My stepmother's burden is my ex-girlfriend.

Page 288

Jie rummaged through her pockets and took out a small gift box that could fit in the palm of her hand.

"This... open it and take a look."

I accepted it. At first glance, it looked like it was tied with a ribbon, but it seemed to be just a design. It could be opened by simply lifting the lid.

I swallowed hard to moisten my parched throat. A completely unfounded intuition—a feeling that something decisive would happen the moment I opened the box—made me incredibly nervous.

I clenched my fist tightly to stop it from shaking.

There's no other way now.

I nervously reached out and slowly opened the lid of the gift box.

"…………ah……"

My intuition was right.

The gift box contained items engraved with silver wings—

—A ring.

"Do you remember two years ago—the time I gave you a necklace with a feather pendant?"

"I'm frozen in place when I see the ring," said the woman.

"This year, I wanted to surpass that gift... so I chose wings... and then—"

With a creak, the spring mattress squeezed slightly.

"Actually, this is a set of precepts."

There was determination in the voice of the girl.

"Two wings together make a complete pair... that's the concept behind wedding rings."

The phrase "birds flying wing to wing" flashed through my mind.

This bird, with only one wing, requires a male and female pair to fly—used as a metaphor for the deep affection between men and women.

"I didn't buy the other one... I hope... you can buy it... and give it to me."

That's incredibly cunning.

You really... don't intend to say it yourself.

I'm the one who insists on speaking up.

They've made up their minds—they want me to decide.

However, you have made so many unspoken implications.

I...I'm in so much pain...yet you are like this, so straightforward.

—That's too cunning.

I wish I could be like you, living according to my feelings.

"……this……!……"

A parched throat caused the voice to repeatedly get stuck.

It was as if they were trying to stop me from saying what I was about to say.

"This... I can't accept it."

I quietly closed the gift box.

"I...cannot...be...your wings..."

I am really, really heartbroken.

But that's the truth.

We all know it, we know it better than anyone else.

The confession was merely the prelude to the collapse.

No matter how much you like someone, that feeling will erode over time, and may even become a burden, eventually leading you to only think of yourself.

Moreover, doing this will also involve Dad and Aunt Yu-ren.

I know how much this will hurt you. You changed your surname to Aunt Ren's and even moved into your ex-boyfriend's house. You did all that to keep a home, only to destroy it with your own hands. I—I absolutely do not want to see that happen.

How wonderful it would be if I didn't care about you at all.

If none of those things had happened during junior high, and we had no contact after becoming family, and I knew nothing about you and didn't care about you at all, I wouldn't have thought about it so complicatedly. I would have just been true to my own desires.

But you are already too important to me, making me afraid to vent my feelings on you.

I like you so much that I can't confess my feelings to you.

So──

"I don't want to."

A voice that seemed to cut through everything rang in my ears.

The next instant, my body was suddenly pushed down by a force and pressed onto the bed.

The woman straddled my stomach.

It looks like a chain.

It's like a weight.

"I told you, I would never... let you escape."

The woman used her knees to hold my arms in place, completely depriving me of the freedom of my upper body.

Then, she reached out and grabbed the hem of her pajamas.

"Hey...you! What are you doing...!"

"Don't make a sound, be quiet... Mom and the others will hear you."

Although men and women have different physiques, they still cannot break free from the pressure of the legs by relying on the strength of their arms.

I was at a loss, and watched helplessly as Jie Nu suddenly lifted the hem of her nightgown.

As if forcing me to see clearly, her soft breasts, supported by a pale pink bra, were exposed before my eyes. The intricate lace pattern made her peach-like skin even more beautiful. I could do nothing but hold my breath and stare intently at those round, full breasts, their movements rising and falling in sync with my breath.

The woman didn't stop there. With her other hand, she hooked the elastic band of her pajama bottoms and pulled them down forcefully. The panties, the same color as her bra and adorned with small bows, insecurely covered her crotch, which was clearly different from a man's.

I feel dizzy.

I'd seen her wrapped in a towel before, and I'd seen her bra, but this was the first time I'd ever seen Yui in her underwear. And it wasn't a coincidence; she deliberately showed it to me. Compared to that, the pictures online meant to adjust my eyes were utterly insignificant.

"...Look at me."

Jie Nu's face, even her ears, turned bright red.

Even so, she still stared at me.

"You've grown a lot since middle school... right? Does that... excite you?"

(Illustration 011)

She placed her hand on my shoulder as if to grab me, and said:

"No, I know... you do get excited about me. I saw it when we were showering..."

She leaned forward, obscuring my face with her long hair, and said:

"So... you can't escape, you can't hide it. No matter how much you pretend to be uninterested... only I won't be fooled by you."

She gently and lovingly stroked my cheek.

"Or...should I...take off my bra too?"

Before I could answer, the woman reached behind her back with her other hand.

At this point, I finally managed to pull my right hand out of the knee.

I grabbed the woman's hand as she tried to unfasten the clasp on her back.

"...No...don't do this..."

Then, I managed to squeeze out a sound and said it.

"Why……?"

"I...I don't like this...! I don't want to just...treat you as an object of sexual desire...!"

“…………!”

The woman's eyes widened slightly.

"Why can't you understand...! I've been so... so troubled...! Why... don't you consider the consequences at all...!"

I wanted to hug her tightly right away.

I really wanted to hug her slender waist and fair shoulders tightly.

However, this desire will not bring any help to the future.

"Please, think about it! How long are you going to keep dreaming?! You learned such a big lesson in middle school, how can you still be so naive...!"

That's too cunning.

This is not fair.

Why is it that only you can focus your attention on the relationship in front of you?

"I don't even know how long I've been feeling this way...! I want to know what the right thing to do is, but I just can't find the right answer! Rather than this—"

Rather than this—

"—It would have been better if we hadn't become family at all."

Correct.

That's where we made the mistake.

If everything had ended cleanly and decisively on the day I graduated from junior high school, things wouldn't have turned out this way.

I must have accepted Isana's confession a long time ago; now I'm just focused on promoting her illustrations. I won't let these desires accumulate unnecessarily; I'll release them appropriately, like a high school student should, focusing all my energy on what I want to do.

Please don't force me to shoulder the burden of my family and my life.

I'm just a high school student, a sixteen-year-old boy. It's just that I'm in a rather special environment.

This kind of thing—it's too much of a burden for me…

"…………sorry……"

The woman murmured softly.

It was then that I realized...

I said things I shouldn't have said.

"I'm sorry... I... didn't... think it over properly... I just... don't want... don't want you... to leave me..."

wrong.

No, no, no.

I didn't mean to make you cry.

"……sorry……"

Jie got off me and put her half-undone pajamas back on.

"...I'm really... so sorry..."

Then she jogged out of the room.

I can't move an inch.

He just stared blankly at the ceiling, which was brightly lit by the electric lights.

Ah.

Ah...

--...Ahhh...!

"────!"