You Like Me, Not My Daughter?! Volume 5 (Light Novel) E-Book

Kota Nozomi

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: You Like Me, Not My Daughter?!
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 192

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Ayako and Takumi are finally dating! She has a boyfriend for the first time in her thirty-[REDACTED] years of life, and he’s officially going out with the only woman he’s ever had feelings for, so they’re both pretty new at this. But wait...they’re already moving in together?! Thanks to a not-so-coincidental internship that fell into Takumi’s lap, he and Ayako end up sharing a condo in Tokyo when she goes there for a three-month business trip, and it’s just the two of them. Despite both of them being in the first month of their first relationship, now they’re already eating, bathing, and sleeping together under one roof... Can Ayako’s heart take all the excitement?

Leseprobe

Prologue

♠

This is probably old news by now, but I—Takumi Aterazawa—had been harboring unrequited feelings for the same woman since I was ten years old. She was my neighbor and childhood friend’s...mother. She had taken in her sister’s daughter and raised her, and I had been in love with her ever since.

This probably wasn’t normal, objectively speaking. It was rare for a man to have a love like mine—to have spent every day since he was ten, effectively his entire teenage years, only thinking of one woman. But that’s what I’d done, even after I’d entered middle and high school. My classmates and I had all been going through puberty, and they would often discuss the girls in our grade or the beautiful upperclassmen, but the only person I’d think about was the woman living next door.

When I become an adult, I’m going to confess my feelings to Miss Ayako. I’d made that decision when I was still ten years old, and I’d never had feelings for any other girls, let alone dated anyone. My eyes never wandered for a single second, and I’d continued to love Miss Ayako throughout the years.

To describe it positively, mine was a pure love...but on the other hand, I couldn’t deny that my feelings were slightly stalkerish.

Regardless, because I had loved Miss Ayako so much—because I had fallen in love with someone I hadn’t had a chance in hell with—I’d never had a girlfriend. To some, my teenage years might seem drab.

However, there was one thing. If I were to say there was absolutely nothing that’d happened back then, I’d be lying.

Of course, I had never fallen for any woman other than Miss Ayako, nor had I dated anyone else—I swear to God about this, and let the heavens and the earth strike me down otherwise. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t have any regrets. Back when I was in high school, I naturally hadn’t had a girlfriend, but...the truth was, there was someone who had come close to being one.

“Hey, Aterazawa...”

It was my second year of high school, and classes had ended. The sun was setting, and we were walking alongside each other to the train station. It had been silent for a while after we’d passed through the school gates, and she was the first to speak up. She sounded a bit nervous. Perhaps the silence felt awkward, or she had broken it out of consideration for me.

“Have you walked home like this before...? Alone with someone?” she asked.

“No,” I said, slightly shaking my head. “This is my first time.”

“I see... It’s my first time too. Walking home with a boy, that is.” The girl, dressed in her school uniform, blushed as if she were slightly embarrassed. “I’ve gone home with boys as part of a large group before, but not alone like this. Ha ha, I feel a bit nervous.”

“That’s surprising,” I responded. “You seem like you’d be pretty popular, Odaki.”

“What? I’m not popular at all.”

“That’s what all the popular people say.”

“Then what do people who aren’t popular say?”

“Well... They’d probably say they’re not popular at all.”

“That’s the same thing,” she said, giggling jovially. It felt like the nervous tension on both sides had dissipated a bit.

This was Arisa Odaki, a girl in my class. She had big eyes and long, shiny hair that fell a little past her shoulders. She was always smiling, and there was a cheerful, classy air to her.

She was relatively friendly, and it felt like she got along with everyone in class, regardless of their gender. She was also quite popular among the boys in our grade.

Despite her seemingly affable nature, it felt like she had a boundary she never crossed. She was friendly with everyone, but it seemed like she didn’t let anyone get close to her past a certain point.

We’d become classmates in my second year, but we weren’t particularly good friends. Our interactions had been minimal, and we’d only spoken to each other if we needed something. We were just classmates—nothing more, and nothing less. At least, we had been, until she’d discussed that with me...

“Speaking of, what should we call each other?”

“Call each other?” I asked.

“Like our names. Your last name is kind of a mouthful, Aterazawa, so can I call you by your first name?”

“You can do whatever you want.”

“Wow, you really don’t care, do you? Just so you know, you have to do the same... If I call you by your first name, you need to call me by mine.”

“Why would I have to?”

“That’s how these things work.”

“I don’t want to...”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t,” I said, bluntly rejecting her.

