Life, Once Again!

Chapter 1-5

Chapter 1:

Lee Sunji, Maru's mother, woke up as she turned off the alarm from her phone. Her husband was away on the night shift. She folded her sheets and walked out into the kitchen with a stretch. Today was the day when Maru and Bada would start school again. Maru, in a new school, and Bada, in a new classroom. She thought of her two sleeping children as she took the pre-soaked rice from the night before and put it on the rice cooker. Right then, Maru walked out of his room without any signs of fatigue.

"You're awake, mother?" he said.

"...What?" Why was he sounding so polite all of the sudden? Sunji stared at him for a second in surprise.

"Ah, you're up." Maru immediately spoke a lot more casually as he turned in nervousness.

"Of course I am. I have to make breakfast. Why are you up so early?" she asked.

"I think I just got... nervous." he confessed. Sunji wondered what happened to the boy for him to try to be so polite. Was he trying to change how he spoke since he was now a high schooler? She was as humored as she was prideful.

"Go wash up, it'll be awhile before the food finishes."

"Yes, I mean, sure."

Sunji wore a curious look as her son entered the bathroom.

* * *

"How awkward." Maru muttered to himself quietly. His memories were mostly gone, but he did still remember a few things. It felt a little strange to talk with his mother with such a casual tone. Though... when did he decide to treat her more respectfully again?

"I think around the time when I first got my check, huh." He found himself speaking more politely to his parents when he realized how difficult it was to actually live in a society.

"Mother. Mom. Father. Dad." Maru found himself growing accustomed to speaking like this faster than he had thought. Alright, perfect.

He washed his face and hair. He found himself smiling when he realized it took more than 20 seconds for the water to heat up. It was stuff like this that really made him realize he was back in the past. Maru walked out of the bathroom to discover his mom making some soup. He could understand now why moms were able to wake up so early to cook breakfast all the time.

They simply wanted their children to have a good day. No more, no less.

"Need help?" looking at her cook all the food made him want to help out a little.

"I'm good. You know stuff like this won't actually make me give you a larger allowance, right?"

"How'd you know?"

"Because I'm your mom." she answered in an obvious tone.

Maru opened the fridge trying to hold in his laughter. He could see dad's beer and mom's plum and raspberry extracts inside. He forgot how much he missed seeing this. His mom looked at him with a surprised face when he started mixing some of the syrup with water to drink.

"I thought you hated stuff like this." she said.

"Did I?" he asked back.

"You always ask for soda instead whenever I made you one." oh, right. He did. He used to hate how it made warm water taste weirdly sweet and sour. He decided to make up a quick excuse to cover it up.

"My tastes probably changed." Maru silently exclaimed in joy as he took another sip of the drink. He couldn't really explain it, but this syrup stuff was really good for men, he felt.