Chapter 63 – The Girls Gather Together (Patreon)

"Sis, are you okay?"

A childish voice sounded by her ear.

By this point, Mio Akiyama was so mortified that steam was practically rising from the top of her head, her whole body nearly petrified. The relentless throbbing sensation still pulsed from within her.

"I-I'm fine..."

Mio's body trembled faintly. She wanted to move away, but couldn't muster a shred of strength.

That was when Yui Hirasawa and the other two girls came running down, worried.

"Mio, you okay?"

"Ahh, you're crushing a little boy!"

They hurriedly moved Mio off of Kouma.

He finally managed to let out a slow breath.

Mio lifted her gaze and stole a lightning-fast glance at Kouma's face. She was stunned by how beautiful he was, and at the same time, that throbbing inside her seemed to stir again. She fled from his gaze as if escaping.

"Thank you..."

Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's hum.

Her refined, demure face was flushed bright red.

This was the first time she'd ever been in such close physical contact with a boy!

And she'd made such embarrassing sounds...

And her body had started feeling so strange...

Mom always said that if something like this happened, she'd have to marry him...

But he's still so young, would she have to wait for him...?

Mio, whose views on male-female relations were extremely conservative and traditional, gradually sank into a bizarre spiral of imagination, looking as if she'd been petrified off to the side.

Meanwhile, the other three girls of the Light Music Club had gathered around this painfully adorable little boy, so cute he stirred a protective instinct.

"Wow, what a cute little boy!"

"Pinching his cheeks is so fun!"

"Holding him is even better!"

"Tsumugi, you should try it too!"

"Little boy, what's your name?"

"Kouma!"

Sawako Yamanaka, who had come up beside them at some point, froze when she heard that name. She looked at Kouma with surprise.

"So you're the Kouma that Shizuka is always going on about?"

Kouma lifted his face at her words and looked at this teacher with her delicate features.

"Hiratsuka-sensei is here too?"

"Well, she's not here, actually..."

Sawako crouched down to meet Kouma's eyes. A flash of amazement crossed her beautiful eyes. She'd lost count of how many times she'd heard Shizuka Hiratsuka describe Kouma as handsome, cute—every flattering word in the book. Now that she saw him in person, Shizuka really hadn't been exaggerating.

"What, are you here looking for Shizuka?"

Kouma shook his head. "I'm here looking for Ai-nee..."

The girls all paused at that. Ai-nee? Before they could ask, Kouma's eyes suddenly lit up.

"I see Ai-nee!"

At his words, the girls all followed his gaze. An exceptionally dazzling and beautiful girl was striding quickly toward them.

"Ai Hoshino?!"

The Light Music Club girls blinked in surprise. Then they watched as the two people—both seemingly blessed by the god of beauty itself—embraced! No words, just holding each other. Ai drank in Kouma's scent greedily. This was the source of her motivation!

After a long moment, Ai curved her starry eyes into crescents. Her smile bloomed like a flower.

"Well? Surprise! I kept my promise and transferred to Shuchi'in! From now on, if anyone bullies you, your big sister can back you up right away!"

She waved her little fist, her expression fiercely indignant.

Lately, as her popularity kept climbing, several film and TV companies had even reached out to Miyako Saito, sending over some scripts. While they had no plans to enter the film industry just yet, they'd glanced through the scripts anyway.

By sheer coincidence, one of them featured an orphan protagonist who'd been adopted by a wealthy family and tormented endlessly—exploited day and night by a beautiful young stepmother, trampled underfoot by a scheming older sister and her friends, cursed out daily by an arrogant younger sister.

All smiles to his face, but in truth they attacked from every angle, and the protagonist had no choice but to slave away day and night, burying himself in suffering!

After reading it, Ai had immediately imagined Kouma in that role. The worry had been intense. It felt like he was living through that kind of misery every single day!

"Don't worry, Ai-nee. Mrs. Yukinoshita and the others have all been really good to me," Kouma reassured her.

