Volume 2 Chapter 5

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A weekday afternoon…

After my university classes, I met up with Satoya in a café in front of the station.

I was the one who invited him, but he picked the place.

“To begin with… Here you go.”

After we both ordered a coffee, I gave Satoya, who was sitting in front of me, an envelope.

“What’s this?”

“I got sick the other day… You had to go to in my stead to that restaurant I had a reservation for, didn’t you?”

The date which I was supposed to have last week… I was planning to bring Ayako-san to have dinner in a restaurant with a beautiful night view. A nice Italian restaurant that Satoya recommended to me. Not so high class but offers refined dinners and is popular among adult women.

But as you already know, my date was postponed due to my cold.

So I got in contact with Satoya during the morning and I asked him to go to the restaurant with his girlfriend in place of us.

“Here’s the money for a dinner for 2. Take it.”

“Uhm… No, I can’t accept it. Why are you giving it to me?”

“Well, you went in my place, so it’s natural that I pay for it. Thanks to you, I didn’t cause any problems to the restaurant.”

“C’mon, don’t worry about that. Rin-chan and I both enjoyed a good meal, so there’s no need to worry about it.”

“But… It was expensive, right?”

“It was, but… Hmm, then… If you insist, I’ll take half. It leaves a bad flavor in my mouth if I were to take everything.”

Satoya only took half the money from the envelope and returned the rest. I thought it would be wrong to force it onto him, so I just took the envelope back.

“You’re too earnest, Takumi. I was thinking you had invited me today just to ask me for more date tips, but I certainly wasn’t expecting this.” He said in a surprised tone. “Anyways, your date was postponed for this weekend, right?”

“Yes.”

I contacted Ayako-san a few times and we had arranged our new date for this weekend.

“But this time… I’d like to discuss the date plan beforehand. She told me not to go overboard.”

After setting a day, Ayako-san kept telling me things like:

“Listen, Takkun… I’m happy that you’re trying so hard for me… but please don’t go overboard again. It would be a real problem if you were to get sick… again… So please, don’t.”

“It’s a waste of money to rent a car, so you can use mine. In fact, I can drive if needed…”

She seemed to be worried about the last time, since I ended up getting sick.

Haah… I’m really pathetic.

I wanted to make her happy, but I only ended up making her worry.

“I see. Well, I can understand Ayako-san’s feelings. The harder you try, the more she’ll worry about you.”

-…I’m so pathetic. I wanted to do my best effort to make her see me as a man, but in the end, I only made her worry about me as a son.”

I wonder how she sees me.

Does she dislike me? …Probably not.

Of course, this may sound a little pretentious… but I don’t think Ayako-san dislikes me.

I’m sure that her feelings towards me are closer to that of affection.

It’s just that I don’t know if that affection is that for a son or for a man.

Perhaps… Even she doesn’t know herself.

Maybe she’s in a state of ambiguity and confusion that has already blurred the line between both and now she doesn’t know which is it…

“Well, you don’t need to worry about that. I’m also partly to blame. I was the one who suggested you the adult date plan, and I think that the pressure was too much for you. So,” Satoya said, “this time… I got you a special advisor.”

“A-An advisor…?”

“Yep, the person that knows the most about you and Ayako-san in the entire world.”

“…”

“I was thinking you wanted to discuss your date today, so I had called her beforehand. So we also agreed to meet up here… Oh, looks like she arrived.”

Satoya greeted someone in the direction of the entry.

The person that knows the most about Ayako-san and me?

Who’s that?

Wondering that, I followed his gaze… and I understood.

“Oh, yahoo!”

The person that looked at us and greeted us was someone I knew very well.

Ayako-san’s daughter… Miu Katsuragi.

“It’s been so long, Satoya-san. You’re looking as handsome as ever.”

“Thanks, Miu-chan, you also look as beautiful as ever.”

“Hahaha, thanks.”

After exchanging a casual greeting, Miu turned towards me.

“Yo, Taku-nii. We haven’t seen each other since this morning.”

“Miu…”

Ah, I get it.

It’s true that this girl knows the most about Ayako-san and I in the entire world. Now I get why Satoya called her the special advisor.

But even so…

“Well, I’ll go grab a drink.”

After Miu went to buy a drink:

“…Hey.” I leaned forward and whispered. “Satoya… why did you call Miu?”

“Because I thought that she’d be of help. If you want to conquer Ayako-san, wouldn’t it be easier to just ask her daughter to help out?” Said Satoya calmly. “Rather, I got a question for you. Takumi… why don’t you want to ask Miu-chan for help?”

“Well, you see…” After a brief silence, I sighed and… “Well… it’s a bit awkward.”

“Awkward?”

“Well, you know… it’s embarrassing, right? Asking the daughter of the woman I love what I can do to go out with her mother.”

“…”

“Besides… if everything works out… if Ayako-san and I start dating and ultimately get married… Miu will become my daughter in law, right? If I rely on Miu too much right now, I won’t have any dignity when I finally become her father in law.”

“…Hahaha. I see, so you have a weird pride within you.” Satoya laughed.

Even though I was the one saying it… I think it’s a bit disgusting. I don’t even know if I’m going to be able to go out with her, and here I am selfishly worrying about what will happen once we get married.

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch, as the proverb says.

But.

I can’t help but think about that.

The woman I love has a very dear daughter.

Contemplating a future with her daughter is the least I could do as a man that fell in love with a single mother.

“What are you two whispering about?” Miu returned with a drink and sat next to me.

“Well, we’re making plans.”

