.
“You too?”
Helena looked perfectly composed.
“I just think Theo has a point.”
Arthur had nothing left to say.
He turned toward the restroom, muttering under his breath as he went.
“You’re all grown adults…”
The moment he was far enough away, Clara finally burst out laughing.
Only after Arthur returned with clean hands did dinner properly continue.
They didn’t talk about anything particularly important.
Most of the conversation was about small things that had happened recently.
Lucas talked about his students at the university and nearly turned the conversation into another lecture before Clara stopped him in time.
Clara mentioned a recent shipment.
The transport price they had already agreed on had suddenly gone up, but fortunately, she had managed to renegotiate it in the end.
Theo spent most of the time listening.
When someone asked about the hospital, he gave only brief answers.
Helena mentioned a difficult case she had been dealing with recently.
She didn’t say a single word about anything involving her client, only that she would probably be working late for the next few days.
Arthur shared a few small things from work that he was able to talk about.
None of it was particularly exciting.
But with the five of them sitting around the same table, one person speaking and another answering, two hours passed almost without anyone noticing.
Near the end of dinner, Helena suddenly set down her glass.
“When was the last time all five of us had dinner together like this?”
The table gradually fell quiet.
Arthur thought about it.
He couldn’t remember.
Clara spoke first.
“Your birthday?”
Lucas shook his head.
“Theo had to go back to the hospital halfway through.”
“Then New Year?”
Theo looked up.
“I was on duty.”
Clara turned toward him.
“Why is it always you?”
For once, Theo looked slightly helpless.
“I’d like to know that too.”
Everyone laughed.
But once the laughter faded, no one could remember the last time all five of them had actually sat through an entire meal together.
Helena looked at her three children, and her expression gradually softened.
When they were young, the three of them had always been around their parents.
Now Lucas had students of his own.
Clara could travel far from home alone to negotiate business deals.
Theo had long since become a doctor capable of treating patients on his own.
Their children really had grown up.
But the older they became, the less time they seemed to have for the whole family to be together.
“From now on, we should have dinner together at least once a month,” Helena suddenly said.
Clara was the first to agree.
“Fine with me.”
Lucas nodded just as readily.
“Just tell me the date in advance.”
That left Theo.
He thought about it.
“I’ll try.”
Arthur immediately frowned.
“No trying.”
Theo looked at him.
“The hospital doesn’t belong to me.”
“You can arrange your schedule ahead of time.”
“Can emergency cases arrange themselves ahead of time too?”
Arthur had no answer to that.
Helena stepped in before he could continue.
“That’s enough.
He’ll come whenever he can.”
Arthur was clearly still not entirely satisfied, but in the end, there was nothing more he could say.
None of them knew that their promise to have dinner together at least once a month would never have the chance to be fulfilled in this world.