Chapter 765 - 765: Mother-Daughter Rivalry, Shared Boyfriend; Repressed?

Looking at the electric toy shaped like a microphone at the very top of the dirty laundry basket, a glint flickered in Hikari's eyes.

His first instinct was to ignore it and just turn around and walk out.

But thinking of Nonohara Yuzuka's fetish, he shook his head and decided to go out and give her a heads-up.

After all, from what he knew about Nonohara Yuzuka, she seemed to be really into all kinds of electric toys.

If he didn't warn her and her mother saw it in a bit, wouldn't that be awkward?

With that in mind, Hikari opened the door and beckoned to Nonohara Yuzuka, who was sitting on the sofa swinging her legs.

"Yuzuka-san, come here a sec."

"Huh?" Hearing Hikari suddenly call her, Nonohara Yuzuka was a little puzzled, but she still got off the sofa and hurried over to the bathroom.

"Aren't you being a little too careless? You even left your own toy lying here and forgot to put it away." Hikari pointed at the electric microphone on the dirty laundry basket.

"Huh?!" Hearing Hikari's words, Nonohara Yuzuka looked where he was pointing, and her pretty face instantly flushed bright red.

"S... sorry!" The very first time she invited a guy over to her house, and something like this happened. Nonohara Yuzuka wished she could dig a tunnel and crawl into it.

"I... I'm just kind of scatterbrained sometimes. Sorry about that, I'll put it away right now!"

Apologizing as she went, Nonohara Yuzuka hurried over, about to put the electric microphone away.

But once she had the microphone in her hand, she suddenly froze. "Huh?!"

"What's wrong?" Seeing Nonohara Yuzuka's expression, Hikari asked.

"This... this toy doesn't seem to be mine!!" Nonohara Yuzuka stared at the unfamiliar model of microphone in front of her, dumbfounded.

"You sure you're not remembering wrong?" Hikari eyed Nonohara Yuzuka suspiciously.

"I'm definitely not remembering wrong!" Nonohara Yuzuka nodded hard. "I take every one of my toys really seriously. I give them all kinds of names. There's no way I'd remember wrong!"

Suddenly realizing that what she'd said sounded a bit off, and afraid Hikari would get the wrong idea, Nonohara Yuzuka hurriedly added, "Of course! In my heart, Hikari-kun is the best! All of them put together can't compare! If you've got any problem with them, Hikari-kun, I'll throw them all out right away!!!"

"Uh... I'm not really interested in getting jealous of electric toys." Looking at Nonohara Yuzuka, who probably had never dated anyone before and so was overreacting, Hikari shook his head helplessly.

Suddenly, something occurred to Hikari. "If you're sure this microphone isn't yours, then it looks like there's only one possibility..."

Hikari was about to say something, but before he could finish, the sound of footsteps came from the stairs.

"Yuzuka? Hikari-kun? Where'd you two go?" Nonohara Yuri seemed to have finished changing and come downstairs, and not seeing them in the living room, her puzzled voice called out.

"Ah! Hikari-kun and I are over here by the bathroom!" Hearing her mother, Nonohara Yuzuka answered on reflex.

Then she suddenly remembered she was still holding something she shouldn't be holding, and like she was holding a hot potato, she quickly put it back in its original spot in the dirty laundry basket.

Then she hurriedly grabbed Hikari and walked out of the bathroom with him.

"Huh? What were you two doing in the bathroom?" Seeing her daughter come out of the bathroom together with Hikari, Nonohara Yuri was a little puzzled.

"Uh... well, Hikari-kun said he needed to use the bathroom, but he didn't know where it was, so I brought him over. Mm... that's all." Nonohara Yuzuka explained a little awkwardly.

"Oh, I see." Nonohara Yuri smiled and didn't think anything of it.

"Hikari-kun, go ahead and keep drinking your tea. Auntie wants to chat with you some more about how Yuzuka's usually doing at school."

Under Nonohara Yuri's gaze, Nonohara Yuzuka, still a little red in the face, sat back down on the sofa together with Hikari.

But just as Nonohara Yuri came over too and was about to sit down, she suddenly stood back up. "Oh, right, I didn't wash my hands after changing just now. I'll go wash my hands in the bathroom first~"

"Huh?!" Hearing her mother, Nonohara Yuzuka instantly tensed up, but she had no idea how to say anything to stop her.

She turned her head to look at Hikari, but Hikari didn't say anything either. He just looked her in the eye.

In the end, all Nonohara Yuzuka could do was keep her little face tense and helplessly watch her mother, Nonohara Yuri, walk into the bathroom.