After taking a sip of her caramel macchiato topped with whipped cream, she apathetically said:

“Whatever, Taku-nii doesn’t really want my help, doesn’t he?”

“…”

“Haah, geez.”

Miu let out a big sigh when she saw I was unable to say anything back because she was right on the mark.

“Well, I understand why he doesn’t want to rely on my help. That’s why I haven’t said anything to him until today.”

“But.” She continued.

She looked at me with sympathy and pity.

“When the date was ruined because of his cold… let’s just say I wasn’t happy about it. That’s when I realized that it wasn’t the moment to remain quiet.”

“…Well, that’s thoughtful on your part.”

She hit me right where it hurt, and I couldn’t do anything but look the other way and give a sarcastic remark.

“Well, we’ll be relying on your help from now on Miu-chan. Let’s start our strategic reunion posthaste. About this weekend’s date.” Satoya said after clapping. “Just in case, we’ve got the old plan… but I think it’s better to forget about it it since nothing good will come out of it. Therefore, I think we should think a new one from scratch.”

“…You’re probably right.”

I nodded. I felt really sorry about Satoya because he was the one who thought about it… but I wouldn’t dare to use than plan again.

I had mixed feelings about it, and also, Ayako-san had already found out about a couple things. And above all… she had asked me not to go overboard again.

I was thankful because she was worried, but also felt pathetic; quite a complicated feeling… Anyways, the point is that I agreed with rethinking things from scratch.

“Miu-chan, you got any ideas?”

“Hmm, let’s see.” Said Miu thinking and putting a hand on her chin. “I listened to the idea you two thought about… but honestly, I don’t think it’s the right one for mom. Ah, I don’t mean that Satoya-san is in the wrong, I think it would have been a wonderful date with an ordinary adult woman… But I don’t think my thirty year old mom can be considered ordinary.”

Miu’s expression became indescribably complicated.

“I don’t know if she had any love experience in the past, but at least during the last 10 years, she hasn’t fallen in love with anyone, and well, she’s in the same love level of a middle schooler. Even this time, a date invitation was more than enough to make her lose her cool. So, if you suddenly take her on an adult and romantic date, the only thing you’ll accomplish is to frighten her.”

“I see… I also had some doubts about that. I was making a plan for an ‘adult woman’, not for ‘Ayako-san’.” Said Satoya, with an understanding expression.

Miu looked at me and continued:

“And I think that if Taku-nii does something that he isn’t used to, he will only be giving the painful impression of an university student pressuring himself too much. In fact, that pressure was what made you sick, wasn’t it?”

“That’s…”

Well, I don’t think it’s possible to deny that.

While I was excitedly waiting for the date, I was under a lot of pressure.

I desperately wanted to be an ‘adult man’ worthy of Ayako-san… and I did everything possible to prepare an adult date.

“That’s why, Taku-nii.” Said Miu.

Looking straight at me, but with a pitiful look.

“Just be yourself.”

“M-Myself…?”

“Yes. It’s better to be yourself.” She said in a light tone and took a sip of her caramel macchiato. “Since you tried harder than what you could handle and failed, you should opt out for the choice that is within your reach. Don’t try unnecessary things, just be yourself and act natural.”

“…But I don’t want to seem lazy.”

“I’m not telling you to be lazy… Just to act like you always do. Behave like you normally do, that’s all you need.” Said Miu.

“In fact.” Satoya pitched in too. “Takumi and I were thinking about adjusting ourselves to Ayako-san… but perhaps all we had to was the opposite. After all, even if Takumi tries as hard as he can to act like an adult, the result won’t be favorable… In that case, the best option would be to bring Ayako-san into Takumi’s land.”

“My land…?”

“Fighting within your own land is a basic tactic.”

“That’s right. It’s just as Satoya-san says. An ‘adult date’ won’t work with mom. Both will be fighting on foreign lands, and in the end, won’t get anywhere.” She took a breather and continued. “Don’t be afraid, you just have to do whatever comes to mind and that’s it. Don’t worry… There’s no other man in the world that thinks about mom than you. And she definitely will be happy with any date that you come up with naturally.”

“Miu…”

I felt a heat in my chest.

Her advise had reached my heart… and above all…

This may sound a bit pretentious, but I could feel her trust in me with every word she said, which made me feel both happy and embarrassed.

“…Thank you.”

“Ah, I don’t need that kind of thing. Hmm.”

Miu shook her hand indifferently and then extended it toward me.

“Eh? What do you want?”

“Payment for my advisor service.”

“…”

“For the caramel macchiato. Oh, and I also want to eat a cake.”

“…You’re quite shameless, you know?” I said sarcastically and took out 1,000 yens from my wallet.

“Thanks for your patronage~” She said, taking the money and then leaving her seat.

And then, she looked at me and continued:

“Like I said before… my mom is a pushover. If you keep attacking her, she’ll soon give up.”

“…Stop calling your mother like that.”

“There are no obstacles between the two of you. And if there are, it’s just because mom made them up on her own. Everything… is inside of her.”

A shadow suddenly fell on Miu’s face, who was smiling lightheartedly all the time.

There was a hint of sadness in her downcast look.

“…If your date ends up failing, then I’ve got a little idea…”

“An idea?”

“Ah… No. It’s nothing.”

She suddenly raised her head and shook her hands hurriedly.

“It’s bad to think you’re going to fail before even doing it. Really, it’s nothing, so forget what I said.”

After finishing the conversation with a teasing tone, Miu left running to order what she wanted.

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Happy Halloween guys.