In Drops of God, Issei is not aware that Honoka, his mother, has a complicated history with Alexandre, his teacher. Makiko Watanabe plays the role of Honoka Tomine.
Honoka is a character that does not seem to be attached to her son or her husband, Hirokazu. Even at family dinners, when Issei cooks to make Hirokazu happy, she seems displeased.
She also does not like the fact that her son chose to work in the wine industry. However, she does not dislike his career choice merely because he was a brilliant student who chose to work in an unprofitable industry but because she does not approve of his association with his teacher, Alexandre Léger.
Honoka’s past
In 1990, a young Honoka and Hirokazu visit Domanie Chassangre with a group. They meet Alexandre there. When Honoka does not like the wine that he makes them taste, Alexandre is able to impress her easily with another wine, even though Hirokazu warns him that she is hard to impress.
That night, Honoka and Hirokazu join Alexandre and Philippe’s party, and Honoka seems fascinated by Alexandre and Marianne. That is not the last time she sees Alexandre, as he soon moves to Tokyo in 1991 with Marianne to teach enology at Honoka’s university.
Honoka attends his classes, and Hirokazu follows. Since the students cannot taste wine in class, Alexandre meets them at a wine bar after classes. While teaching his students, Alexandre recognizes Honoka’s natural talent.
Her memory for taste impresses everyone, and Alexandre thinks it is a gift. With time, Alexandre and Honoka grow close and start liking each other.
When Alexandre’s course is canceled by the university because of Hirokazu’s drunken actions, Honoka goes to the bar to keep an upset Alexandre company. Alexandre tries to kiss her that night, but Honoka stops him.
Their story does not end there. Soon, Honoka visits Alexandre at his home when his wife is not there and kisses him. The two of them end up sleeping together and thus begins their affair.
When Alexandre finds out that Marianne is pregnant, Alexandre and Honoka break up, but he does not know that Honoka is also pregnant. Hirokazu, who has always liked Honoka as more than a friend, marries her and raises her child, Issei, as his own son.
Honoka never tells Alexandre about her pregnancy, but he finds out about the child anyway, as the day Camille is born, he sees Hirokazu and Honoka at the hospital with a newborn baby.
Years later, Alexandre takes Issei, who is his student, under his wing, something that he has never done before. He also leaves him with a chance to acquire his fortune, but Honoka does not want to lose her son to Alexandre, so she tries to dissuade him from competing against Camille.
Even when Issei asks his mother about her relationship with Alexandre, she does not tell him the truth. Seeing her relationship with Issei and Hirokazu, it is clear that she has still not moved on completely.
Honoka’s relationship with Hirokazu
In the past, Honoka rejected Hirokazu because he was just a friend to her. She only married him because she was pregnant with Issei. Despite being married for years now, she has not been able to love him.
While Honoka is a wealthy heiress, Hirokazu is just an ordinary employee at her father’s company. Hirokazu keeps making an effort to make her happy and does as she says, but she neither acknowledges his efforts nor respects him.
She only bothers to talk to him when she needs something from him. She forces him to convince Issei to not compete for the fortune, even though he does not want to do that because he actually cares about Issei’s wishes.
Hirokazu is the kind of parent to Issei that Honoka could never be, so when Hirokazu keeps aside his own feelings and repeats her words to Issei, he calls Hirokazu a coward for letting Honoka treat him like this and not having self-respect.
This leaves an impact on him, so when Honoka does not show up to a special anniversary dinner Hirokazu had planned for weeks and calls him useless and incompetent instead for not being able to convince Issei, Hirokazu decides to leave her.
He puts all his expensive belongings, along with his wedding ring, in an envelope and sends it to Honoka with a note inside. Honoka not only keeps her son at arm’s length but also pushes away the man who had been there for her during her worst time.
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