CH 3.1

Chapter 3 : She’s Starting to be a Mother – Part 1

It was a morning of chirping birds.

Shoichi woke up to the sound of the doorbell ringing.

“Nnn…?”

He looked at the clock to check the time. It was seven o’clock. It was a reasonable time to get up, but it was a bit insane to be visiting someone else’s house.

“Who the h**l is it?”

With a sleepy head, he went straight from his room on the second floor to the front door and opened it without thinking.

He was greeted by a surprised look on the girl’s face.

“Wow, you’re opening it out of the blue? You scared the life out of me.”

“I’m the one who’s surprised… What do you want, Amiru?”

Shoichi bit back a yawn and scratched his back on his sleepwear. It might have been a little bit of indecent behavior in front of a girl of his age, but then again, she was visiting him early in the morning, so it was probably mutual.

However, Amiru didn’t seem to care, nor did she seem to be reserved as she walked up to the door and took off her shoes.

“I said it yesterday, didn’t I? That I’d take care of Sho-chan.”

“Huh?”

“Well, excuse me.” With this, she stumbled towards the kitchen.

At this point, Shoichi felt like his brain had finally been freed from sleepiness. He hurriedly chased after Amiru.

“Oi, wait a minute. No way, by taking care of me, you mean you’re going to make me breakfast?”

“Of course. It’s because I’m acting as Sho-chan’s mother.” While laughing, she put an apron over her uniform in the kitchen. Then, she looked at Shoichi with slightly white eyes. “Sho-chan, you were going to settle for cornflakes anyway, right?”

“I-Is that wrong? I mean, it’s only breakfast, it could be as simple as that…”

“You can’t. Breakfast is the source of the day’s energy. You have to eat it properly. That’s why I’ll make it as soon as possible. It will be proper Japanese food.”

“No, wait, if you cook the rice now, there will be no time left…”

“Don’t worry, I set up the rice cooker yesterday.”

“When did you do that?!”

As he looked at her in amazement, she took out some tofu and wakame seaweed from the refrigerator and started making miso soup, while humming to herself. At the same time, she started grilling the salmon. These ingredients were also the ones Shoichi had bought for her yesterday, and it was at this point that he finally realized what she was up to.

So this girl has been planning to take care of me from the beginning, regardless of my approval.

Otherwise, she wouldn’t have made him buy the ingredients for this morning. Besides, the only possible timing for setting up the rice cooker was during the cleanup. In other words, she was ready to make breakfast from the beginning.

A premeditated crime. He was about to say that, but he swallowed his words. It’s a fact that he gave the OK to her proposal, so there was no point in saying this and that now. And certainly, it would be beneficial for him.

As he was thinking about this, the table was ready and the two of them picked up their chopsticks and chanted “Itadakimasu” as they had done yesterday.

Shoichi took a small bite of grilled salmon, white rice, and miso soup with wakame seaweed and tofu, and let out a grunt.

“Amiru’s food is still delicious.”

“Eh? Oh dear. Praise won’t get you anywhere, you know~”

Amiru was so embarrassed by the unexpected comment that she waved one hand in the air as if beckoning.

Oh no, Shoichi thought. He didn’t know what he had done wrong, but he felt regretful that he had praised Amiru so honestly. Ehem, he cleared his throat and added, “Well, cornflakes are faster and more reasonable, though.”

“Mou~, Sho-chan~, you’re still saying something like that?”

Despite her dismissive tone of voice, Amiru happily poked her cheeks and looked at him.

As if her eyes could see through everything, Shoichi turned his head away.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○

After finishing his food, Shoichi looked at the clock. It seemed there was still plenty of time to get ready for school.

“I’m pretty much all set, I just need to get out of the house.”

Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation in his mouth. Amiru’s food was delicious, but there was still one thing missing.

When it occurred to him, Shoichi decided to get up and use the electric kettle to boil water.

“It might not be the best choice after a Japanese meal, though.” While muttering, he took out a cup of instant coffee.

As he was pouring hot water into a mug, Amiru, who was getting ready in the washroom, came back.

“Sho-chan, I’m ready… What’s this?”

“It’s coffee. I drink it every morning. It’s a habit.”

“Ehh~! Sho-chan drinks coffee!? Amazing!”

“No, it’s not that surprising, you know?”

“No, I’m surprised! I’m so surprised!　Because not long ago, you said you couldn’t drink it because it was bitter!”

“That was when I was little. When I was in junior high school, I saw on TV that the caffeine in coffee, when taken with sugar, has a higher stimulating effect. So I tried drinking it with sugar and it was surprisingly good… Do you want some too?”

“I’m good, I’m good! I might wince!”

“You have a child’s tongue, Amiru.”

With a smile, Shoichi dropped some sugar into the amber liquid and sipped it. Amiru murmured a little regretfully when she saw this.

