Kirishima Keima & Kirishima Saki
Content warning: internalized homophobia, abusive parenting, mommy issues, mentions of character death.
This is one messy mother and son relationship. Their relationship was marked by the younger son's, Kirishima Kinshou's (Kin) death.
Kirishima Saki is a young mother married to an older man. She doesn't feel very close to her husband. She's also a pretty sensitive person who cares about what other people think of her. The death of her son scars her emotionally and she doesn't receive any professional help about it. Her coping mechanism becomes focusing on her living son, the eldest. Her helicopter-parenting becomes a form of control which her son rejects completely.
The second event that marks this relationship is when she finds that her son and his best friend are dating. She isn't knowledgeable about LBGT+ identities aside from homosexuality so she believes her son likes boys and cannot understand the nuance behind her son's choice of partner. She also believes that her son ending up like this is a consequence of her parenting and that she did something wrong. The relationship getting out would be very bad for her social standing as well.
Keima is heartbroken from the rejection and behaves even more rebellious. He brings Kiyoshi to the house despite his mother's protests and they fight constantly about the relationship.
Keima becomes so fed up that he decides to follow Kiyoshi to the U.S. He puts distance between him and his mother, ignoring a lot of her calls.
Several years later, Kiyoshi and Keima return to Japan during Winter vacation. Things are very different.
During this time, Saki has sought to learn about LBGT+. She works on her internalized homophobia and accepts her son's relationship.
When they meet, she tells him about the change and that she supports his way of life.
Keima has conflicting feelings about this. One because he finds it hard to believe. It makes him happy but explaining again that he doesn't like men makes it clear that his mother isn't quite there yet. She doesn't understand that he only likes Kiyoshi or that he's asexual.
Unaware of her son's plight, she tells him that she wants her son to be happy. She tells him one of the things that bring her joy as a mother is to see her son get married. She highlights how the city is opening legal avenues for same-sex relationships to be recognized and how such relationships have gained social acceptance. Nevertheless, she believes marriage is the only way for a relationship to be legitimate. She paints a pretty picture of marriage and that if he loves Kiyoshi very much, it would make her the happiest to see them tie the knot.
Keima becomes so emotional that he latches onto make this "small happiness as a mother" a reality. All this time, he craved for her mother's support and understanding. He chastises himself for being overjoyed that his mother supports his relationship. He should be more independent.
After the meeting, he becomes absorbed in the little piece of acceptance he was given that he forgets about what he wasn't given or the reality about his relationship with Kiyoshi.
They have both been in a mutual understanding that marriage isn't something that either wants out of the relationship. They have an open relationship where Kiyoshi seeks to one day make it a polyamorous relationship. Nothing much aside from Kiyoshi having one night stands has happened so far but Kiyoshi wants to get married and have kids. Keima does not want that. He doesn't believe he would make a good parent.
Keima becomes enthralled with the idea of Kiyoshi and him getting married. He sees their relationship through rose-tinted glasses and believes Kiyoshi might change his mind.
Kiyoshi, after knowing what he wants, rarely changes his mind. The proposal ends up in rejection and it blows Keima's self-esteem. It takes them a couple of months to get back to their baseline, and a few days for Kiyoshi to be comfortable about the whole story behind the proposal.
Keima acknowledges he got carried away by his mother's "delusion" and apologizes for disrespecting the boundaries of their relationship. He's more clear-headed and recalls the flaws in the discussion with his mother—that she didn't understand asexuality and that she pushed the idea of marriage onto Keima when neither he nor Kiyoshi wanted it.
Their trip to Japan would make a really good short story. I should test out making an outline and a rough draft.
Also, writing this made me think that Kirishima Saki doesn't like men but women exclusive. What do you know? Truly like mother like son. More on that in another post.