Aunt Ayaka was looking at me while having a stupid grin on her face.

 

"Oh, my~ my~ Tatsuya, I didn't know that you took Sakura-chan's offer~"

 

"Huh?", I said in confusion.

 

"Didn't you go with Naoki-chan earlier? Was it a date? Fufu~", Aunt Ayaka said while giggling.

 

"Date? It's only a jog!", I said with now a flushed red face.

 

"A date jogging?"

 

I glared at her, and said, "How did you conclude that?"

 

"Eh~ It's not?", still giggling.

 

"Of course not!"

 

"I run into her at the front porch earlier and I asked her if she wants to go with me to the public park to jog."

 

"Oho~ so you asked her, you're getting brave Tatsuya~", Aunt Ayaka while having a proud look.

 

"W—wait! No! I—I missaid! I asked if she was about to take a jog, so I offered her to be with me!"

 

At that time, I knew I messed up.

 

"Pfft, Hahahahaha", Aunt Ayaka laughed.

 

"Arg—gh", I covered my face with my hands in shame.

 

"Hahaha, so you offered her to be with you?", Aunt Ayaka said while wiping her tears from laughing.

 

"N—No!"

 

"All right, all right, I know, I'm just messing with you. Fufu~"

 

"I'm just surprised that you two went together to take a jog, and  Sakura-chan saw you two.", she added.

 

"Y—yeah, I know... I saw her earlier at their front door.", I said in a low voice while still having my head down.

 

I'm so ashamed! Ahh—hh!!

 

While I'm having a mental breakdown, Aunt Ayaka suddenly hugged me.

 

"—?!"

 

"Fufu~ There there sorry for teasing you."

 

I got suddenly confused by her actions.

 

Why? the only thing that came out to my mind.

 

"I'm just proud of you.", she said.

 

"I know, what you went through. In spite of that, you're here to face it, and I'm very proud of you. I treated you as my own child, that's why I felt hurt when your mom told me about what happened to you. Do you remember the times you fell and cry? The first thing you will do was to search for me and immediately will ask for a hug.", she let out a giggle.

 

I do remember the stuff she mentioned since she's the one who took care of me. Well, she lived with us when I was 3, and since my mother was busy at work she hired Aunt Ayaka to become my babysitter. She lived with us for about 5 years before deciding to live alone when she got a stable job at a company. And after that, she rarely comes, but she's always there when there's a special occasion. But, after she got married she stopped coming.

 

"Your mom was so jealous of me, that she even want to quit her job.", she continued.

 

"I know, that you were having a hard time all these years. When Sakura told me about you interacting with Naoki-chan, I felt relieved. Even though she's your neighbor, I can tell that you guys will be great friends. I know that you wanted to keep a low profile in high school.", then she patted my head my face is buried in her breast.

 

"I know that you're afraid too, but always remember that we are here for you always. No matter what happens."

 

"When I heard that you took the initiative to talk to her on your own accord, I felt relieved. I even called your mom too, you know? Actually, she was the one I'm talking to when you got down here.", still patting my head with a soothing smile on her face.

 

"W-what? You called mom?", I looked up.

 

Oh no, this is gonna be a pain in the ass.

 

"Yep, I got excited. I know that you didn't have any friends since that thing happened. All these years, the only people you talked to are either your parents and sister or the doctors and nurses at the hospital. Right?"

 

"Y—yeah...", I said with a pitiful tone.

 

"That's why I'm very delighted when you befriended someone at your age.", she said with the biggest smile on her face.

 

"W—well, I couldn't say friend more likely an acquaintance..."

 

" Acquaintance? On a first-name basis?"

 

My eyes widen, and replied, "H—how did you..."

 

"Fufu~ Secret~", she started giggling.

 

I was stunned, how come Aunt Ayaka knows that? I'm pretty sure she's inside of the house and that logic applies to Sakura-san too.

 

Then she released me from her hug, and said, "By the way, they invited us for a dinner again."

 

"The Ikeda household?", I asked.

 

"Who else?"

 

"A-Ah, nothing."

 

"Fufu~ Go take your breakfast, me and Asuka have eaten earlier."

 

"Okay, Auntie", then I went ahead to the dinner table and ate the toast and eggs.

 

 

✯ ✯ ✯

 

 

After having that conversation with Aunt Ayaka earlier, It's currently dinner time. Instead of a formal one like last time, but now it will more casual. So, I picked a hoodie from the wardrobe and sweatpants. But unlike last time, Aunt Ayaka didn't neatly comb my hair and that's why my hair right now was the usual one I have every day.