Looking back on it now, this was incredibly embarrassing of me, but there was a part of me back then that wouldn’t let me get closer to other girls than I had to. I felt like I wasn’t being loyal if I did that—I had feelings for Miss Ayako, so I didn’t want to be the kind of man who got infatuated with other women while loving someone else. In hindsight, it was pretty creepy of me to think I needed to distance myself from other women like it would sanctify my feelings for Miss Ayako—talk about self-absorbed.

“Why does what we call each other even matter?” I asked.

“If it doesn’t matter, then you can just call me by my first name... Hm, I feel like it’s actually suspicious that you’re getting so worked up over this,” she said with a mischievous grin. “Oh, could it be that you’re actually pretty into me? Maybe you’re being so pouty to cover it up.”

“Urgh...” I couldn’t help but be a bit flustered.

It wasn’t that I was into her; I just didn’t like that she teased me. I was much more childish back then—I wasn’t yet mature enough to treat a girl’s teasing like water off a duck’s back, so I ended up getting a little worked up.

“Arisa...” I said, calling her by her name.

Arisa Odaki gasped, obviously flustered. She stopped in her tracks, and her face, which was already flushed under the warm glow of the setting sun, grew even redder.

“What are you getting embarrassed for? You’re the one who told me to do it.”

“I-I’m not embarrassed! I’m just surprised because you caught me off guard!” she squeaked, obviously worked up. She cleared her throat before continuing. “It’s my turn next...” She looked like she was desperately trying to hide the fact that she was nervous as she stared right at me. “T-Takumi...”

“Okay...” I wasn’t sure how to respond, so I just said the first thing that popped into my head.

An awkward silence fell over us for a few moments.

“H-Ha ha, I guess it’s a bit weird after all. We never talked that much before, but now we’re suddenly calling each other by our first names.” She chuckled like she was trying to play off her nervousness, then she turned her back to me and walked off. “Takumi, Takumi... Hm, I guess I’ll have to work hard and get used to it,” she said to herself before turning back to face me. “After all, you’re my boyfriend starting today, Takumi,” she said, slightly embarrassed yet at the same time a bit excited.

Arisa Odaki was my classmate in high school, and for some time during our second year, she called me her “boyfriend.”

Chapter 1: Cohabitation and Circumstances

♥

Ten years had already passed since I—Ayako Katsuragi, a thirty-something-year-old—had taken in my niece after my sister and her husband had passed away in an accident, and I’d begun raising her as my own daughter. I’d spent my days thinking it would be nice if my daughter married Takkun, the boy next door, but one day, he’d suddenly confessed that he had feelings for me—that is to say, he liked me, and not my daughter.

This news had been earth-shattering and had taken me completely by surprise—I’d been about ready to bug out when he’d told me! Wait... Is “bugging out” an old expression? Will young people not get it?! Can people tell I was born in the Showa period?! Oh no, I take that part back!

Getting back on topic, after I’d learned how he felt, our relationship had changed completely. We would never just be neighbors ever again.

Since then, we’d had so many experiences together—we’d be here all day if I talked about every one—and I was finally able to realize how I felt about him.

I liked him. I loved Takkun—not as someone I saw as a son or a younger brother, but as a member of the opposite sex. Once I’d come to terms with how I felt about him, it was all smooth sailing...

Or, at least, it would’ve been nice if that’d been the case. In the end, things became a dragged-out mess...but now, three months after Takkun confessed his feelings to me, we were dating.

This was my first time dating someone, despite being thirty-something years old. Having my first boyfriend made me feel so excited and bashful about all sorts of different things that I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. How could I not be elated though? If just the fact that we were now a couple made me this giddy, what was going to happen once we were actually going on dates together?!

Although I was nervous about things, my heart raced at the thrill of it all...but our relationship would face a large obstacle when it had only just begun.

“What do you think about working in Tokyo starting next month?”

It was a suggestion from my boss, Yumemi. She proposed that I live in Tokyo for just three months so I could give my all working on the anime adaptation of one of my projects.

It wasn’t a mandatory assignment, so I could have turned it down, but...I accepted her offer. It was an opportunity for me to learn new skills as an editor, and more than anything, I wanted to see this adaptation through since it was for a project I had started from scratch.

But if I were to live in Tokyo, that meant I would be separated from Takkun. It was only three months, but it meant that we would be going long-distance when we’d just started dating—we wouldn’t be together during the most fun period of a relationship!

I did have some hesitation, but Takkun encouraged me to go. He supported my dreams and my choice from the bottom of his heart, and he sent me out to Tokyo with good grace.

And so, my and Takumi Aterazawa’s journey as a couple was going to begin as a long-distance relationship...or rather, it was supposed to have...

It was September, and I was at the condo in Tokyo that Yumemi had prepared for me to stay in. It was a one-bedroom unit that was more than spacious enough for someone to live alone in. With a full living room and dining room, it would be greedy to ask for any more than this in Tokyo.

