My stepmother's burden is my ex-girlfriend.

◆

I left the Kawanami family home, where I had stayed overnight, around noon and returned to my familiar home.

It seemed that Jie was planning to hang out with Nan before going home, so I opened the door to my house alone.

I only realized "oh no" after taking off my shoes. Maybe I should have said "I'm home." There were rarely any people home before, so I hadn't developed the habit of saying that.

...Never mind. There's not much point in announcing that I'm home anyway—I casually brushed aside my oversight and opened the living room door first.

This was the biggest mistake Irito Mizuto ever made in his life.

"Open your mouth~♥ Xiaofeng, is it delicious~?"

"It's delicious, Yui. Can I have another bite?"

"Oh, you're so greedy! Come on, open your mouth—"

I slowly closed the door.

He quickly turned his back to the door, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.

...How...how could this happen...?

I saw.

I actually witnessed it with my own eyes.

I saw a middle-aged person who looked quite old!

My parents!

They look just like a middle school couple!

A scene of couples pretending to be young and showing off their affection!

"...Ooo ...

I...I'm going to throw up...!

There was no particular reaction from the living room behind me. It seems they were only focused on each other and hadn't noticed I was back.

...I immediately sent a LINE message to Jie.

<Emergency call. Dad and Aunt Yu-ren are in serious trouble. Please come home immediately.>

About ten minutes later, Jie rushed into the entrance hall.

"What happened to Mom and the others?!"

"Hush──!"

I held up a finger to my lips to tell her to be quiet, and silently pointed to the living room.

"?"

Jie Nu looked surprised, but without thinking much, she opened the living room door.

Then close the door.

She quickly turned around and covered her face with her hands.

"...Ughhhhhhh...!"

Then she, just like me, was trembling uncontrollably.

See? You're just like me.

"...How...why did you make me watch this kind of thing...!"

"As a family, I believe that family matters should be shared together."

"He's just trying to drag others down with him, isn't he...!"

You could say that.

We crouched together in the hallway by the living room door and secretly began our family meeting.

"(He, they become like that when they're alone...? Are they just putting on a serious act in front of us?)"

"(Just as we've put on the mask of a close sibling relationship, it seems Dad and his family have also put on the mask of being reliable parents.)"

"(Even high school couples don't act that sweet anymore! Remember those two? They should be—)"

"(That's enough, stop talking. It's making me feel even more nauseous.)"

"(……what to do?)"

"(Pretend you didn't see it?)"

"(...That's true. Then so be it—)"

Just as the discussion was about to reach a conclusion...

Right behind us, "whoosh—!" The living room door opened.

We turned around cautiously to take a look.

Aunt Youren's face, which looked younger than her actual age, was adorned with a warm and endearing smile.

"You two...saw it?"

Pretend not to see.

We had agreed to do this, but we couldn't help but look away together.

Just as an awkward atmosphere filled the air...

Aunt Ren's baby face was twisted and wrinkled.

"I'm...I'm so sorry!"

Unexpectedly, Aunt Youren covered her face and burst into tears.

Seeing our mother wailing like that, we two children were completely stunned.

"I...I've always tried so hard to be a good mom... Waaaaaahh ...

If we're talking about something that's not mature yet, it's pretty much like that now.

It turns out that parents wailing and crying is just as off-putting as parents showing off their affection. What a new discovery.

In short, Yui and I just wanted to get out of this situation, so we stood up and comforted Aunt Yui.

"Auntie, don't worry! It's okay to cry! You're still young, there's nothing wrong with that!"

"Yeah, Mom! This isn't called 'immature,' it just that you're still 'young'! I think it's great, hmm!"

"……real……?"

When she asked us with her red and swollen eyes from crying, both Jie Nu and I could only nod vigorously.

"Oh, I see... I'm still 'young'... Indeed, people often say I'm young..."

"Right! Right!"

"So, it's okay for us to be all lovey-dovey in front of you ladies...?"

We turned our gaze away.

"Wa ...

Aunt Youren rushed back to the living room and went to cry to her father. Her father looked extremely embarrassed while gently patting the sobbing Aunt Youren's back to comfort her.

It has been said since ancient times that children learn by observing their parents' actions.

Although I don't know what kind of people we will become in the future, I definitely don't want to become like that.

Even seeing them like that, I still don't think they'll break up. I don't know what the problem is.

