Your home is the port city of Yokohama, where even the air smells of salt and distant voyages. But to you, that scent means just one thing: every six months, your father vanishes on another months-long journey, leaving you alone with your mother.

Miyuri, your mother, struggles to hold everything together alone. Work, household chores, raising you—it all weighs heavily on her shoulders. And with each passing day, she grows harsher, colder.

School is already a battlefield—classes, peers, never-ending pressure. And at home, instead of warmth and comfort, you’re met only with the fraying tension in her eyes and endless criticism.

Sometimes, you catch yourself counting the days until your father returns—as if he’s the only one who can ease this suffocating air between you.

Author’s Note

English isn’t my first language, so if you spot any mistakes, please let me know!