SNOS-474 A married mother who isn’t getting attention from her husband feels a renewed spark with a younger coworker at her part-time job, Yume no Aika

I can no longer go back to being a wife or a mother—
because I’ve learned what it means to be wanted.

I got married and went from being a woman to being a wife.
Then I had a child and went from wife to mother.

I had been a full-time homemaker for 10 years.
Since giving birth, my husband had never held me once.

Even I had stopped expecting that kind of affection from him.
I had convinced myself that this was just what family life was like.

As my child became more independent,
I began thinking about the future and asked my husband if I could take a part-time job.
He agreed, though reluctantly.

For the first time in a long while, I felt the joy, fulfillment, and freedom of being part of society again.

That alone was enough of a change of pace,
but meeting a young male part-timer at the convenience store where I worked became a turning point in my life.

A boy about a decade younger than me kept praising me, saying I was beautiful and cute.
I thought he might be teasing me, but he was sincere.

At home, I was like air—
something that was simply there.

Feeling isolated and empty,
I was swept up by the attention of a young man who showed me affection.

Someone still saw me as a woman…

He was inexperienced.
Because of that, he was earnest, devoted, and hardworking,
and he seemed to have everything my husband lacked.

He was adorable… and it made my heart race.
My heart, and even my body, fluttered with excitement.
And so, we began an affair.

Even during work, we would find chances to meet in the back room or the changing area, careful not to be noticed.

It felt like the youth I had lost had come back to me.

As I started coming home later and later,
my husband began to suspect something…
He was growing suspicious…

Even so, I did not end the relationship.
I could no longer return to my old life.

I want to remain a woman.
I want to be desired.
I want to be needed.