"Mom! Just look at him! He's way too young for me." I protested.
"Only by 8 months." Omi pouted. He was standing behind me and two paces to the side, judging by his voice.
"Omi! You're not helping!"
Omi shut up. Mom looked over at Omi, then at me, then back to Omi again.
"Oh, I see what's going on here. . . Well it's no WONDER he wanted to come along."
I took a glance at Omi. He had moved closer to me out of discomfort. He was blushing and examining the floor. Poor kid. My mom just wouldn't lay off him. I suppose I got my sense of humour from her. A comforting thought, but that wouldn't help Omi any.
"Actually Mom, we came here on business." I said.
"Business?"
"Yeah. I want to find my father."
"F-father? No Yohji . . .It's better if you left him alone." My mom said softly. She's never been too keen on the idea of me meeting my Dad. I used to talk about it a lot when I was a kid, and all my friends had such cool Dads. I would have been happy with even a DEADBEAT Dad, as long as I had a Dad. So far, no such luck though.
"I'm sure he's a very busy man."
"Mom, please, I need to do this. All you have to do is tell me his name."
Mom looked into my eyes for a moment, her eyes pleading me to change my mind and drop this, but I wouldn't.
"Okuda. Fujitaka Okuda."
We returned to the shop to learn that Aya had gone to the hospital to visit his sister. Omi set up his laptop on the kitchen table as I made coffee. Ken stood nearby, asking about where I had gone and taken Omi. I was trying to squeeze info from Ken about HIS encounter with Aya.
"Hey Ken, why don't you have a seat?"
"I'd . . . rather not."
"Wow, was he THAT rough?"
Ken shot me a murderous glance that told me I was right.
"So where did you and Omi go?"
"To visit the most wonderful woman in the world."
"Geez, that didn't take YOU long. Why'd you take Omi?"
Omi looked up from his laptop long enough to say:
"HEY! Keep me out of this!"
"It's not some girlfriend, it was my Mom. I wanted to ask her something." I explained. "So how was Aya?"
Ken glared again, but not at me.
"Ugh! How do you stand it? It felt like he was trying to tear me another freakin' hole down there! AND He shoved a sock in my mouth! What a total prick! So. . . why the visit to your mom all of a sudden?"
Note the change of subject. I did, but decided that his sore behind and what I had overheard earlier was amusement enough on the subject for awhile.
"I want to find my father. I never knew him."
"I FOUND HIM! I FOUND FUJITAKA!" Omi called. What's with us and weird timing like this? We gathered around the screen where a balding, graying man in his 50s met our eyes. His stats and address were displayed on the screen around his picture.
"Whoa. He doesn't look like you." Ken said.
"Well let's de-age him by about 30 years and see." Omi replied.
After a bit of messing around with the picture, the face of my father appeared as he might have looked when he met my mother. He had a full, lush head of hair, a profound jaw, and a round chin. I still didn't think he looked much like me, but Ken and Omi didn't see it that way.
"Okay, now I see the resemblance. You have his eyes, Yohji." Ken decided.
"And his hair." Omi added.
I hoped not, if it meant going bald in thirty more years.
I made it a point to talk to Aya-kun about his experience with Ken before turning in that evening. He had about as rotten a time as Ken had, and he didn't even have a sore behind.
" I don't see how such a jock can be so damned soft. All he did was complain. And he wouldn't stop calling me AYA! I had to shove a sock in his mouth to shut him up. Such a low pain tolerance, too." Was his analysis. I just stood there grinning.
"A sock?"
"Okay, a pair of socks. Come on, Yohji, It's been less than 6 hours and already I can't stand this."
"I already told you, you're not getting any from me until I start feeling appreciated."
"You won't last one week."
"Just watch me."