"COPY BOY" My Clone is an Elementary Schooler ② [The Encounter!]

<Spring, Episode 2>

"You traveled to the past in a time machine. There, you met yourself as a child.
What exactly would you tell yourself, having come from the future?"

How am I supposed to answer something like this? Asking a question with no right answer to test your adaptability. Job interviews are just like Zen riddles.
"To my younger self... you say?" I ended up asking the interviewer back.
"That's right. What kind of future would you tell them about?"
"Uh..." I said in desperation, "...um... 'Job hunting is tough'... maybe?" I gave a big, charming smile. But the interviewer, with a face like a Noh mask, cut me off, saying,
"Ah, I see... That will be all. Thank you very much."

Picking only the trendy company names, I applied to them one after another. If I'm going to do it, I want to aim high. But it's the spring of my senior year of college, and I'm updating my losing streak to 50 companies.
Every time I get rejected, I feel the terror of being cast aside as 'worthless.' The day I'm thrown out into society is steadily approaching.
But I don't actually know what I want to do. Who on earth am I? What was I born for? I'm just, just anxious.

Alone at a table at Starbucks, I was having a post-mortem on that interview earlier. What was the model answer for the time machine question? What should I have told my younger self?
I sank deeper and deeper into the swamp of regret.

"Sigh."

I stared at myself reflected in the surface of my coffee. Wearing a boring recruitment suit. Who am I, anyway? The shop is filled with the fragrant aroma of roasted beans. Even though I haven't taken a single sip yet, it's bitter.

However...
I just can't seem to concentrate.

It's because of the high-pitched voices echoing through the shop. A group of moms and their small children. They've taken over the place, scattered about and making noise. Is there a residential area nearby?
Hm? Something hit my knee. A small, dirty sneaker. It's the boy at the next table. He was so absorbed in playing while lying down that he was rubbing mud onto my deep navy trousers. That's why I hate kids. The moms are too busy chatting to even notice. The innocent invasion keeps escalating. My coffee on the table is shaking. They're going to spill it eventually.

My smartphone on the table vibrated and slid slightly as it rang.
I hoped it was an interview result, but it was an unknown number. It didn't seem to be from any of the companies I'd applied to.
The kids next to me screamed.
How annoying. I answered in a loud voice to compete with the noise. "Hello."

"Hello?" a young woman's voice said faintly from the other end of the line.
"Hello?"
"Hello? Can you hear me?"
"Yes, somehow."
"Is this... the mobile phone of Yutaka Shiozuma?"
A solicitor, maybe.
"I'm sorry, it's hard to hear..." It's probably a troublesome call, and that feeling helped me answer a bit bluntly.
"...It's a bit noisy, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is. Well then... (let's do this another time)" Just as I was about to cut the call short, I was caught,
"Then, could we meet and talk in person...?"
Hm? I looked up at the presence,
"...would that be alright?" The woman holding her smartphone to her ear asked me with her own voice. She might be a little older than me, and she was peering at me with large eyes behind round glasses.

"Huh? Huh?"
Before my brain could catch up, she smoothly sat down in front of me and said, "I'm terribly sorry for the suddenness. I've sent you a few emails, but..." She gave me a friendly smile.
She introduced herself as being from "Wan Wan Insurance." She was in a suit. It was a solicitor after all.
"I make it a rule not to open emails I don't recognize... Um, who are...?" Interrupting my words,
"Actually, there is something I would like to tell Yutaka Shiozuma."
"How do you know my name?"
"It's about your family."
"Family?"
"Yes, your family."
"I live with just my grandmother..."
Why am I answering her seriously? Don't let her set the pace. If it's insurance, I'm not buying it.
"Ah, I see."
"What do you mean 'I see'?"
"You don't know anything, do you?"
"Anything?"
"Um..." She suddenly took on a solemn expression, looked around, and said, "It's very rude of me to bring this up so suddenly, but..."
"Yes?"
"I'm very sorry to have to say this in a place like this..." She leaned in close, whispering. She's too close.

What? What?

"Hey, hey!!" a child suddenly shouted, "Big sister, look, this is fun!" It was from below.
The woman with glasses sighed, ducked under the table, and said in a gentle voice,
"I'm having an important talk with this big brother right now, so be a good boy, okay?"
Seriously. It's been distracting me for a while. That brat.
The brat, ignoring her, continued driving his toy car on the floor. Anyway, who is the mom? Why don't they let them play outside?

She crawled out from under the table, sat up facing me, and said quietly once more.
"I find this very difficult to say, but..."
"Yes?"
"...your father passed away last month."
"...Huh?"
"Yes."
Even though it was stated so solemnly, it didn't feel real at all.
"It was stomach cancer. Please accept my deepest condolences."
Are you really talking about this at a Starbucks? The words aren't sinking in. Obviously. Because, "Um, my parents passed away a long time ago." They aren't in this world anymore.
"What have you been told?"
"My father died in an accident when I was in middle school. My mother died right after giving birth to me."
She looked as if she had expected that, and said,
"I see. But actually, your father was..."
"Huh?"
"Yes, that's right. He was alive. Until last month, in a place you didn't know about."
"No way."
"...So,"
Switching to a business-like tone, she continued, "Today, I would like to hand over 'a certain matter' that your father left behind before he passed away to you, his son, Yutaka Shiozuma..."
"A matter my father left behind? Like insurance? To me?"
I don't understand what she's talking about.
"This..."
I followed the gaze of the girl with glasses... to under the table.
"...It's about this child."
"...?"
"Your father was raising him. ...He is your younger brother."

He had a kid?!

THUD!!
The table shook suddenly, and coffee spilled!
It seems the little guy hit his head on the table trying to stand up too quickly.
"Ah! Something to wipe it with! Even a tissue will do!"
The adults around us panicked, but the kid in sneakers was just fiddling with his toy while rubbing his head.
Damn it, my entry sheet is soaking wet.

You've got to be kidding me.
My father was alive, and he had a child? Was he adopted?
Wait, could it be...
"Are we... blood-related?"
"Yes, you are."
Did he remarry? Did he have another child?
Am I suddenly having a touching first meeting with a brother I never knew?

"This child is eight years old. He is in the second grade of elementary school. He has the same name as you, Yutaka."
"Huh? He named him the same as me?"
"Yes, even for your younger brother."
"My father did?"
"It's sudden, so it might be hard to understand, but..."
"Yeah."
"This child is..."
"Yeah."
"Your..." The girl with glasses took a deep breath and said,

"He is your clone."
"Excuse me?"

The little guy looked up and stared at me.

(To be continued)

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