-6 years later-
Haru’s POV:
Friday had been one of the happiest days of the year… until 7:30 that evening. It was my mother’s 38th birthday, which meant summer had been starting to blossom. There was no more school to worry about, no more spending endless nights on homework, the freedom of the tropical season felt glorious. I had woken up that glorious Friday morning to my mother making Miso soup in our tiny apartment kitchen, Millie and I had given her our presents we had wrapped so carefully, and we had left for our lively day out in Tokyo. We walked around big malls and looked at antique shops, even getting some Mochi on the way. Now, I could probably go on and on about this wonderful time we had, but who would listen to me then? I’ll get straight to the point: Later that evening. My dad had already left for work in the early hours of the morning, so he could return just in time for dinner with us. I had cleaned our small table as Millie helped my mother make Tonkatsu, a deep fried dish with pork. Everything was looking so perfect, there hadn’t been a single thing wrong about this day. Mama rinsed her hands at the kitchen sink, and turned back to her plates to prepare. “Your father should be home any minute now, sweet peas. Then we can finally start dinner.”
“Thank goodness, I’m more hungry than Haru will ever be in his life!” Millie declared, grabbing another crayon on the couch and doodling in her coloring book. She had always liked those adult coloring books for some reason, the ones with fancy patterns and embroidery inside. Our entire family was incredibly artsy, but simply coloring inside the printed lines of that book seemed especially tedious to me. “That’s true, I guess… I’ve never had much of an appetite.” I shrugged.
Suddenly, the door to our apartment turned with a “click”. Our father suddenly stepped into the room, wearing his dark grey suit, a button down white shirt and a tie underneath it all. My mom smiled in the sweetest way, her porcelain face was glowing. “Yuito, my love. You made it just in time for dinner!”
Papa hung his suit jacket on the rack behind the door and walked into the kitchen to greet my mother. He leaned down to kiss her forehead, and tilted her chin up to his. “Happy birthday, Jín. You’re still just as beautiful as the days we worked at Motoyo together.”
Mama blushed, giggling. “Oh stop it, dinner’s gonna get cold if we don’t eat soon.” She took the tray of fried pork to the table, along with a bowl of white rice. Millie got up from where she was coloring and sat eagerly awaiting dinner, as for me I got up and hugged Papa. “I’m glad you’re home now, I didn’t get to see you this morning. I gotta tell you about all the fun Millie and Mama and I had today!!”
“Of course,” He said, ruffling my straight black hair. “But after dinner, Haru. And after the special announcement I’m going to make.”
“Special announcement?” I thought to myself. When had something like that ever happened? Usually if one of my parents had something to show us, they’d just flat out tell Millie and I. Neither of us liked being surprised.. unless of course, if it was taking us to get ice cream on weekends. Everyone took a seat around the table, which was situated right in front of our living room window. It was the only huge window in the whole apartment, with a giant view of downtown Tokyo. Millie and I would spend hours as little kids staring at all the cars and people that looked like ants scurrying between an open abyss of shops and buildings farther than the eye could see. The sky had just started to become dark and lights were flickering, yet the business of Tokyo never seemed to cease. “Alright, now it’s dinner time!” Millie chirped. After we had prayed and started plating our food, Mama glanced over at Papa, taking a small bite Tonkatsu, and wiping her mouth on a napkin. “So, sweetie, tell us about this ‘special announcement’ you have up your sleeve.”
“You do remember the day you took the kids to come meet me for lunch at Motoyo a few years ago, right?
Papa focused on our mother’s eyes for a second, as if he were trying to tell her something. “Yes? What about that day…” Mama raised one eyebrow.
“Do you also remember the video game concept you made back when we were colleagues? The one everyone thought was just a scrap?”
Our mother stopped eating, she abruptly looked up to meet the gaze of her husband. “You mean… The Game of Tengoku? The one I worked for years on? Yuito, what are you trying to say, please just spit it out.”
