The Honest Four-Year-Old
“Cut!”
The moment filming began I had to call cut, yet a little bouquet of laughter bloomed across the set.
“Luca! What do you think you’re doing, pulling Daddy’s hair!”
Reni, smart enough to understand exactly what was happening, planted both hands on his hips and scolded his little brother. Luca only glanced at him once and showed no intention of letting go of my hair.
“Ow-ow, Luca, just a second……”
No one who has never been on the receiving end can know how strong those tiny hands can pull. I carefully set the child safely on the counter and pried open his tightly clenched fingers one by one.
Luca tugged on my hair from time to time. Most days there was no particular reason; he simply did it unconsciously because my head happened to be right in front of him. Occasionally, though, there was a very definite reason.
I studied the little boy sitting quietly on the counter, holding my hand without so much as a fidget. ……Is he nervous?
Had the sudden lights shining on him startled him? Or, even though he seemed so much better these days, was it still uncomfortable to be in a strange place surrounded by so many unfamiliar people?
Even while Mello climbed onto the set and restyled my hair, Luca sat perfectly still. He really is anxious, isn’t he? Maybe my own tension is rubbing off on him.
Luca wasn’t a child who failed to read the room; he simply chose not to care about reading it. The thought made my heart ache for the baby.
I’m sorry. Daddy should have done better…… A vague guilt settled over me.
And right then, Luca fixed his gaze on one particular spot and tensed.
“……Ah.”
I finally understood. Facing the darkness where the director was probably sitting, I called out,
“I’m sorry. I’ll just go change the baby’s diaper and be right back.”
After changing Luca’s diaper I returned to the set and spotted Reni surrounded by people, soaking up every bit of their affection. Surprisingly, he seemed to enjoy being the center of attention; his eyes sparkled. The same child who always grew shy around strangers was beaming like that. It was quite unexpected.
“…….”
Luca, looking thoroughly refreshed, no longer appeared bothered by the unfamiliar surroundings at all. I stared at the baby who was radiating cool nonchalance with a blank expression. He met my eyes, tilted his head, and then grinned. You little rascal. You tricked me. Just wait until we get home.
If we had been at home I would have tickled him mercilessly and blown raspberries on his belly, but for various reasons that was impossible right now. Instead, before filming resumed, I approached the director with a suggestion.
“Director, the most natural scenes we get at home are actually……”
I briefly described our everyday kitchen routine. The director listened carefully and nodded.
“Oh, that sounds great. Shall we try it that way?”
I had only mentioned it on the off chance, yet he accepted the idea at once and immediately had the stage reset. Yes—this was how we always did it at home.
I sat Luca and Reni in their little high chairs and turned them so they faced me rather than the cameras.
“They really do look more comfortable.”
“This is how we do it at home. Baking or cooking right in front of the kids while they eat is just our everyday life.”
It happened to be snack time anyway, so everything worked out perfectly. Even though the location had changed, the familiar arrangement remained. Once I handed them the familiar snacks we had brought from home, both boys forgot everyone around them and busied themselves stuffing food into their mouths with both hands.
Sitting with our backs to the people and the lights, they seemed a little more at ease—or maybe that was just my imagination.
After a moment of envy for the kids, I stood behind the counter wondering what to make for the camera when Kelly offered advice: since we had the counter all to ourselves, we should start with cake sheets that needed resting time. That way, even if we reshot the close-ups later, we could skip the waiting periods while gelatin set or sheets cooled and move straight into the next take.
It was a solid time-saving plan, so I nodded readily. My only real desire was to finish filming quickly so the children could rest; any leftover nerves had already vanished.
The director gave the cue again, and I launched into my usual one-man show with the boys as my audience.
“All right, Daddy’s going to make a cake now.”
“Yeees!”
“Mm.”
The children answered with bright smiles. A sudden thought struck me: maybe they were smiling because the lights made Daddy’s face look so bright. My guess turned out to be half right. Reni chewed and swallowed a bite of muffin, then asked out of nowhere,
“Daddy, why are you wearing such nice clothes today?”
“Hmm? Oh, because we’re filming with the big cameras today, so Daddy dressed up pretty.”
I cracked an egg into the bowl as I answered. At least the practice of the last few days hadn’t been wasted—I no longer had to ruin the shot by saying something lame like “Let me just check the recipe.”
Reni, however, didn’t seem satisfied. He tilted his head and asked again,
“But we have cameras at home every day?”
Huh? Was that his way of asking why I never dressed up at home? I looked up from the bowl I was whipping. The child’s expression was pure curiosity. Suddenly I felt like teasing him, so I smiled and asked,
“Why? Is Daddy not handsome at home?”
Reni giggled and squirmed.
