My stepmother's burden is my ex-girlfriend.

Page 88

"Irito...may I ask you anyway."

"how?"

"You just said... 'You've improved a lot,' of course you told Irito-san, right?"

"Huh? Why should I tell her? If she gets carried away over something so trivial, that'll be terrible."

"Tell her!"

The voice from the other side of the wall overlapped with my voice.

I'm actually happy that Irito's affection level is dropping, but poor Yui is so pitiful!

"...Hmm? I think I heard a sound coming from somewhere just now..."

"Ah, ah—that must be the sound from the video! Never mind that, are there any other background music tracks? A little more!"

"As for the rest, let me think... When July came, we discovered that the air conditioner in that person's room was broken. Until it was fixed, she would take refuge in the living room, but I glanced over and saw her dozing off on the sofa—"

All the anecdotes that Irito casually recounted made me grit my teeth in anger.

If only I were in that situation! If I were in those circumstances, I would be all smiles for the next month!

I was so excited I almost cried, but I was suffering from a lack of female offspring and didn't want to miss any precious moments in my family life with my daughter.

One moment I was filled with jealousy, the next my heart was pounding, and my emotions were swinging back and forth, making me dizzy and disoriented.

"Excellent—that's it! Anything else? Anything else?"

"...I'm tired of talking. Don't make me do all the talking. Occasionally you should talk about your own experiences, Kawanami."

"Uh-huh?"

"Isn't Nan your neighbor? There's probably going to be a little drama going on. I'm not really interested, but she's a bit unpredictable, and I want to get a feel for her behavior."

What... Could it be like the little incident with the girl earlier, this time she wants to hear about me?

My heart, torn between jealousy and happiness, rapidly cooled and lost its warmth.

"For Irito-kun? You're such an overprotective stepbrother."

Don't think you can get away with mocking me.

"...Ah──..."

No...you're not allowed to say it! Refuse him! You dare say it and you'll face the consequences!

"Well, yes, there are... but I have to clarify first, those things aren't as heartwarming as Irito's little incident, you know? That guy was serious. I'll be frank, some parts of it were illegal."

"I know, that's why I asked you. If you're unwilling to tell me, then I won't—the 'rest allowance' is already more than enough, isn't it?"

"...I can't stand it, you never suffer in silence."

I wanted to punch the wall, but that would let them know I was eavesdropping. Now this moment would become the interlude he wanted. But now I can't pretend I don't know... Waaaaaah!

"Let me think... I think it was when I was in elementary school."

Just when I was at a loss for what to do, Kawabata started to speak.

My parents bought smartphones for both of us.

"Buying it in elementary school? That's really early."

"Because my parents are often away from home, I guess they wanted to be able to contact us anytime. And since we were all there, I exchanged phone numbers and LINE IDs with that guy."

"Um."

"As a result, she started bombarding me with questions from that day on."

"You can imagine. She's been bombarding me with questions lately, but I haven't been paying attention."

Well… that was just because I was so excited to get a cell phone for the first time. I don't want to talk to it every day, nor am I obsessed with hearing its voice whispering in my ear. It's like when your parents buy you a new toy.

"At first, I also found scrolling through my phone fun, so I chatted with her... but gradually I got lazy, so I just asked her to tone it down a bit. And then, well, the LINE bombardment and incessant phone calls subsided... but the main event is here."

"The landmines have already exploded, what else could possibly explode?"

"Yes, there was. One day, my parents came home late, and I wanted to have dinner with that girl, so I called her. And guess what happened?"

Wait... how could you say that out loud!

"Hmm? She's not answering the phone anymore?"

"Yes, she didn't answer. Because—that guy's phone is under my pillow."

"...Huh?"

I felt utterly ashamed by Irito's completely clueless tone.

"I heard a phone vibrate under my pillow. That means it was there without me even noticing."

"She didn't forget to take it... right?"

"At the time, I thought that was it, so I took it back to her. After all, I was just a kid back then—I never dreamed that my childhood friend would be eavesdropping on me."

『……………………』

I...I can...I can explain...

That was just a moment of madness on my part... or you could say I couldn't resist taking advantage of the opportunity... because if I could record the conversation, I wouldn't have to make the phone call anymore...

Waaaaah! I haven't improved at all since then! I still have the same mindset as when I barged into Jie's house!