The unit was quite empty, and there was minimal furniture. This condo was Yumemi’s personal property that she had lent to friends in the past—the TV and refrigerator in the unit likely belonged to one of those previous tenants. I was told I could use everything freely, and also that I could also dispose of anything I didn’t need.

Aside from the furniture, there was my suitcase in one corner of the room. I needed various items for daily use since I was going to be living here for three months, so I’d brought a bunch of things with me. Everything else I’d had sent to be delivered at a later date.

There was also one more suitcase in the room. It looked like something a man would use, and it was mostly black...

Yes, it was Takkun’s, and he was in this room right now sitting across from me at the table. My dear boyfriend, who I was supposed to be in a temporary long-distance relationship with, was right in front of me for some reason. When I arrived here today, it was Takkun who’d greeted me.

I’m going to miss Takkun, being apart from him for three months. Ugh, I wish he would be here when I opened the door, I’d thought to myself—and then he’d actually appeared.

No way! Am I hallucinating because I miss him so much?! Or...did God grant my wish? Various thoughts crossed my mind in an instant, but they were probably all wrong. The Takkun before me wasn’t a hallucination, but real, and he wasn’t there because God had granted a wish of mine—I had a hunch this was the work of a certain someone who was more akin to an evil spirit than anything heaven-sent.

Takkun had said some things earlier when he’d greeted me at the door.

“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything until today... But, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. Miss Yumemi’s conditions were that I keep it a secret from you.”

“Um... I’m not sure where to begin. Basically, uh... Starting today, I’ll be living here with you.”

“A-An internship?” I asked in a flabbergasted tone after Takkun had given me an overview of the situation.

“Yes...” Takkun said apologetically with a nod.

“So, in other words, you’re going to be an intern in Tokyo...?”

“That is the plan...”

I was completely stunned.

To put it simply, an internship was a system that allowed someone to temporarily work at a company or organization. The specifics differed between countries, but in Japan, an internship was generally work experience for college students, where they could work at a company for a set period as a part of their job-hunting efforts.

Wow, how nostalgic. I remember agonizing over whether I should get an internship or not back when I was a college student. I’d wanted to, but I remember deciding not to because I was too lazy to go through the hassle.

“I’d been planning on getting an internship during my third year of college,” Takkun began to explain. “I thought it would be good to get some real-world experience before I have to start job hunting seriously. You can’t really get a trial job like this unless you’re a college student, after all, so I started looking around for internships once I’d started my third year.”

“Th-That’s incredible, Takkun.” He was a true self-starter. He wasn’t the kind of person who spoke of lofty goals to seem ambitious, but someone who actually took action to grow and improve—a completely different kind of person from someone like me, who’d given up because it was too much work.

“It’s not that big of a deal. It wasn’t like I’d done a proper search, I was just sort of looking for things,” Takkun said like he was trying to be humble. “But I just couldn’t find something that fit what I was looking for locally... That’s why I went to Miss Yumemi for help.”

I fell silent. I’d heard that Takkun and Yumemi had been talking to each other every now and then. They’d exchanged their contact information when Yumemi had shown up at my house before the summer break. The three of us had had sushi together, and after being provoked by Yumemi, I’d put on Miu’s uniform, and... Well, I didn’t need to recall that part of the day. I should seal that memory away for all eternity.

Anyway, ever since then, the two of them would sometimes text or call each other. At first, it was just Yumemi teasing Takkun about his relationship with me, but eventually, they’d begun to talk about his future and his plans after graduating.

As Takkun’s girlfriend, perhaps I should’ve been jealous that he was secretly talking to another woman, but to be honest, I didn’t feel jealous at all. It’d happened before we were dating, and besides...it was Yumemi that he was talking to. She was probably the one who’d aggressively reached out to him, and I could see why he’d want to talk about his future with her.

It was kind of like when alumni visited their former college to talk to the current students. Yumemi Oinomori was a great choice if a student wanted to get someone’s opinion on breaking into the professional world. After achieving success at a top publishing firm, she’d left that company and founded her own. She was a spirited woman who continued to work on the front lines of her business. There was much insight to glean from her experiences and views on working—in fact, she had actually done quite a few lectures for college students.

I respected her greatly when it came to her professional life. When it came to how she was in her personal life, though, that respect was pretty much gone.

“I spoke to her, expecting there wasn’t anything that could be done. It was more like venting than asking for advice... But then, Miss Yumemi found me an internship in no time.”

“Wow...” Yumemi was as superhuman as always.

“It’s a company run by an acquaintance of Miss Yumemi’s, and they apparently just started their internship program this year. The only condition for getting me a spot was...”

“W-Was it...?” I decided to voice my guess. “Was the condition that you live with me...?”

