Dad at the Table

My name is Kaoru Kawai.

I’m twenty-four years old and in my second year at the company. I’m tall and slender, standing 183 centimeters tall and weighing about 65 kilograms. People often tell me I’m good-looking, though I’ve never paid much attention to it.

My hobby is flower arranging.

This is my story.

If you have some time, I’d be glad if you stayed with me.

I rarely work overtime.

Finishing every task during working hours is my personal motto.

That evening, after the closing bell rang, I said goodbye to my colleagues and headed straight for the elevator hall.

“Hey, Kaoru.”

Someone called my name from behind.

I turned around.

Tamami, who had joined the company at the same time as me, was standing there with her hands on her hips.

“Leaving on time again, huh?”

“Yep. My shift’s over.”

“You’ve got on-the-job training with the new hire.”

She nodded toward the woman standing beside her.

A tall, thin woman in her thirties lowered her head politely.

“This is Yayoi Akama.”

I shrugged.

“Nice to meet you.”

—————

“Thank you, Mr. Kawai. Your teaching skills are amazing.”

Yayoi Akama spoke with genuine admiration.

We stood inside an abandoned factory.

A dead man lay at our feet.

I glanced at the body before returning my tools to their case.

The assignment had been simple.

I had instructed Akama to carry out the execution herself.

For someone doing this kind of work for the first time, she was remarkably efficient.

It was hard to believe she was a rookie.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s finish up. We’ll hang the body from that beam and make it look like a suicide.”

“Understood.”

Akama immediately moved toward the body.

Using a ladder, she hauled it upward with impressive ease.

Despite her slender frame, she was surprisingly strong.

A few minutes later, we calmly suspended the corpse from the ceiling.

The scene now resembled a suicide.

After leaving the site, we parted ways near the station.

“Thank you.”

Akama gave me a small bow.

“Tamami says you’re one of the most skilled people in the company, even though you’re the youngest.”

I nodded and checked my watch.

There was still enough time before the florist closed.

I might as well pick up some flowers.

——————-

When I returned to my small apartment, I placed the package from the flower shop on the table.

Then I checked my smartphone.

Several voice messages from my mother were waiting for me.

I sighed.

Today was the anniversary of my father’s death.

My father had been a police officer.

He was the type of person who couldn’t ignore someone in trouble.

One day, he intervened in a domestic dispute and was killed by the woman involved.

I was in my second year of junior high school at the time.

My mother cried endlessly.

I didn’t shed a single tear.

Looking back, I had always been a child who rarely showed emotion.

I accepted our family’s tragedy in silence.

My father’s pension and life insurance were the only reasons the two of us managed to stay afloat.

“Kaoru.”

I turned toward the voice.

He was sitting in one of the dining chairs, smiling at me the same way he always had.

“Are you doing okay today?”

I looked into his gentle eyes.

“Yep.”

“Good. Then I’ll warm up your dinner.”

He stood up from the chair and headed toward the kitchen.

He was my father, Kazu.

And he had been dead for years.

To be precise, he was a ghost.

He had returned from the spirit world two years earlier, when I chose this line of work.

After changing clothes, I returned to the kitchen.

Dinner was already waiting on the table.

Dad picked up a cup from the stove and placed it in front of me.

“Thanks, Dad.”

I accepted it.

He smiled softly.

“I got a voicemail from Mom.”

I took a sip of the hot green tea.

“I know,” Dad replied. “She was worried about you all day. Just in case, I told her you were doing fine.”

I looked at him.

He appeared exactly as he had at thirty-eight, the age when he died.

“Thanks, Dad.”

In response, he scratched the back of his head and laughed shyly.

“Want to watch something on TV?”

“Sure.”

I picked up the remote and turned on the television.

The late-night news was reporting that the body of an office worker in his thirties had been discovered hanging inside an abandoned factory.

I knew who he was.

He had been our target tonight.

His name was Yoshio Kubota.

Our organization had received an assignment concerning him.

We had followed him from his office.

When he entered a deserted alley, everything ended in an instant.

“I’d rather watch something else.”

Dad gently took the remote from my hand and changed the channel.

For a while, we watched in silence.

Then he spoke.

“Your mother bought a lot of flowers today.”

His eyes remained fixed on the screen.

“She arranged them all on my altar.”

After Dad died, Mom began teaching flower arranging classes from home to support us.

“Your love of flowers probably comes from her,” he said with a smile.

“Maybe.”

I shrugged.

Then something caught in my chest.

Trying to sound casual, I asked,

“Dad… do you think the man from today has gone somewhere peaceful?”

It was nothing more than a passing question.

Dad fell silent.

I immediately regretted asking.

He seemed troubled by it.

I was about to change the subject when he slowly shook his head.

“I don’t know, Kaoru.”

His eyes seemed darker than usual.

Bottomless.

“So where did you come back from?” I asked quietly.

Dad lowered his gaze.

“I… don’t remember.”

His voice was soft.

“The only thing I remember is worrying about you and your mother.”

The room fell silent.

Outside, the city continued moving through the night.

I work for an organization of assassins.

Clients submit requests, executives review them, and assignments eventually reach people like me.

And every night, I return home to my father’s ghost.