Chapter 47 – Two Mrs. (Patreon)

After spending the entire afternoon racking her brains at school, Eriri trudged home in low spirits. She felt as if she had temporarily lost her passion for drawing doujinshi.

Ever since that accidental intimate contact with Kouma, her body seemed to have memorized that feeling. In the past, just looking at other people's doujinshi or adult videos would fan her creative flames. Now, nothing remained—only a dull emptiness.

"It looks like I'll have to find inspiration on my own..."

Biting her lip, Eriri's mind wandered to the collection of toys she kept. After school, she brought back all the props she had stored in the art club's small studio for doujinshi reference. She drew the curtains, locked the door, and flipped the sign hanging outside—a pre-arranged signal with her mother that she was not to be disturbed.

Looking at the array of toys spread across her desk, Eriri instinctively knew how each one was used. As a renowned doujinshi artist, she might have lacked practical experience, but her theoretical knowledge was more than abundant.

Her gaze drifted to the pink little pill. It was that very pill that had fallen into Kouma's hands, setting off the entire chain of events...

Eriri fished out the remote, charging the pill. "Is this thing really as magical as the ads claim?" It was her first time trying it.

But before she had even gotten properly started, her door flew open.

A familiar handsome face appeared at the doorway.

Their eyes met.

Eriri's brain short-circuited instantly.

"Am I hallucinating? Why is Kouma in my house?" She was about to scream, but her rapidly returning rationality forced the sound back down.

A scream would bring Mom running...

Eriri made a split-second decision—she scrambled towards the sho[ta], intending to pull him into the room and close the door before explaining. But her bare, smooth foot slipped on the floor the moment it touched the ground, sending her crashing directly into Kouma.

Thump!

They tumbled together in a heap.

"Ah—!!"

The sound of the fall was accompanied by a high-pitched cry—whether from pain or something else, it was impossible to tell—that echoed throughout the house.

"What happened?!"

Sayuri rushed upstairs from the ground floor. The scene she encountered—her daughter in nothing but an oversized T-shirt, tangled up with Kouma, with the pink pill lying beside her—made her vision go dark with shock.

Young people these days... they went straight for the extremes?

"Eriri, you—" Sayuri stepped forward to scold her daughter, but somehow lost her footing as well.

Mother and daughter collapsed into a pile together, with Kouma caught in the middle like the filling of a sandwich.

"Mmm~"

"Nngh~"

A tsundere's indignant squeak and a mature woman's flustered gasp rang out in succession—each carrying its own distinct flavor.

...

Inside Eriri's room, after listening to her daughter's frantic explanation, Sayuri pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

"Eriri... do you know how to lock a door?" she asked softly, though it came out more as a reprimand.

Eriri sat seiza-style on her bed, her long, fair legs a stark contrast to her flushed face. Her fangs clenched as she fumed. "It's Mom's fault for not telling me! If I'd known, none of this would have happened!"

"Even if you didn't know, you should still lock the door!" Sayuri shot her a glare. "Clean up your room and come downstairs!"

With that, she left the room and headed downstairs to find Kouma.

Eriri's cheeks puffed out in frustration. Mom was clearly enjoying herself too just now, and now she's putting it all on me! Hmph! Hypocritical woman!

As she gathered up the scattered sketches and toys, images from just moments ago kept replaying in her mind.

It felt like... a fountain was about to burst. Not that kind of fountain—her creative fountain!

Eriri set down the items and quickly sketched a rough pose—a "big cart pulled by a small horse." The lines were fluid. The shading and perspective, the sense of three-dimensionality and spatial depth—all perfectly executed.

Even just a rough contour sketch managed to capture the stark contrast between the sho[ta] and the JK girl, along with a subtle sense of dominant force exerted by the smaller figure over the larger one.

"This..." Eriri was stunned. The last time she had felt such an effortless flow in her strokes, it had produced a piece that won her a special award in a competition!

"So the key really is Kouma... Every time I have close contact with him, my condition peaks..." Lost in thought, Eriri began to contemplate her new theory.

Downstairs, Sayuri was preparing to cook dinner. "Kouma, why don't you eat with us tonight?"

"Auntie Sawamura, I'm supposed to have dinner at Mrs. Yotsuya's place today!"

Hearing his reply, Sayuri paused mid-motion. Yotsuya-san? Her eyes narrowed slightly as she recalled the friendly neighbor she had greeted that morning.

Her?

Just then, a hurried, slightly anxious voice rang out. "Kouma?! Kouma, dinner's ready!"

Kouma stood up and said goodbye to Sayuri. "Auntie Sawamura, Mrs. Yotsuya is calling me!" With that, he hurried out the door.

Outside, he saw Mrs. Yotsuya and Miko looking around with worried expressions. "Mrs. Yotsuya, I'm over here!"

Both of them visibly relaxed at the sight of the handsome sho[ta]. "Auntie thought you'd been kidnapped!" Mrs. Yotsuya said with lingering apprehension. With Kouma's looks and how endearing he was, it seemed all too plausible for ill-intentioned people to target him.

"I was just at Auntie Sawamura's place for a bit..."

Mrs. Yotsuya blinked in surprise. Looking up, she saw her new neighbor stepping out of her house.

"I didn't expect you to know Kouma too, Mrs. Yotsuya." Sayuri's voice carried a faint edge.

Touko's brow twitched almost imperceptibly at the word "too." What does she mean, "too"? First? Later? That's not decided yet!

Touko kept her smile warm on the surface while her thoughts churned beneath. "Indeed, I'm quite surprised. The last time Kouma visited, you hadn't yet moved in..."

The words landed squarely on Sayuri's ears, and her gaze sharpened. Is she flaunting that she's known Kouma longer?

Their smiles remained perfectly pleasant, but the occasional spark in their eyes when they met told a different story. Both women came to the same silent conclusion: I misjudged her this morning—she's not easy to get along with at all.

Upstairs, Eriri had also heard the commotion downstairs. She leaned out of her window and spotted the familiar figure below.

"Yotsuya-san?"

Miko looked up, meeting Eriri's unmistakable face and blonde hair. "Sawamura-san?!" she exclaimed in surprise.

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