Love in the Time of the Vespa Part 01

Story Originally posted and archived on ASSM

Summary: When my parents return to Japan, I decide to remain in the U.S. Living with the family of my best friend. The story follows events as our relationship deepens into a romantic entanglement.

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I knew I was in trouble when my parents called me into the living room. Both of them were sitting on one side of the kotatsu(1) which was the main physical concession to our family origins in the home, and refusing to look at me directly. This is normal behavior when something needs to be discussed, but is not a comfortable topic. This is the same way they had acted when they decided I was old enough to warrant having "The Talk" shortly after I turned seventeen. This was to my general mortification, seeing as I had been through sexual ed classes, and oh so many years of teen-hood without it having yet come up (I had hoped to avoid it entirely).

The room was filled with a palpable tension as I hesitated in the doorway searching my recent memory for anything I had or had not done to land myself in trouble. I was unable to come up with something warranting any great disapproval. My mother made an open handed gesture indicating that I should sit across from them, as they both continued to avoid meeting my questioning eyes.

I suppose that you would have to understand some of the culture differences to really get what I'm saying, but my parents are not weak willed people who let me walk all over them, they were just both raised very traditionally. Which to a certain lesser extent I would say I was as well. Both of my parents are from Japan, if you haven't figured that out yet I'll forgive you. They were born there, they grew up there, fell in love, married there, they even conceived me there, and as they've reminded me ever so often they intend to die there. Are you beginning to see where I'm going with this?

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