The Most Beautiful Girl in School Has Become a Mother - Chapter 18: Dad and Mom and Name

For now, I guided Imiya-san to the living room and sat the three of us across the table. Shuri and I faced each other, and Imiya-san sat next to my sister.

However… Even though they shook hands, Shuri still seems tense and doesn’t say a word. She’s completely frozen.

“Um… what should I do…?”

Imiya-san is also looking back and forth between me and Shuri with a troubled expression.

It’s only natural that she’s troubled. I asked her to play the role of “mom,” but if the daughter herself doesn’t say what she wants, there’s nothing I can do. Of course, I don’t know what my sister wants either.

Moreover, I thought it wouldn’t be good if this situation continued for too long.

Even so, Imiya-san said she didn’t know the right way to be a mother because she had no memories of her own mother. She might feel responsible, thinking that since she didn’t know her mother, she wouldn’t know what her own child would want. I wanted to avoid that situation at all costs.

“Shuri, didn’t you want to play with mom?”

My younger sister reacted to those words, looked up at Imiya-san, and nodded, but then immediately lowered her face again.

Imiya-san also looks at me with a troubled expression, but I don’t understand what Shuri wants either.

──I should have done a bit more research.

It’s too late, but I regret it.

Since she had been saying how much she wanted to see her mom, I thought that once they met, things she wanted to do would come to her easily. At least, that’s what I would have expected from the usual Shuri.

──Is Imiya-san something special to Shuri?

However, if things stay as they are, it will be bad. What should I do?

For now, I was thinking of calming the atmosphere with the snacks I planned to bring out a little later—just as I started to think that, Imiya-san glanced at the low table in the corner of the living room.

On the table, the drawing paper and colored pencils are still left there.

“Shuri-chan, were you drawing?”

Imiya-san smiled gracefully and asked Shuri.

“…Yeah.”

“Well then, big sister… I mean, Mom, shall we draw together?”

“Mom” offered a suggestion to “her daughter” with a gentle smile, as if she were the Virgin Mary.

At those words, my younger sister looked up at Imiya-san, relaxed her cheeks, and cheerfully nodded, saying “Yes!”

When Imiya-san and my younger sister moved to the low table, they sat side by side.

──What? She’s totally fine.

Even though I said I didn’t know the correct answer, it seems like she made the choice that is considered the best solution.

Maybe Shuri didn’t care what she did as long as she could play with her mom. And I think it was only because it was Imiya-san that she could see through that.

“Did Shuri-chan draw all of this?”

Imiya-san looked at the various drawings on the drawing paper and asked.

On the drawing paper, animals and Pokemon characters that are popular at the kindergarten are depicted in a variety of colors. It’s a drawing that makes you think it’s quite well done for a five-year-old.

“Yeah!”

“Shuri-chan, your drawings are really good.”

“Hehe. Ah, but this was drawn by Big Brother.”

Shuri pointed at the artistic Doraemon I had drawn.

“Big brother… your drawing isn’t very good.”

Imiya-san gives me a strained smile and looks at me.

Hey, what’s with that face? That’s rude.

“Yeah, big brother, you’re bad at this!”

My sister’s candid words pierce my heart like a dagger, adding insult to injury.

Well, I can’t say it was good even as a compliment. However, I worked hard looking at reference images to make my sister happy. She didn’t appreciate it at all, though.

“Shut up, say it’s artistic, artistic.”

“Calling this artistic is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think? Sanada-kun, your art grades are pretty low, right?”

“Yeah, I knew I was bad at it, so I didn’t even bother to choose it in the first place…”

“Yeah, that’s the correct answer.”

Imiya-san chuckles and says.

Damn it, what a terrible thing to say. But if my being insulted makes the conversation go smoothly, then so be it. The fact is, without color, I couldn’t even tell if it was Doraemon or not; it was that bad of a drawing.

“Hey, Shuri-chan. Can Mom join you in drawing too?”

“Yeah!”

And so, the two of them began drawing.

