If you need rest, take it, please.
Time no longer existed. There are only two reasons to be alive, and they were both blocking me out. Hahaoya finally lost her cool with me, and instead of giving us some food like she has been doing, she gave me a scolding, like I was nine years old again.
"Matsuho, I raised you better. You're children are suffering because of your 傲慢 (Gōman- insolence) step up. If you need a break, talk to them. Explain. They need their father."
After she left, tears streamed down my face. I approached Akina's room first. Music floats from her room, and when I knock, she tentatively opens the door. She looks at me and welcomes me silently, and I sit on her bed cautiously.
"I know I've been the worst father these past two weeks, but uhm, I wanted to show you something."
Akina's eyes widen and she sits next to me and softly says, "you weren't the worst father. It isn't your job to hide grief to help us grieve."
I smile softly and pull out the box Eos left me. I never would have thought that my young daughter would have to grow up so fast. Just two weeks ago, she still seemed to be a young carefree little girl. Now, as I look at her, my baby no longer looks like a baby, but more like a young woman.
We've been folding slips of paper for a while, and there are maybe twenty littered around our kitchen table. Akina reads one of them softly, before folding them. Although the legend is one thousand paper cranes grants one wish, it's as if we twisted the legend to one thousand orange tulips. I see Eos out of the corner of my eye, her soft smile mouthing the words 'you got this' to me before giving me a single fist pump in the air. I smile, but she disappears when the door creaks open, and Kitsu slips inside silently. She quickly takes off her shoes and pads over to her room, when she notices Akina and I at the table.
"Kitsu, come here please?"
She looks at me, and walks over without a word. I tell her what I told Akina, about being a better father, and she slowly leans into me with a hug.
"I'm sorry," I whisper, and she nods and pulls herself into a seat.
Akina and I help Kitsu fold an orange tulip, and it becomes a nightly ritual, to each fold three tulips, as we read aloud, what Eos wanted to say. The girls slowly seem to be understanding, and somehow, even without Eos, we start to feel whole again. Although we can't see Eos, I can feel her presence, and slowly, it feels as if every fold of paper is stitching each of our bleeding hearts.
YOU ARE READING
Bloom Again
RomanceWhen Eos falls sick, Matsuho is left to take care of their children and the house on his own. His life feels empty without his favorite flower in his life. Will fate allow him to come to terms with it?