Papa laughed, taking Mama’s hand and soothing it. “Nothing’s wrong, dear. I just wanted to let you know that as your birthday present, I was able to get the game simulation up and running again. Since I’m the owner of the company after all, some of my engineers worked on it a little more and it’s actually a really nice game concept. I just wanted you to have your dreams finally come true, Jín. Happy birthday.” He smiled, our living room lights reflected off his glasses. But my mother was frozen. She looked down at her hands in his grasp and stuttered. “You.. y-you did that for me?” Tears started falling down her cheeks, her tiny shoulders heaved as she closed her eyes and sniffled. Papa got up from the table and went behind Mama’s seat, leaning down to kiss her head. “I would do anything for you, love.” They held each other for a moment, letting their emotions come out. I had forgotten Millie was even there to be honest, watching my parents cry was the most bizarre but sweet thing I had seen in my life. Millie dropped her fork and it clattered to the table. Her mouth was open in shock, and it didn’t seem to be closing anytime soon. “What the…” She turned to look at me and mouthed the words, “What is happening!?".
I waved my hands in confusion, I was just as bewildered as her. What were our parents even talking about? What was The Game of Tengoku?
Millie regained her composure and tapped our mom on the shoulder. “Mama, Papa, what’s going on??”
Mama wiped a tear from her eye and smiled at her daughter. “Let Papa explain, I’m still processing this.” She covered her mouth and giggled in delight. Our father sat back down in his chair and took a bite of rice. “Well, long before both of you were born, your mother and I worked as colleagues together at Motoyo Inc, but you two already know that. When Mama was working there she developed a simulation called “The Game of Tengoku”. She worked on it for many years, but only to have it scrapped by the higher engineers. They thought nobody would play it. She was very disappointed and decided to give up on her hopes of it becoming free to the public. One of my engineers had brought it back up awhile ago, and we decided to give the video game another go. Now they’re looking for people to test it out before it’s released.” He said, calm as ever. I blinked. Suddenly, I didn’t feel hungry at all. “W- what?! Our own mother made a game at Motoyo? Why didn’t I know this?!” I stammered. “Because, sweetie,” Mama said, giving me a tender smile. “It made me very sad to see my life’s work go to waste. I had dreamt of making my own game since I was a young girl, and it hurt to watch it never happen. But now that your father has restored it, this means maybe you could.. try it out for me? Would you like that, Haru?”
Before I could even answer, Millie shot up from the table. “Oh Mama, do you mean that?? Do you really mean that?! Could Haru and I give it a test run for you, please?!?!” Millie had always been way more adventurous than me, and I could see her excitement was starting to bubble over. Her body was shaking and her brown eyes were bright, she was practically jumping in place. Yet I, was terrified. “Um.. I-I don’t wanna do it, please.. It sounds sort of scary to be stuck inside a video game simulation.”
“Not to worry, buddy.” My father reassured me. “The game is called ‘Heaven’ for a reason. If you get scared or don’t enjoy yourself, you can always leave the game. I’ll show you how when we go to do a test run on it tomorrow.”
I practically choked on my pork. “Wait, you’ve already decided Millie and I are gonna do this?? Papa, please.. I really don’t want to!! Millie could go without me!”
Millie looked disappointed. She slumped back into her chair, her head drooped, covered by her blunt bob-cut. “I hoped.. I hoped you’d wanna do it with me, Haru. We’re twins..”
I looked at her. She was a tiny girl, just as small as me with a pink tank top and a butterfly clip in her hair. She would be so sad if she did the game without me, we did practically everything else together. My mother looked the same way, I guess she had hoped I’d want to play the game too. I couldn’t let them down now. “Okay..” I sighed, feeling regretful. “I’ll do it. I’ll play the Game of Tengoku with Millie. But only because it's your birthday present Mama, I wanna make you proud.”
My mother beamed from where she sat, her gaze resting on my face. “You’ve already made me so proud, Haru. I’m grateful to call you my son.”
ns 172.71.254.210da2
and then Add to home screen.