Arashi is the tie that binds

TTT_TTT This is written by a single mother whose 6th-grade daughter suffered from acute lymphoblastic leukemia in toddlerhood and presently has adenomatous goiter:

The reason why we, mother and daughter, became Arashi fans

Around April of last year, my daughter started to say that Aiba-kun, who appears on a certain animal show, is "cool".
I was anti-Arashi, and so continued to ignore such declarations by my daughter.
And since she never asked me, not even once, to buy her this or that magazine or CD, I figured her interest was merely a passing one.

However, when she saw this particular magazine on display at a store at around October, for the first time ever she wanted so badly to own an idol magazine.
Yes.
By that time, she has completely become an Arashi fan.
Not only that, her favorite is not Aiba-kun, but Sakurai Sho-kun.

But, as expected of someone who was anti-Arashi, I didn't take too kindly to this development.
Still, I did rent their CDs from the rental shop, but only their albums.

So, the reason why even I myself became an Arashi fan...
At that time, my daughter did not have many friends at school, and it seems that she suffered from some light bullying.
It might also be because of her condition, but when the two of us had a huge argument once,

My daughter appealed to me in tears:

"I've tried killing myself."

"But, I've stopped after becoming an Arashi fan."

She said something like that to me.
To be quite honest, I was surprised.
Outwardly she showed no such signs, and was very bright and cheerful.
Certainly she didn't hang out with friends after school and such, but since I thought our relationship as mother and daughter was going well,

I was honestly shocked by her teary-eyed appeal:

"Mama, you don't try to understand me."

It was from then on.
That I seriously began to consider just what kind of group this Arashi is, that my daughter loves so much.
I carefully read the Arashi books I bought her. I read their articles in magazines.
And so "anti" changed to "understanding", and further transformed to "fan".

In a sense, this was quite a stunning turn of events for me.
I mean, to be "anti" is to find everything about something wrong and disagreeable.
But when one tries to "understand" it and becomes a "fan", everything turns to happiness, and one can only look upon it in a positive way.
I think the biggest surprise was my own personal change.

And now we, mother and daughter, are fans of Sakurai Sho-kun, and we've been able to collect all of their albums and several of their singles.
We constantly listen to Arashi songs, whether in the house or in the car.
Not only that, we've also bought several of their concert DVDs, and watch them while going "kya~ kya~" together.
We also went for the first time to their concert the other day, and have come to spend such a lovely and wonderful time together. ♥♥

TTT_TTT I feel like giving everyone a group hug *virtually group hugs everyone*