 

It's not like they're triggering my symptoms. I'm just lazy to fix my hair. The thing with my symptoms not showing whenever they see me my clear face was very peculiar, I don't know. I tried showing my face to the cleaning lady at the playground when Aunt Ayaka asked me to bring and watch Asuka at the playground. I just did it on a whim, because I thought my symptoms alleviated a little but it's still the same. I didn't even last 5 minutes, and I'm glad that I always have my meds with me. Despite all of that, the cleaning lady was really nice, she helped and took care of Asuka while I head to a nearby bathroom to vomit.

 

When we got home that day and told Aunt Ayaka about it, I got scolded for the whole day. Mostly, about how I tried to do that while I have Asuka on my watch, next would be the what if I don't have my meds. And concerning Asuka's safety, I do agree. I left Asuka to a stranger. I repented. Well, Aunt Ayaka didn't really stop there, after the thing with Asuka's safety was me, she nagged me for straight 2 hours about my recklessness.

 

 

 

✯ ✯ ✯

 

 

We are at the Ikeda household.

 

Sakura-san opened the door and greeted us.

 

"Good evening, Ayaka, Asuka-chan~ and...", then looked at me and her tone changed from sweet to a teasing one.

 

"Tatsuya~ or should I say, son-in-law?", and her smile widens.

 

Tch, I knew it, I should have known this! I thought to myself.

 

"...", but I only gave her stare with an indifferent face.

 

"Oh come on, Tatsuya-kun, I'm just joking you're like my husband who can't take a joke", she said and looked at me with a pitiful pout.

 

"Because sometimes you take it too far.", Haru-san interjected.

 

"Boo~", Sakura-san said still pouting.

 

"Fufu~", Aunt Ayaka giggled while holding Asuka in her arms.

 

And, Asuka who seems to be lost, only looked at us confused.

 

"All right, let's just head to dinner. Naoki is waiting for us at the table.", Haru-san said.

 

We followed Haru-san to the dining table and I saw Naoki.

 

Naoki was wearing a white shirt like the last time, but the difference was she's wearing a pajama as her trousers.

 

She then looked at me and quickly turned her head away. When I saw her face, I could see faint tiredness from her expression and I know who caused it.

 

"Naoki~ you're future husband is here~", Sakura-san said with a stupid grin on her face.

 

Naoki only glared at her and didn't say a single word.

 

Poor Naoki, I guess she got it worse than me. Aunt Ayaka didn't even tease me or bought that topic after the hug conversation we had earlier. Sakura-san was much worse, I could only guess that Naoki endured it for the whole day because of how Sakura-san was acting right now. I'm thankful that I have Aunt Ayaka than Sakura-san.

 

"Fufu~ Why you look gloomy now, Naoki? What happened to the smile you had earlier when you got in the house?", Sakura-san said.

 

"You even started spouting some stuff ab—mm—m", she added but at the end, it got muffled.

 

It was Naoki, she quickly stood up and put her hands on her mother's mouth tightly.

 

"If you ever tell a thing. I swear.", then glared at her mother.

 

I was stunned and instinctively hugged Asuka while covering her eyes and ears at the same time. Aunt Ayaka gave Asuka to me when we were about to enter and went back to the house to bring the deserts.

 

Then Naoki went back to her seat and Sakura-san who's still grinning suddenly said, "Honey~ Naoki is being a bad girl~".

 

"Ha—aa... What did I tell you about your teasing habit? Sometimes, you take it too far.", Haru-san said dejectedly.

 

"What can I do. Naoki looks cute when she's embarrassed. I'm pretty sure Tatsuya would totally love to see it too.", then looked at me.

 

Me who's still hugging Asuka, I loosened. Then, Asuka looked at me confused at me. Maybe wondering why I did that.

 

I looked at Naoki whose face became beet red.

 

"Fufu~ look at her, she's cute right, Tatsuya?", she asked me.

 

I was currently stunned at her expression and can only think of how cute she is right now.

 

So I panicky said, "I—I guess so?".

 

"Oho~", Sakura said with an amused expression.

 

Because of that, Naoki's face turned red even more.

 

Eventually, Aunt Ayaka came back while having a confused expression on her face.

 

"Oh, what happened here? I feel like I missed something great.", Aunt Ayaka asked.

 

But, Haru-san interjected and said, "Let's eat first"

 

"I'll tell you later Ayaka-chan", still with her amused face showing.

 

The dinner went well, except for the two of us. Naoki and I became the center of the discussion when Sakura-san mentioned what happened earlier to Aunt Ayaka.

 

And, that's how we spent the night.