The day after the engagement, Sosuke returned to Tokyo with Yukino. They entered the home attached to the beauty salon his parents ran, and found his father Masayuki and mother Satomi in the living room, wildly excited, sketching what looked like blueprints across a large sheet of paper.
”I’m home. What’s all this, then?” Sosuke asked.
Masayuki looked up, grinning ear to ear. “Hey, welcome back. Heard it from Mr. Iwashimizu already. You two got engaged, huh?”
”Yeah… that’s about how it went down.”
His father’s smile wouldn’t quit. “And he’s real pleased about it. Says he’s giving us a building in Omotesando as an engagement present.”
”Wait-what?!”
Sosuke’s eyes went wide, and his mother turned a proud smile on him too.
”Seven floors,” Satomi said. “Retail on the ground level, offices above. The offices are already fully leased and the shop space sits empty, so we were thinking of relocating the salon,” She smoothed the blueprint flat with one palm. “That’s why your father and I have been working out the layout for the new place.”
Masayuki puffed out his chest. “Now we run with the big dogs. Give it a little time and we’ll have models and idols as regulars, and folks’ll be calling me a celebrity stylist.”
Sosuke stared at him, dumbfounded.
”Just ’cause the shop’s in Omotesando don’t make it top-tier, does it? And honestly-can you two actually keep a place like that running?”
Satomi laughed, a ringing, bell-like sound. “Oh, of course it may take time to find our footing,” she said, waving the worry away with one hand. “But we’ll have office rent coming in, so we won’t be going hungry.”
Masayuki opened his mouth and let out a booming “Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
-So the two of you just traded me off for a building… Well, an Omotesando building’s probably worth more than I am-
While he was thinking that, Satomi’s expression shifted, as though she had just remembered something.
”Oh, that’s right. You need to move out.”
”Move out?”
Told so suddenly, Sosuke had no idea what she meant.
”Ms. Yukino is busy with work,” Satomi said. “You’ve only just gotten engaged, and if you never find time to meet-if you keep missing each other until it falls apart-Mr. Iwashimizu would be beside himself with worry. So the two of you should live together,” She tapped the blueprint again. “That way, even when she comes home late, you’ll still see her. She has a car to and from Yurakucho where the company is, so she can live anywhere. And she said she’d hurry and find somewhere convenient for you to get to university.”
Sosuke was starting to feel a little uneasy.
Yukino was, in body and in that face of hers, the finest woman there was. But her sheer presence was enough to make it hard to breathe. Would he really be able to relax in a home with her…?
Satomi kept going.
”We discussed the timing of the wedding with Mr. Iwashimizu as well,” his mother said, folding the corner of the sheet with deliberate care. “You’re still a student, so the marriage itself comes after you graduate. But if you’re living together, it wouldn’t be strange if Ms. Yukino were to get pregnant at any time. In that case, you marry the moment the pregnancy is confirmed. And if you do marry while still enrolled, your family name changes, so you’ll need to file the paperwork with the university.”
-I see… since I’m marrying into the family, the surname changes…
Somehow, Sosuke felt as though he were throwing away a favorite piece of clothing.
Three days after returning to Tokyo, a message came from Yukino. She had found a good property in Iidabashi, so their home would be there.
The university Sosuke attended was in Kanda-Jimbocho. Until now he had walked from the family home in Mitaka to the station, taken the Chuo Line, and transferred to the Tozai subway line at Nakano before getting off at Kudanshita. From Iidabashi, it was a single subway stop. Convenient didn’t begin to cover it.
Yukino said the furniture, futons, and home appliances were all already provided, and that he only needed to bring his personal belongings.
On moving day, he loaded his things into a car sent by the Iwashimizu family, and said goodbye to the Mitaka home where he had lived until now. His parents were delighted that the house would feel more spacious.
The new home was a ten-story apartment building near Iidabashi Station. When he reached the unit on the top floor, Yukino-who had taken time off work to help him move-came out to greet him. She still radiated that same intimidating presence, but Sosuke had grown a little used to it and no longer felt the same heavy pressure as before.
The driver who had helped carry him this far brought his belongings inside. Once Sosuke had placed them in his room and the bedroom, the move was complete. It had been an astonishingly easy move.
After the driver left, Yukino showed him around the rooms once more.
”This is a four-bedroom,” she said. “Your study, my workroom, and our bedroom. That leaves one spare, so shall we make it a dressing room?”
This was a place where genuinely rich people lived. That was what Sosuke thought. Every room was spacious, with open space and not the slightest sense of being cramped. And the bathroom was nearly twice the size of the one in Sosuke’s family home in Mitaka.
Yukino noticed him staring at the bathroom’s size. She said, her face slightly red, “In Tokyo one can’t build a bath as large as the one at the Kyushu estate, but I wanted to bathe with you, so I chose a unit with a spacious bathroom.”
Sosuke grinned. “But bathrooms echo, don’t they? You get pretty loud at ‘those times,’ so won’t the neighbors hear?”
”That won’t be a concern,” Yukino replied. “Every unit in this building has soundproofing installed. You could raise your voice as much as you like and no one around would hear a thing.”
Yukino seemed aware that she was loud during sex. Apparently, work was already underway to install soundproofing material in the walls of her room at the Kyushu estate.
After the bathroom, what surprised Sosuke next was the size of the bed in the bedroom. It was wide enough for three people to sleep in together.
”This is the most important room in the house,” Yukino said. “It’s where the two of us will affirm our love for one another…”
With that, Yukino’s intimidating presence gradually faded, and the corners of her eyes drooped.
-Ah… she’s turning into cute Yukino…
The futons were already laid out on the bed. Sosuke embraced her.
”Then how about we celebrate the move, yeah? It’s been five whole days since Kyushu.”
”Mm… five days was lonely. Pamper me plenty…”
Yukino blushed, and her glazed eyes filled with anticipation.
”Guh-giiih!”
The two of them made love until evening.
Trivia:
- The Omotesando building gift is effectively the Iwashimizu family compensating Sosuke’s parents for their son marrying into the family, a quiet transaction beneath the cheerful celebration.
- Sosuke’s comparison of the surname change to throwing away a favorite piece of clothing quietly signals his sense of losing a part of his own identity in the marriage.
- Yukino installing soundproofing in her Kyushu estate room reveals that her loudness during intimacy has been a long-standing practical concern, not a new discovery.