Even Today, the Genius High School Programmer Cashes In on Day Trades, Completely Flustered by Beautiful Girls' Growing Affection. - Chapter 32: A Place to Let It Out.

A Place to Let It Out.

The fireworks show had ended, and we boarded the train.

As expected, the carriage was packed. Still, I managed to secure a spot for Yukina near the door.

Inside the train, we quietly exchanged thoughts about the fireworks.

We spoke less than usual, yet my heart felt strangely full. I wondered if she felt the same.

It was already past ten at night.

There was no way I could let Yukina go home alone. When I offered to walk her back, she accepted with a small nod.

It took only about three minutes on foot from the nearest station to reach her house—a perfectly ordinary single-family home.

“Bye-bye,” Yukina said with a gentle smile, giving a small wave in her yukata.

To put it modestly, she looked like a goddess. She could have been on a festival poster.

I waited until she had gone inside before turning toward my own home. My apartment was on the fifth floor of a nearby building.

The moment I opened the door and stepped into the living room—

“Oh, welcome back~”

There sat a middle-aged man drinking beer.

Ooyama Haruki. My old man.

“How was the fireworks?”

“It was good.”

“Yeah? The last time we went together, you were still in elementary school.”

“That sounds about right.”

“Who’d you go with?”

I hesitated for a split second.

“A friend.”

“A girl, right?”

Espers really do exist.

“Nice~ You’re really living your youth, huh?”

For some reason, Dad looked genuinely happy.

“Back when I was in high school, I went to a festival with my girlfriend at the time. She wore a yukata, and the obi cinched her waist so tight… man, her chest really stood out. Just imagining what her breasts looked like under that thin fabric was enough to get me excited.”

A genuine breast enthusiast was living under the same roof.

What kind of advanced technique was “imagining breasts under a yukata,” anyway?

Wait… did I really inherit this guy’s genes?

“Oh right, you mentioned you went to the pool recently too, didn’t you? Wow… the day my son actually goes out and has fun with friends has finally come. Your old man is deeply moved. Back then, the only one who ever came over was Makise-kun.”

“I’m still kind of confused about it myself.”

“Nah, it’s a good sign. A very good sign.”

Dad drained his glass and immediately poured himself another from the bottle.

After that, we talked about school grades, upcoming tests, and stock investments. Since Dad also dabbled in stocks, he had quite a bit of knowledge. That said, he was a fundamentals-oriented long-term investor, so our styles were completely different.

Dad had always been good at listening to me. He gave me a great deal of freedom and trusted my own judgment. I didn’t know how other families worked, but I thought our relationship wasn’t bad at all.

“Recently, your expressions have really changed,” he suddenly said.

“Have they?”

“Yeah. Before, you were like some super-intelligent AI cyborg. Now you feel a lot more… human.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

Dad laughed out loud and took another sip of beer.

For some reason, I found myself asking him this:

“Hey… do you think meeting Mom was a good thing?”

“Huh? Where’s this coming from all of a sudden?”

Dad gave a wry smile.

“Ah, never mind. Forget I asked.”

What the hell am I even saying…?

“Of course it was a good thing.”

Dad answered instantly, his voice rising with conviction.

“If I hadn’t married your mother, you wouldn’t have been born, right?”

He smiled brightly as he said it.

“After I got laid off, things got really tough and your mother eventually left… but even so, I still believe marrying her was the right choice.”

I clearly remembered how, after Dad lost his job, the number of fights between my parents had skyrocketed.

I still wondered what could have been done differently back then.

Or maybe this outcome had been the best possible solution.

Thinking about it now was pointless, though.

“Kousuke.”

Dad’s tone dropped again, becoming quieter.

“When it hurts, you have to say that it hurts.”

I didn’t reply.

“You’ve always been strangely mature for your age. The way you never complain or show weakness… you probably take after your late grandfather.”

So basically, I’m not honest?

“But when you get hurt, you really do have to say ‘it hurts.’ If you leave the wound alone or try to hide it under a scab, even when you become an adult, the pus will stay trapped inside.”

I couldn’t find any words to respond with.

“I’m gonna take a bath.”

That was all I could manage.

I left the living room and headed toward my own room. Just as the door was closing behind me, I thought I heard Dad murmur something.

“…It’d be nice if you had a place where you could let it all out…”