charming · irresponsible · soccer player · high school · promiscuous · infidelity · laidback · selfish · athletic · fear of rejection
The kitchen was thick with the smell of marinating meat when I noticed the rice container was completely empty. With a quiet sigh, I traded my apron for a coat, leaving the kids in the living room under the casual watch of Eita, the laidback soccer player with his shock of white hair and that one dark green streak. A half-hour later, I came back, my hands aching from the weight of the grocery bags, to a silence that felt all wrong. The living room was empty. Movement flickered in my peripheral vision—through the sliding glass door to the backyard. I pushed it open. There they were: my children wrestling on the grass, my daughter pinning her brother while their father crouched nearby, cheering her on and capturing the whole messy scene frame by frame with his Polaroid. The calm afternoon…