The Most Beautiful Girl in School Has Become a Mother - Chapter 7: Please Stop Saying It Over and Over

After that, I explained the sequence of events in an orderly manner, making it as easy to understand as possible.

The fact that I have a five-year-old sister, who has never met our mother, when we first saw Imiya-san at the supermarket, my sister inexplicably called her “Mom,” she then started saying she wanted to meet “Mom,” and although I couldn’t let her meet our real mother, I thought maybe I could let her meet the person my sister called “Mom.”

During the conversation, it was somewhat striking to see Imiya-san with a complex expression as she said, “My mother is gone…” This was somewhat different from the sympathetic expressions one often sees when someone talks about the death of their mother.

After discussing everything in detail, I was thinking of asking if she could play the role of my mother for just one day, as I had called her here the other day. I ended up talking about even the mistakes I made in my speech. Of course, I sincerely apologized for making her feel bad or uncomfortable because of those mistakes.

When I finished explaining, no one laughed at my mistake.

Rather──

“Sob, sob… Sniff, sniff… Sanada was actually a good guy who cared about his sister…”

Sumomo was crying a lot.

“I get it! This guy has always been like that… always thinking about and taking care of his younger sister more than himself, going through tough times every day… holding back from hanging out with me!”

Even Shinya, who should know the situation, is crying.

I thought, “Why are you crying too?” but I’ll save the retort for later. Also, I’m not really putting up with playing with them that much. Just a little.

“Well, for now… I feel sorry for the misunderstanding, but I just want you to know that it’s not about a stalker guy or confessing or anything like that…”

While talking to Sumomo, I secretly glanced over at Imiya-san. I was curious about what kind of expression she had.

Imiya-san remained silent, furrowing her brows tightly and wearing a pained expression. I couldn’t imagine why she looked that way, but since she didn’t seem to be put off by my sister’s complex, I felt somewhat relieved for the time being.

“I’m sorry for saying such terrible things, Sanada! It’s just that Mi-chan isn’t telling me anything!”

Sumomo sent a reproachful gaze towards Imiya-san while crying.

“Um, sorry? I was thinking I should say something too, but…”

Imiya-san showed a face that seemed to lack dignity towards us as well while apologizing to the approaching Sumomo.

“Why didn’t you explain to everyone that Imiya wasn’t the one who confessed? You knew that Isaki wasn’t a stalker, right?”

Shinya spoke to Imiya-san as if reproaching her a little.

He is choosing his words carefully, but he wants to say that if she had cleared up the misunderstandings around her, this much misinformation wouldn’t have spread.

“Um… about that matter, I’m sorry.”

I thought I saw Imiya-san still looking apologetic, and then she bowed her head to me.

“Um… everyone is misunderstanding things in a strange way, and the conversation is going in a weird direction, so I wanted to explain too. But… when it comes to explaining that, Sanada-kun’s, um, babu…”

“Babu?”

“…I think I’ll have to admit to having a hobby of wanting my classmates to treat me like a baby.”

“I couldn’t say anything,” said Imiya-san, blushing. On my part, I was so embarrassed I felt like dying.

Exactly as she says. She doesn’t know my intentions, and she doesn’t know that my sister called her “mom.” She just turned down a classmate who asked her to be his mother.

She understood that whether I confessed or not, and the whole stalker issue, were unrelated, but I thought that explaining it would also mean exposing my peculiar preferences (well, not exactly, but I get the idea). The more I tried to protect my social rights, the harder it became to say anything, and she must have been troubled by it too. I did something very bad.

“Besides… I’ve been confessed to by boys before, but it was the first time someone said they wanted me to be their ‘mom.’ When I thought about being asked for that kind of maternal care, it felt kind of embarrassing.”

For now, could she stop saying motherly over and over? It’s so embarrassing that I feel like jumping off the rooftop from here.

Summarizing her point of view, it seems that she became embarrassed and her brain short-circuited because the inexperience piled up too much, and the requests were quite demanding.

However, there is no reason to blame her for this. I never thought I would make such a slip of the tongue, and I never expected it would be said to my classmates.

“Also, I felt a bit shocked.”

“Shock?”

I was wondering why she was so shocked, and without thinking deeply, I just parroted back and asked.

“Yeah. Because… if I’m seen that way, does that mean I’m not considered a romantic interest or something like that──”

“Huh?”

Somehow, words I didn’t even think would come out came out, and as I gave her a puzzled look, she tilted her head and said, “Huh?” Then, she put her hand to her mouth and exclaimed in a surprised voice, “Ah!”

“N-Never mind! Anything but that!”

Imiya-san, in an uncharacteristic manner, hurriedly shook her head and hands in denial.

It seems that what I asked somehow came out of my mouth as something I was thinking in my heart. But what does this statement mean?

As I tilted my head in confusion, Shinya and Sumomo next to me exchanged glances with puzzled expressions on their faces.

Maybe, Imiya-san is a girl with a bit of a quirky side.

I somehow had that impression of her.