“Umm…… It’s not that you’re not handsome……”
So I’m not handsome, then. I mischievously latched onto the trailing end of his sentence.
“Not that……?”
“Daddy, at home you wear the same clothes every single day.”
Ah. Baby, if you say it like that people might get the wrong idea. I almost stammered in mild panic but managed to recover with something that wasn’t quite an excuse.
“No way. Daddy changes clothes every day.”
“Umm…… Daddy always, alwaaays! White, black, white, black……”
I had nothing to say to that. My mouth clamped shut and my hands simply kept working. At least they moved smoothly without missing a step—small mercies.
Well…… It was true that at home I basically rotated the same roomy white and black T-shirts like a uniform. Even in my flustered state I remembered that I did dress up a little when I performed at Lemon Soup Pub on Saturdays.
“But, but Daddy dresses up on Saturdays. So it’s not every day.”
Reni, however, was a walking fact-checker.
“Yeah, but never as pretty as today!”
“Pfft!”
“Ahaha!”
The child’s blunt declaration set the surrounding staff laughing again. Come on, even if the microphones weren’t picking up sound, you shouldn’t laugh that openly. Feeling my face heat a little, I mumbled,
“Today, today’s a special day.”
“Umm, okay.”
Reni nodded as if that explanation was acceptable, then added one more thing.
“Then I wish every day was a special day.”
Ah. So what Reni had really wanted to say was that he liked it when Daddy dressed up nicely. I grinned and asked,
“Do you like it when Daddy dresses pretty?”
“Yeah!”
“Okay. From now on……”
Honestly, I couldn’t make any promises. This look had been created by professionals since early morning.
“Um. From now on……”
I tried to trail off vaguely, but Reni sat there with a juice-box straw in his mouth, head tilted, waiting for my answer.
“Daddy will try really hard……”
“Okay!”
He answered happily. I had thought it would be enough just to dress the kids up cute; apparently that wasn’t the case.
“Jun, smile a little brighter! Happily! Energetically!”
Weren’t we supposed to be capturing natural moments? Director, would you be able to smile right now?
After many twists and turns we finally finished the kitchen shoot. Once I had visited the restroom and had my makeup touched up, we were scheduled to move straight to the living-room set right next door and continue filming.
Apparently pleased with how things had gone so far, Kelly approached us with a bright face.
“Okay, how about our babies wear these now?”
She held out star-shaped and heart-shaped sunglasses for the children.
“……Wow! Wow!”
Before Luca even had a chance to choose, the star sunglasses became Reni’s. They were a little big, completely hiding the child’s eyes. That should work fine.
“Daddy, can I keep these?”
I ruffled the thoroughly excited boy’s hair and pointed at Kelly.
“Not Daddy—you have to ask Kelly here, the one who gave them to you.”
Reni held the sunglasses with both hands, lowered them slightly, and looked up at Kelly with sparkling eyes, still too shy to actually ask. Strangely enough, when it was just one-on-one he turned bashful again. Kelly found it adorable and laughed heartily as she told him of course he could keep them. Reni happily pushed the sunglasses back up.
I put the heart-shaped pair on Luca, who had been staring blankly at his brother. The child froze exactly as he was. Swallowing a laugh, I lowered the sunglasses a little and asked,
“Luca, isn’t it cool? The whole world is pink, huh?”
“…….”
When I slid the glasses back over his wide round eyes, something must have struck him as funny, because he grinned.
“How’s that? This way even if we film them from the front their privacy is protected, right?”
In the kitchen we had only captured the children’s side and back profiles, but the upcoming interview made that impossible. This had been Kelly’s clever solution after fretting over the problem.
“Yes, I think it’s perfect.”
All that remained with the kids was to film a short video based on the interviews we had already done.
“All right, shall we move over and shoot the interview footage?”
Kelly pointed to the set that faithfully recreated a typical American living room. Reni scampered over and, completely naturally, kicked off his shoes at the edge of the set.
“Ah, Reni, here we……”
But before I could say anything he had already picked up one of the toys placed on the set, plopped down on the floor, and leaned his back against the sofa. I quickly set Luca on the sofa and scooped Reni up as well before anyone could comment.
“Today let’s play on the sofa.”
“Huh? Why?”
I glanced sideways at the people around us and smiled.
“Well, our Reni sits nicely on the sofa at home too, right?”
Reni looked back and forth between me and the staff, then whispered in my ear,
“Nooo.”
Couldn’t you just let it slide this once? When I gave an awkward smile, he whispered again.
“Daddy always sits on the floor. I’m gonna sit with you.”
At least he was whispering—small mercies. I leaned in and whispered back like we were sharing a secret.
“Today Daddy’s going to sit on the sofa too.”
“Oh! Then I want to be on the sofa too.”