“Uuh, Sho-chan is so mature. It’s unfair~”

“There’s nothing unfair about it. And like I said before, it’s really good. If you want, I can put some milk in it, so you can try it.”

“It’s good, I’m a tea drinker.”

When he saw the girl turn her head to the side with a pout, Shoichi drank his coffee more enthusiastically. This time, however, Amiru stared at him intently and he looked at her suspiciously.

“What? Is there something on me?”

“Mhmm… I just thought, ‘This is a Sho-chan I don’t know.’ It’s so strange.”

“Is that so? I don’t think I’ve changed at all.”

Or rather, it was Amiru who had changed a lot. When he saw Amiru, who had put on a lot of makeup, Shoichi shrugged his shoulders. For him, that was more strange.

A girl who used to be plain and quiet had changed her appearance into a flashy and loud character without any apparent cause. He really didn’t understand what women were like.

It wasn’t just her personality or clothes. What was peeking out from her scruffy chest was modest compared to her surroundings, but it was a lot fuller than it had been when she was little. Really, when did she–

–No, no, what am I thinking?!

“What’s wrong, Sho-chan? Your eyes are so black and white.”

“No, it’s nothing. I’m done getting ready over here, so let’s get to school.”

After saying that and clearing his throat, Shoichi squeezed his eyes shut as if to shake off the evil thoughts he had just had.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○

As soon as he arrived at school, Shoichi noticed something strange about himself. He looked around at his entire body with a shocked expression.

“What, my body…”

His body felt light. It felt as though he had more strength.

He didn’t feel sluggish during the day, and he was able to finish gym class, which he was not good at. His classmates also commented to him in surprise.

“What’s up, Kashima? You look like a different person today.”

“Your voice has a certain tone to it. It’s not gloomy.”

“You seem friendlier than usual. You don’t look like a criminal.”

Everyone praised him profusely, and while Shoichi was convinced that he was in good shape, he was a little worried about how people usually looked at him.

Well, anyway, he was doing great. The reason why, he had an idea at least. It wasn’t just the coffee he drank this morning.

“The main reason is Amiru’s cooking… I never thought a decent meal could have such an effect on my health.” During the lunch break, Shoichi mumbled to himself as he bit into a piece of bread he had bought from the store.

It didn’t taste good. He had been eating it just fine yesterday, but now, it was stale and tasteless. He was keenly aware that his taste buds had been accustomed to Amiru’s cooking after only two meals, last night and this morning.

In the middle of the classroom, where he was staring blankly, the gals were having a conversation. At the center of it all was Amiru, as usual. She was talking about all sorts of things to her friends, but there was not a hint of her homeliness of yesterday.

“So, the other day, I was looking at something on the Internet, and it looked really weird… Here, this image!”

“Eh, no way! I can’t believe this exists!”

“Ne, ne, anyway, did you hear about it? Maa-kun broke off his engagement!”

“Maa? Well, there’s been a lot of breakups of idols lately.”

“It’s the only thing the media is making a fuss about right now. Just when can we get some peace?”

Seeing the girls excitedly talking about such things, Shoichi somehow understood why Amiru had said that she would be embarrassed if her shopping notes and love of taking care of others were exposed. She probably thought it was an unglamorous act, which was typical of a girl her age.

I think you’re overthinking this, though.

Shoichi thought to himself as he took a bite of his bread. Amiru must’ve been a person who cared a lot about the people around her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be so caring. He was somewhat relieved to feel that her frightened personality from when she was little had influenced her.

However, it was only a small influence. Amiru, who stood out among the flashy girls with her bright expression and voice, seemed to be a stranger to Shoichi.

At that moment, he saw Amiru hugging a nearby black-haired girl.

“Nee~, Mea-chan. I’m going to be pointed out in the next class. Let me see your notes.”

“What are you talking about? I don’t prep for everything.”

“Ehh, Mea-chan is the smartest one among us. That’s why I’m counting on you.”

“Yes, yes, just go look at your textbooks while you’re at it.”

“Hey, Mea-san, that’s a little too serious, don’t you think?”

“Amiru too, don’t worry about being pointed at. Just say you don’t know and you’ll be fine!”

As he watched them laughing, he thought that it was definitely the fault of these friends that Amiru’s intelligence was declining.

I wish I could teach these girls once. I want them to study from morning till night.

He thought about it half-jokingly. The girls seemed to be taking it easy, and it didn’t sit well with him. He wished they could put themselves in the shoes of someone like him who was studying hard.

Then, Shoichi raised an eyebrow at Amiru, who was still pressing her body against the girl, Mea, as if she was asking to be spoiled.

Still, that girl…is always so easy to hug people. I wonder if she has any reservations.

Maybe it was Amiru’s peculiar ease, or maybe it was just the way girls in that category were, but it seemed like there was a lot of skinship.

If the person was a girl, it was still okay. But seeing that she had hugged him as well, it was possible that she had no qualms about hugging a guy.