Since I didn’t have anything particular to do, I was absentmindedly watching the two of them drawing side by side while sharpening the rounded tips of my colored pencils.

Imiya-san’s drawing skills are frustratingly good. The drawings are not only skillful but also cute, making them irresistible for preschoolers.

“Wow! Mom, you’re amazing!”

After seeing the picture of Doraemon drawn by Imiya-san, she is highly praised.

My Doraemon is so good that it doesn’t even qualify as a doodle. Damn it, this is frustrating.

“Imiya-san is really good at drawing.”

While putting the sharpened colored pencils back in the case, I say.

I have the impression that many girls are surprisingly good at drawing, but did she practice when she was little?

“Really? I never thought I was that good at it myself.”

“Hey, isn’t it just plain cute? It’s a hundred times better than my Doraemon.”

“Well, compared to Sanada-kun…”

“Hey.”

When I made a retort, Imiya-san stuck out her tongue. It’s infuriating but cute.

When I was having such a conversation with Imiya-san, Shuri was looking at me and her with a puzzled expression.

“What’s wrong?”

Since she had a face that seemed like she wanted to say something, I asked her.

“Don’t Mom and Dad call each other by their names?”

“──Buh!?”

“──Cough cough.”

I burst out laughing at my sister’s outrageous remark, and Imiya-san was coughing.

I don’t even know where to start with the corrections. Everything was going wrong in various ways.

“Wait, wait, wait. Why am I the dad? I’m the older brother, right?”

In reality, Shuri’s biological father exists, and he is also my biological father. I don’t know where he is or what he is doing now—he’s probably at the company anyway—but he certainly exists.

Besides, just a moment ago, she was calling me “big brother.” How did it suddenly change to “dad”?

“When Mom is here, Big Brother is Dad.”

“What the heck is that outrageous setup?”

However, if I think about it for a moment, it’s only natural for her to have that question.

Yesterday, I was suspected of having a “motherly hobby” by Imiya-san because of that, but—absolutely not—I’m the older brother, and Imiya-san is the mother, which just doesn’t add up in many ways. Besides, she and I are the same age, so even as a setting, the idea of us being parents and children is impossible.

“Mom and Dad are a couple, but they don’t call each other by their names?”

“Ugh…”

Damn it, you five-year-old. Where did she learn the word couple?

I was wondering what to do, and when I glanced at Imiya-san, she had turned beet red and was looking down.

“Yeah, but that’s just too much, right?”

“Um…”

While mumbling to each other, we both avert our gazes.

Oh no, I’m so incredibly embarrassed that my face is getting really hot.

Even so, for me, Imiya-san is an admired person. Having started talking and even inviting her to my house, I’ve already exhausted all my energy, and calling her by her name from here is just too high a hurdle.

“…Aren’t you going to call each other by name? Is there something wrong between the couple? Are you getting a divorce mediation?”

My sister, with a face that looks like she’s about to cry, is staring intently at me and Imiya-san.

Ah, come on. Stop making that face. I’m weak against my little sister’s almost crying face. And seriously, where did she even learn about divorce mediation?

I steeled myself, took a deep breath, and exhaled. Then, I firmly locked eyes with her and whispered her name.

“Um… Miori.”

When I called her name, she looked at me in surprise, her face turning bright red.

And then, with a slight tilt of the head and a smile on their face, she said this.

“What is it, Isaki-kun…?”

The moment she called my name, I thought my heart had flown somewhere else.

The joy of being called by name by the girl I had been thinking about, combined with her incredibly cute smile, made my head feel like it was going to explode.

“Uh… well, it’s nothing, really.”

“R-Really…?”

We both turned our gazes in the direction of the day after tomorrow, our faces reddening like apples.

Seeing us like that, Shuri was smiling with apparent satisfaction. Even her tearful face from earlier made me wonder if it was all an act.

From this moment on, when Miori took on the role of “mom,” I became “dad.” At the same time, it was also the moment we started calling each other by our names.