“Oopsie-daisy!”
“Oh my gosh…”
“Let’s play rock-paper-scissors!”
“I’m so tired…”
“Let’s do it!”
“I said I’m tired…”
“Let’s go!!!”
“Sunshine!!!”
“……..”
Hmm.
I momentarily opened the kindergarten door to see how things were going.
Well, I did take a look.
But I immediately decided to quietly close the door and go back to… the office.
I had a feeling that if I stepped inside, it would get challenging in so many ways.
Watching one kid nearly staging a protest was enough to convince me that finding a solution was better than just wandering in there.
I thought I might have locked eyes with the director at the end, but probably not.
…Probably?
“Corbin.”
“Yeah?”
“I think we need to hire more staff for the kindergarten.”
“All of a sudden…?”
“…I feel like everyone is really struggling because of our daughter. We should hire at least a few more people.”
As soon as I returned to the office, I brought it up.
It felt like the right thing to do.
Of course, there are already about two staff members working at the company kindergarten besides the director… but I was sure it wouldn’t be enough.
So, I immediately switched on the computer to start looking for information.
“I just checked on Charlotte for a moment, and she seems to have way too much stamina compared to the other kids.”
“…Is that a problem?”
“No, it’s just a bother for the other kids, isn’t it? They’re all around the same age and should have similar stamina. She’s just playing too hard…”
“…Is that so?”
“It’s still morning, and it was the same situation when we had lunch together last time.”
“……..”
We thought that Charlotte was just happy to meet her friends that day.
But it seems like her friends are simply good for her.
Too good.
“Hmm. It can’t be helped.”
“…Yeah.”
“Honestly, there are over ten kids, so three staff members is really too few.”
“Though we did rush to open it, I didn’t expect it to end up like this.”
“…True.”
No matter how I look at it, it never seemed this intense when she was playing with us.
Is it really that friends are more important than parents?
I wished it could be otherwise, but if she played that hard with us, I felt like we’d be the ones who would collapse first.
Honestly, I couldn’t help but feel relieved.
“…Hmm.”
“Still, as long as Charlotte is doing well, that’s a relief… right…?”
“…I admit that.”
Well, compared to not doing well, it’s obviously a good thing.
I didn’t think it was bad at all.
Though I was slightly surprised by her excessive stamina?
*
“Charlotte, did you play well with your friends?”
“Yeah…!”
“…That’s a relief, then.”
I was leaving work, holding Charlotte in my arms.
Corbin was driving the car beside me.
“Charlotte, did you make a lot of friends?”
“Yeah!”
“Good. Lindera, do you have anything to buy before going home?”
“No, I think we can head straight in.”
“Alright, then.”
When she was with her friends, she was so energetic it was almost overwhelming, but snuggling in my arms, Charlotte was surprisingly quiet.
It was a bit of a contrast, but I didn’t think much about it.
She was probably just a bit worn out from playing hard with her friends today.
Of course, just because she was quiet doesn’t mean she wasn’t lively compared to usual.
“Charlotte, how was your teacher?”
“A bit…!”
“Oh, really?”
“She’s nice!”
“So she’s nicer than mommy?”
“No!”
“Really?”
“Really!”
Corbin kept asking Charlotte odd questions while she was still in my arms.
He could have just asked about her time with her friends, but suddenly these weird questions popped up.
Of course, I liked hearing from Charlotte that she favored me.
“Can we stop with the weird questions?”
“Why? Aren’t they good questions?”
“Just ask what she did with the kids.”
“Well… that seems like a lot to cover, doesn’t it?”
“…That’s true.”
While I didn’t know exactly what she did today, I knew she played hard enough to tire the other kids, so it had to be more than just a couple of things.
“Charlotte, what did you play with your friends today?”
“With friends?”
“Yeah. While Mom and Dad were working, you played with your friends, right?”
“Uh-huh!”
“So, what did you do?”
“We played rock-paper-scissors!”
“…And?”
“We played rock-paper-scissors!”
“Uh… was that all…?”
“Rock-paper-scissors!!”
“………”
No way… she spent the entire day just playing rock-paper-scissors, right…?
Even Charlotte couldn’t have just been at it all day…
“…….”
“Huh?”
“Never mind… was it fun?”
“Uh-huh!”
I felt like asking more, but Charlotte’s innocent eyes met mine, and I just… let it be.
It really felt like Charlotte was being completely sincere in her words.
“Who won?”
“Me!”
“Really? That’s amazing!”
“I’m awesome!”
“Yeah, that’s great! You did really well.”
As I praised her, I began to gently pat Charlotte’s head.
Honestly, winning rock-paper-scissors isn’t that impressive, but Charlotte absolutely loved having her head patted.
