After coming out of the bathroom, towel-drying his freshly washed hair, Miyahito's first sight was his girlfriend sitting in a W-shape on the bed, hugging a pillow and looking thoroughly dejected.
"What's wrong?" Finding it slightly amusing, Miyahito walked over and plopped onto the soft mattress. Reaching out, he tucked a strand of hair behind Utaha's ear. "What did Auntie say?"
"Mmm..." Pouting slightly, a gloomy expression on her pretty face, Utaha looked up at her grinning boyfriend. Then, dissatisfied, she lifted the pillow in her arms and lightly bonked him with it. "Mom told me to go home tomorrow."
"Go home?" Instinctively wanting to say, 'Isn't this your home now?' Miyahito paused, then realized.
"You're going back to Wakō City, Utaha?"
"Yeah." Nodding, Utaha reached over and reclaimed the pillow from him. Hugging it to her chest just like before, she grumbled with deep resentment about her mom.
"Always scolding me. I don't want to go back and see that meanie! When I get back to Wakō City, she'll definitely make me go out and sunbathe every day. She won't stop until I'm dried out like a rough, smelly salted fish...."
Listening to Utaha's rambling, complaining about her mom without a single swear word or repetition, Miyahito's shoulders shook as he suppressed his laughter, deliberately turning his face away.
He really didn't want Utaha to catch him snickering. Otherwise, her sharp tongue would be unleashed on him next.
Speaking of which, Utaha's roasts basically delivered punchlines at highway speeds.
Seeing his girlfriend wasn't done venting anytime soon, and already familiar with this side of her, Miyahito didn't press it. Instead, he slid off the bed onto the carpet, sat cross-legged in front of the slightly messy coffee table, and started organizing the manuscripts and sheet music, quietly humming.
"It really can't be helped, reality is more thrilling than fiction. After crossing sleepless nights, it's like a fire burning on a stake..."
When Miyahito's gentle, soothing humming drifted into Utaha's grumbling ears, she unconsciously fell silent.
'Singing that song again? Seriously, does he love it that much?'
A helpless yet doting smile touched her lips. She set the pillow aside, opened her arms, and carefully wrapped them around Miyahito's neck. Half-kneeling on the bed, she smiled softly as she leaned her plump upper body against his back and shoulders.
Feeling the softness pressing against his back and her breath brushing his ear, Miyahito, who had long since built up a resistance, spoke with mild exasperation.
"Utaha, I'm cleaning up here."
"So?" A playful smile curved her lips. Utaha deliberately used a lazy, alluring voice, like a mischievous cat plucking at the strings of his seemingly calm heart.
"Don't you like it? Or would you prefer something more obvious?"
"....."
Miyahito turned his head expressionlessly, met Utaha's bright, captivating smile for a second, then calmly looked away.
Ignoring his girlfriend, who was acting up again... trying to tempt him into a crime, he continued tidying the table as if nothing happened.
"?"
Watching him show absolutely no emotional fluctuation, even ignoring her, Utaha's smile gradually began to crack.
Oh? Getting used to my little tricks already?
Feeling her charm being ignored, a dark, ominous mood slowly welled up from the depths of Utaha's heart.
"By the way, since you're going home tomorrow, should we bring something for Uncle and Auntie?"
Miyahito's sudden voice instantly snapped Utaha out of her darkening thoughts.
"I don't know." Hugging him from behind, Utaha shook his solid frame in frustration. "Let's not buy anything. I have no idea what to get them."
"Mm."
Miyahito simply acknowledged it.
However, having lived together day and night since they started dating, Utaha instantly picked up on the subtle shift in his single-word response.
'Wait, does Miyahito seem a bit unhappy?'
Glancing secretly at his seemingly normal profile, Utaha still caught a fleeting trace of disappointment on his face.
But why?
Wasn't he in a good mood just now? Why the sudden shift?
Resting her cheek lightly against his, Utaha quieted down and replayed their recent conversation in her mind.
Buying gifts... Going home... Boyfriend...
Ah!
Utaha secretly gasped. She thought she understood why Miyahito was unhappy.
"Hey, Miyahito." An indescribable sense of joy touched the curve of her lips. Utaha swayed slightly, her voice bright as she asked,
"Are you upset because I haven't introduced you to my parents yet?"
"...."
Hearing Utaha ask this with such a cheerful tone, Miyahito turned his head, completely bewildered, looking at his girlfriend who was smiling like a blooming flower.
He slowly projected a question mark.
"?"
"I'm sorry." Mistaking his bewildered look for confirmation that she'd guessed right, Utaha laughed happily and offered a completely insincere apology.
She pecked his cheek lightly, then hugged his upper body even tighter, completely unaware as she pressed her beautiful figure firmly against his back.
"Actually, I've already planned to tell my parents about us as soon as I get home."
"I'm not deliberately hiding our relationship from them, and I'm definitely not refusing to introduce you to them, really!"
Listening to Utaha's completely unprompted explanation of 'why she hasn't told her parents they're dating like he did with his,' Miyahito took a moment to process.
Introduce? Deliberately hiding?
...Oh, Utaha thinks I'm upset about that.
Watching her expression grow increasingly serious and her voice tense with anxiety because of his silence, Miyahito found it slightly amusing and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Pfft hehe...!"
Hearing her boyfriend's strange sound (was he laughing?), Utaha was instantly stunned.
Then.
"Utaha, did you really think I was upset just because you haven't told Uncle and Auntie I'm your boyfriend?" The more he thought about it, the funnier it became, and the cuter his girlfriend seemed. Miyahito reached out and gently stroked her soft, fair cheek.
"Eh."
Letting his slightly rough thumb trace her face, Utaha asked in a daze,
"Isn't that it?"
[Want to come to my side?]