Not long after, Ai arrived out the front of the house and saw her father and Ken on the road. Instantly she assumed that her dad was giving Ken a hard time, so she quickly stepped forward and slid past.
“Hey Ken, let’s go inside.” She said with a smile, grabbing his arm and dragging him with her.
On the way past she narrowed her eyes at Tetsu as if to remind him to be nice.
Tetsu felt wronged, yet there was nothing he could say in that moment for his defense.
“Sorry to intrude.” Ken said aloud.
It was only after seeing Ai’s mother that he noticed his arm was touching something soft. This caused his face to redden slightly, yet any attempts to extricate his arm were met with a stern resistance from the woman in question.
“Ken! It’s nice to see you.” Naomi said with a smile.
She saw his current predicament and had no reaction. Ken even thought he witnessed her sending a wink to Ai beside him, stoking his curiosity.
‘Don’t tell me…’
While Ken was seemingly uncovering a conspiracy, Naomi snapped him out of his thoughts.
“What brings you here dear? Did you just come for a visit, or were you after some baked goods.”
Her tone was kind, yet it was clear she was hoping he was here for the former.
“Ah actually I came to deliver these.”
After a few more tugs he was finally able to remove his arm from Ai’s grasp, fishing out a few pieces of paper from his trousers. He handed them over to Naomi before explaining.
“My dad got some tickets for the Yokohama Warriors game this afternoon. I was wondering if you’d all like to come along?” He asked politely.
“Oh how wonderful!” Naomi exclaimed, almost snatching the tickets out of Ken’s hands. It was almost as if she was worried he’d change his mind or something.
Ai too seemed to have an excited expression on her features.
“Will your dad also be there?” She asked softly.
Ken nodded, a smile unconsciously forming on his features.
“Wonderful! We have much to discuss.” Naomi said excitedly.
‘Hmm? Much to discuss?’ Ken raised his eyebrow in confusion. They had never met before, so what could they possibly discuss.
However, there was no point in asking such a thing since Naomi seemed to be in her own world at the moment. She quickly began to tidy up the shop, all the while speaking under her breath.
“So much to do…”
“…venue”
“we’d need flowers…”
As Naomi sped around the place, Ken could hear certain words, yet the contents were indiscernible at this time. At one point he even though he’d heard her utter the word marriage under her breath.
He glanced at Ai for confirmation, unsure of what was going on.
Ai felt her face heat up under Ken’s gaze, but she quickly tried to compose herself.
“I think what mom is saying… Is that we’d love to come.” She asserted.
Ken breathed out a sigh of relief. While he wasn’t too bothered if they came or not, his mother did not share his same opinion.
“Okay great! We’ll see each other later then.” Ken replied, turning around and heading for the door.
“Ah okay see you this afternoon.” Ai replied, a little disappointed.
She was hoping that they’d be able to spend a little time together today before the game, however it seemed that it would not be happening.
Her eyes narrowed on Ken’s retreating figure, trying to figure out how he could never pick up on any of the hints she dropped. Her reply to his mail this morning even stated she was excited to hang out with him today…
‘His head is just stuffed with baseball…’ She complained inwardly.
Ken on the other hand was oblivious as he walked out of the Koyama residence. Thankfully Tetsu had already made himself scarce which meant he didn’t have to go through another awkward conversation.
He broke into a run once he reached the road and began his journey back home.
Tetsu revealed himself from his hiding spot behind a wall and watched Ken’s retreating figure.
“The further I stay away from him the better” Tetsu mumbled, wiping away the sweat from his brow.
Some might say that his actions were cowardly, but they had never met his wife and daughter. He was a staunch believer in the phrase “Never pick a losing battle.”
Since his aggravator was not around, Tetsu went back inside only to see his wife tidying and muttering under her breath like a madman.
“Er, what’s goin’ on?”
He looked to Ai who had her cheeks puffed out like a hamster, something she usually did when disappointed. This only served to make his intuition tingle even further, bringing with it a deep-seated wariness.
There was only one thing he could do in that moment, and that was retreat before anyone noticed his presence.
As he backed away slowly, he managed to knock into a shelf, creating a clashing noise.
Suddenly, both women turned to him at the same time, causing a shiver to run down his spine.
“Honey! Hurry up and get changed. I won’t have you embarrassing us tonight, not on such a special occasion.” Naomi barked out.
“Dad! Were you mean to Ken earlier? Is that why he didn’t want to stay longer?”
Ai was next, stepping forward with an accusatory expression on her face.
“Tetsu! Why aren’t you getting ready already?”
The two women inched closer toward him, filling him with fear.
‘W-Why am I being bullied again!?’ He shouted inwardly.
***
Chris finally woke up after a 4 hour nap, his mind feeling considerably lighter. The time difference between Japan and LA was 16 hours, this paired with the 12 hour flight made it hard to make the adjustments so quickly.
After taking a shower he felt like a new man.
He quickly looked at the time and nodded in satisfaction. With his access to employee entrances, getting into the stadium would make things considerably easier for them.