The small sound of the turning key in the front door ricocheted through the silent house. Emi on the couch in the living room was the first to hear it. Sitting up, she simply glowed, darting a glance down the hallway.
"He's back!" Emi yelled, full of energy.
Aoi was lost somewhere between her sketchbook and the reality around her for a moment. She was not quite so enthusiastic herself. Yet a small smile on her lips held some warmth, maybe even relief. Their father, Hiroshi, had left a week ago for a business trip abroad. Even though their relationship had more often than not seemed quite distant, Aoi was struck with a feeling of emptiness once in a while in his absence. It was a feeling that seemed to surface mostly in rare moments he wasn't around; even for someone as quiet as Aoi, once in a while, he would reconcile her emptiness.
And from the hallway, Hiroshi stepped in. Tall and calm, his dark hair neatly kept eyes sharp as they scanned the room and landed on his daughters. Though he carried an air of authority, somewhere deep in those eyes belonged a glint of warmth only reserved for his daughters.
"Welcome back, Dad!" Emi chirped, springing to her feet. Another ball of energy, her spontaneous liveliness won his smile.
"Nice to be home," Hiroshi replied, dropping his suitcase on the floor with a little thud. His voice was deep, steady, and calm, but his smile, although genuine, never matched Emi's exuberance.
Touching the pages of her sketchbook one last time, Aoi shrugged her shoulders. "Welcome back, Father," she said gently, looking up at him. Her voice was hardly louder than Emi's, yet the depth of understanding in her eyes indicated that they were well-connected.
Hiroshi nodded towards Aoi, and then he headed for the dining area. "I'm sure you two are hungry. Let's eat."
Dinner formed a family ritual that denoted a sort of normalcy for them, though their conversations were hardly ever deep. Hiroshi was, after all, a man of few words, to all intents and purposes: when not working, he was preoccupied with grand ideas. On that count, Aoi and Emi made the most of it. Emi, lively as ever, let them have a piece of her life per student council president, telling them all she thought might fit for one school function or another.
Hiroshi would listen to her intently, with occasional nods of approval, though he never seemed truly present. A contrast emerged with Aoi, who quietly followed Hiroshi with her gaze, her eyes suggesting an amused smile as she enjoyed those momentary events, no matter how fleeting they may be.
A few seconds of eating in silence followed before Emi leaned forward; she had suddenly remembered something about her father.
"Dad," she began more seriously, "how was the trip? Did you meet anyone interesting?"
Hiroshi set down his chopsticks and, after a moment, narrowed his eyes in concentration. "It was a productive trip," he said carefully. "Met with several important people. Everything is proceeding as planned."
Emi cocked her eyebrow and examined him. If it weren't for such evasiveness, would they be interesting to hear about?
Hiroshi held back a smile, very faint and barely perceptible. "Not just yet. But there will be a time for that." It was not vague in the sense that he was speaking about something that did not concern them; rather, it was vague in the sense that there was something on his mind that he was far from ready to share.
Curiosity crept into Aoi's neutral gaze, visible in the short moment she held it on him. Sometimes a distance would linger between them, but she was suddenly wondering what exactly he meant.
From there, conversation turned to less pressing matters, yet the tension held sway in silence. Emi, ever sharp, perceived her sister's pensive expression and steered the discourse to more cheerful topics, like the upcoming school festival and her plans for student council activities.
At the end of the dinner, Hiroshi looked at his daughters: "I trust you've both been keeping busy?" he asked with expectation laced in gentle tones.
Emi broke into a wide smile. "Of course! We've got tons to do over here, right, Aoi?"
Aoi nodded, her attention darting to her father and then back to the plate. What was there to say? What had father actually been doing whilst away? And just what did he mean by everything proceeding as planned?
So Hiroshi rose from the table, his usual composed expression back on his face. "Good. Stay focused. We'll have more discussions soon enough."
The questions left asking could hardly linger after Hiroshi withdrew from the dining room; however, Emi, completely ignorant of her sister's musings, leaned back with a large grin.
"Yeah, he's always so cryptic," Emi laughed. "I swear, he's got this whole secret life we don't know about."
Aoi remained quiet, oblivious even, lost in her thoughts. The evening seemed to pass in slow motion; she kept pondering her father's words and the unshakable feeling that there was more to this trip than he was letting on.