Volume Two: Even though they're no longer lovers, former couples still compete: "Don't treat me like an idiot!"

Although I was incredibly naive back then, I did have something called a boyfriend from the second to the third year of junior high school.

Speaking of this man, he is a pathetic fellow who is not only cold-hearted and careless about his appearance, but also an absolute klutz when it comes to sports. However, for some reason, his only outstanding trait is his intelligence.

His attitude in class was far from good; he would often sleep or secretly read his own book, doing whatever he pleased. Yet, despite this, his exam scores were always among the top. Because of this, despite his barely noticeable presence, he was treated like a delinquent by the teachers.

As for me, although I don't consider myself to be the type who's not smart, during the year and a half we were in a relationship, I never won against that guy even once.

That being said, I always manage to win by a few points in math, which is my strongest subject, but in other subjects, especially modern Chinese, I always fall far short.

Although this is a fact that makes me grit my teeth now, back then I would always chuckle to myself when I thought about it. After we handed in our papers, we would gather in a corner of the library to check our answers. When I found out that I had failed, I would say, "Wow, so amazing!" like a nightclub hostess praising the man to the heavens.

Of course, I didn't have the skill to use social niceties fluently back then, so although it sounds terrifying, that was my honest opinion. I really want to ask myself back then if I ever felt any regret. Didn't you have any self-respect? Probably not. After all, I was just a useless person blinded by love.

Although my "loser" tendencies were never cured until my high school entrance exam, there was one time, just one time, when the humble and dark competitive spirit of Ayai Yui erupted.

That was in the second year of junior high school, during the final exams of the first semester.

That is, not long before summer vacation.

That was me, that was us, something that happened shortly before our "meeting".

A student's primary duty is to study, not to chat and laugh with friends or be lovey-dovey with their boyfriend. Studying is the very reason this facility called a school exists. Therefore, even if you don't have anyone to talk to at school, as long as you're going to school to study, there's absolutely no problem—what, you have a problem with that?

I'm a bookworm.

I used to be the kind of person who went to school solely for the purpose of studying. Or rather, I had nothing to do at school except study.

Because of this, I am especially good at math.

The reason I became good at math was simply because I thought the science-oriented characters in mystery novels were cool. That's all there is to it, but in math exams, I've never lost to anyone.

This is the only pride I have in this place of school.

However, in the second year of junior high school, the midterm exam of the first semester.

For the first time in my life, I tasted defeat in a math exam.

In the same class, there was a boy named Irito Mizuto.

Irito Mizuto is like me, a boy without friends. Perhaps because he also felt the same way about me, he repeatedly lent me a helping hand when I was troubled, and I was truly grateful to him at the time. However, one thing is one thing.

Losing to someone like myself in my area of ​​expertise is something my insignificant pride cannot tolerate.

We will definitely win next time.

That might be the first time in my life that I've ever felt such a defiant spirit.

In preparation for the upcoming final exams, I cut back on sleep and devoted more energy to studying.

To not miss even a single point, to not make even a single mistake on a question. Everything was for the sake of defeating Irito Mizuto.

And just like that—I achieved the top score in the entire class.

This means that I defeated Irito Mizuto.

As I accepted the teacher's praise and took the answer, I glanced at Irito Mizuto, seemingly casually.

So, I won. I'll never keep losing in math.

My gaze, held with this resolve—

—But her absent-minded profile met her response.

Irito didn't seem to be listening to the teacher's praise of me; she just stared blankly out the window.

My initial enthusiasm suddenly cooled down.

...Look at what I've misunderstood. Just because we're the same kind of people, just because we both can't fit into the class, just because of that, I actually assumed that we were on the same wavelength, that just as I cared about him, he would care about me in the same way.

Ultimately, he shouldn't even know that I'm good at math. Given that, what am I even hoping for...?

I felt a sense of emptiness.

—In the end, it was nothing more than my one-man sumo. [One-man sumo: a common Japanese expression representing competition without an opponent.]

And so, summer vacation arrived, and I wandered aimlessly to the school library.

And that's where we "met".

Do you also like mystery novels?

When Irito took the book down from the high shelf and asked me this, I wasn't actually that surprised.

After all, I knew he had been reading in his seat the whole time, and I knew that those books included mystery novels—something I already knew all along.

So, that man might have misunderstood something—