Chapter 0
I don't have a mother.
It was a fact I realized long, long ago, when I was very young.
Actually, it didn't bother me all that much. After all, I had my father and grandmother.
I had no mean-spirited friends who would tease me for being an orphan, and with my grandmother taking my mother's place, I think I grew up without feeling particularly deprived.
Even so, there were times when I wished I had a mother.
The most notable occasions were graduation and entrance ceremonies.
All my friends came with their parents, while only my father came, since my grandmother was ill.
Only at times like that did I achingly long for the presence of a mother I had never had.
But only now did I realize it. Even without a mother, simply having a father or grandmother was a considerable stroke of luck.
“You don't have your dad this time, either?”
A second life. Just one day after it began, I realized that I had neither a mom nor a dad.