Life, Once Again!

Lee Sunji, Maru’s mother, woke up as she turned off the alarm from her phone.
Her husband was away on the night shift.
She folded her sheets and walked out into the kitchen with a stretch.
Today was the day when Maru and Bada would start school again.
Maru, in a new school, and Bada, in a new classroom.
She thought of her two sleeping children as she took the pre-soaked rice from the night before and put it on the rice cooker.
Right then, Maru walked out of his room without any signs of fatigue.

“You’re awake, mother?” he said.

“…What?” Why was he sounding so polite all of the sudden? Sunji stared at him for a second in surprise.

“Ah, you’re up.” Maru immediately spoke a lot more casually as he turned in nervousness.

“Of course I am.
I have to make breakfast.
Why are you up so early?” she asked.

“I think I just got… nervous.” he confessed.
Sunji wondered what happened to the boy for him to try to be so polite.
Was he trying to change how he spoke since he was now a high schooler? She was as humored as she was prideful.

“Go wash up, it’ll be awhile before the food finishes.”

“Yes, I mean, sure.”

Sunji wore a curious look as her son entered the bathroom.

* * *

“How awkward.” Maru muttered to himself quietly.
His memories were mostly gone, but he did still remember a few things.
It felt a little strange to talk with his mother with such a casual tone.
Though… when did he decide to treat her more respectfully again?

“I think around the time when I first got my check, huh.” He found himself speaking more politely to his parents when he realized how difficult it was to actually live in a society.

“Mother.
Mom.
Father.
Dad.” Maru found himself growing accustomed to speaking like this faster than he had thought.
Alright, perfect.

He washed his face and hair.
He found himself smiling when he realized it took more than 20 seconds for the water to heat up.
It was stuff like this that really made him realize he was back in the past.
Maru walked out of the bathroom to discover his mom making some soup.
He could understand now why moms were able to wake up so early to cook breakfast all the time.

They simply wanted their children to have a good day.
No more, no less.

“Need help?” looking at her cook all the food made him want to help out a little.

“I’m good.
You know stuff like this won’t actually make me give you a larger allowance, right?”

“How’d you know?”

“Because I’m your mom.” she answered in an obvious tone. 

Maru opened the fridge trying to hold in his laughter.
He could see dad’s beer and mom’s plum and raspberry extracts inside.
He forgot how much he missed seeing this.
His mom looked at him with a surprised face when he started mixing some of the syrup with water to drink.

“I thought you hated stuff like this.” she said.

“Did I?” he asked back.

“You always ask for soda instead whenever I made you one.” oh, right.
He did.
He used to hate how it made warm water taste weirdly sweet and sour.
He decided to make up a quick excuse to cover it up.

“My tastes probably changed.” Maru silently exclaimed in joy as he took another sip of the drink.
He couldn’t really explain it, but this syrup stuff was really good for men, he felt.

“Oh dear, look at the time already.
Go wake Bada up.” mom asked.
It was already 7:00am.
About time to start getting ready for school.

“Sure.” 

“Don’t kick her again.” she warned.

“I know, I know.” Maru waved her off casually as he entered his sister’s room.
The girl was curled up in her blankets like a caterpillar.

‘Come to think of it, we never talked after that point.’ he thought.

His sister went through a divorce once in the future.
It was a common occurence back then, but he’d never imagined his own sister to go through it.
He used to meet up with his sister every once in a while and watch movies together back in college, but they stopped talking after his sister started living on her own.
He’d just maybe see her face at family gatherings? He didn’t have a bad relationship with her, but it wasn’t great either.
Just… average, he supposed.

She just completely disappeared after her divorce, though.
She would call the family whenever a family gathering happened.
The last he heard about his sister was when his mother told him about how she was meeting a new man.
Maru hesitated for a second when he thought about what he would call his sister.
His 45-year old self would just refer to her as ‘you’ most of the time.

‘But the me of now…’ For the Maru of the freshman year of high school… he could only recall a single name.

“Fatty.” he said as he kicked the girl’s foot lightly.
He immediately felt bad about doing it, but he couldn’t change his habits so easily right away.
That’s right.
This was the Maru of high school.

“Ah… What the hell?” Bada glared at Maru with a half-opened eyes before burying her head back into the pillow.
Maru thought about kicking her again, but decided to just lean over to her face instead.

“Wake up, it’s morning.”

“Ah, damn it.”

Maru took a close look at his sister’s face.
So this was what she looked like.
He couldn’t remember his sister’s future face very well.
Maru poked the girl’s forehead.
He couldn’t resist.
She just looked cute.

“Ah, damn it! Now you’re poking me, too?!” Bada stood up as she shouted angrily.
Maru escaped before the girl got any louder.
Her bad temper was the only thing that stayed constant throughout that girl’s life.

‘Ah, that must be it.
That was the reason behind her divorce, wasn’t it?’ he thought as he ran away.

Maru sat down on the table as Bada walked out with a sour look.

“Ah, mom, he keeps hitting me.” she complained.

“Wake up on time, then.”

The mom retorted with ease.
Bada, knowing that she couldn’t beat mom in an argument, just headed to the bathroom with a pout.

“You kicked her again, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Nope.” of course, he denied it.
It didn’t really work though.

“Why can’t you be more friendly with her? You used to walk around everywhere with her hand in yours back in the day.”    “I did?” Maru tried looking back in his memories.
Did that really happen? He could somewhat remember himself walking around town with his sister’s hand in his.
 They used to go to arcades and go into the mountains together.

‘Right… and then I ended up losing her once.’ Maru ended up smiling when he remembered the memory.

“What is it?” mom asked.

“It’s nothing.
I just remembered something old.” he paused for a second as if he was still thinking about it.
“You know, when I lost Bada.”

“Ah, then.” she seemed to remember as well.
“You cried a lot back then, since you couldn’t find her at all.”

“I did?”

“Of course you did.
Anyway, here, have some food before you go.
You got your bag, right?”

    Maru nodded in