CH 44

A few hours after Toma returned home from Shine…

A small doorbell rings in the empty store.

The person who slowly opens the door peeks their face in and looks around.

And then…

“All right! No customers around. Time to have Mikimiki all to myself!”

They walk quickly to the counter, raising both hands and speaking in a lively voice, displaying childish behavior but definitely not a minor. They are respectable adults.

“It’s kind of annoying when you come in with that kind of energy. It’s already 4 in the morning, you know?”

“Huh? You’re still open, so you have to put up with me, Mikimiki.”

“I’m at my limit, that’s why I’m saying it.”

This conversation seems too familiar for a shopkeeper and a customer, and to make matters worse, the only person whom Miki makes such rude remarks to is this woman.

“You really don’t look alike, do you? Saaya and Mii-chan. Did you steal Mii-chan’s energy while she was still a fetus, Saaya?”

“Am I a monster or what! But our faces are pretty similar, aren’t they? And I’m just as beautiful as Mio, hehe.”

Saaya, Mio’s mother, who sits down at the counter as if it were routine, leans her elbows on the table and speaks mischievously.

Despite her age, Saaya doesn’t show any signs of aging. She is shorter than Mio and could easily be mistaken for her younger sister.

“Unfortunately, Mi-chan is definitely better. Unlike someone else, she can show consideration for others.”

“Do you really need to show consideration for a friend you’ve had for years?”

“I think it would be nice to at least show some minimum consideration, like letting me know if you’re coming or not. I would have prepared some simple dishes.”

“I thought you would do that, so I didn’t let you know. Making food would only increase Mikimiki’s workload.”

“What was the real reason?”

“Surprise!”

Saaya shakes her body and creates an innocent smile that is hard to resent.

It would be difficult to judge just from her personality whether she is Mio’s mother without comparing their faces.

“I’ll take back what I said earlier. You did show some consideration, after all.”

“Just ‘some consideration’? You could at least show some appreciation, you know?”

“Well, personally, I would have been more grateful if you had contacted me first.”

“But then we couldn’t have had a surprise, right?”

“Yeah, you wanted to do something nice and surprise me…”

“Exactly! I wanted to show both consideration and a surprise! Yeah!”

Saaya makes a circular gesture with her right hand, and then makes a circle with her left hand.

Saaya is always this cheerful.

There are not many people who can maintain such high energy at 4 o’clock in the morning.

“So, what will you drink today? Since you came to the store, you’ll place an order, won’t you?”

“Of course, of course! Plum wine! On the rocks!”

“On the rocks” refers to a way of drinking alcohol, where the drink is poured over ice in a glass, and is one of the ways of consuming high-alcohol content beverages.

“I’ll give you a 50% discount, so please have it with soda.”

“Why?”

“If you get drunk and raise your energy level even higher than it already is, it’ll exhaust my energy reserves.”

“Well, I guess there’s no help for it. I understand.”

“Thank you.”

Although Miki makes unreasonable demands, Saaya readily agrees.

This is because they have been involved with each other for a long time, and are used to such exchanges.

***

“Seems like you’re tired, Saaya.”

Setting the soda plum wine on the counter, Miki sits next to Saaya.

It’s something she couldn’t do when there were other customers around.

“I came here after finishing work and taking care of some things. Plus, today I had an elderly patient persistently hitting on me during work.”

“Didn’t you use your secret weapon? Summoning your husband?”

“Nope. That guy is insanely jealous. He’d probably force the patient out of the hospital room.”

“If that happened, it’d be on the national news for sure.”

Deftly mixing the plum wine with a glass stirrer, Saaya continues their conversation.

The sound of ice and glass harmonize beautifully.

“But hey, Miichan might be hit on like you too in the future, right?”

“Or maybe the hospital director will confess his love to her like he did with me.”

“There’s definitely a chance.”

Even so, Miki was confident that Mio’s feelings wouldn’t waver if the director did confess to her.

She knew Mio already had someone she loved, and her unwavering devotion was top-notch.

“Well, I’m always there to support any kind of love, you know?”

“Huh? What do you mean by any kind of love?”

“Oh, I thought you would understand, MikiMiki. Mio isn’t interested in men.”

“W-why do you think that…? You’re her mother, aren’t you?”

Miki let out a deep sigh and pressed her forehead with her hand. She had just heard something completely unexpected from Saya, Mio’s mother.

