Chapter 39: My Fiancée is an Ordinary Girl

TL: lime
ED: Spynine01

A/N:

A little longer than usual.

The four of us are seated at the dining room table, with Shiori’s mother-Kotoha-san――invited in with us.

When Shiori’s mother sits next to her, all I can feel is――she really looks just like her.

――No… When the two of them stand side by side each other, Kotoha-san looks like a mature woman, and Shiori looks like she hasn’t even been scrubbed yet. You can’t tell them apart until you look at them with a side by side comparison though.

Is that what you call a beautiful witch?

“Only Kotoha? What about Taichi-senpai?”

When Mom asked, she replied with a wry smile that I would never ever see in Shiori, scratching her head and saying, “No―.”

“He bumped into a friend from junior high school on his way home, and since it looked like it was going to be a long conversation, I came here first.”

I felt quite uncomfortable in this situation.

She has Shiori’s face, but she speaks in such a familiar way compared to her.

“Junior highschool school― That’s not our area of expertise.”

“That’s right. Who? Who? I am confused.”

Kotoha laughs and says, then looks around and asks.

“If you say that, then what about Hiro-senpai? Is he in the bathroom by any chance?”

She calls my dad “senpai” and my mom with an “honorific,”――though I wouldn’t really call it much of a honorific――.

My mom and dad are the same age, and they call Shiori’s dad their senpai――.

In other words――Shiori’s father is the oldest, my dad and mom are right after him, and Shiori’s mother is probably the youngest of the four.

“Fufu~. Bingo.”

“Shiori’s mother is the youngest of the three.”

The parents laughed at each other, while the children were left behind with nothing to say.

Perhaps noticing this, Kotoha-san looked at me and started to speak.

“Ko-chan. Do you remember me?”

She pointed to herself and smiled at me.

“Ah, I’m sorry… Wait…”

I felt guilty that she remembered me and I didn’t, but she smiled brightly and answered.

“That’s right, we only met once, ten years ago. It’s a pity, though. We had taken a bath together.”

“I-Is that so…”

Kotoha said with a mischievous smile on her face.

“You buried your face in my chest, saying, ‘You’re softer than my mother’.”

“PFFT!”

When I blurted it out, I realized that Shiori was looking at me with a condescending look that could have killed me with just a glance.

The way she looks at trash when it’s the perverted kind――too scary…

“That’s my boy. You’re a pervert… You’re a very thoroughbred pervert.”

Mom nodded sagely and said.

“What are you talking about here! You’re the pervert here!”

What is this mother saying to me in front of other people?

“AHAHA! Is that what you’re doing to Shiori now?”

“No! No way would I do that to her!”

When I denied it, Kotoha-san clapped her hands and understood something, “I see.”

“Shiori doesn’t have the breasts to do it after all!”

“Shut up.”

Even the quintessential Shiori looked angry at her parents for saying such a thing.

“Areh? Maybe muka chakka faiya?”

“She’s punpunmaru.”

Agh. She’s my father’s junior, after all. Her phrasing is a little old-fashioned.

“Don’t get mad. I’ll buy some candy for you later.”

“No thanks.”

“All right. You want some candy?”

No, no, you can’t make a high school girl happy with candy after such a-

“Compota flavor.”

“Okay.”

It worked… And it seems that she likes the compota flavor…

“――But isn’t that too long, Hiro-senpai? Well, when we were in college, it always took long.”

“You’re right. His ass is going to split in two if he keeps this up.”

“Mou~, Mio-senpai. Humans already have a split over there.”

“Oh dear! AHAHA!”

Shiori said to her mother, “Excuse me,” as the two women laughed at each other’s silly jokes.

“Can I use your bathroom?”

“Oh, yes. Then let’s go and check on Hiro-kun while we’re at it. If he’s still holed up over there, we’ll have to kick him out. ――Let’s go, Shiori-chan. This way.”

Mom and Shiori got up and walked out of the living room together.

――Mom called Dad “Hiro-kun”… I feel quite uncomfortable with it, but I guess that’s what she used to call him in the past…

I think it’s like I just met an old friend and left.

“AHAHA. Your father still has a weak stomach, doesn’t he?”

“Has it always been that way?”

“Yes, he has. It’s just a setup though.”

“A setup?”

When I asked, Kotoba-san laughed and told me.

“He used to lie and say ‘I had a stomach ache’, run to the bathroom and skip a few hours of practice in the process.”

What a cunning father.

――So that’s it? So he lied about that too? He’s a hell of a father.

“――Ko-chan. I’m sorry.”

Kotoha-san suddenly bows her head and apologizes.

“For suddenly pushed my daughter on you. Your father and mother said that they’d tell you about the situation, but apparently they didn’t talk to Ko-chan about it at all…”

“Ah, no…”

I used to think that if I ever met her parents face to face, I’d give them a good talk! But now that some time has passed and I’m being bowed to face to face, I’m feeling very tense.

