"Nothing is solved!" She rose to meet me, her small frame vibrating with emotion. "Do you think I'm just concerned about propriety? About what the neighbors might say? This is about what this relationship is doing to you. To her. I've watched you both changing before my eyes."
"People change, Mom. I'm not the same person I was a few months ago."
"No," she agreed, her voice suddenly quiet. "You're not. Sometimes when I look at you, I don't recognize you at all."
"Maybe you never really knew me."
Kimiko's eyes filled with tears. "That's not true. I raised you. I was there for every scraped knee, every nightmare. I know your favorite foods, your allergies, the way you used to be afraid of thunderstorms until you were ten." She stepped closer, placing a hand on my cheek. "I know you, Satori. Which is why this terrifies me. Because the man standing before me now feels like a stranger wearing my son's face."
