Loop. Koji Suzuki

      Distractedly, Kaoru set about answering Ryoji’s questions about his father’s condition.

      He gave him a brief rundown, but Ryoji’s body language said he wanted to hear more. Maybe he wanted to sketch in the future of his own illness based on what he could learn of Kaoru’s father’s.

      Kaoru stopped the conversation before Ryoji could start to guess that the cancer had spread to his father’s lungs. Partly he hesitated because he thought the knowledge might have a negative influence on Ryoji, but partly he simply didn’t want to say it out loud.

      When the cancer had become heavy on his lungs, Hideyuki’s face had started to betray weakness; he’d started to talk about what would happen after he was gone—to talk about entrusting Kaoru with his mother’s care.

       Look after Machi, okay?

      At the sight of this weakness, Kaoru was seized with a desire to deliver the full force of his anger upon his father. And just how am I supposed to comfort Mom after you die, he wanted to say. Quit laying these impossible tasks on me!