As the rehearsal ended, the performance hall prepared to open its doors and let the audience in from outside. Before heading backstage, Ai and Kouma pressed their foreheads together. Only like this would Ai fill Kouma's eyes entirely with her reflection—and no one else's.

"Kouma, I've also finished polishing that other song you were humming before. Make sure you watch me carefully!"

"Ai-nee, do your best! I'll be watching your performance from the audience!"

If you had to name the single most anticipated event of the school festival, it would undoubtedly be the afternoon stage performances. Watching those talented students showcase what they'd learned on stage—the younger kids saw aspiration, their peers saw hard work, the adults saw youth. Every audience member could find a beautiful moment from their own memories in it.

And this time, with the appearance of B-Komachi—of Ai Hoshino—the buzz around Shuchi'in's school festival stage performances had only grown hotter.

Seeing the fans with their glow sticks gathering from scattered individuals into clusters and then full groups, quite a few people grew curious about this idol group called B-Komachi.

"Hey, the school festival performances are about to start. Auntie Yukiko, let's go check it out too!"

Ran Mouri watched the crowd moving in that direction, suddenly remembered, and hurriedly turned to Yukiko Fujimine beside her.

"Hmm, a performance! I wonder what kind of things young girls are into these days..." A nostalgic look surfaced in Yukiko's beautiful eyes as she recalled her own high school days.

"Well, I suppose a quick look won't hurt. Kouma probably won't be heading home that soon anyway..."

Eri Kisaki had been dragged back to work by Mrs. Yukinoshita, but Yukiko had stayed at Shuchi'in, keeping Ran company after she'd finished her shift at the haunted house. The main reason: if she approached Kouma alone and Eri found out later, it would be hard to explain. But if she brought Ran along—well, even if Eri got suspicious, she could always cover it up with something like "Oh, I was just helping these half-siblings with different mothers get to know each other!"

As they walked toward the performance hall together, Yukiko probed casually, "When did you first meet Kouma, Ran?"

Ran hadn't expected Yukiko to suddenly bring up Kouma. Her body gave a tiny jolt, and in an instant, she was remembering the morning's haunted house experience all over again. Come to think of it, the first time she'd met Kouma, her body had also...

"About a week ago..." Ran answered, her face flushing slightly.

Yukiko's delicate eyebrows lifted at that. She hadn't expected that Eri had kept him hidden so well. After a moment's thought, she pressed further. "So, does Ran know about Kouma's background?"

"I heard from Mom before that he was an orphan. He was only adopted by Mrs. Yukinoshita recently..." Ran answered honestly.

After saying that, she looked at Yukiko with some confusion. "Why is Auntie Yukiko asking about all this?"

Yukiko revealed a faint, meaningful smile. "Oh, nothing. I just thought it was interesting that your mother—usually so cold—treats Kouma so well..."

Hearing this, Ran suddenly felt a twinge of curiosity herself. She knew her mother's personality well. With others, Eri was always strictly business. With relatives, her attitude was neither servile nor overbearing, never too warm.

Even in front of her own biological daughter, she never showed such extreme, exposed emotional fluctuations. And yet, those kinds of emotional waves seemed to surface frequently around Kouma. And he should only be her boss's kid, nothing more...

Once she started thinking about it, the questions piled up fast. But Yukiko didn't give her time to dwell on it, pulling her along into the performance hall.

At the Art Club, after Kouma had left that morning, the Sawamura mother and daughter had briefly fallen into an awkward atmosphere.

Eriri had witnessed everything that morning firsthand, but she had to pretend she knew nothing. Except every time she saw her mother's face, that deeply engraved ahegao expression automatically surfaced in her mind.

And on top of that, she herself harbored impure feelings for Kouma. Should she condemn her, or give her blessing? For a moment, Eriri didn't know how to face her mother.

