Page 102 of The Wedding Pact
‘Oh?’ he questioned.
‘I just … ’ she trailed off for a moment. ‘I presumed she was the reason you came back.’
‘She was, in a way, in the same way you and dad are, and Japan in general is. I just missed my life.’
‘Your life now isn’t so bad, you know,’ she replied, raising an eyebrow at him as if to say,Millennials.
‘Agreed, agreed, I’m just doing some thinking about what I really want.’
‘But you weren’t thinking about Yui, just now?’
‘No,’ he replied with honesty. He’d been thinking about August.
‘What’s the smile for?’ Mrs Miyoshi probed. ‘Do you have a girlfriend in England?’
He shook his head. He hadn’t told his parents about Poppy, and now it was over before it had ever really begun, there seemed little point. Instead he tried to change the subject, seek some advice. ‘Do you think I should quit my job?’ he asked, just as his dad walked in the room.
‘Quit your job?’ Mr Miyoshi parroted. ‘In England?’
‘Yes,’ Flynn replied, switching back to Japanese.
‘For another job?’
‘Or to come back here.’
‘Why would you come back here?’ his father asked, bluntly, as his wife took the handful of vegetables from his hands. ‘Fujio, are you happy?’
He thought about it, but he didn’t have to think for long. ‘No. But I worry it’s just because of all the changes.’
‘Change is fine, it’s part of life,’ his mum said, echoing words to him that she and his father had always lived by. ‘We can still appreciate the past and enjoy its memories. But you need to be happy, that’s what is important.’
‘Why can’t you be happy at the moment?’ Flynn’s dad asked. ‘Why do you think you need to quit your job?’
‘Because I’m tired and overworked.’And because I’ve fallen for my flatmate, who isn’t interested in me like that.
His mum, who had always been a big believer in following the heart instead of the head, which was how she’d spent her life between two different continents, said, ‘There is happiness in time-affluence, Flynn. If you don’t have the time to do the things that make you happy, then working all the extra hours and earning all the extra money isn’t going to make you wealthy.’
‘You’re very wise, Mother,’ Flynn said, thinking about what she’d said.
And so Flynn got in the car. He drove towards Mount Fuji and parked where he could see her shoot straight up into the air, white tipped and full-skirted. He had so much of Japan he still wanted to explore that he’d never given himself the freedom to do so. He wanted to climb in the Japanese Alps, travel far to the snowy north, take a plane to the tropical islands in the south, visit the temples and shrines and cities and villages. He wanted to do it all.
And one day he would.
Because he also wanted to visit the remote lochs of Scotland, just like he’d described to August for their imaginary honeymoon. He wanted to visit Rome in the summer when it was so hot your gelato melted down your hands. He wanted to drive through Germany and campervan around Cornwall. If he left England now, he’d be making exactly the same mistake he’d already made here in Japan – making plans and goals and wish lists and not fulfilling them. And what then? Wouldn’t it just be an endless cycle?
Coming to Japan had been just what he needed. He’d seen his family, he’d had closure with Yui, he’d cleared his mind, and now he could go home. His new home. And one day he’d come back here and call Japan home again.
But not now.
Suddenly he knew what he wanted: to spend his last few days of leave with August, really figuring out what they meant to each other, and deciding what else he could do when he quit his job.
He checked his phone. He wasn’t due to leave Tokyo until early next week, but perhaps he could change his flight. To tomorrow.
Chapter 76
August
August took a half day on Friday and went shopping. She couldn’t concentrate at the press office because she still didn’t quite know how to handle things with Abe tonight.
