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Sodachi rushed around the house. She still had so much cleaning to do before he arrived. Even if he was coming by to help him out, she still felt that she should clean up as much as she could beforehand. It felt more right to do that. It was the polite thing to do.
However, she was far from done when she heard a knock on the door. She was still in the kitchen, so she wouldn’t be able to answer it right away.
“Dad!”
“Daddy!”
The kids would be the ones to answer it. They had been waiting in the living room, after all.
Sodachi heard the door open. She heard Koyomi greet Yoshie and Reiko. She reached the living room just in time to see him finish hugging the twins.
Once he let go of them, Koyomi gave Sodachi a sheepish wave. “Hey.”
Sodachi returned the gesture with a brief wave back. “Hey.”
Both Yoshie and Reiko were babbling far too quickly for Sodachi to understand them. Koyomi seemed to understand, though. He reached down and, with some great strain, picked them up. Then, while Sodachi watched, he walked over to the couch and set them down, before sitting down himself.
The girls were beginning to slow down their speed of speech a little. Sodachi could understand the occasional word. From that, she gleaned that this was all things she had already heard. They were letting their father know all the exciting things that had happened in school over the last week.
Sodachi was glad that they still found school exciting. They were only in first grade, but after several months, she had expected the novelty to wear off. It was cliche for children to dislike school. Even for all her academic prowess, even Sodachi hadn’t loved school at that age.
She took it as a good sign. As long as they never lost that spirit, they would do good in life.
“—and mommy’s been teaching us math!”
When Koyomi heard that, he smiled and laughed a little. “Is she now?”
Both of the twins nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah!”
“You know, when we were younger, mom taught me math, as well. It was how we met, in fact.”
Sodachi let out a small chuckle at that. He made it sound like it was some big moment to their romantic relationship. That itself implied they had a romantic relationship at all. She figured that he was talking to them in the same way he talked to his own children, Shinobu and Tsubasa.
The kettle in the kitchen clicked, so Sodachi briefly retreated back there to pour tea. When she returned a minute later, she had a tray with cups, which she set on the coffee table. Then, she sat down in a chair next to the couch. Koyomi was still talking about Sodachi teaching him math as a child.
She knew damn well he didn’t remember it that clearly. At some point or another, he had gathered the full story from Sodachi herself. Thus, the story that the kids were hearing was reconstructing his perspective. He was rather good at it, though. Even if he got the occasional detail wrong, it made for a good story. It excited the kids. That’s what really mattered.
Finally, there was a lull in his explanation, which allowed Sodachi to interject. “You know, for years, I thought you didn’t care much about that. It was only when we were in high school that I learned you kept your passion for math.”
“What can I say? You’re a good teacher.”
Sodachi blushed from the compliment. “Thank you.”
The kids turned to look at her. Reiko proclaimed, “Yeah! Mommy’s really good at it.”
“Yeah, mom’s the best at math,” Yoshie agreed.
“T-thank you…” Sodachi blushed again. If it was just the kids saying it, that would be one thing, but the expression Koyomi had on his face…
Thankfully, the kids switched topics. They were at the age where they still got bored easily, so they rarely stayed on one topic for very long. They were done with math. It was time to talk about other academic subjects.
“We’ve been learning how to read!” Reiko was very proud of that. Sodachi had been hearing a lot about it. They had recently started learning kanji, which they were very excited about. Sodachi had done her best to foster their literacy from a young age, so they had been ahead of their class when it came to kana. Still, being able to read kanji was a big deal for them. Sodachi had been hearing about it for weeks.
Koyomi had also heard about it on his previous visits, but he still treated it like a novel thing. “Are you now? That’s exciting.”
There were some scraps of paper and some pencils underneath the table. Reiko reached underneath and pulled them out, then began scribbling. Her handwriting was crude, to say the least, and she was rushing, but despite that, the characters she was drawing were legible. They were simple, but the pride she had in her own work was obvious. Sodachi was equally proud.
Once Reiko was done, she handed the pencil over to Yoshie, who looked up at Koyomi, then began scribbling herself. Her handwriting was better, but it was still childish. In spite of that, it was a lot more legible than Reiko’s.
Koyomi watched them with rapt attention. Each time they looked back at him, he smiled approvingly. That created a feedback loop where the kids kept looking back to him and he kept smiling.
Eventually, though, the kids got bored. Yoshie put the paper and pencils away. It was time to talk about other new banal things in their life. It made Sodachi realize that she couldn’t even remember what that time of her life was like. She had gotten used to being an adult, to the point that everyday things could no longer feel novel. However, the kids were still so young that they could discover new things every day. Even something like a new kanji or a new episode of a TV show seemed to hold all the wonder in the world to them.
The kids continued prattling on towards their dad, who readily accepted every single thing they told him. It always felt to Sodachi like he was better at being a parent than her. Maybe it was that since Yoshie and Reiko didn’t live with him, he was a special occasion, even if they saw him several times each week. Maybe it was that he had another two kids at home he had to parent every day. Maybe Sodachi was too hard on herself.
Well, that was the easiest explanation, but the one Sodachi least wanted to accept.
Eventually, Koyomi’s visit came to an end. He had to go home to his wife and their children. For this household, Sodachi had to get dinner started. The kids had to do their homework. In many different ways, life had to go on.
Yoshie and Reiko’s goodbyes were long. They would be seeing their dad again in just a few days, but with how young they were, a few days was so much more than a few days for Sodachi. She could sympathize with their distraught. She was at least grateful that they didn’t cry much anymore.
Once Koyomi was out the door, Sodachi clapped her hands once to get the girls’ attention. “Alright, play time is over. Go do your homework and I’ll call you when dinner is ready.”
With their boundless enthusiasm for the world, they were even okay with doing their homework. A chorus of agreement called out, before the girls headed up to their room in the attic. Once she knew they were good, Sodachi picked up the tea tray from the coffee table, then returned to the kitchen so she could make dinner.