My stepmother's burden is my ex-girlfriend.

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"what's wrong?"

"What are these pajamas...?"

Looking at the pajamas I was wearing, I asked.

This is a fluffy pajama set with bear ears that will delight kindergarten children.

When I saw these pajamas in the dressing room, I couldn't help but doubt my eyes.

Xiaoyue, still wearing a bright smile, said...

"Isn't it cute!"

"Hmm...that's true."

Since they've said it so openly, I can only give an ambiguous response.

I didn't intend for anyone to see it, so let it go... after all, it really is cute.

"Is your hair dry? If not, I'll blow-dry it for you!"

"Huh? No, just lend me the hairdryer..."

"It's okay! It must be hard to blow, right? It's so long!"

Feeling that being too stubborn in refusing would offend her, I left it to her. Actually, drying hair this length is quite difficult; you have to use a towel to absorb the moisture first.

Xiaoyue trotted to the bathroom and brought back a hairdryer. Then she pushed me to sit on the sofa and plugged it in.

The hairdryer hummed, its warm air gently caressing my head. Meanwhile, Xiaoyue carefully combed my hair.

"Wow...it's so smooth! When did you start growing it out?"

"It was about a year ago, I thought I'd grow it a little longer... and it has indeed grown quite a bit since then."

I often hear stories of people cutting their hair after a breakup, but I'm the opposite; I'm the type who wants to grow it long. While I also feel it would be a waste to cut it after all the effort it's taken to grow it this long, the simpler reason is that I lack the courage to decisively say goodbye to the past. As a result, my image transformation has remained at the level of letting my hair down and taking off my glasses.

"When I'm so tired, I find drying my skin and caring for it all so troublesome."

"This long hair is a treasure, you can't treat it badly! Just call me when you find it troublesome!"

"Hehe, maybe that's not bad either."

While this is a perfunctory answer, it must actually be incredibly troublesome.

"I've always liked this."

Xiaoyue suddenly muttered something.

"This feeling of taking care of someone. It must feel like this if I had a younger sister, right?"

"How about we switch roles and have your sister help dry your hair?"

"That's good too! It's the feeling of having someone go to so much trouble for you!"

……Um?

From the beginning, he spoke as if it were something he had experienced regularly.

"Xiaoyue, you don't have any brothers or sisters, do you?"

"No? Well, that idiot next door is like a brother to me."

"snort?"

"ah."

The mystery has been solved.

Xiaoyue's childhood friend who dries her hair with her is—!

"Yui-chan? Don't get me wrong! We were just playing around when we were little!"

"But what do you mean by 'that feeling of making others go to great lengths'?"

"That's just wording! It's just a wording!"

"Hmph~?"

I chuckled.

"Seriously!" Hearing Xiaoyue's seemingly grumbling voice, I felt even closer to her than yesterday. Even though we didn't shower together. But the perceptive Xiaoyue noticed, and she turned around with a bright smile.

BD Bonus IF Route: My Stepmother's Burden is My Current Girlfriend (BD1)

The online translation is from the Kingdom of Light

Image source: Hina Komura

Translation: Kazami

Proofread by: Zilean

Although I can only say that I was young and impetuous, I did have a girlfriend during the period from the second to the third year of junior high school.

They meet in an empty library, hit it off, receive a confession, awkwardly try to gauge the distance between them, whisper sweet nothings, disagree on trivial matters, and get annoyed by minor details—

But we overcame them all.

Now that they're both in high school, the relationship continues peacefully.

Honestly, such things, though rare, do happen. I always thought that relationships between middle school students were unlikely to last—the fact that I can still calmly evaluate this now speaks volumes about the effort we've put into maintaining the relationship over the past year and a half.

The secret is simply to apologize first and then patiently endure her complaints.

Even if you don't understand the logic, even if the argument is unreasonable, even if the same words are repeated over and over, you absolutely cannot talk back—the only three responses a man is allowed to give are: "Yes," "I understand," and "Sorry."

It is precisely because we were able to resolve the conflict in this way that even with our middle school minds, and with desires so easily clouding our judgment, we were able to maintain this relationship with a degree of restraint.

As we approached junior high graduation, spending time together became a routine, and even suppressing the urge to be intimate while studying for exams together was not difficult.