"At the time, I didn't realize it until the very end. But a similar thing happened again in junior high school, and that's when I finally realized, 'Oh, that's what happened last time.' Since then, my family has always kept a radio wave detector on hand to prevent eavesdropping, and we still make it a habit to check it regularly."

"...How should I put it?"

Irito's careful choice of words only made me feel more ashamed.

"You... living next door to someone like that, it's amazing you can still live peacefully..."

"Because I've already been through the depths of hell. Compared to those days, the current situation is just a shallow, splashing area."

"By the way, were you not wiretapped today?"

"Of course, there weren't any after I entered high school... But actually, there are some listening devices that won't be detected by radio wave detectors, for example—"

Kawaba paused mysteriously for a moment.

"—Something like a listening device through the wall?"

My heart skipped a beat.

...Could we have been discovered? Did they deliberately let me hear it when they clearly knew?

Thinking about it carefully, he even specifically told me that Irito was coming... Could it be that it was all just to mess with me?

I... I fell for his trap...! Why did he go to such lengths to plan this?! Does he hate me that much?! ...Okay, he probably does hate me, I know that. But just ignoring me would have been fine. It's one thing for me to bother him, but why would he do something like this on his own initiative...?

In short, now that the truth has come out, I no longer need to do as he wishes.

But just before I was about to remove the microphone from the wall, something happened.

"...However..."

The microphone picked up a slightly softer voice.

"I don't think you need to be so wary of her. That girl... she's just a little bit more afraid of being alone than others."

"From what you just said about the incident, I don't think it was just a small part."

"Don't let her appearance fool you, she's improved a lot. Like with the incident where she trespassed at the Irito family's house, she seemed to be seriously reflecting on her actions. As long as she doesn't lose control, everything will be fine."

"What if she loses control?"

By that time—

As if joking, Kawabata said with a laugh.

"—I'll just go and stop her then, won't that solve the problem?"

I gently removed the microphone from the wall.

...He definitely didn't say that intentionally to me. He thought that once I found out the eavesdropping had been exposed, I would remove the microphone—

"Wouldn't it be fine if I just stopped her then?"

Yes, I'm very afraid of being alone.

They are a fragile race that would freeze to death without the warmth and companionship of others.

But—

"...I don't need you anymore."

◆

"Okay, I'm here. What's up? Why did you call me here so early in the morning?"

The next morning, I invited Kawanami to my house.

There's only one reason I've specifically called this guy over.

"Help me tidy up."

"Why are you here again? Didn't you clean up after that? I bet you got scolded by the cleaning lady—"

As Kawanami spoke, he walked into the living room, then frowned in surprise.

"--It's already tidied up perfectly. There's no need to clean it at all..."

The kitchen was piled high with dishes, and the floor was littered with trash and clothes, but I cleaned it all up myself. I just hadn't been motivated before; actually, I could do it all.

So, what I want to tidy up today is not the house.

"This is what I need to organize."

As I spoke, I tapped twice on the box-shaped machine that connected the stethoscope-like microphone and headphones.

It's a wall-mounted listening device.

"Could you take this and throw it away for me?"

Kawaba remained silent, his gaze shifting from my relaxed expression to the listening device.

"...Well, of course I'd be more than happy to. But is it really possible?"

"Of course you can. You can't use this to listen to Yui's voice."

"You mean, you can't just throw it away yourself? I have no idea where to throw this kind of thing away."

"...I'm not very good at decluttering. I always find excuses...I can't bear to throw things away."

Things that should be thrown away, things that have already been discarded.

In the end, both of them remained with me.

"I've already looked up how to lose it...please."

I think that in this situation, we should sincerely ask him for a favor.

I stared at Kawanami for a long time, and finally he sighed deeply and scratched his head hard.

"Okay... but there's a condition for it."

"what?"

"You'll cook dinner tonight. I'm getting tired of eating at family restaurants."

As he spoke, Kawabata effortlessly picked up the listening device.

I looked up at his face and gave a disdainful snort.

"Who is really afraid of being lonely?"

"what?"

Kawabata turned his head...

"……ah!"

He was a beat slow to react and said:

"You! You heard that—"

Then, with a bang, he accidentally dropped the listening device to the ground.

I turned my back to him.