“Yes...” Takkun responded, nodding apologetically. “When we were discussing the internship, Miss Yumemi mentioned that she was thinking about transferring you temporarily for an assignment, so she suggested we live together.”

It appeared that Takkun had heard about my assignment to Tokyo even before I had—conspiracies had been in the works behind closed doors for a while, unbeknownst to me.

“Of course, I turned her down at first! We weren’t even dating at the time, and I thought there was no way I could decide our living situation without asking you how you felt, but...” Takkun had been speaking quickly, but he gradually grew quieter as he said, “Even if it’s only three months, I didn’t want to be apart from you.”

“Takkun...”

“Also, Miss Yumemi said that if I turned her offer down, she would take you to host clubs and boys bars.”

She said that?! What the heck?! What kind of threat is that?!

“J-Jeez... She’s always so extreme! You’re no better though, Takkun. Do you really think I’d go to those places?”

“You’re not wrong, it’s just... I couldn’t help but think about the one-in-a-million chance that you would. Miss Yumemi kept getting me even more worried, saying things like, ‘Pure, innocent types like her can’t go back once they get a taste.’”

It seemed that Takkun had completely fallen for Yumemi’s nonsense. Well, Yumemi is good at manipulating people. I can’t count how many times I’ve fallen for her smooth talk.

“I just got really worried. I thought about what would happen if you fell for a host and fell into debt... What if you then had to work at a salacious establishment?”

“How deep does this imaginary scenario go?!”

That’s three times more intricate and terrible than what I expected! Just how anxious did Yumemi make him?!

Just as I was getting riled up, my phone rang. I thought about ignoring the call since we were in the middle of an important discussion, but since the caller was the root of all this evil, I changed my mind.

“Excuse me for a moment,” I said before getting up. I left the living room and shut the sliding door tight behind me before answering the call.

“Hey, Ayako,” Yumemi said, sounding extremely pleased. I could imagine her grinning widely. We’d had a quick chat before I’d arrived at the condo, but it seemed she was waiting for the right moment to call again—she was waiting for me to get over my initial shock. “Hee hee, so, how is it? Did you enjoy my surprise?”

“I sure did...” I said sarcastically.

“Ha ha, I’m glad to hear that.” She didn’t seem to be affected by my tone at all.

“You really went and did it this time, Yumemi. Not only does this affect me, but you got Takkun involved too... We’re not your toys.”

“You make me sound so terrible. I’d expect you to be grateful. I’ve done nothing to make you resent me,” she said nonchalantly. “You get to do the job you wanted to in Tokyo, and Takumi gets the internship he wants. On top of that, you two get to bypass the tragedy that is going long-distance right after becoming a couple. As for me, my scheme... I mean, my surprise for you was a success, which gives me great joy. I think it’s a wonderful outcome where no one loses.”

“Well...” I was about to be conned into believing her logic. That was close! For a moment, I thought, “She’s right, no one’s lost”!

“Besides, the condo is mine. You two get to live together in the big city for free. I think you could be a little bit more grateful.”

“I’m not ungrateful, but...that doesn’t mean you can just do whatever you want.”

“You’re not wrong—I may have gone a little bit far this time...” Yumemi’s tone softened as I argued with her. “But I want you to understand something. I didn’t do this with malicious intent... Well, it’s not that I didn’t have any, but it wasn’t out of completely malicious intent. It was partially because I was trying to be considerate about your relationship.” I didn’t know how to respond. “I’d been thinking for a while about having you temporarily live in Tokyo for the anime adaptation of KIMIOSA. I thought about what would be the most fun— I mean, what would be the best for you, and Takumi just happened to come to me for advice about his internship search.”

“So that’s when you came up with the idea of us living together...?”

“Exactly!” she said with a boastful grin. We were on the phone, so I couldn’t see it, but I knew she was definitely grinning. “There were a lot of uncertainties, so I wasn’t sure if it would work out, but it looks like it was a great success. Not only that, but you two got together at just the right time.”

“Th-That’s so irresponsible! What were you going to do if we hadn’t started dating?” The cohabitation plan had been in the works since Takkun had gone to Yumemi for advice on his internship—in other words, it’d been in the works since before we’d started dating because we had only started dating a week ago. “We could’ve ended up living together when we weren’t even dating!”

“That would’ve been interesting too,” Yumemi said casually. “If you were going to continue dragging your feet, staying more than friends but less than lovers, I thought forcing you to live together would’ve been a way to get you two to move forward. You two were going to date sooner or later, so the only thing living together would’ve changed is how soon you got together.”

Sh-She says that like it’s a fact...! Maybe to people on the outside, it just seemed like a situation that makes you go, “Date already,” but...we had our own drama to get through!