[TaroTre] My Blind Date is My Childhood Friend - Chapter 2

When Taro arrived at his parents’ home, he greeted them briefly before going to see Taiga.

The usually energetic and restless Taiga was currently curled up on the sofa, clutching a kitten plushie and staying perfectly still.

Taro set his bag down and crouched in front of Taiga, looking up at him. “What’s wrong, Taiga? Grandma said you wouldn’t eat when she called you. Is the food not to your liking?”

“No,” Taiga murmured, his voice muffled by the plushie.

“Then what is it?” Taro reached out to pat him. “If something is making you unhappy, you can tell Dad.”

“Dad… is Mom leaving us?” Taiga kept his head down, his fingers incessantly poking at the pillow in his arms.

“Mom just has her own life she wants to lead,” Taro comforted him. “Just like how sometimes Taiga wants to stay and play with Philip and doesn’t want to come home, right?”

Taiga didn’t say a word, continuing to fidget with his plushie. He wasn’t a fool; he wasn’t going to be so easily fooled by his father’s simple explanations.

Taro let out a quiet sigh and sat down beside Taiga. “Taiga, Mom is an individual, isn’t she? Even though she is Taiga’s mother, she is her own person first.”

“Yes,” Taiga nodded.

“So, if Mom has a life she wants to live, we can’t stop her. That is her freedom, right?” Taro asked.

“Yes… but I’m still really sad,” Taiga said, his voice trembling with tears. “It’s not that I think Mom can’t live how she wants. I just think… I think the way she did it was mean. Clearly… clearly…”

Taiga was still too young to accurately put his feelings into words.

Taro knew what his son wanted to say. If his wife had proposed a divorce or departure in a calmer, more dignified manner, Taiga wouldn’t be this heartbroken. Taro was intentionally trying to steer Taiga away from dwelling on the ugly details.

Taro rubbed Taiga’s back. “Mom just chose an inappropriate way to express herself. Dad is at fault here, too. If I had noticed sooner, Mom might not have done this. Perhaps she would have chosen a better way to talk to me.”

“Dad isn’t wrong. Dad works very hard,” Taiga said, leaning in to hug him.

“That’s not true. When people live together, everyone has to contribute. Mom waited for Dad to come home every day, and when he didn’t, she was very sad. Dad didn’t notice any of that, so Mom had her reasons for her choice.”

Taro could never tell Taiga that the decision to stay at home had been his wife’s own choice. He couldn’t tell him that she hadn’t even wanted to raise Taiga after he was born, insisting that they send him to his grandparents.

He hadn’t quite understood his wife’s choices, but he had respected her wishes. It wasn’t until now that Taro suddenly realized his wife likely never loved “Taro” as a person; she only loved the Chief Instructor of the Intergalactic Defense Force and the son of the Supreme Commander.

That was why she was unwilling to care for the child, why she didn’t want to live with his parents, and why she spent all her time socializing. She cared far more about the latest luxury releases than about how Taiga’s day went at kindergarten.

Ultimately, she had chosen this method to make her affair public.

Perhaps, if she hadn’t been caught this time, she would have continued to act exactly as she pleased.