A few minutes passed.

The tightly closed bathroom door opened again, and Nonohara Yuri slowly walked out.

Her steps were a little strange, and her expression was a bit off too.

Hikari glanced up and could clearly see a flush spreading across the gorgeous woman's fair face.

He moved his gaze down a little and, sure enough, saw that although Nonohara Yuri's hands were empty, her pocket was bulging, as if something was in it.

Sure enough... the owner of that electric microphone was actually Nonohara Yuri.

And right now, Nonohara Yuzuka had clearly caught on too, and a flush rose on her little face just like her mother's. After all, with this kind of thing, even watching it happen to someone else makes you feel awkward pretty easily.

Hikari and the Nonohara mother and daughter, all three of them looked at each other without a word.

The air froze a little.

But actually, thinking about it, it wasn't all that surprising.

After all, Nonohara Yuri was a single mother.

And from what Nonohara Yuzuka had said, she'd apparently been single for a lot of years.

Having some normal needs was only natural.

There was nothing to criticize about it.

It was just that having something like this found out was bound to be a little awkward.

Guiltily raising a hand to cover her pocket, Nonohara Yuri's pretty face flushed slightly, but she pretended to be calm and said to the two of them, "Um... Hikari-kun, Auntie just remembered she's got some documents upstairs she hasn't finished sorting out. I'm going to go back up and take care of them. I'm really sorry."

"Yuzuka, keep Hikari-kun company and chat with him a bit longer!"

The moment she finished, the red-cheeked beauty hurried out of the living room and went back upstairs.

Even though they'd both stayed silent just now, Hikari and Nonohara Yuzuka, who'd known exactly what was going on all along, now exchanged a look.

Hikari's expression was calm, but Nonohara Yuzuka looked pretty embarrassed.

"Um... please don't take it the wrong way, Hikari-kun..." Nonohara Yuzuka said quietly.

Hikari waved it off lightly. "It's fine. I get it."

Seeing how calm Hikari looked, Nonohara Yuzuka breathed a sigh of relief too.

After that, Hikari drank tea for a little while longer, and it was a good few minutes before Nonohara Yuri came back downstairs.

Maybe because what happened earlier still made things a bit awkward, Hikari felt Nonohara Yuri wasn't really in the mood to chat.

She'd also lost some of that composure a mature adult has.

So after politely chatting for seven or eight minutes, Hikari got up to say goodbye and left the Nonohara house.

After getting up to see Hikari out the door, both of them, Nonohara Yuzuka and Nonohara Yuri, mother and daughter, breathed a sigh of relief.

Nonohara Yuzuka was worried her mother would pick up on some hint about her and Hikari's relationship.

And Nonohara Yuri, naturally, was embarrassed because she'd left her toy in the bathroom earlier, where her daughter and her daughter's male classmate had very likely seen it.

But with only the two of them at home again, something they'd been used to for over ten years, the Nonohara mother and daughter both relaxed.

After closing the front door, Nonohara Yuri put on an apron, ready to go into the kitchen and cook.

But before she started cooking, she first came over to Nonohara Yuzuka.

"Yuzuka-chan~" Nonohara Yuri called out with a smile.

"Mom, what is it?" Seeing her mother suddenly come over, Nonohara Yuzuka looked puzzled.

There was a gentle smile on Nonohara Yuri's face, but her tone was pretty serious as she asked, "Yuzuka-chan, are you and Hikari-kun going out right now?"

———

Hearing her mother's point-blank question, Nonohara Yuzuka's little face instantly turned red, and she hurriedly shook her head. "N... no, we're not!"

"Oh? Is that so? Then how come when I got home earlier, I saw you two holding hands?" Nonohara Yuri asked, still smiling.

"Um... um..." What had happened today was just way too complicated. Nonohara Yuzuka couldn't explain it at all on the spot.

And thinking about how intimate she'd been with Hikari in the Film Research Club, she couldn't keep her face from burning red.

In the end, all she could do was stick to her story and insist stubbornly, "W... we're just not going out yet!"

"Okay, okay, okay~ If Yuzuka-chan says you're not going out, then you're not going out yet." Seeing how flustered her daughter was, Nonohara Yuri stopped teasing her, so her daughter wouldn't actually get mad at her.

But she switched angles and kept teasing anyway. "Honestly, Hikari-kun is really handsome, and he's so refined too. He's a rare, outstanding guy."

"If Mommy were ten years younger, I'd definitely go after him myself~"

Hearing that, Nonohara Yuzuka pouted, and so as not to take her mother's bait, she said offhandedly, "If you want to go after Hikari-kun, Mom, then go for it. He's not my boyfriend anyway. I could even play matchmaker for you two!"

