Volume 2 Prologue

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Translator note: I ended up fixing some of the mistakes volume 1 and edited some of the text to make it sound better. If you want to read up on the changes, click on “Previous Chapter.” Also, there’s a download link in the TOC and the previous post in case you’re interested, shoutouts to chaosdesu for providing the epub file by the way! That’s it, enjoy the chapter.

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I don’t know how many times I’ve mentally practiced inviting her on a date.

Dozens, hundreds… maybe even thousands of times.

Ayako Katsuragi-san.

My childhood friend’s mother who lives next door.

After my friend lost her parents in a tragic accident, she took care of her and raised her as her own daughter.

I’ve been I love with her since I was ten.

For 10 whole years…

I was never able to convey my feelings, but during all that time I thought of ways to get closer to her.

Including how to invite her on a date.

For 10 years, I practiced how to invite my platonic love on a date.

Although, rather than practice, they could be called fantasies.

I fantasized with different situations and excuses to invite her… But in the end, I never put them into practice.

Even when I thought about and wrote a message to invite her, I was never able to press the ‘send’ button.

“Haah…”

Early in the morning, on the way to the station.

While I was waiting for the lights to change, I sighed deeply with my phone on my hand.

My phone’s screen was unlocked.

The person I was chatting with was… Ayako-san.

The message I had sent was:

“Good morning, Ayako-san.

“I’m glad to see you’re cheerful again.

I’m relieved.”

Just a normal greeting.

A lot of things had happened between us lately.

In short… well, I confessed.

“I like you.”

“Please go out with me.”

I revealed my feelings that I had hidden for 10 years.

And as a result… Well, things started to get a bit hectic.

On the outside, she didn’t change much… But I’m sure that I caused a mess on her inside.

The boy she knew since he was ten… The man who she saw as a son, told her he liked her.

My confession had clearly left her confused. So confused and disoriented that she herself no longer knew how to act with me.

Apparently, she had not noticed my feelings at all.

As if my feelings had never even reached her.

It was a very complicated feeling, like a happy hollowness.

However.

I conveyed the feelings I had sheltered for 10 years.

And in doing so… our relationship could never return to what it was.

We couldn’t just keep being simple neighbors.

My friend, Satoya Ringou, told me that confessing was like a bomb that could destroy relationships. If everything goes well, nothing happens, but if it doesn’t, it will just blow up. And that’s exactly what happened.

After my confession, our relationship… Changed completely.

It was like throwing a bomb.

And I dragged her into this because of my own selfish feelings.

There was an awkward, embarrassing and peculiar tension between the two of us that gradually started to involve people around us… And I even got rejected… But.

A lot of things happened, and she asked me for some time.

She said she needed some time to get her thoughts together.

In short, she decided to postpone her answer.

However, I… was happy.

Extremely happy.

That she said it was okay to keep loving her…

And so.

In May, when I turned twenty, she told me in a movie theater to “keep the status quo for a while.”

The next day, like always, I went to Ayako-san’s house in the morning and after parting, I sent her the aforementioned message.

I wanted to express my gratitude and relief to her for being able to remedy our temporary breakup and turning our relationship back to normal.

However.

“…Hmm…”

My fingers stopped, hesitating whether to send her the next message or not.

“Ayako-san, do you have plans for this weekend?

If not, would you like to go somewhere together?”

I had thought about these few words all night.

After pasting the text I had saved, all that was left to do was to send it… but I couldn’t press the send button.

W-What do I do…?

Will I be a bother to her with this?

Am I not jumping the gun due to the heat of the moment?

After all… I said it yesterday, didn’t I? I said I wouldn’t be hasty and go slower from now on… Suddenly inviting her like this is a violation of the rules… No!

On the opposite… Now’s the time to attack!

After all, besides that, I also declared that I would do everything possible to make her love me, so, wouldn’t it be better to get close to her and press her for an answer? No, but… even then…

“…Taku-nii, are you texting mom?”

“Whoa.”

After crossing the lights, I kept staring at my phone, wondering whether or not I should press the send button, when someone on my side called out to me.

I immediately hid my phone.

Miu Katsuragi.