“But Mio has never had a boyfriend, even though quite a few guys have confessed to her. So, isn’t that the only possibility?”

“Saaya, you really are dense, aren’t you? You raised Mi-chan so well.”

“Huh?”

Saya seemed to really not understand anything. She turned her head with a relieved expression.

“Well, never mind. The story I wanted to tell you is related to this one.”

“…Oh, I see. So you mixed the plum wine with soda to keep me from getting drunk and to keep me calm while listening to your important story.”

“Why are you so sharp about that…? I want you to be clear whether you are dense or not,” said Miki.

“It’s just because it’s easy to understand for Miki. You can tell that something unpleasant happened to her, like her face looks tired or something,” replied Saaya.

“Sigh… As expected of a nurse. Your observational skills are amazing.”

“This is the power of a veteran nurse.”

“Okay, okay. Let’s get to the point,” said Miki, ignoring Saaya’s grumbling.

“You don’t have to brush me off like that,” said Saori, pouting.

Despite Saaya’s dissatisfaction, Miki proceeded to tell her what happened at the shop.

“Ah, I see. So the year has come when even Mio has to deal with such a s****y guy. She’s grown up, huh?”

“It’s not a problem that we can just reminisce about, is it? Is it okay for you to just be okay with it as Mi-chan’s mother?”

“It’s not good, but I’m not worried. If it’s Mio, she’ll handle it easily enough, and I’ve been teaching her that harmful people should be knocked down since she was young.”

“I’m not denying your education theory, but it could damage the image of the hospital, you know? Since the hospital director is your husband, there may be strange rumors about ‘that daughter over there…'”

“Knocking them down” may work in some way, but depending on Mio’s actions, there is a high possibility that she will create groundless rumors if she earns the other person’s resentment.

And bad rumors spread quickly and often get twisted.

“I’m teaching her with that in mind. After all, children are more important than the hospital. If you prioritize them incorrectly, you might as well have no love, right? Well, the best thing is to avoid trouble altogether.”

“Then, shouldn’t we think about what to do with the man who caused this?”

“It’s really frustrating, but I haven’t taken any action, so there’s nothing I can do, right? By the way, is the s****y guy banned…?”

“I could have done that by any means necessary, but isn’t there a possibility that he would take it out on Mii-chan? He had criminal thoughts, so I thought it would be better not to give him any strange ideas…for now.”

“That’s probably for the best.”

The two of them were quite angry about this matter, but they had already concluded that it would be difficult to resolve at this stage.

However, Miki had insulted Mio so much that Miki’s heart was as agitated as Toma’s.

“By the way, the reason why I can take it easy is different.”

Saaya gave Miki a meaningful glance.

“The guy who got angry for Mio’s sake. Was it Toma-kun? He should be able to do something about it.”

“Saaya, how can you say that when you’ve never even met Toma-chan?”

“Don’t beat around the bush. Mikimiki, wouldn’t you have told me that if it wasn’t true. About him.”

Saaya drained her plum wine in a way that seemed to say she knew everything and let out a contented sigh.

“…?”

“Why do you look like you’re doubting me? You wouldn’t have told me something like this if she wasn’t sure. Don’t you think, Mikimiki?”

“Sigh, you’re right.”

“But it’s surprising, isn’t it? This is something that can’t be done without a lot of trust in him. If he had any ill intentions towards Mio–“

“I’d close down this place.”

“I understand. Then I have nothing to say.”

Saaya knew how much this shop meant to Miki. If it was offered as a price, she couldn’t find words of agreement other than “I understand.”

“But you know, I think you could have told me. From what I’ve heard, they both have feelings for each other, right? Maybe they’ll become a couple from now on.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. Maybe Mio will have her first boyfriend. I’m looking forward to it.”

“But if they do become a couple, don’t get in their way, okay? Especially since Mii-chan is likely to feel embarrassed.”

“Sure thing. Then in exchange for that promise, pour me a plum wine on the rocks.”

“Alright, I got it. Geez… You’re asking me as soon as we finish discussing the main topic.”

Miiki stood up from her high chair and carried her empty glass back to the counter.

It was just as she was adding ice and pouring plum wine into the glass.

“Oh, by the way, MikiMiki.”

“What is it?”

“If anything happens with this matter, let me know right away.”

She spoke in a solemn voice.

“Sure, I know. I’ll try to take some measures on my side too.”

“Thank you.”

At that moment, Miki caught a glimpse of Saaya’s motherly side.