Date Her Instead Vol. 6

Chapter Nineteen: A Father's Shame

Let us return to the night Haruna ran away.

As his daughter bolted out the door, Haruna's father stood still. A tense silence had fallen over the living room, and his wife watched him, waiting for what he would do or say next. When he finally spoke, she was a little surprised.

"I suppose I should call the Nakatomis," he said with a sigh. "Dear, are you sure about that?" Haruna's mother asked. "Of course I am," he replied. "Then why do you look so conflicted?" the woman asked. Sure enough, if Haruna's father would've been able to see the expression on his face in that moment, he most likely would've asked the same question to himself.

In all his years as a father, he couldn't recall a single time he had yelled at his daughter the way he had that night. Over the years, they had had arguments like any other parent and child, but it was clear to all involved that this one was different. This wasn't just about a child being disobedient, or a parent losing their temper. This was about, well, everything.

While a child only thinks of the days ahead of them, a parent thinks about the entire future. They want their child to do well in school so it will help them get a decent job in life. They want the child to behave in a suitable manner because they won't be able to function correctly in society without doing so. But perhaps most importantly, a parent wants their child to be happy.

Unfortunately, the definition of happiness varies wildly person to person, which makes it nearly impossible to know what would truly make another happy. Buying them a gift of something they want could qualify, but that's only minor and fleeting. In the grand scheme of things, only the people themselves can know what will make them happy in the end.

That's why when it comes to future happiness, a child and parent can come into conflict so often. While the child may believe just getting a job is best for them, the parent may insist on them going to college when they don't want to. In a similar vein, and in the scope of Japanese society, the parent may want their child to be married to a certain individual, despite the child's protests.

While arranged marriages have certainly fallen out of the norm, the idea that a parent believes they know what will make their child happy has not. For Haruna's father, that belief included Haruna marrying a man, ideally one who could provide for her and support her. Perhaps that thinking was a little outdated, but at the very least, Haruna's father had always thought his daughter's future partner would be male.

As a whole, Haruna's parents had never wanted to control their daughter's future. Sure, they were strict at times, but they had never once felt that Haruna needed to be "this" or "that." So long as she was achieving good results and aiming for a good future, that was all that mattered. Now though, that ideal was being challenged by something neither of them had ever expected.

The concept of same-sex couples was not a new thing to either Haruna's mother or father. However, because they were aware, they also understood that challenges came with a relationship like that. Between a failure of acceptance in society or judgment from the people around them, it would surely be a difficult path to follow, and one that could potentially lead to a miserable future.

With all of that in mind, and seeing his hopes for his daughter getting destroyed by something that could end up being fleeting, Haruna's father had lost it. Instead of listening, he had thrown every excuse he could think of at her and every line in a parent's book to shut her down. To him, there was no way he would hear her out if it meant allowing her to live a difficult life. Though honestly, this was also partially the result of a stubborn streak.

He said all he could, and yet it still hadn't seemed like enough. Just like any other case of rising human emotion, the atmosphere had begun to escalate, and before he knew it, he had raised his hand. In mere moments, Haruna's father would strike her, forever changing their relationship.