As I continued stroking her hair, Charlotte beamed with an adorable smile, and I couldn’t help but feel warm inside just watching her.
“Charlotte, should we go home and eat something delicious?”
“Uh-huh!”
“Lindera, do you know that the boss gave us movie tickets this time?”
“He gave them to you?”
“Yeah, he told me to take the family to see a movie!”
“Really?”
I hadn’t received any special notices, so I didn’t know, but Corbin would receive such notices.
Honestly, it was a bit surprising.
Of course, that was good news, as it meant Corbin and the boss were getting closer than before.
Naturally, that was nothing but good news.
Maybe in the future, they might even chat about things that didn’t involve me.
Though I already frequently talked to my mother.
But it’s the boss, you know.
“A movie… Are there any good ones lately?”
“We don’t have anything to watch, do we?”
“Then…”
“Charlotte wants to watch something.”
“Oh.”
Corbin was right.
We didn’t have anything we wanted to see, but Charlotte had plenty of movies she wanted to watch.
They weren’t the easiest films to find, but if it was Charlotte… she’d probably love any of them.
“…Well, since Charlotte would enjoy it, I guess we’ll go watch something.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, Charlotte would like it.”
“Uh-huh?”
Charlotte had watched animations on TV, but she had never seen a movie in a theater.
I figured she’d enjoy it just like when we went to the aquarium before.
Of course, for now, it was still just our imagination.
But it seemed like it would be fun.
Just being there with Charlotte and watching her reactions would be entertaining enough.
It specified that it was a movie for kids, so there was no doubt about that.
“Charlotte, should we go watch a movie?”
“A movie?”
“Yeah. A movie.”
“What’s that?”
“Hmm… it’s something super fun?”
“Fun?”
“Uh-huh! It should be really fun!”
“Then I’ll go!”
Although I wasn’t entirely sure, seeing Charlotte say she wanted to go right away when I called it fun made me a bit worried.
It’s just that her taste at this age was still a little vague.
While we played together and messed around with office colleagues, she rarely watched animations other than in the evenings or on holidays…
So, she might end up a bit disappointed when she saw the movie, but for now, we decided to go.
Charlotte was such a positive kid, after all.
Every time she tried something new, instead of being afraid, she’d just smile and show great interest.
“It seems that way.”
“Then we must go.”
“We’ll pick the highest-rated one… since neither of us really watches movies often.”
“As long as it’s not horror, we should be fine.”
“That’s…”
…I didn’t expect him to bring that up all of a sudden.
Once Corbin mentioned it, I could tell that the shock of that experience was still very much fresh in his mind.
Man, that was terrifying back then.
I had no idea I was that afraid of horror movies.
I hadn’t watched many before, but still…
“That was just unavoidable.”
“Because it just started out of nowhere?”
“…Yeah.”
I truly never thought they would start playing such things.
I assumed we were just going to watch some regular film and then all of a sudden a horror film would pop up… I really didn’t see that coming.
Had I known, I wouldn’t have had a drink or even suggested going to the DVD room.
Being slightly tipsy and getting scared alone during a horror movie while clinging to Corbin was super embarrassing…
Even thinking about it now makes me cringe.
Thanks to that experience, I’ve never touched horror films again.
Maybe that’s a good thing?
“…I really couldn’t help it back then.”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it.”
“…That answer doesn’t sit well with me.”
“Well, in any case, if we put on a horror movie now, I’d probably still be scared, right?”
“…I guess that’s true.”
He wasn’t wrong at all.
Even though I’d like to argue back, the likelihood of me watching horror films again is pretty low.
“Can I skip it?”
“…You don’t have to know.”
“Huh?”
“Charlotte, should we go home and have something delicious to eat?”
“Uh-huh!!”
…Charlotte was about to show unusual interest, but I quickly steered the conversation away.
If Charlotte got curious and whined about watching it together… that would be a disaster.
I mean, if a kid threw a tantrum to watch a horror movie, it would be a big issue, but if I showed her and she cried in the middle of it…
That would truly be a tough time.
Of course, apart from that, I just didn’t want to watch horror movies because they scared me.
But actually, that was probably a bigger reason.
“…Corbin.”
“Got it. I won’t do it again.”
“…Sure.”
“Anyway, I’ll text the boss to let him know we’ll enjoy the movie. And I’ll also send him some pictures of Charlotte.”
“I do that all the time.”
Since the grandmother absolutely adored Charlotte.
Even when I tried to switch to video calls to show her Charlotte during my occasional chats with the boss, she always insisted not to.
But since she really loves Charlotte, so why does she hold such a stubborn position about it?
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