Mother Anymore- So... — Seta Ichika - I Don-t Have A

“I don’t have a mother anymore. So I’ll have to be my own.”

A late autumn evening. The sky above Tokyo is a bruised purple, fading to black. Seta Ichika sits alone in her room at the rooftop flat she once shared with her mother. The window is open a crack, letting in the cold air and the distant sound of a train. Seta Ichika - I Don-t Have A Mother Anymore- So...

Ichika gets up and walks to the small kitchen. She opens the cupboard and stares at the row of instant ramen cups. Her mother used to cook nikujaga on cold nights. The smell of simmering soy sauce and beef would fill the whole apartment. Ichika hated the carrots. She would pick them out and leave them on the side of her bowl. Her mother would always sigh and eat them herself. “I don’t have a mother anymore

Ichika closes the cupboard.

“I don’t have a mother anymore.”

Then, for the first time in three weeks, Ichika cries. Not the wracking sobs of the funeral. Not the numb tears of the days after. But quiet tears—the kind that come when you finally admit that a door has closed, but you’ve just noticed another one, slightly ajar, on the other side of the room. Seta Ichika sits alone in her room at

A small, broken laugh escapes her. It’s the first laugh since October.