Saihara's POV:

It started with saying good morning.

In our cold house full of work my father and I rarely spent time together, and the brief time we did was always about the case. I thought it was fine but...look after him, I promised to try. Despite the odds of a permanent change being low, I still tried to maintain a change in at least myself. If I couldn't change my father then I could change myself.

So no matter how bad of a morning I was having or how my nerves were...I always made it a point to say that to my father before I started my own workday. He seemed shocked the first day, he even seemed to be looking around as if a ghost had said it. Then just a look of confusion every following day, as if some weird alien thing had appeared before him.

It hurt a little.

By the third day, the shock value seemed to wear off, but he didn't respond, I didn't expect one though and I left too fast anyway for him to say anything. But I made it a point, I made it a point to try and acknowledge him when I could. Know I was thinking about him, and not just because of the case.

It had been subtle, maybe a week after I had started my new routine...he said it as well. It had barely been above a whisper, but it felt nice. A small acknowledgment, it seemed to be as if the world was shifting ever so slightly, like when the weekly chore list had been adjusted to where my father began washing the dishes and cleaning the office instead of me.

It then became almost a silent ritual, taking on chores or doing nice gestures for each other, never acknowledging them but it didn't really matter if they weren't mentioned, at least to me. He knew what I was doing and appreciated it, more than I could ever hope for.

This was why when I was working in my room, it was surprising when I heard a soft knock at the door. I called out approval to come in and my father opened the door. He paused looking around the room examining it...I paused realizing the last time he came into my room...was also the night my mother would be admitted to the hospital the last time.

And never come out again.

"Did you need help?" I asked trying to cut down on the silence, he nodded as he sighed.

"Did your Uncle get in contact with you?" He asked, "no...he didn't say anything. Aunt Jin is trying to get him to help but..." I tried to explain as he sighed. "Figures" he spat, as he hesitantly sat on my bed and looked over the large bulletin board I had set up for trying to figure out everything to do with the case.

He adjusted a few notes and even wrote a few extra sticky notes myself, silence filling the space as we quietly worked. "These three?" He asked, I turned and saw him pointing to one note in particular, "my top three for who might have issued the order" I told him.

"You can remove the school director, he likely had no involvement past the compensation provided for the crime. I ran through the interviews with him post the incident, he was off script it seemed, and very tense but it was likely from a guilty conscience and fear of being caught" he reasoned.

I paused before nodding, "yeah, what about the other two though?" I asked, "the mayor I don't know, this other man though, the convenience store owner...well I'll check into his background" he offered.

"Thank you" I sighed, at least a little more was off my plate, but I noted the look of confliction still on my father's face. "Is something wrong?" I asked, "the boy from the case must've made an impression on you," he said. "Huh?" I asked confused, "Ouma was it? Before the case you would never have spoken to me so calmly, or even bring up this case even if you believed you were right" he admitted.

"I would have earlier it's just..." I paused realizing...that would have been a lie. If I had been given a choice to approach my father, tell him about the case without having to leave Ouma's side...would I have?

I don't know.

"He's incredible" I finally said, "and surprisingly funny, he only made a few jokes around me, but he is. He's also incredible to the point and blunt" I described, as I noted...a week ago my heart would have ached talking about him but...that pain seemed to lessen with the time apart.

I didn't know how to feel about that.

Father paused from that, and after some hesitation, he got up from the bed as he gestured for me to get up and follow him as we made our way across the house to the attic. He pulled down the fold upstairs and we made our way through the cramped space...

I saw items and crafts made by my mother before her disease made her so tired even that became a challenge, my heart sped faster as my father cast the objects a sad glance as he opened a small safe hidden in the corner and took out a small box as he handed it to me, no words exchanged when I finally opened the lid.

Immediately I saw my mother's smile.

It was warm, the way I always remembered it being, she was younger in this old photo, maybe only in her twenties as she wore a kimono at some festival, my father had a yukata on and was blushing from the photo as she excitedly hugged him.

I flipped through them, my heart racing as I saw more of their time together, including their wedding day but I wish I hadn't seen the way my mother's body only seemed to grow frailer as time went on...

Finally one showed her tired face as she held a swaddled baby in her arms. The baby in the photo was being fussy, making me embarrassed, yet what caught me off guard was how my father was crying in that photo. Not small silent tears, but tears of joy as he looked at me with eyes of admiration, I paused fingering over the photo as I turned back to my father who seemed a bit teary-eyed.

"Your mother used to say good morning to the stars," he said, "I told her such things were ridiculous and she told me I lacked imagination" he recalled his voice seemed far away. "She was always blunt with me...I needed that, the way you described your friend...well" he left it off there.

I paused not sure how to respond.

"These are my treasures Shuichi," he told me, "if I had known how much time I had left with her, I would've gotten more photos" he remorse. "But what I regret most, was never letting you see these" he added. I sighed, "you were grieving-"

"You lost your mother, you needed me and I didn't...Shuichi, I'm sorry" he apologized. I froze dumbfounded. "You're so much like her...you may not believe me, but it's true. Whenever you're kind to others, or when you try and see the best in them, all I could ever see was your mother...and at the same time not at all like her...more on the timid and self-conscious side...you have an eye for the subtleties, and you have a keen sense of mind, something she never really did...but your heart is all hers, and I never would have had it any other way" he said.

"Just know...she would be proud ok? She would be proud to call you her son, not that I bet she ever doubted that claim, from the second she knew you were coming you had already taken the number one place in her heart" He told me, before sharing with me a genuine smile and eyes full of pride.

"I'm proud as well," he said, and that's when I started crying.