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Chapter 198 – On the Way Home
After saying our goodbyes to Shizuku-san and Reiji-kun, we went to Mizore-san’s house to pick up Sora-san. She was waiting while sipping some tea in the living room with a bored expression on her face. Shizuku-san and Riku-san’s conversation went on longer than expected, so she had been waiting for quite a while.
“Did you say your goodbyes to Shizuku-chan, Riku?”
“Yeah
 Also, I have something to talk about with you, mom. I’ll tell you when we get home.”
“Alright. It’s been a while since the last time we had a serious talk, isn’t it? Your father should join in too.”
Umi already explained the gist of it to Sora-san when she called her earlier. She didn’t seem surprised by the development.
Well, she was his mother, after all. She had been taking care of him ever since he was a kid. She definitely knew what was going on between those two. By extension, Mizore-san likely knew as well.
“
What are you doing, grandma? You’ve been going up and down the stairs ever since I entered the house.”
“What? I’m cleaning the house, can’t you see? The next time you guys come here, everything will be clean and you can stay here without much trouble.”
Or so she said. She most likely did it for Riku-san, since it was pretty much decided that he would be returning soon.
Sora-san came up to me and whispered, ‘As you can see, she’s a lonely old hag.’
Mizore-san nagged Riku-san a lot, but her care for him was genuine. She seemed to be excited over the fact that her precious grandson would be living with her again.
“Well, we wasted enough time already, so let’s move on. Umi, say goodbye to your grandmother.”
“Mm. See you later, grandma. I’m happy to see you again after a long time. If I have the time, I’ll definitely visit you again.”
“Yes, do that. Bring that boy over again when you come by next time, alright?”
“Yes!”
After saying her goodbye, Umi immediately clung to my arm. Now, I could finally say that all the members of the Asanagis approved of our relationship.
Of course, I still wasn’t a part of their family yet. But, the way they welcomed me made me feel like they were my second family.
“We didn’t talk much, but I appreciate everything that you’ve done for me, Mizore-san. Thanks to you, our vacation this time felt very enjoyable.”
“Is that so? I’m glad you feel that way. My house is always open for you. Next time, come here together with Umi-chan by yourselves, you hear me?”
“Yes.”
I heard Sora-san whining in a low voice because Mizore-san didn’t say anything to her, but I pretended not to hear that.
I should leave Riku-san to deal with this as I wasn’t good enough to mediate between those two. Maybe he and Shizuku-san could find a way to make those two get along.
After we were done with our goodbyes, we left with our car, driven by Riku-san.
Originally, this whole trip was started because of my selfish wish, but it turned out to be more intense than I thought.
We failed to do what we planned to do because of what happened between Riku-san and Shizuku-san, but at least the trip in general was memorable enough for us.
Umi and I had a lot of fun. The gloom that had always adorned Riku-san’s face had disappeared.
There was something that bothered me, though

“Brother, you getting together with Shizuku-san is great and all, but what about the thing between you and Yuu? Don’t you like her?”
“Huh? Me and Yuu-chan? What the hell are you on about?”
Yeah, I was wondering about that too. Hearing that question, Riku-san looked at Umi with a disgusted look.
“Uh, Riku-san, I heard when you first met with Amami-san, you started to behave
 Awkwardly? 
Like, you started panting and, you know
”
His face instantly turned bitter. I guess that part of the story was true, huh?
“How the hell did you know about that? 
Well, when we first met, she was in middle school. Back then, I was mentally unstable because I had just quit my job, so when she visited our house, I got really nervous
 It was the first time I’d seen a girl that pretty up close, you see
”
“I-I see.”
So it was a complete misunderstanding on our part.
His behavior at that time was questionable, but up until now, we never heard about his circumstances at all.
“My, so that’s why Yuu-chan hasn’t been coming often lately. I thought it was because you guys got into a fight, but she still didn’t come even after you two reconciled.”
“Eh? You didn’t know about this, mom?”
“It didn’t even cross my mind. I mean, rather than a cute younger girl like Yuu-chan, your big brother over here prefers an older girl that loves to spoil him instead, like Shizuku-chan. According to the magazines he hid at the back of his bookshelf—.”
“Mom, please. Stop. I beg you.”
Sora-san was trying to help him out, but she unknowingly spilled his dark secret instead.
This time, it was Umi who looked at her brother in disgust.
“I’m going to tell Shizuku-san about this
”
“Why are you like this? C’mon, saving that kind of thing is normal for a man like me! Hell, even Maki should also have some, right, Maki?”
“Huh? M-Me? I don’t have any
”
Yeah, I admit that I had a fetish of my own, but I never kept a magazine, DVD or anything like that. Looking them up on the internet was enough for me. Besides, ever since I started dating Umi, I rarely looked at that kind of thing.
“Well whatever, I guess everything was just a misunderstanding. But still, I feel bad for Yuu. Because of this stupid brother of mine she can’t even hang out at our home in peace.”
“That’s
 I guess I should apologize to her when I get the chance, huh?”
I saw Amami-san’s picture when she was in middle school. She was still pretty, but back then, her beauty was out of this world, like a heroine straight out of a manga. If I hadn’t met Umi, I would probably have had a similar reaction to Riku-san.
Of course I was used to her beauty by now. To me and the others, Amami-san was just an ordinary high school girl.
“A-Anyway, let’s just stop talking about this
”
“Mom, do you have anything else to say?”
“Let’s see
 If I remember correctly, there are a couple of games with pictures of pretty girls on them inside a rather large box–”
“Mom, please!!”
He wanted to stop them, but since he was driving, he couldn’t even move freely if he wanted to.
I could try to stop them, but that would be futile. There was no way I could take on both Umi and Sora-san at once.
So I decided to keep quiet and properly store every bit of information that Sora-san spilled.