͎R͎͎e͎͎u͎͎n͎͎i͎͎o͎͎n͎? (English)

Grieving mother

Yukiko's pov. Five years later~

Today is Shin-chan's first day of kindergarten, he should've started going a year ago when he was four, but since both Yusaku and I were still not too busy, and admittedly we were still not sure if Shinichi's body was weak or not, we didn't take him then.

Now that we're sure his body is as healthy as any other kid his age, we decided to take him to kindergarten.

Anyway, I'm looking for that boy who disappeared from under my nose and calling out for him until I find him under Yusaku's desk, reading Holmes like usual.

I can't help but want to sigh, this is Yusaku's influence.

I start dragging Shinichi out as I tell him, "If you keep reading in the dark, you'll start wearing glasses like Yusaku!"

This makes him stop squirming only to say, "I... I would never wear glasses!"

I just roll my eyes, hey, I never said you would want to but you would need to.

Anyway, since Yusaku ended up taking the Sakura Badge with him, we stopped by his book conference first to take it, I put on a disguise of course.

Well, I thought the disguise worked well but everyone immediately recognized me the moment I walked over to him after getting in the building with Shinichi.

I was confused but Yusaku just handed me the badge and told me to get going before I take the spotlight from him.

I agreed, since we couldn't afford to be late on the first day, and turned around as I took Shinichi by the hand.

While getting out though, I noticed a mother with her daughter, carrying a baby boy.

Immediately, my heart ached at that painful reminder of what I should be having now, if it weren't for what happened...

I looked away, holding back a sob and not daring to give little Shin-chan a glance down in fear that my tears would want to spill out.

We get in the car and I drive us to the kindergarten, I side glance at Shinichi sitting on the passenger seat and see him looking out of the window, pouting and bored.

It was adorable that I couldn't help but smile before focusing on the road.

Good thing I at least got one living child to help me move on and be happy...

We arrived at the kindergarten and I was talking to the teacher, Eifune-sensei, about the registrations before I noticed that Shinichi was gone.

"That boy..." I mumble in annoyance with a sigh before I start to look for him, Eifune-sensei following me.

I find him in the classroom with the rest of the kids, he seems to be talking to a girl but I didn't immediately pay her any mind as I called him out, "Shin-chan there you are!"

Said boy immediately turns around with a flinch as he mumbles, "Kaasan..." Looking a bit nervous.

I start to scold him for disappearing before noticing that, "Hey where did your badge go?"

This boy dares to just look at me like I'm annoying while he answers boldly, "I lost it somewhere."

My reply is, "You've got to be kidding me. We had to go all the way to the book conference to even get it this morning!"

His response? He points at the girl he was talking to and says, "That's why I was going to ask her to make me one."

Now feeling confused and curious, I finally look at the girl.

And immediately recognize her.

"Ara, you're Eri-chan's daughter. Ran-chan right?" I ask with a smile.

Ran-chan blinks in confusion but still nods and responds with, "Yes." to my question.

I can't help but be surprised, "He~eh? Who'd have known you both attend the same kindergarten! That's a weird coincidence."

I can't help but stare at her though.

Eri has a really beautiful and adorable daughter...

Makes me wonder if she would've been the same...

Before I delve deeper into those depressing thoughts though, Eifune-sensei says, "Don't worry, ma'am, he can get a new badge next week."

I blink as I'm pulled out of my thoughts and then I see Ran-chan ask Shin-chan his name, saying she'd write it on the paper badge she already made.

I see Shinichi's face turn a bit red as he answers and she says the name back while writing it on the paper, Shin-chan actually thanks her, which makes me look at him before she hands him the badge while smiling.

He takes it and then she tells him not to call her a crybaby, I silently shake my head, of course, this brat said that to a girl...

Eifune-sensei then talks to him and tells him the same thing, Shinichi looks at him with a serious look I haven't seen before on him as he demands Eifune-sensei to tell who he is.

Eifune introduces himself and says it's nice to meet him, Shin-chan says it back but doesn't sound like he means it.

I blink at this but decide that it is probably because Shin-chan still doesn't want to be in kindergarten so I shrug it off.

And then I decided that it was time for me to leave, I can't stay here any longer.

If this is how I react to my friend's daughter... Who knows how worse it'll get with all the other little girls in here?

And so I tell Shinichi to behave and that I'll come to pick him up when the day is over before thanking Eifune-sensei and then leaving.

In my hurry to get away from the painful reminders, I didn't realize that I acted off there.