Sayuri, for her part, was fully aware that her daughter had seen everything that morning, but she had to pretend she didn't know.

What made it harder was that she'd vaguely sensed her daughter might have romantic feelings for Kouma—which left her even more torn because she had no idea how she could face Eriri if everything came to light, or how she should treat Kouma.

For a while, she didn't know what to do either.

That was until she noticed the school festival stage performances were about to start.

"Eriri, let's go watch your schoolmates perform!" Sayuri said, acting casual.

She figured watching a show might ease the tension, help Eriri forget about what had happened faster.

"Ah... yeah, I guess we could check it out..." Eriri avoided Sayuri's gaze and nodded.

She was thinking the same thing—maybe some fun acts on stage could help her forget her troubles.

And so the Sawamura mother-daughter duo headed toward the performance hall.

"Mom, the school festival performances look like they're about to start. Should we go watch?"

Miko Yotsuya watched the crowd's movement and turned to her mother beside her. All morning, ever since they'd left the Service Club, the Yotsuya mother and daughter had nearly toured the entirety of the Shuchi'in high school division's school festival. Their bodies, enhanced by Kouma, hadn't felt the slightest fatigue even after a whole morning of walking around. They'd definitely gotten their money's worth.

"Let's go take a look," Mrs. Yotsuya nodded. "After that, we'll go support Kouma... buy some takoyaki, and then head home."

Hearing her mother's words, Miko nodded in agreement. "Kouma's takoyaki really is delicious!"

With that, Miko led her mother toward the performance hall. She didn't notice, though, the inexplicable flush on her mother's face beside her. From Mrs. Yotsuya's perspective, takoyaki wasn't the only delicious thing to be found at Kouma's place.

In the faculty office, Shizuka Hiratsuka—who had finally managed to snatch a brief thirty-minute break—lay sprawled in her office chair, utterly drained. The nonstop grind all morning had sapped a good deal of her energy.

"If only I could hold Kouma while I sleep right now..."

This was fantasy time.

Still, thinking back, every time she held the little boy, all her physical fatigue would just vanish. To Shizuka, Kouma was practically one of those legendary treasures where "even just a whiff can add years to your life."

"So my hidden attribute really is being a sho[ta]con... no, more like a Kouma-con!"

Ever since Kouma had appeared in her life, she'd initially thought she might be a closet sho[ta]con. But after a while, she realized—she felt nothing for other little boys. Shizuka had come to understand that she wasn't a sho[ta]con at all. Only Kouma was special. She was just a Kouma-con.

Ring~!

Her phone rang, and Shizuka jolted so hard her whole body twitched.

"Please don't be more work..."

Shizuka felt like work was giving her ringtone phobia at this point. But the moment she answered and Sawako Yamanaka's words reached her ears, Shizuka's beautiful eyes lit up instantly.

"Kouma's at the performance hall? I'm on my way to help! Tired? No, I'm not tired at all! Wait for me, I'll be right there!"

Shizuka hung up, brimming with energy, and even in high heels she flew out of the office like the wind, click-clacking rapidly down the hallway.

In the apartment, an alarm suddenly blared. It jolted two of the three girls sprawled in a tangle across the large bed awake.

"An alarm?"

"Whose?" Haruno, forcibly booted into wakefulness, spoke with some irritation.

"No clue. I never set alarms," Toyomi mumbled, rubbing her bleary eyes, sounding equally displeased. The two exchanged a look, then simultaneously turned toward Chika, who was still sound asleep beside them.

"Unbelievable. Sets her own alarm and doesn't even wake up to it!"

The two college students, now thoroughly roused and carrying a bit of morning crankiness, were instantly incensed. They wasted no time in shaking Chika awake.

"That's your alarm!"

Still groggy, Chika fumbled for her phone and turned off the alarm. She was just about to sink back into sleep when something suddenly occurred to her. She shot upright from the bed.

"Oh no—the school festival performance! I'm supposed to play piano on stage!"

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