ch61-ch80 · 078-ch77

Chapter 77: "Call Me Mom"

"Ehh—so that beautiful lady is crashing at your place now?!"

I nodded my head as I sipped a carton latte through my straw, in response to a surprised Kiriko.

Lunch break. Me, Kiriko, and Sumi—our usual trio—were eating lunch behind the gymnasium. Given the topic, it wasn't exactly something we could discuss in the classroom.

"Well, yeah. I was surprised at first too, but when you think about it, there was no other choice, you know~"

I had understood the flow of Charru-san joining our group, but I never imagined she'd actually come to stay at our place.

But the thing is, the only acquaintance she has in this world is Papa, so her situation is the same as Melkid's. Can't really complain about them living together.

"Hmm. You say that, but you've got this weird complicated look on your face?"

"Hah? It's not complicated. There's no problem."

Kiriko was grinning away. Stop grinning like that or you'll blow latte bubbles. I went to poke her cheek.

"Waaah, waaah, waaah, waaah! There is SO a problem!! Why are you two so calm?!"

I looked over to see Sumi, fuming indignantly as she clenched her cream bun so hard the cream was about to burst out.

"A beautiful blonde woman of that age moving in to live with a single man... that's nothing but problems!"

"Sumi-chan, Sumi-chan, calm down."

"Seriously. It's not 'living together'—I'm there too, you know."

When I said that, they both glared at me. A little scary.

"That's exactly the cliché pattern! At first she says 'I'm just a friend, please take care of me~' and then one day she suddenly starts saying 'Ai-chan, call me Mom' and stuff like that!"

Hmm? Hmm~ Now that she mentions it, that does happen a lot in dramas.

But Charru-san probably won't tell me to call her Mom. For starters, she calls me "Princess," and I don't think she really sees me as Papa's daughter anyway.

Ah, right. I still haven't told them yet that Papa and I aren't biologically related.

In my own mind, I've come to the resolution—no, the acceptance—that "Papa will be my Papa forever from now on," but I want to get my own feelings sorted out more before telling anyone else. Besides, it's not a story you go around casually telling people about, whether blood relatives or not.

But once things settle down, I do plan to tell Kiriko and Sumi. We've been friends for a long time, after all.

Even while I was thinking all this, Sumi kept fuming.

"Then what about you, Sumi? Do you want Ai to call you Mom?"

"......Eh?"

At Kiriko's words, Sumi froze solid.

Then she stared intently at my face. Hey, you're starting to not hide your feelings at all.

"Um, well, if Ai wants to call me that, then I guess I could be your Mama—"

"Stop ittttt! That's seriously gross!"

Even if... just hypothetically, super hypothetically, Papa and Sumi were to end up in that kind of relationship, could I really call Sumi "Mom" at this point?

"Well, yeah, that's true. But what about Yanagiko-san? Or Charru-san herself? How would that be?"

"Why did you bring Ryunryun into this?!"

Sumi started fuming again, but honestly, Yanagiko-san is still easier to imagine than Sumi.

...Or at least, I thought so.

"Hmmmm, I just can't really imagine it."

"Right, right?! See? Those two aren't good enough to be Ai's mama!"

Sumi got excited at my answer.

But actually, it's not that I can't think of Yanagiko-san or Charru-san as "Mom"—it's that I can't imagine adding a "Mom" to our family at all.

To me, it feels natural that it's just Papa and me. Well, it's been that way since I was a baby, so naturally, that's how it feels.

Eh? Melkid? That one's in the mascot slot.

"Well, enough about my family. What about you guys? I got a message that you made it back safely, but... did Shudo-san or anyone get hurt?"

I tried to shift the topic to Kiriko's group's part of things.

But when I mentioned Shudo-san's name, Kiriko tilted her head slightly, Sumi crossed her arms, and they looked at each other with complicated expressions.

"Shudo-san is a mysterious person too, isn't he~"

"But more importantly, is Rei-chan going to be okay?"

Rei-chan? Oh, right. Shudo-san was originally Rei-chan's omiai partner.

...Wait, now that she mentions it, Rei-chan didn't come to our class today, either for morning classes or lunch break. Did something happen?