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 4

On a humid night when the stars weren’t very visible, a red compact minivan was driving along a suburban highway. The lights of street lamps illuminated the car at regular intervals, making the driver’s face appear and disappear in the front window. The driver, a man in his 30s with short black hair and a small beard, seemed to be chatting with someone in the car. There was no one in the passenger seat, but someone was sitting in the back.

“That was fun, right? Getting some exercise for a change?” the driver cheerfully asks his passenger.

In the back seat, there were two girls. One, sitting directly behind the driver, is a middle schooler with short brown hair. She responds tersely, as if pushing him away.

“…Well, yeah. As long as someone didn’t fall into the pond.”

“Aika, don’t say that,” the driver laughed awkwardly.

The girl, Aika, makes an exasperated face. Sitting beside her, giggling at their banter, is a cute girl with black hair in a ponytail—Misaki.

“Uncle, you fell into the pond halfway through, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Despite having zero athletic ability, I said, ‘Let’s do the obstacle course!’ and then I was like, ‘I guess I’m an advanced level, huh!’—what does ‘advanced’ even mean?”

“Come on! I tried my best! You two laughed when I fell in the pond. That was cold.”

“You were the perfect punchline, though.”

“Yeah, literally fell into a pond, that was the punchline.”

The girls’ laughter fills the car.

“Alright, alright. You two are really going there, huh? I was going to stop by that hamburger steak place, but how about we just go for the drive-thru instead?”

The two girls’ faces, reflected in the rearview mirror, show a look of panic.

“Uncle, your attempts at the obstacle course were so cool!”

“Dad, you were so cool! I’m lucky to be your daughter!”

“Hey! You two are laying it on too thick!”

The man, Aika’s father, responds with playful frustration, and the three of them laugh together.

After driving for a while, the car comes to a stop at a traffic light. The driver could have made it through the yellow light, but being cautious with his daughter and her friend in the car, he slows down and stops.

This decision by Aika’s father to drive safely becomes the trigger that opens the curtain on Misaki’s nightmare――

While waiting at the traffic light, Misaki looked out the front window and saw a white van waiting at a red light on the opposite side of the street. On the side of the van, she saw the name “Super Matsunaga.” It was the supermarket where her mother, Akiko, worked part-time. Misaki realized it was the company car. A man with short brown hair was driving it, and Misaki thought about how busy her mother must be working on weekends.

Misaki was about to turn her attention back to the conversation when she noticed something. Her eyes widened in shock.

“Wait…?”

In the passenger seat of the van, Misaki saw her mother, Akiko. How did she get in there? Was she reclining in the seat? She couldn’t tell, but her mother was sitting there casually, chatting with the man driving. And then—

They kissed.

Misaki went silent, and a wave of nausea rose from her stomach.

“Misaki-chan, what’s wrong?”

“Are you okay, Misaki? Did you get car sick?”

Noticing Misaki’s strange behavior, Aika and her father both ask.

Misaki turns pale and can’t say a word.

The light turned green. The van with her mother in it started moving.

“Follow the van,” Misaki suddenly shouted, her voice filled with anger.

“Misaki-chan, do you want us to pull over?”

“Misaki, you look really pale. Dad, pull over somewhere.”

They think Misaki is just feeling car sick, but she suddenly looks up, her face full of rage.

“No, follow the van!” Misaki insisted, her voice loud and firm.

Her outburst surprised Aika and her father. Tears welled up in Misaki’s eyes, and she gritted her teeth.

“Okay, we’ll turn around and follow that van,” Aika’s father said, understanding her urgency. He made a U-turn at the intersection.

Aika, unsure of what was happening, kept glancing back and forth between her father and Misaki.

(Please, let it be a misunderstanding… let it be a mistake…)

As they follow the supermarket van, Misaki’s eyes remain locked on it, praying desperately that she’s wrong.