"Oh? Really? Yuzuka-chan, you wouldn't mind getting a stepdad your own age?" Hearing her daughter's words, Nonohara Yuri asked with a smile.

"I... I don't mind! Mom, if you can catch him, go for it!" Nonohara Yuzuka said, stubborn as usual.

"Is that so... Then I really will think about going after Hikari-kun, okay? After all, I've been single for over ten years too. I get lonely a lot~" Nonohara Yuri lightly rested her chin on her slender hand, putting on a look like she was seriously thinking about it.

As she talked, she even took out her phone and said to Nonohara Yuzuka with a smile, "Since you don't mind, Yuzuka, then give Mommy a copy of Hikari-kun's contact info."

"I..."

"Fine! No problem!"

Hearing how seemingly serious her mother, Nonohara Yuri, sounded, Nonohara Yuzuka really did start to get a little nervous inside.

But being shy, she still didn't want to admit in front of her mother that she liked Hikari, so she gritted her teeth and sent Hikari's contact info to Nonohara Yuri.

When Nonohara Yuri got the message, she also noticed how red her daughter's face was from holding it in, and she finally couldn't hold back her laughter. "Oh my! Yuzuka, did you actually take that seriously? Don't be mad. Mommy was just teasing you."

"Hikari-kun is so young. How could Mommy possibly rob the cradle like that?"

"He's so young, and the age gap's so big, there's no way at all for Mommy and him in this lifetime~"

"The only reason I wanted his contact info is that if anything comes up with you at school, I can get in touch with Hikari-kun, that's all~"

Hearing her mother Nonohara Yuri's words, Nonohara Yuzuka secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

But she still pouted and insisted stubbornly, "I don't care whether you go after Hikari-kun or not, Mom. He and I aren't boyfriend and girlfriend anyway. But you're so mean, Mom, you love messing with people!"

"If you keep teasing me like this, Mom, I'll secretly hide your electric toys!"

Nonohara Yuri, who'd just turned and walked into the kitchen, faintly heard her daughter's muttering, and her steps froze on the spot.

Thinking about what had happened in the bathroom earlier, she really did feel a bit awkward.

But speaking of electric toys, her daughter was the one with the most of them, wasn't she!

When she'd been cleaning before, she'd seen that whole drawer full of all kinds of them. It was a whole dazzling collection!

And then there were those delivery texts that kept popping up on her phone every now and then. She'd known for ages, okay?!

But since it was a single-parent home, to leave her daughter some privacy and dignity, Nonohara Yuri didn't call Nonohara Yuzuka out, and instead walked into the kitchen with a wry smile.

After all, her daughter liking to play with those things so much was probably because she'd grown up without a father's love.

Never getting to be around the opposite sex really did make it easy to end up sexually repressed.

And maybe because it had been too long since she'd been around men herself, as Nonohara Yuri thought about this, it suddenly crossed her mind that if she really found a father for Nonohara Yuzuka, maybe her daughter wouldn't be so introverted and socially anxious now.

But she was way too busy with work to ever meet any suitable men.

The few she'd run into now and then were all guys who were after her looks or just unreliable, and she'd always kept her distance from them.

Come to think of it, in all her years as a single mother, the most reliable man she'd ever met actually seemed to be Hikari, whom she'd only just met.

They hadn't interacted much yet, but young as he was, Hikari gave her the impression of being more reliable than every grown man she'd ever met before.

If she picked Hikari as Yuzuka's stepfather, he'd definitely be able to bring her out of her social anxiety and shyness, right?

Having a reliable man like that in the house, it felt like he'd definitely take good care of the two of them, mother and daughter...

'Ugh, no, no, no! What am I thinking?!'

Hikari-kun was so young, and he was her daughter's classmate on top of that. There wasn't the slightest chance in this lifetime for him and an old lady like her.

"Have I been single so long that my brain's fried?"

Nonohara Yuri shook her head, shaking that ridiculous idea right out of her mind.

For a guy as outstanding and young as Hikari to go out with her daughter already felt lucky enough.

As for going out with an old lady like her... if something that good really happened, she'd eat this big iron wok right in front of her!

If it was a top-quality guy like Hikari, Nonohara Yuri even felt that sharing a boyfriend with her daughter wouldn't be completely out of the question.

But rather than daydreaming, she'd be better off inviting Hikari over more often from now on to help him and her daughter get closer. Having a reliable son-in-law like that would already be happiness enough.