In other words, she might hug other boys in this class sooner or later–

No, no, no. What am I thinking? It doesn’t matter who Amiru hugs. If she wants to do it, she can do it. As he told himself this, he noticed that the bread he was biting into tasted worse than before.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○

After school that day, Shoichi and Amiru started their studies straight at the Kashima house.

They had dictionaries, computers, and other things they could use for materials, and decided that it would be much more convenient than doing it at school. Not to mention the fact that Amiru insisted that it would be more convenient for her to take care of him.

When he told the teacher about it, he gladly accepted.

“Be sure to use protection.”

“Can you please stop sexually harassing your students so openly?”

While wondering if this teacher really knew what he was doing, Shoichi taught Amiru how to study–but before that, there were several things that needed to be done, and Shoichi took one of them out of his pocket.

“Here, Amiru. Take this for now.”

“What’s this? A good luck charm?”

“It’s for academic success. When I was in junior high school, there was some gossip on the Internet about charms that worked well at power spots, and I was curious, so I checked it out. It’s just my feeling, but I could feel it working rather well.”

“Hee~… ‘The Usukage Shrine?’ I’ve never heard of this shrine.”

“Of course, it’s a very small shrine in a neighboring prefecture. So it might have been easy to start occult rumors. But I got all the charms from other shrines around here and compared them to see if this one worked. In terms of being able to concentrate on my studies, it was far more effective. I even asked for help from some of my classmates. It cost a lot of money, but I could see that it had a certain effect, and I’ve been using it ever since.”

“I see… I didn’t know you’ve been doing that.” Muttering in either admiration or disbelief, Amiru put the amulet into her skirt pocket.

After watching this with satisfaction, Shoichi then took out a large sheet of copy paper from his bag and used a felt-tip pen to draw lines on it.

“What are you doing this time, Sho-chan?”

“I’m making a guideline.”

“A guideline?”

“Yeah. It’s only reasonable that you should be able to study and take care of me, so that I don’t owe you anything. But it’s not reasonable if the amount of work is not equal. Wouldn’t it be unfair if I only teach you to study for an hour while you do housework all day?”

“Eh, I’m fine with that, though.”

“I don’t like that, because I’ll feel like I owe you too much. That’s why I’m going to set a guideline and make sure the two of us have equal workloads.”

Then, he filled in the table with letters and numbers as follows.

<Study Side>

One hour of supervised study – 5P

Solve one unsolvable problem – 5P

School test scores increased by five points from the previous test. – 3P for every 5 points raised.

<Household Side>

One time cooking – 5P

One time cleaning – 3P

One time washing – 2P

“What’s the P?”

“Points. It’s better to convert it into numbers so that it’s easier to understand. When you accomplish these tasks, you’ll accumulate them as points. I bought a notebook at the convenience store along with copy paper to record the points, so you can use that.”

“Um… In other words, if you teach me for an hour, you get 5P, and if I cook a meal, I get 5P?”

“You’re a fast learner for an Amiru, yes, that’s what I’m saying.”

“Ehehe, it’s because I like supermarket loyalty cards.”

“You really seem like an old lady… Let’s adjust these points to make them as equal as possible. This way, we won’t have uneven workloads.”

“That means…”

“Unless I teach you to study for two hours, I’ll try to refrain from having you cook for me.”

“Eh, Ehh!? That means I can’t take care of you casually! I don’t like it!”

“Haha, it’s all to be fair. Be patient. If you want to take care of me so badly, you’ll have to study as hard as you can… Eh, doesn’t this seem wrong?”

Shouldn’t Shoichi be doing his best to teach Amiru how to study so that she would be able to take care of him? This was the opposite.

However, it seemed to be able to push Amiru’s motivation to study, so this was a good thing.

“Well, the conditions for earning points are not limited to the tasks listed here, but we can discuss and decide them together depending on the situation. I’m sure there’ll be exceptions.”

“O-Okay, I’m not sure what it is, but I got it.”

“…Don’t give me an anxiety-inducing reply that contradicts itself in a single word. Oh, and I’ll set some immediate goals for this study session.”

“Immediate goals?”

“Yeah, the ultimate goal is of course to keep you from repeating a year. But it’s easier to work hard if you have smaller goals before then, and it’s a good guideline for us, too. Let’s achieve them little by little… First of all, I want you to get more than fifty points in all subjects by the next midterm exams.”

“EHHHH! No, no, no, that’s impossible!　Make it in a more sensible range!”

“You, what kind of scores did you get in middle school…? Don’t worry, I’ve been doing my own research on how to get the best test scores. I’m going to teach you a few things so you can put them into practice.”

Amiru nodded reluctantly at Shoichi’s words. “I got it, I’ll do my best.”

“Alright, then, let’s begin today’s study.” With this, Shoichi once again began to teach Amiru how to study.