Volume 1 Epilogue

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♥

A single mother’s morning starts pretty early.

I get up early, rub my sleepy eyes and make lunch every morning for my high school daughter.

Well… Recently I had not been able to do that.

But today, I managed to get up early for the first time in a long time.

I slept soundly and started the morning in a good mood.

And right as I was putting the breakfast on the table.

“Uwaah! Oh god, oh god! I totally doze off!”

My daughter, Miu, came down from the second floor making a ruckus.

I still wasn’t sure if the expression “doze off” was something she came up with herself or if youngsters actually used slang like that these days.

I didn’t know.

There were a lot of things I didn’t know about.

Like how much my daughter had grown and the feelings of the boy that lives next door.

And also… my own feelings.

Even when we grow up, life is full of things we don’t know about…

“This is bad, really bad… I had to get up early because mom has been useless lately… Eh? Mom…?”

“Sorry for being useless.” I said and she froze after seeing me. “Good morning, Miu.”

“G-Good morning.”

“Come on, breakfast is going to get cold, so hurry up and eat.”

“…Hahaha, wow, you turned back to your usual self.”

Laughing sarcastically, Miu sat down at the table.

I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat in front of her.

“I wouldn’t have minded if you were depressed for a bit longer. That way, I would’ve improved my housework skills a lot more.”

“Then why don’t you keep doing housework then?”

“Nope, nope, this and that are something else entirely.”

“Seriously… you…”

“Anyways… You’re pretty simple, mom.” Miu said in amazement looking at me. “As soon as you made up with Taku-nii, you recovered immediately.”

“S-Shut up…”

“You should be thanking me. It was all thanks to my little harmless lie.”

“…Yes, I’m thankful for it.” I said with a stiff smile. I wanted to say it sarcastically, but that would only make me seem petty.

“Ahh, but seriously though. I can’t tell if you’re pathetic or just a pain. Making all that drama just to postpone the choice anyways. What’s with saying something like ‘Let’s start as friends first…?’ You’re not in middle school anymore, you know?”

“…Aahhh, shut up.”

You don’t have to be so upfront about it, geez…

I know better than anyone that I’m being indecisive and pathetic, and that I’m acting like a middle school student in love…

And then… Right when we finished having breakfast.

The doorbell rang.

Both of us headed to the entrance… And there he was.

Takkun.

Takumi Aterazawa-kun.

The kid next door… No.

He wasn’t a kid anymore.

I can’t see him as a kid anymore.

He was a good man now…

“Morning, Taku-nii.”

“Morning, Miu.”

Miu greeted him first with a light tone and he answered back.

And then he looked at me.

Slightly embarrassed, Takkun looked straight at me.

I also was embarrassed… But I didn’t look away.

I looked straight at him.

“Good morning, Ayako-san.”

“Good morning, Takkun.”

We greeted each other like we always did.

But… I felt that somehow, it was different.

Maybe it was just my imagination.

Or perhaps what was different… were the changes to come.

How was our relationship going to change from now on…?

“…Why are you having a staring contest so early in the morning?”

““…?!””

We were looking at one another, but Miu’s teasing voice brought us back to ourselves and quickly looked away.

“It looks like I’m interrupting something, so… Should I go first?”

“…Stop teasing. Let’s go already.”

“Sure, sure. I’m going now, mom.”

“See you later, Ayako-san.”

“Have a nice day.”

I said goodbye to them while they were going out the front door.

I closed the door… and breathed a sigh of relief.

Haah.

Thank god…

I managed to act naturally… I think.

Until yesterday, whenever I saw Takkun, my heart started to beat like crazy, but somehow, I managed to keep my composure.

Freed from the tension, I returned to the living room, where I found a Line message on my phone, which I had left on the table.

The message was from… the young man who had just left.

“T-Takkun…?”

Curious about it, I opened the message.

There was a greeting and a formal message. “Good morning, Ayako-san. I’m happy to see you’re cheerful again.” …But the next words left me speechless.

“Ayako-san, do you have any plans for this weekend? If not, would you like to go somewhere together?”

“…E-Eeehhhh?!” I let out a scream from shock and fell to my knees.

This is… a date?!

It is, isn’t it?!

He’s… He’s not going to hide his feelings anymore?! He won’t throw any more feints or curve balls, now he’s only going to throw straights?!

He’s coming at me with all he’s got!

His intentions are very clear!

—I’ll do everything possible so that you fall in love with me.

The words he said yesterday came up again in my head.

Uhm, that’s… Isn’t that too sudden? Of course, he said he’d do his best but, couldn’t he take it easier? Yesterday he said he wouldn’t be hasty and go slower…

I was so embarrassed, bewildered… and a little happy, that my heart was about to go crazy.

Ayako Katsuragi.

A single mother in her 30s.

Even though I have a very cute daughter, I’m still being courted passionately by a boy that likes me more than her.

However… he was supposed to give me some time to think things over.

At this rate… It’s just a matter of time before I finally give in and fall in love with him.

Translator’s comments: Hey guys, there are a few things I want to tell you about how I’ll keep updating this. I’ll explain myself a bit more down below, but the tl;dr version of it is: I’ll be re-editing chapters in the following days and that I’ll start working in volume 2 in around 2 weeks time. Now for the extended version: I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m translating this from the spanish version and that basically everything is from the user bry19an of oasis translations. I’m not used to translating spanish to english, so I felt it was better to leave things close to how they were, which in turn produces a lesser quality translation in my opinion. Now that I’m more used to it, I’ll go back during these days and change things to make them sound better. Once all of that is done, I’ll post a pdf version of all the chapters in Mega or something. As for the break mentioned, I actually work for a spanish scan and have been slacking because I’ve been translating this. I’ll go do my work there and once I’m done with my workload, rest for a few days and then start doing volume 2. After that is done, I’ll wait for volume 3. When it comes out, if another translator wants to do a direct translation, feel free to. If no one else shows up, I’ll take bry19an’s translation again. That’s all I wanted to say, hope you enjoyed the first volume. -Lecarm

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