The Shape of Happiness: A Family Crumbling Due to the Mother's Infidelity, a Wounded Middle School Daughter, and a Struggling Father Finding a New Form of Happiness. - Episode 16

Since that time, I began to feel a subtle distance between Ryoko and me. I wasn’t sure if she was creating it, if I was, or if we both were. At the very least, I hadn’t changed my attitude or behavior toward her. But Ryoko had always been perceptive, so maybe she had noticed a shift in my feelings.

Not wanting to face Ryoko, I threw myself into work. In addition to my usual office tasks, I took a more active role in sales, planned new menu items for the store’s deli section, and stayed late at the office even after closing.

Knock, knock.

“Yes, come in.”

The door creaked open.

“Oh? Manager, you’re still here?”

The person who peeked into the office was Kouzuki Takatsuki, a part-time worker. She had a short bob with slightly flipped-out black hair. A dependable woman with a slightly plump figure. I think she was in her mid-forties, but her wonderful smile, which doesn’t give away her age, is her charm.

“I was working on the next sales event and coming up with new deli items,”

The truth was, I just didn’t want to go home. But I forced a smile as I answered. Kouzuki stepped closer and bent down to peer into my face.

“Manager, are you okay? You look really exhausted.”

Her concern touched me. I clenched my teeth, but I couldn’t hold back my emotions. Tears welled up in my eyes.

“It’s okay to cry when things get tough.”

With those words, Kouzuki gently pulled my head against her chest. The softness of her embrace and her gentle scent melted the tension in my heart. Before I knew it, I was sobbing into her arms.

After I had cried it all out, I sat before her, spilling everything. How I had suppressed my feelings since childhood. How I had entered a political marriage with my childhood friend. How I had still tried to build my own version of happiness. How my wife’s illness had shattered that dream forever. How I had begun to feel a wall between us.

Pathetic. I knew I was just whining like a weak man, but I couldn’t stop. Kouzuki must have been disgusted—

“Your wife is taking you for granted.”

Her words caught me off guard.

“Of course, being sick and going through surgery must have been tough for her. She had to make a major decision as a woman. But she knew about the ‘happiness’ you always wanted, right? If so, then isn’t she the one who broke it? Shouldn’t she be showing more concern for you?”

She placed her hand over mine.

“If my husband were like that, I wouldn’t want to go home either. All that stress building up… Manager,” she said, moving her hand gently to my thigh.

“If you want… you can release your stress with me. If it’s you, I don’t mind at all.”

“Wha—K-Kouzuki, but your husband—”

She gave a sad smile.

“We haven’t been intimate in over ten years. He told me, ‘I can’t see an old lady like you as a woman.’ So, as long as no one finds out, it’s fine. You can do whatever you want with me. I’ll accept all of it.”

After that, I don’t remember many details. I pushed Kouzuki onto the long desk and just desperately held her. No matter how roughly I treated her, Kouzuki never made a single unpleasant face. She gently embraced me as I repeatedly vented the anger and hatred swirling in my heart, smiling and stroking my head. Just as she said, she accepted everything about this pathetic man.

When it was over, I felt guilty, but Koyzuki just smiled as she straightened her clothes.

“Do you feel better now? Sorry, I’m just an older woman.”

“T-That’s not…”

“If you ever need me again, I’ll be here. Just make sure to have the condoms ready ”

“Kouzuki…”

She walked to the door but hesitated. Then she turned back and gently kissed me.

“You were strong and manly tonight. Be confident in yourself.”

With a final smile, she left.

Alone in the office, the air still heavy with the moment that had passed, I returned to my desk and woke my laptop from sleep.

I checked Kouzuki’s work schedule.

For a while after that, our relationship continued. Whenever she worked a shift, we would meet in the office after closing. Each time, the quiet store echoed with her voice, and I responded in kind. At home, I barely saw Ryoko, since I would leave early and return late.

A few months later, Kouzuki told me she was leaving the job. I panicked, thinking her husband had found out, but it was simply because he had been transferred to another city.

Before she left, she said:

“Manager, I’m sorry. I treated you like a friends-with-benefits. Honestly, I was lonely. When that first moment happened, I thought, ‘This is my chance.’ That’s why I told you, ‘Your wife is taking you for granted.’ I wanted to push you in that direction.”

So in the end, I had been used. But then again, I had used her, too. There was nothing to apologize for.

“A simple touch, a hug, even just hearing the words ‘I love you’—that’s enough for some women. Many of us just want to feel loved, no matter our age. Some, like me, keep our feelings bottled up, suppressing them for years. And there are husbands who never try to understand that pain… Manager, how many part-time housewives work in this store? And you—you are their manager. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Her words made my heart race.

Then—

“I’m going back to a home where I am not loved. Goodbye, Manager.”

Her voice trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes.

She left, returning to the life she had been enduring.

And just like that, our relationship ended.

But in my heart, a new idea of “happiness” had begun to take shape.