Thanks to this, we were able to get into the most competitive high school in the area, and that was when we had already planned our rosy high school life.

My father brought up the topic of remarriage.

Hearing that the other person had a daughter around my age didn't make me happy at all. After all, I still had a real girlfriend. Even if we were considered family from a social perspective, no woman would be happy if her boyfriend lived with another woman.

So, with a heavy and depressed heart, I called my lover, Ayai Yui.

The response I received was as follows.

"...Eh?...Irito-san too?"

The topic then took a strange turn.

Ayai, too, had just heard about the remarriage from her mother. Even though I thought it couldn't be true, that such a thing was impossible, this coincidence forced me to construct a startling hypothesis.

It's very simple to confirm. Just ask your father for the surname of your remarried partner.

"Your name is Ayai... is that it? Do you know her? Come to think of it, I heard my daughter and Mizuto went to the same middle school."

Although it is rare, it does exist — although I just said that, I take it back now.

Even rarer things have happened.

He and his girlfriend, whom he was dating, became his adopted family. ...Is there anything more bizarre than that?

It felt like we had become a natural monument. Ayai and I, like exiles banished from an "ordinary" planet, were immersed in the blow of this strange sense of loneliness.

"........."

"........."

On the second-floor corridor of the Irito family's house, we stared at each other and fell silent for a moment.

Ahead of me stood Ayai Yui. She was my roommate, who had moved into the empty room next to mine that had been unoccupied for a long time.

With glasses and braids, her appearance was unremarkable, almost like a painting. However, her shirt and long skirt were quite tasteful, perfectly complementing her features.

Over the course of the year, her figure had become increasingly feminine. She gazed at my face at about the same height as when we first started dating, and said softly and shyly, "...hehe."

"This feeling... is really strange."

"yes"

Ayai is in my house.

To this day, although I have invited her to my home before, I have always hesitated about whether to introduce her to my father, so in the end, this has not become a regular occurrence.

So... it really is a strange feeling.

Such situations will become taken for granted in the future.

"I am a novice and hope to receive your guidance in the future."

"Ah, ah... I don't know. Please guide me."

Ayai said this half-jokingly, and I lowered my head as well. Then we both chuckled softly.

After the laughter subsided, Ayai finally put on a mischievous expression.

"Even though it's right next door, don't eavesdrop, okay, Irito-san?"

"No way..."

"Really? Irito-san, you're surprisingly lecherous."

...When we first started dating, Ayai was timid and hesitant, always having reservations about what she did. But after a year and a half, she's grown up to the point where she can tease me.

Yes, growth—through her interactions with me, she gained the social skills of an ordinary person and reached a level where she could make friends in class. I now call this growth.

There was a time when I felt like my girlfriend, who was only mine, was about to be taken away... I was really young and impetuous back then.

"...Speaking of Ayai, didn't she say she wanted to change her image after graduating from middle school?"

"Hmm—, I've thought about not wearing contact lenses... But what should I do? If I become popular after debuting in high school, won't Irito-san throw a tantrum?"

No, it won't.

"Really?"

"...there will be a little."

"Hehe. Correct answer!"

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear," Yui said, laughing. This smile was worlds apart from her past ones.

"Speaking of which, Ayai..."

"Um?"

"What should we do about 'Irito-san'? There are three Iritos in this house!"

"So, Irito-san also calls me 'Ayai,' right?"

"Well... that's how it is."

"...Want to try calling it out? The name after that."

"Rather than wanting to address you that way, I was just worried about whether it would be inconvenient or something if I didn't —"

"(—Mizuto-kun)"

The girl gently leaned closer and whispered in my ear.

That sweet voice made my brain freeze.

Maintaining her close proximity, Ayai stared intently into my eyes at an extremely close distance.

"(……how?)"

Was it because she was shy? Ayai's face flushed slightly. But her eyes were filled with a mischievousness that remained effortless even after overcoming her shyness.

—Has he grown up too much?

"ah!?"

I felt a little unwilling, so I grabbed Ayai's shoulders and pulled her into a hug.

Then, mimicking Ayai's soft voice from before, she spoke.

"(—Yume)"

"~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!"

In my arms, Ayai—no, Yui—was trembling. Although I couldn't see her expression, the fact that her ears were completely stained red was unmistakable.

"Don't fight back... That's too mean..."