1.2 | The Prince of Thieves

Chapter 41

They had squeezed themselves into the space between their couch and the coffee table with his laptop between them. She was nervous, to say the least. Her sudden request to do a Skype video call had left her mother bombarding her LINE with anxious questions. Okaa-san had been the one who requested all those Skype calls in the first place! Her fingers gripped his knee in anxiety as the familiar ring tone burst from the laptop. She knew what she wanted to say, but planning the how of it was making her head ache.

'Okaa-san, otou-san!' she exclaimed with an uncontrollably wide grin once the call connected and her parent's appeared on the screen.

'How are you? What's happening? What's all this about?' otou-san blurted out before more greetings could be got in. He was dressed for work and she could see the dining table and the kitchen in the background. They must be seated at the kotatsu in the living room then. So near, yet so far, she thought with a pang of nostalgia. She wished she could have been there to deliver the news directly. Hana had let out a laugh at her father's anxious lines of enquiry. Just like him, she thought fondly.

'Ah, how can you get straight to the point so quickly?' she teased in her native tongue.

'Your mother wouldn't stop bugging me the whole night! She was so worried!'

Hana let out a sigh. If that was the case, she couldn't make them wait.

'I just wanted to call to say...' she paused for dramatic effect, 'That I got into the New York Philharmonic!' she exclaimed, her pent up excitement overspilling. She had wanted to reveal that after the general conversation was over, but it was torturous to keep her parents waiting.

Congratulations spewed from her parents, especially her mother who was overjoyed at the news. She would meet some friends of hers, she said, rattling off some names. Hana let them gush and exclaim and talk over each other before she leaned forward again, her smile barely holding back her other piece of news.

'Oh, and okaa-san, otou-san, we're going to have a baby.'

Leon held the ultrasound scan up to the camera, humming some introductory musical number as he did so. For a good five minutes she teared as her mother cried and laughed. Otou-san was more in shock, glancing between his wife and his daughter with his eyes wide open and a pleased smile on his face.

'I'm seven weeks pregnant,' Hana said confidingly. She was smiling so widely at her parent's rections. She wished she could have been physically with them to deliver the news but this was good enough. They were recording their reactions too, with the intention to create a sort of video for the baby.

'Seven weeks!' okaa-san exclaimed. The news gave her parents some pause. 'Oh my! Do you want me to come over? To take care of you?'

At this, a look of alarm sprang onto otou-san's face. They could only imagine what this would entail. Lots of bustling and preparations and worrying. Hana loved her mother, but she also knew how overly eager she could get. In any case, their space was just nice for them now; she wondered what it would be like with her mother in the room beside theirs. No more privacy with Leon, maybe? she thought smugly. His fingers gripped her thigh.

'No, no, no, okaa-san, daijoubu! I'm fine!' Hana exclaimed, waving her hands rapidly. She didn't want her mother all stressed up either.

Otou-san was backing his daughter up in quick Japanese. She would hardly need help now, would she? And the conversation shifted to the Philharmonic once again. But then, how was she going to handle work and a baby now that she had just been accepted? Hana groaned. How did her mother think of all these questions? She hadn't yet thought that far ahead, she realised sadly. She couldn't imagine holding a baby in one arm while playing the cello with the other. Her mother had given up the stage and a promising musical career to marry her father. Hana didn't know if she was ready for something like that yet.