Chapter 20: My Daughter Can’t Tell a Lie
My Daughter Can’t Tell a Lie
Satsuki is acting strangely—oddly nervous, which is rare for her.
“Daddy, um, listen—”
It’s June now.
The rainy season has settled in, and the days have grown thick with damp, lingering showers.
Satsuki turned seventeen on May fifth, but life had continued on in its usual rhythm.
Today, though, something about her felt just a little… off.
“Whatever you do… absolutely, absolutely do not look in the trash can today!”
“…Why not?”
Her unusually urgent request made me tilt my head in confusion.
I’d never once given the trash can any real thought, which only made the warning feel more suspicious.
The very fact she bothered to say anything at all only added to the sense that something was up.
“I-I said no, so no! You just can’t!”
Satsuki wouldn’t say why. Her eyes darted restlessly, and her body swayed in place, full of jittery energy.
Satsuki’s never been good at lying.
Maybe it’s because she was raised to be so honest. I don’t know how she is with other people, but with me, she can’t seem to hide a thing.
Around me, she’s entirely herself.
She does what she wants, chases only what feels good, and moves wherever her emotions lead her.
Maybe that’s why lying comes even harder for her—it just doesn’t fit.
“So? What are you trying to hide?”
“N-No! I’m totally not hiding anything, seriously!?”
Satsuki visibly flinched, panic written all over her face.
Her body language all but screamed that she had a secret.
“Oh reeeally~? Because when you lie, your nostrils flare up. Just saying~”
I threw out the line just to mess with her.
She doesn’t actually have that habit, but I couldn’t resist teasing her a little.
“!?”
Sure enough, she instantly slapped her hands over her nose. I couldn’t help but laugh.
“W-What!? I do that!? That’s so not cute!”
“…Kidding. But the way you panicked? Yeah, that makes it even more suspicious.”
I smiled, and Satsuki puffed out her cheeks in an exaggerated pout.
“Daddy, lying is bad, you know!”
“Sorry, sorry. But… can you really say that to yourself right now?”
“Grrr…! Daddy, you’re such a meanie! But that’s one of the things I love about you!”
She’d just slipped in another little confession, but I let it slide.
That awkward look on her face probably meant she really was hiding something.
Not that I was about to pry it out of her.
“Well, that’s fine. If you don’t feel like saying it, you don’t have to. But if you need help, I’m here. Just say the word.”
Everyone’s got things they’d rather keep to themselves.
I mean, even I haven’t told Satsuki that we’re not actually blood-related.
She’s a girl, and she’s seventeen now—already close to being an adult.
Of course there are things she doesn’t want to talk about. I never thought she should have to force herself.
“Daddy, you’re so kind… so wonderful. Now I love you even more.”
“Let’s not go overboard.”
I’ve gotten pretty good at brushing off her confessions by now.
When someone tells you they love you nearly every day, you get used to dancing around it.
And so—
I hadn’t really meant to uncover her secret or anything.
“Then I won’t say it! Phew… I was scared that if Daddy started interrogating me, I wouldn’t be able to keep it in!”
“Is that so?”
“Yeah! I almost let it slip about the class observation day!”
It really did seem like Satsuki was hopeless when it came to lying.
“…You just said it, Satsuki.”
“Ah—!?”
The second she realized, she let out a shriek.
So that was what she’d been trying to hide—Class Observation Day.
“Hmm. I get it now.”
I hadn’t been trying to find out her secret.
But now that I knew, I couldn’t just ignore it.
“So let me guess. You threw the class observation notice in the trash can, and that’s why you didn’t want me to see it? You were trying so hard to keep me from finding it, huh?”
“U-Uuu… Nyaaaaahhh!!”
Satsuki screamed and lunged at me to stop me, but she was so light, I caught her without a problem.
I scooped her up and gently pinned her down.
Then I walked over to the trash can, reached in, and pulled out a neatly folded handout.
“Nooooooo!!”
And sure enough, it said Class Observation Day right on it.
“Y-You’re not really going, are you? Daddy, you’re not going to come watch me, right? Right!?”
…As if the answer could be anything but—
“No chance. I’m definitely going.”
There’s no reason not to go.
I’ve been curious for a while now about how Satsuki is at school.
And so, that’s how I ended up going to visit Satsuki’s school——