“I was actually planning to take Shiori abroad with me, but she insisted on staying in Japan, and as a parent, I was worried about what to do because I didn’t like the idea of a high school girl living all alone. Then Hiro-senpai made a suggestion about this matter, you know?  And so I took advantage of it.”

“As for living together… Well, if that’s what you want,―― I don’t really have a problem with it… My parents have more power than I do because my mom and dad are the ones who provide for me… I obey them faithfully.――But, you know… You can’t just suddenly ask me to be her fiance――”

When I make a troubled voice, Kotoha says with a smile of a young mischievous child from the expression of the adult who apologized earlier.

“Ara? Isn’t that setting more interesting though?”

“No, it’s not! I was so confused at first!”

When I said that, she said, “At first… Hey…” in a meaningful way.

“――You’re right… I’m sorry that I didn’t fully understand your feelings about the matter… I’m sorry about that too.”

After saying that, she smiles bitterly.

“She doesn’t show her emotions often, does she? It’s called an iron mask. So I can understand why Ko-chan has a hard time with her.”

I felt a little annoyed because it sounded like she was saying that they were struggling with this too.

“――That’s not the case.”

I denied it, thinking back to the days I had spent with Shiori, even though it was still the early days.

“Eh?”

“Shiori is crying, laughing, angry, happy――she’s showing her emotions in her own way. She doesn’t have an iron mask. She’s an ordinary girl.”

In response to my words, Kotoha-san says with a somewhat happy face.

“You’re really paying attention to Shiori, aren’t you?”

“Ah… No… I’m――”

I am embarrassed by what she said, and I choke on my previous words.

“I can trust you with Shiori, Ko-chan. I think I’d agree with you if you two got married.”

“No, we’re not getting married――”

“You’ll have a beautiful wife who looks just like me, and you don’t like it?”

You said it yourself… I regret not being able to deny it.

“AHAHA. Well, you don’t have to take it so seriously, because the idea of getting married was something we said in a light-hearted way.”

After saying that, Kotoha-san put on a serious, mature woman’s face and bowed her head once more.

“She’s a crude daughter, but please continue to support her in the future.”

“Ah, no, it is I who should say so to her…”

As I was bowing my head, Shiori came back in front of me.

There was no sign of my mother following behind her.

“Ah! Shiori! Did you hear that? Did you hear Ko-chan’s line just now!?”

“Hear what?”

“Hey! I just said Ko-chan was really handsome! What a shame!”

“Really. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Shiori said that she hadn’t heard Kotoha-san’s words, but I felt that her current expression was somewhat of a happy one.

♢

Later, Dad came back with Mom from the bathroom after a long day.

It wasn’t that they had spent a long time in the bathroom together, but it was because they were on the phone for work. And apparently, Mom had joined along for the ride too.

And then came Taichi, Shiori’s father.

He didn’t look much like Shiori, but he was her father, so I felt like he had a similar vibe to her.

When Taichi-san saw me, he immediately bowed his head, greeted me and apologized for the incident.

I had already heard from Kotoha-san, so I gave the exact same response to Taichi-san, and he reacted in the same way as Kotoha-san did.

They really are a married couple――.

The Nanasegawa family had returned to Japan and were planning to stay at a business hotel since they didn’t have a home, but my father suggested that they stay at my parents’ house while they were in Japan, so they decided to stay here.

The reason why Shiori and I were summoned was because they were coming to my parents house and they wanted to talk to us directly about this matter.

If we had refused the call, the four adults would have come to my house instead.

That was scary. I’m glad I went home honestly.

“My father told me to stay the night since it was still winter vacation, but I decided that it would be wrong to interrupt the gathering of four good friends, so I’ve decided to go home before dark.”

To tell the truth, I just wanted to go home as soon as possible.

“The two of you want to go back to your love nest as soon as possible huh,” they said, letting Kotoha-san teasing words slide by――but the slightly complicated look on Taichi’s face was very striking.

“You’re… in a good mood huh?”

On our way home――.

As we walked together from the station to my house, I noticed that Shiori was in a good mood.

“Is that so?”

“Were you happy to see your parents for the first time in a long time?”

When I said that, she stared at me and then let out a small sigh.

“Well… I don’t know.”

“Hmm? What is it then?”

When I ask her about it, Shiori chuckles and says.

“I’m not going to tell you, insensitive Kojiro.”

She said and started walking quickly.

“Ah, wait. ――What is itー? I’m curiousー! Tell meー.”

“I won’t tell you.”

In the end, I couldn’t ask her why she was in such a good mood, but she remained in a good mood all the way until the end of the winter vacation.

A/N:

The new semester starts next time!

I’ll see you in the new semester!