The daughter of the woman I love.

Even though they’re not blood related, she’s Ayako-san’s dear daughter.

And for me, she’s… I guess a childhood friend, for now.

Ever since Miu entered high school, we’ve been walking to the station together every day since we go toward the same direction.

“W-What are you doing, Miu? You shouldn’t look at someone else’s phone.”

“It’s a lot worse to keep your face glued to your phone when you’re walking with someone. I read a ‘somewhere together’ or something along those lines… Could it be that you’re asking my mom out on a date?!”

It looked like she saw a lot.

Miu got close to me with a smile on her face.

“Heh, not bad kid, attacking from the get-go. How bold~.”

“…Stop teasing me. I haven’t even sent it yet.”

“Eh? Why? Why haven’t you sent it?”

“Because… I have a lot of things on my mind.”

“Eh, the hell is that? You sound like a complete loser.”

“Don’t call me a loser… Adult relationships aren’t that easy.”

“I don’t want a university student that still lives with his parents telling me about adult relationships.”

“Ugh…”

“In the first place, you don’t even have any love experience. You’re twenty, and you’ve never had a girlfriend.”

“U-Ugh…”

I lost an argument against a high school student.

“There, there, don’t be so down. You don’t have any experience because you’ve always been in love with mom… And no matter how you look at it, she also knows nothing about adult relationships.”

After leaving me dejected, she tried, in a certain way, to cheer me up.

“Anyways… If you’re going to ask her out, it would be better to do it now.” Said Miu. “Due to all the nonsense mom told you, your relationship right now is in a weird state of limbo. So you have to be bold, Taku-nii.”

“W-Well, that’s true… but I also have to take her circumstances into account. It must be stressing for her to reject my invitation. And Ayako-san is kind, so, even if she doesn’t want to on the inside, she’ll force herself to go out with me for my sake… O-Of course, I know I need to be bolder, that’s why I’m carefully thinking about the best time to do it…”

“…Ah, how annoying!” After yelling with an irritated tone, she jumped toward me and tried to snatch my phone. “Give it to me! If you’re not gonna do it, then I will!”

“What…? S-Stop it, idiot!”

“It’s a waste of time to worry about that! You only have to press her a little bit and that’s it! Mom’s a pushover, so you don’t need any sort of complicated plan!”

“Hey… Don’t call your mother a pushover.”

“Taku-nii, just have a night date and have some fun in bed with her! That’ll solve everything!”

“That won’t solve anything! And you’re a high school student, don’t say things like that in public!”

We kept struggling for the phone for a few seconds, but…

“…Hm?” Miu’s eyes narrowed and she raised a question. “Taku-nii, the message… wasn’t it sent already?”

“Eh…? Ehh?!”

I checked the screen and was left dumbfounded.

Where the send button was supposed to be… for some reason now said “sent.”

“N-No way… How did that happen…?”

“Didn’t you press it by mistake while you hid your phone a bit ago?”

“R-Really…?”

“Well, it went well in the end. I’m happy for you.”

“Don’t give me that… W-What am I supposed to do now…?”

The message I just sent… had already been read.

And once it was read, it was already too late.

That message has already been read by Ayako-san.

My date invitation.

“Shit… Damn it!”

“Geez, why are you so afraid of?” Miu said incredulously while I broke out in a cold sweat. “You were going to ask her out someday anyway, it just happens that you did it right now.”

“…No, it’s different. For these things, you need to be mentally prepared. In the first place, I haven’t even thought of a date plan…”

And then.

While I was talking with Miu, the phone in my hand started to vibrate.

On my phone’s screen… I received a reply from Ayako-san.

“Okay.”

Just that.

4 letters to form such a simple and overwhelming answer.

Okay?

Eh? Okay in what sense?

I’m sure that… in this country, they say it whenever they agree to something…

“See? Told you mom’s a pushover.” Said Miu, with a conceited look on her face, while I was so surprised that my thoughts stopped altogether.

Thanks to the message I accidentally sent… My invitation was accepted so easily that I felt like an idiot for worrying about it.

Apparently, I have a date this weekend with Ayako-san.

My first date with the woman I’ve loved for 10 years…

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