[4-Panel Manga] The Action My Father Took When I Said 'I Got a Boyfriend'

In the living room after dinner. When Hina casually reports, 'I got a boyfriend,' her father, Shinichi, freezes for a moment. Trying not to let his agitation be noticed, he silently spreads out the newspaper on the table to hide his face. However, his hands are shaking, and the newspaper keeps rustling unnaturally. When Hina, unable to watch any longer, peeks over the newspaper, she sees her father with teary eyes. A scene that shows the irrepressible love of a father who tries to act tough only in front of his daughter.

'Daughter's Boyfriend Announcement'

In the middle of dinner, my daughter suddenly stopped her chopsticks and said.

'Oh, by the way. I got a boyfriend.'

With those words, Shinichi's chopsticks stopped in mid-air. The white rice he was about to put in his mouth hung in limbo. For some reason, his mind was already replaying a scene of a wedding with someone he had never even met.

'...Oh, really?'

That was all he could manage to say. The more he tried to compose his expression, the more his face stiffened. Before he knew it, his hand had reached for the newspaper on the table.

The newspaper he spread out in silence was upside down.

'...Dad, the newspaper is upside down.'

Shinichi didn't answer his daughter's calm observation. He just kept making unnatural rustling sounds, desperately trying to get through the moment. While glaring at words he couldn't even read.

After a while, his daughter peeked over the newspaper.

'Wait, are you crying?'

What appeared from behind the newspaper was her father's face with bloodshot eyes.

'I'm not crying. It's hay fever.'

Hay fever in the middle of winter. Even though no one would believe that excuse, he insisted on it with a straight face. His daughter just muttered, 'You're weird,' and turned her gaze back to the TV.

Hearing that she had a boyfriend, I don't even know if I'm happy or sad. The only thing I'm sure of is that the mere fact that my daughter told me about it is enough to make me this shaken.

The newspaper remains upside down again today.